Regal

Cast the burly, veteran Marlon Brando as the weird scientist whose dream is to create a perfect human race and you have a headstart. Besides, the H G Wells novel on which this remake of The Island of Dr Moreau is based on is conventional sci-fi. Enter director John Frankenheimer (staging a comeback) and a judicious use of special effects, plus a variety of mutants. Net result: Wholesome entertainment.

When British UN peace negotiator Douglas (David Thewlis) finds himself in this island of "beast people" it is only the beginning of a nightmarish drama, centred on the megalomaniacal Dr Moreau (Brando). Montgomery (Val Kilmer), Moreau's assistant, is used to lure Douglas to this forbidden land.

The Moreau mystique is adequately built-up by Frankenheimer so it is a good 20 minutes into the film before we encounter the doctor. "Don't add pain to their already diminished lives," is among the first lines he utters. By now the viewer is already exposed to a variety of mutants Moreau pretends to protect.

But these "monstrous disfigurements" as he calls them have spent too long at the receiving end and plan to hit back. Even Aissa (Fairuza Balk), Moreau's daughter, is a subject of one of his morbid experiments. A leadership struggle ensues and with guns lying about, death lurks around every corner.Then come the exits, deftly handled. The screenplay by Richard Stanley and Ron Huchinson is good but the original credit should go to Wells. Cinematographer William Fraker goes to town with the visuals but it is Frankenheimer who has his viewers on a tight leash. Brando does justice to his role and Thewlis is enthusiastic as the guinea pig. Kilmer isn't unduly stretched but does his bit. Balk is essentially decorative but The Island... is still sci-fi at its best.

Dante's Peak: Sterling

Take a quiet, picturesque town whose main attraction is it's dormant volcano and imbue it with signs of activity. Like the two picnickers being boiled alive in the hot springs. Then, get a geological surveyor to visit the site to check the alarming activity. It's shades of Amity where the great white shark threatened the peace of that tourist town in Jaws. Dante's Peak is a disaster movie in the best tradition of Earthquake and The Towering Inferno."It's beautiful, it's safe, it's a wonderful place to raise a family," goes the script and lady mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) should know. She's a single parent who's been brought up in this town and runs a restaurant.

Enter, geological surveyor Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) and the sense of danger heightens. But romance begins.

Director Roger Donaldson imbues the film with both action and suspense. The volcano starts erupting almost 50 minutes into the two-hour-long film which is absorbing from start to finish. The new Bond, Brosnan, has a field day but he is less invincible here and is adequately supported by a very credible Hamilton in this spine-chilling, not-to-be-missed thriller.

One Fine Day: Sterling (late night)

Remember Yours, Mine and Ours? It dealt with his family and her family in the late '60s. Or A Man and a Woman? It was another '60s film made by French film-maker Claude Lelouch which dealt with a widow and a widower meeting at the school where their kids went. In those days you had to be a widower and a widow to fall in love. Today it is different. Men and women meet in between marriages. And that's what happens in One Fine Day.

Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a career-minded architect and single parent whose socialising is reduced to the time spent with her five-year-old son Sammy (Alex Linz). Jack Taylor (George Clooney) is a hard-hitting columnist who's thrown into the thick of things when his ex-wife leaves their daughter Maggie (Mae Whitman) in his charge for a week. That's when Melanie and Jack meet -- at a cruise arranged by the school, their kids being in the same class.

The screenplay by Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon is liberally strewn with some choice one-liners and director Michael Hoffman does well to orchestrate the action tastefully. The only handicap is that the action seems a step away from reality. Yet there's a good deal of realism in the film with heavyweight star Pfeiffer doing the honours. One Fine Day could well mean having a nice day.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.