Word: sitcomming
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Looking like a sitcom family returning from a vacation in the country, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Diana, Princess of Wales, deplaned over the holidays at London's Heathrow Airport. The royal quartet, fresh from an outing in Scotland, grappled with a variety of hassles: driving wind, snowy tarmac, bulky luggage. And lots of dogs. There was Prince Charles' retriever Harvey, who couldn't wait to get off the plane. He bounded down the gangway, dragging Charles behind like a tin can. Then there was Anne's retriever. He took one look...
...like both. Together they demonstrate that even treacle pudding can pack some savor. Only Kaleena Kiff, 7, is a problem. She is not unbearable; she is not a toy saint; she is just not there. Perhaps it is unfair to ask a child to carry the weight of a sitcom-unless he weighs 200 Ibs., like the newborn creature played by Jonathan Winters on Mork and Mindy (ABC, Thursdays...
...movie has seemed a straightforward Pythonic sitcom, and the audience has tittered appreciatively, anxiously awaiting the next witticism. But it is not to be. Gilliam relates his intentions by shock therapy: The sleeping boy is roused by a medieval horseman galloping out of the wardrobe and across his bed. The audience snickers, thinking this is funny; it may be. But that's not Gilliam's purpose. Six peculiar midgets appear in the same nerve-racking manner; from thereon, Time Bandits is an adventurous escapade, and you either reorient your demands or sit and squirm for the next two hours...
...movie's other characters are fairly inconsequential. Paul Dooley plays Kurt the lawyer in a nothing performance, while Norman Fell, last seen as the least-appealing character of the even less-appealing TV sitcom Three's Company, remains solvent in the role of the doctor. Mike Kellin, however, in the most minor of minor parts, does provide a few laughs. In one of Peters' shining moments, Kellin plays a Manhattan tour captain who's got an ailment for every part of his body and a hospital in New York for every operation. Steinberg's influence is definitely felt here...
Kasdan's dialogue sometimes scans to sitcom rhythms. Transitions between sequences are too often punch lines to jokes played on the characters and the audience. But there are good sitcoms and bad, and Continental Divide is superior. John Belushi has dispensed with his randy Neanderthal persona to play that most hallowed of Hollywood leading-man roles: the extraordinary ordinary guy. Blair Brown is an earthy aristocrat and a resourceful actress: her face puffs and blotches beautifully when Nell's emotions demand it. If they are not quite Tracy and Hepburn, they will do until the real thing comes...