"Easer", Savoy, (18) Virgin, UCIs, Omniplex
In a summer dominated by effects driven, "high concept" blockbusters, Eraser is a surprisingly muted response from the king of the action movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, relying as it does on its star's tried and tested strengths, rather than on re-make recognition or digital wizardry. That said, it's hardly a chamber piece - there's enough explosions, stunts and slaughter to satisfy the most demanding Arnie fan.
The story, such as it is, is rudimentary enough never to get too much in the way of the set pieces. Schwarzenegger plays a special agent for the Federal Witness Protection Program. His talent is for removing people from their everyday life, erasing all traces of their existence, and setting them up in untraceable safe havens.
Most of his "clients" are Mafia goons turned informers, but when an honest executive (Vanessa Williams) in a hi tech weapons company reveals that treacherous skulduggery is going on,
Schwarzenegger is sent in to protect her from her vengeful bosses.
Eraser has the usual Schwarzenegger recipe of random violence and heavy handed humour, ably handled by Charles Russell, whose last film was the hugely successful The Mask. At one point our hero falls out of a plane over Manhattan without a parachute. Moments later, he's wrestling with alligators in Central Park Zoo, before taking refuge like an overgrown Quasimodo in the spires of St Patrick's cathedral.
This is interspersed with the usual mumbo jumbo about stolen data and copied computer disks (waiting for the file to complete copying must be the most common suspense cliche of 1996, from Tom Cruise in the Pentagon to Jeff Goldblum in the bowels of the alien mothership). That the plot is full of holes hardly seems worthy of mention after Mission: Impossible and Independence Day - what's important is the spectacle, and plenty of the $100 million dollar budget (almost a commonplace these days) can be seen up on the screen.
Williams is feisty enough as the witness, and the unwritten colour code of Hollywood movies means that she doesn't have to indulge in romantic hanky panky with her co star Schwarzenegger has always looked at his most uncomfortable when fumbling his way through love scenes. James Caan is believably shifty as the big man's boss and nemesis, and the veteran James Coburn makes an honorary appearance as the head of the agency.
"The Last Supper" (15) Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs
Described by some critics as "America's answer to Shallow Grave", independent director Stacy Title's black comedy takes a satirical swipe at youthful self satisfaction gone grotesquely wrong. But whereas the middle class flatmates in Shallow Grave were motivated by unadulterated greed, the young grad students in The Last Supper think they're doing some good for society.
A bunch of liberal thinking well to do twentysomethings, they are shocked when an unexpected dinner guest (Bill Paxton) reveals himself to be a violent racist and threatens them with a knife. When Paxton is killed in the ensuing scuffle, the friends are at first horrified, then excited by the possibility of repeating the process on other right wingers. Over successive weeks, they invite various racists, sexists and homophobes around for a last supper, then bury their corpses in the garden.
Essentially a one gag movie, The Last Supper just about manages to stretch that gag out for its 94 minutes, thanks largely to its excellent cast, which includes some of the best of Hollywood's up and coming next generation. Cameron Diaz and Annabeth Gish are particularly good among the murderers, while the unfortunate guests include Ron Perlman as an objectionable TV host and Charles Durning as a gluttonous priest who wants to see gays wiped off the face of the planet. Dan Rosen's script, while taking some gentle pot shots at its liberal subjects, never really goes for the jugular or gets as nasty as the premise could possibly become.
In this, her feature film debut, Title seems a little too fond of the American Weird style, which had its heyday at the end of the 1980s, but she shows some nice touches with her ensemble cast and claustrophobic set (nearly the whole film takes place in the dining room). It's probably a good antidote for anyone who's seen too many episodes of Friends.
"The Tit and the Moon", (members and guests only) IFC
The Catalan director, Bigas Luna, had his biggest success four years ago with the energetic, erotic comedy Jamon, Jamon, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. However, his next film, Golden Balls, was a repetitive and dreary disappointment, and The Tit and the Moon seems to confirm the decline of this idiosyncratic and sometimes talented director.
Set in Catalonia, it tells the story of a young boy (Biel Duran), who is forced by his father to climb castells - the traditional acrobatic towers formed by groups of young men at Catalan fiestas. Incensed by the arrival of a new baby brother, he decides to seek out a female breast which will give him the milk he craves. At a campsite, he meets a beautiful young woman (Mathilda May), who performs in cabaret with her French lover (Gerard Darmon), a petornan (performing farter). She is also being pursued by a young man (Miguel Poveda), who serenades her at night.
None of this is very funny or very touching, although it's clearly meant to be both. What is supposed to be magical is merely self indulgent, and the wit which Luna showed in Jamon, Jamon seems to have been lost entirely. Whereas the earlier film effectively mingled tradition, modernity and surreal imagery, in The Tit and the Moon there's just a hotch potch of badly realised "symbolism" and flaccid storytelling.
