Hits and misses at the movies playing this weekend

By Laksmi P. Djohan

JAKARTA (JP): The bumper box-office year is not yet over, and there are still plenty of blockbusters headed our way. Here is a look at three movies playing this week; viewers may find that a break from event movies is exactly what is needed.

But be careful which ones you choose.

'George of the Jungle'

Hollywood's lovefest with the man of the jungle has not shown signs of slowing down. After this year's Little Indian, Big City, Jungle 2 Jungle and The Second Jungle Book, we now have George of the Jungle. Yet director Sam Weisman's adaptation of the 1967 TV cartoon series is clearly in a league of its own. It is obvious that those guys at Disney still know how to pick 'em.

Wide-eyed Brendan Fraser (School Ties, Encino Man) plays the title character. He is sexy, gorgeous and so adorably klutzy that all memories of other "white apes" (Tarzan who? Mowgli who?) dissipate into thin air the minute we see him swing from the vines and smash on his first tree.

You will be humming that catchy tune George, George, George of the Jungle, watch out for that treeeee! for weeks on end.

The storyline is not exactly original: hunky jungle man frolics with his animal sidekicks -- courtesy of the team that did the animatronics in Babe -- and does a bit of environmental and cultural advocacy along the way.

A chance encounter with an impossibly beautiful heiress puts him in contact with humankind. They fall in love. He follows her to another jungle, this time San Francisco.

The woman's upper-crust parents insist on her marrying a snooty, treacherous, racist jerk (Thomas Hayden Church). But true love wins in the end, and the chosen couple lives happily ever after.

The entire movie is such enormous fun to watch, boasting a colorful cast, including two "pesky, pernicious and putrid poachers", sardonic wit (listen carefully to the exchanges between the native Africans and Ursula's fiancee), original special effects (watch a dog-like elephant playing fetch), bouncy little musical numbers (the smashing soundtrack is a must-have) and scads of self-referential humor.

The preternaturally cute Leslie Mann (Cable Guy) is delightful as bubble-brained heiress Ursula Stanhope, George's love interest. She is the 1990s Melanie Griffith, all gloriously permed ringlets and girlish wonderment. John Cleese provides the cynical voice of George's intellectual sidekick, an ape named Ape. Holland Taylor plays Ursula's uptight mother with the same hysterical panache that she displayed in One Fine Day.

But the real star of the show is the offscreen narrator, Keith Scott, who turns each of the genre's corny and predictable cliches into hilariously wicked parodies. Don't miss the minutest details of his self-aware commentary as he lets us in on the joke but still manages to fool us at almost every turn.

It is clear that the whole crew is having a ball poking fun at its own goofiness.

There is plenty of heart here, and lots and lots of laughs.

'Under Pressure'

Charlie Sheen (Wall Street, Navy Seals) has changed his screen name to Charles Sheen, but so far it hasn't done much to his ailing career. In Under Pressure, he plays Lyle Wilder, a local fireman hero whose daring rescues have become the toast of L.A.

But L.A. is that blistering landfill of prejudice, racism and pure indifference, where the term "control freak" is a euphemism for murdering megalomaniacs.

So it's no surprise that Wilder's dark and psychotic side is unleashed when his neighbors, the Bravertons, come too close to reminding him of his wife and son who have left him. After repeatedly stalking them at their home, the creepy obsession turns into a full-blown bloodbath.

This movie is also the reunion of two brat packers, as Sheen finds himself locking horns with Mare Winningham (St. Elmo's Fire) who plays the imperiled suburban wife. As usual, Winningham wins us over with her natural performance. David Andrews also turns in a solid performance as the head of the family.

Under Pressure isn't exactly a star turn for Sheen, who is used to playing intense young men flying off their handles at the slightest provocation. His character is so poorly developed that it is never clear whether he used to be a reasonably good guy devoured by his own vices or a genuinely unhinged maniac. But there is a real edge to his dementia that reminds that this sort of thing could happen to you.

Apart from its disturbing antifeminist and racist overtones, the movie wastes little time in getting to the point. It has neither style nor imagination, just the desire to show obsession at its most puerile state. In fact, it wears its surprises in plain sight: you know what is coming because it is all there in Charlie Sheen's eyes.

'Wishmaster'

Don't be fooled by the ads. Wes Craven's Wishmaster is not directed by horror veteran Wes Craven, he only produced it. Which still doesn't justify why, after helming a jewel like Scream, he could get himself involved in a movie as boring and pretentious as this.

The movie's schlocky premise involves a lot of mystical mumbo jumbo about an evil, supernatural creature called the djinn whose purpose is to bring death and chaos to the universe.

When the djinn is accidentally unleashed in present-day America by a woman named Alexandra (Linda Hamilton look-alike Tammy Lauren), the body count starts.

There is no shortage here of visceral grotesqueries and false shocks, but the movie is so bloated from its own excesses that it provides neither scare nor suspense. The movie also tries to lecture us against romanticized Western notions about the "genie" (I dream of Jeannie's Barbara Eden appropriately gets all the flak) but the attempt falls flat on its face.

It is this kind of fare -- gratuitous gorefests posing as horror movies -- that makes Scream seem like a masterpiece.