> 'DANCE' CLASS
A step, a twirl, some actors can really dance.
There's John Travolta, of course, spanning "Saturday Night Fever" to "Pulp Fiction" (gliding gracefully in the diner with Uma Thurman).
There's Christopher Walken hoofing it up in "Pennies From Heaven" and briefly in "Catch Me If You Can," spellbindingly in Spike Jonze's video of Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice."
Not quite in the Travolta-Walken class is Richard Gere, tapping like a madman in "Chicago" and now escorting Jennifer Lopez onto the floor in "Shall We Dance?"
Playing a middle-aged attorney who has everything in life except "I want to be happier," he goes from klutzy, box-step beginner to a tuxedoed ballroom contest master.
Early on, someone asks Gere about the last time he danced. "Prom," he says, " 'Stairway to Heaven.' " Travolta, Walken, Gere, when they dance – heaven.
> WALKEN IN RHYTHM
In "Around the Bend," a wisp of a picture (barely running 80-something minutes), Walken, sure enough, gets a chance for a combination rock and country jig in front of a campfire.
He is simply brilliant in a not-very-brilliant film about four generations of men scarred by past secrets. And, if you can believe this, Walken, 61, plays the son of Michael Caine, 71 (gone from the movie after 20 minutes).
In the end, though, there's the pleasure of actor-dancer Walken leaving behind his tics and eccentricities to simply take your breath away.
> 'AMERICA' THE BEAUTIFUL
In "Team America: World Police," Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the "South Park" freaks (that's a compliment), have fashioned a fearless, frank and funny movie using marionettes that'll tick off liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans.
It skewers the military, the war on terror, Michael Moore and Hollywood's anti-war campaigners (Sarandon, Robbins, Garofalo, Penn, duck!). There's the grossest vomiting in film history and an hysterical sex scene (all that's missing is that oldies tune, "I'm Your Puppet").
Meanwhile, the young audience at an AMC Mission Valley preview the other night was laughing in degrees – loud, louder, explosive.
"Team America: World Police" is guaranteed to offend, so if you can't take it, there's always the Hilary Duff movie next door or that animated one with a shark.
lee.grant@uniontrib.com
