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t 'Champ' sugar-coa By David Bakar Entertainment Editor Though I didn't see anyone crying at th< screening I attended, word has it that while watching Franco Zeffirelli's The Champ people are virtually awash in tears. I don' know exactly why people are reacting this wav. but I Ho hflVP throo fhonpioo oKaiii ^ , ? ?T V vv V1IVVA IVO U fc/VM them: 1) they are crying over having wasted two hours; 2) they are crying ovei having wasted three dollars; or 3) they wem into the theatre so primed to open up theii tear ducts that even the slightest bit ol sadness (such as the girl at the concession counter announcing that the theatre has sole out its supply of popcorn) wo.ild have beer enough to send them running from the theatre in search of Kleenex. A re-make of King Vidor's 19:u classic about an over-the-hill boxer, The Champ ha: been updated and glamorized to the poin where the characters are practically uiuciuBiuz.ciuie. 11 oniy me pioi nao Deer updated as well, the movie might not hav< been so bad. As it is, The Champ places 1970s characters into a plot that was hackneyec even in the 1930s. It almost goes without saying that the end result of such a union is like that of sulfuric acid and water ? a bomb. Jon Voight, in his first appearance since his Academy Award winning performance in Coming Home, stars as Billy Flynn. He's a former heavyweight boxing champion who, after a nasty divorce, is reduced tc working as a stableboy at a racetrack somewhere in Florida. He spends his spare time gambling, drinking and trying to bring up his eight-year-old son, T.J. (played by Rickv Schroder), who still calls dad "thp Champ" no matter how unruly the old man becomes. This little habit of T.J.'s naturally brings W\ :% ' tgj* ' " , v ^ 1 Jack Barry works on, re-make is ted 'Rocky' nk/u.f " = nuvui iccuiiga ui gum uii oiiiy s pari, the guilt, of course, compounds B i drinking problem, placing both chara< i in a vicious circle. , Enter Billy's ex-wife, Annie (playe t Faye Dunaway). She sees T.J. one cU ? the track and immediately falls for t sugary quips about the racehorse \ Daddy has just bought him. When A ' learns that T.J. is actually the son t abandoned seven years earlier, she de< * she wants him back. f The remainder of the film details the i between Billy and Annie over who 1 custody of T.J. and the figM In? I ween 1 and the bottle, which culminates in i disastrous comebaek attempt. b.rangely enough, most of this figl : takes place without a harsh word t 5 uttered by anyone. Zeffirelli, in se\ I instances, has replaced dialogue with t< j Honestly, I can't recall a stretch of film 1 10 minutes in length wherein no one er ; into tears. Billy cries because of the way he tr T.J., Annie cries because of the way j treated Billy and T.J. seven years ago, ' T.J. cries because of anything [ everything. '* The only scene benefitting from 1 barrage of water is the one in which 1 tearfully asks Annie to come back to ' But even this, the best scene in the film > its problems, for it takes place in a st that appears to have been designed b i interior decorator who went haywire > hay bales. In fact, it seems as if Zeffirelli hin ' went haywire trying to make The Ch I into a classy version of Rocky. Bu making his cast succumb to so many we i eved attemnts to null nn th*> viou i heartstrings, Zeffirelli has created not more than Rocky Meets the Sugary Fairy. IReviewe as possibh reviewed, syndicatec how you lo trite, borir The Joki five days a to deserve n beyond cc believably stereotype derstand e pronunicat witted two What mi air is that i of any j divesting i bland as a a game she El ne gene to answer get by spii see the exe it big and n What is seems to al itself ? the not a clear med schoo way throu* for the Brai rinu uivv a* n?,. ;/? posite sexe rl/s smile attempt at ly at .w ' his WW that 1 M /** 11 ,nn'e jr maJ ' She -:VW;||:I^ JR^ :ides " ***** lP . *3 Jon Voight, Ricky Schn hing \ tlum % -a-: m nduring 'The Jc le Edsel of TV < 4k. By Lehman Stiles Assistant Entertainment Editor ilTlUSinfi ;rs are duty-bound to present, as faithfully studio a s, an unbiased, honest view of the subject goes for i nai is wny 11 is sucn a joy to review tne another, 1 TV show The Joker's Wild ? no matter "O.K. ok at it, it's awful; a simplistic, uninspired, are: Ch ig attempt at mass hypnotism. The Hist er's Wild comes on at 6 p.m., unfailingly, He then week. What the Columbia public has done the wro i this rude interruption of good taste is humor a mnprehension. Host Jack Barry is un- one gets conformed to the game-show host The si ? a wired-on smile, an inability to un- contesta ?ven the most basic ureceDts of Enelish than to I ion and the mental capacity of a slow- be had c year-old. seen. Bl ikes it possible to get this charade on the accoladc t is the perfect game show. It divests itself like "Esl >ossibly disturbing characteristics by plane cr< tself of characteristics altogether. It is as Despit wet soda cracker, as boring as . . . well, as however iw can get. Maybe t ral idea seems to be for contestants show's a questions in various categories that they will pro ining a giant one-armed bandit. One can Anything cuiivc icievision ininu ai worn nere: maKe Anyini lake it flashy, and the public will lap it up. controlle really amazing, though, is how the show suspense tract contestants that are as boring as it is context, bland leading the bland, so to speak . If it's peal ? t -cut young man working his way through prize rep I, it's a clean-cut young maid working her a nicesy: jh charm school. These people could pass If ycJi dy Bunch's neighbors. least con itably, if the two contestants are of op- By the w; S and aren't marripd Rarrv mnlfw: enmo knnu/ thi humorous matchmaking that is about as Joker's V y jM J8S )der and Jaci PPP^ >ker's V jame si as the Spanish Inquisi jdience (people who obv this, but the contestants just like they are expecte " Jack will say, "the c ickens, The Wonderful ory of Fried Rice, and Ti proceeds to read the wroi ng contestants, attemp nd give away the answe the feeling that he's forge low's budget is Dure sv nts more often win trips 'aris or London, and norn n network game shows j t it's all proportional; t< s, the contestants have t cimos in what state saved ish? " e all its absurdities i The Joker's Wild roll: iwiay someone will spin juivalent of an orgasm). lounce the contestants' ;can happen! ng, that is, within th d limits. It's suspense wi ; it's the element of lu Perhaps that is why the hese nice people will all ardless of their degree o! ; torn 9 idea of entertainment i imon denominator, then t *y, the Eskimos were in A t, then you're a prime /ild, television's biggest j k Warden I . >< N' ^ x " ' U. ^ ^ : - S: " Vild; 7 lows tion. Not even the iously know better) glance shyly at one >d to. ategories for today Telephone System, lrhan Bev Movies." lg questions, call on t more Inquisition >rs. And sometimes >tten where he is. ndication, too. The to Mexican resorts ; of the big bucks to are anywhere to be > win their dubious 0 answer questions 1 victims of a recent and non-sequiturs, s on. Who knows? a triple joker (the Maybe today Barry names correctly. e show's strictlythout the danger of ck put into a safe show has such apI 0f*i C\ CI r\ ino_aii?Qif ev-v " p?w,,,fs f success. Isn't that s the concept of a his show is for you. il.Qclra If \tf\ll Hi/ln'f iiMonu. 11 J V/M UI U11 i contestant for The oke.