The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 38

film CHAPLIN Biography of silent film great doesn't say enough By RICK HARMON Staff Writer Oscar-winning director Richard Attenborough's "Chaplin" is an epic biography that features a wonderful Robert Downey Jr. performance in the lead. So why isn't it better? It is a strange irony that while Charlie Chaplin made silent films that seemed to speak to the audience, Mr. Attenborough has made a talkie that seems to communicate so little. It's not that it isn't a compelling portrait.

The rise of Chaplin from the destitute child of an insane mother to the screen's greatest comedian and one of film's greatest innovators could hardly be made boring. The film does a fine job of stylishly detailing the comedian's life, which is told with sumptuous visuals and artistic flourishes MOVIE REVIEW "Chaplin" Easidale Triple 7, 9:45 p.m. daily, 1, 4 p.m. weekend matinees that are never allowed to detract from the story's flow. Mr.

Downey has never been better and has some wonderful scenes, particularly a bittersweet London homecoming and Chaplin's appearance at the Oscars. The film details Chaplin's rise in becoming the greatest of the silent-screen comedians and one whose pratfalls included a couple of marriages. The film has more than its share of stars and most of them Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin, Anthony Hopkins, Penelope Ann Miller, James Downey gives a great performance in 'Chaplin' Woods, and particularly Kevin Kline give fine performances. The story is a good one, but at times seems remarkably sparse given its length. By its end, when the great co- 'Blade Runner's' brilliant look still its strength in director's cut MOVIE REVIEW "Blade Runner: The Director's Cut' The Capri 7 and 9 p.m.

Friday-Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The film retains the logical fallacy of the unnecessary testing, noted by critic Pauline Kael. Warned that the replicants may try to infiltrate the company that created them, the film's opening scene shows a new employee being given an extensive psychological test to determine if he is replicant or human. But a few scenes later, we learn the company not only has replicants' descriptions, but their pictures, making it difficult to see why there would be a need for the psychological tests.

But this is minor compared to the film's biggest problem, which is that the film's plot continues to be dwarfed by its stunning visual look. The plot is adapted from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," the novel Philip K. Dick Please see BRILLIANT, 19C median receives his due with an honorary Oscar, it is like we have just watched the opening news reel in "Citizen Kane" it's certainly competent, but it seems as if an essential ingredient is miss- ing. The problem is that unlike Mr. Attenborough' Oscar-winning "Ghandi," the director's biogra-- Please see CHAPLIN, 19C By RICK HARMON Staff Writer No wonder people have trouble seeing the future.

It's so dark, and there's so much rain and smog. Actually, it is this dark backdrop that makes director Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner: The Director's Cut" worth seeing. Not coincidentally, this is also what made the original 1982 movie worth seeing. Although the new cut has streamlined the plot and made the conclusion more believable, the movie's strength remains its brilliant visual look. In "Blade Runner," Harrison Ford plays Deckard, a policeman called out of retirement in the Los Angeles of 2019.

More specifically, he is a blade runner, a sort of police bounty hunter charged with tracking down and "retiring" rogue replicants, which are genetically engineered humanoids created to serve humans. These replicants are so advanced, they might be superior to humans if not for implanted termination dates that give them a maximum of four years to live. Deckard's current assignment The Montgomery Advertiser, January 15, 1993 Pacino is Lt. Col. Frank Slade in 'Scent of a Woman' 'Scent of a Woman' enjoys smell of success By RICK HARMON Ford in 'Blade Runner' is to track down four replicants who have rebelled, escaped and returned to Earth for some unknown reason.

Mr. Scott, who directed "Alien," has made great strides in streamlining the plot by removing its often cumbersome Harrison Ford narration. But some of the film's biggest problems remain intact. "Scent of a Woman" often resembles its central character, the blind, bitter, former war hero Lt. Col.

Frank Slade. Like Slade, the movie sometimes moves slowly, is often repellent and stumbles now and again, but ultimately rights itself, winning us over in the process. The movie stars Al Pacino in an Oscar-showcase role. He plays a military firebrand whose blindness has forced him MOVIE REVIEW "Scent of a Woman" Carmike 8 1, 4:30, 8 p.m. into a maddening dependence on others a dependence that Slade is determined to end.

The often unwilling accom- Please see PACINO, 18C 15C.