FILM

Rip It Up, Issue 49, 1 August 1981, Page 22

FILM

William Dart

Breaking Glass Director: Brian Gibson A Star is Bom in punk garb.< Poor Hazel O'Connor achieves wonders in this almost unbelievably naive tale that piles cliche upon cliche. Unfortunately, she is not matched by Phil Daniels who proves , yet again, as. if Quadrophenia wasn't enough, that he has the dynamic appeal of a stick insect. Even John Finch, , as the superproducer, acts as if he were on a heavy barbiturate diet. The only positive touches are a flamboyantly spectacular/silly neon number when the heroine makes her Rainbow debut just before the n-e-r-v r o-u-s b-r-e-a-k d-o-w-n, and some/pleasant, albeit MOR songs. - Motel Hell Director: Kevin Connor ] ... A stylish exercise in black humour, as the owners ;of a Southern small-town motel take to guest-farming as a way to give their ham and small goods a singular flavour. Rory Calhoun as the religious fanatic motelier, and Nancy Parsons as his obese "Sister Ida" / (a 16-stone omnivore in denim overalls and ponytails) give beautifully-turned performances, and even Wolfman Jack offers a cameo as a somewhat unconventional man of the cloth. This is not forgetting neat parodies of Romero's Zombie films when the human vegetables walk the night intent on revenge, and Tobe Hooper's Texas Chain Saw Massacre as the hero and villain have their final duel in the meat-room. And then there is a hysterically bizarre scene where two wouldbe "swingers" allow themselves to be bound and gagged ready for "planting", totally unaware that it isn't all part of a "swinger's motel" everynight service. Watch out for this one, and don't even consider a motel at Westfield. Excalibur Director: John Boorman The battle of the blockbusters as Star Wars meets Camelot. Burne-Jones inspired visuals and lashings of Wagner and Carl Orff on the soundtrack, as Boorman . treads the same ground that both Bresson and; Rohmer have already tackled: within the last few years. Nicol Williamson, in a fey performance as Merlin, is the touchstone to the film's success, for when he is involved ,and . the mood is either magical or humorous, it all works perfectly. Alas, as soon as we are left with the • triangle of Arthur-Guinivere-Lancelot, . the pace slackens and the film's 136 minutes wear their welcome rather thin. The royal couple's rustic accents fit uncomfortably with their roles, and what was obviously . intended to )/ be genuinely moving doesn't quite make it on the emotional level Boorman was aiming at. An interesting failure.