For all the hype surrounding this third big fish entry's use of 3-D effects, JAWS 3 still rests in a vacuum because the shark's rampages and the means used to destroy it totally defy credibility. The film puts Dennis Quaid in the role of Mike Brody, who is now employed at the Undersea Kingdom in Florida as a marine mammal expert. Jon Putch is his younger brother Sean, who like their father has a severe case of hydrophobia because of his previous encounters with sharks. That fear is fully justified when a shark sneaks into the underwater tubes that connect the park to the Atlantic Ocean and kills three people before being anaesthetized.

But in a truly gratuitous twist, the shark's mother, a 35-foot Great White, comes looking for its "infant" and proceeds to turn the Undersea Kingdom into a kill zone before the obligatory over-the-top method of killing him comes into play.

Alongside Quaid and Putch are such talented people as Louis Gossett Jr., coming off his Oscar-winning turn in 1982's AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, Bess Armstrong, and, in an early role, BACK TO THE FUTURE's Lea Thompson. Unfortunately, they are saddled with a surprisingly inert screenplay by Richard Matheson (of DUEL fame) and JAWS veteran Carl Gottlieb, as well as the equally inert direction of Joe Alves, who was production designer on the first two films and associate producer on the second. The suspense that was generated so naturally by Spielberg in the spectacular original is lost on Alves, and even the 3-D effects aren't quite enough to make JAWS 3 any better than routine. It is watchable, but only by the narrowest of margins.

Brazilian jazz keyboardist Eumir Deodato scored one of the great success stories of 70's instrumental rock with this 1972 album that combines the classical orchestral flourishes with jazz and rock. His lush arrangement of Debussy's "Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun" is quite top-notch, as are his own trio of originals ("Spirit Of Summer"; "Carly And Carole", "September 13") and the Wright/Forrest "Baubles, Bangles, And Beads" (based on themes of Alexander Borodin.

Of course, the big track on the CD is his nine-minute adaptation of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra", the work that became internationally famous in its original classical form in 1968, when director Stanley Kubrick used it in his sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Using the famous "Dawn" sequence, with its brass fanfare, and then using it to weave a set of jazz-rock permutations, Deodato comes up with one of the great rock instrumentals of all times. It also won him a much-deserved Grammy in 1973 for Best Pop Instrumental, and hit #2 on the American singles chart (#7 in England) in an abridged version.

A very worthy album PRELUDE is. Take a listen.

I think it's safe to say that Maria McKee has to rank as one of the most underappreciated (or least appreciated) female singers of the last three decades. Whether it has been as the lead singer of the 1980s alternative country-rock outfit Lone Justice or on her own, Maria has had one of the most flexible voices this side of Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. And yet despite her immense talents, radio and the music-buying public have ignored her. This compilation CD of Maria's best performances will leave you shaking your head as to why this is.

Maria shines really well while out front of Lone Justice on songs like Tom Petty's "Ways To Be Wicked" (with the notorious "stick it in" line), the country weeper "Don't Toss Us Away" (which Patty Loveless would later abscond with), and "Dixie Storms." On her own, the best tracks include "Only Once", a country tune that sounds like she's channeling early Linda Ronstadt and Patsy Cline, "If Love Is A Red Dress" (which would find its way into the soundtrack for PULP FICTION), and the up-tempo country-rocker "Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)" (which the Dixie Chicks would cover on their 1998 breakthrough album WIDE OPEN SPACES).

Some of the blame for Maria's lack of success may have had to do with some of her own personal eccentricities. Beyond that, however, vocally she is certainly very close to the equal of Linda and Emmylou, and as such would blow many a female pop or country singer off the map. This CD comes strongly recommended.

A loose reworking of Victor Fleming's 1943 World War II drama A GUY NAMED JOE, ALWAYS has to rank as perhaps director Steven Spielberg's most unfairly maligned movie. Even though it has a very old-fashioned feel updated to the late 1980s, this is still a fine movie done with real poignancy. This is nowhere near the bottom of the Spielberg canon; that dubious distinction belongs to "1941" and HOOK.

Richard Dreyfuss stars as Pete, a dare-devil aerial firefighter with a penchant for taking a lot of unneccesary chances in his line of work. As much "fun" as he has, he is worrying not only his partner Al (John Goodman), but also his one true love Dorinda (Holly Hunter). After much pressure, including Hunter's threat to leave him, he agrees to settle down and become an instructor for up-and-coming flyers in Colorado after one last mission. But on that mission, in the process of saving Goodman when his plane catches fire, Dreyfuss loses his life when his aircraft explodes. Goodman is horrified, and Hunter devastated.

In heaven (or a burned-out section of forest), Dreyfuss is met by a guardian angel (Audrey Hepburn, in her final role). He comes back to earth as a spirit, to help a rookie fire-fighter (Brad Johnson) learn the tricks of the trade. Johnson does this and more; unfortunately, he also falls head over heels for Hunter, and Dreyfuss feels the pain of having to watch this, not being able to let go. But Hepburn gives him very good counsel, and he is redeemed by saving Hunter from a fiery death in a flight through a nightmarish firestorm.

One of Spielberg's most touching movies, ALWAYS was unfairly castigated by critics as being heavy-handed and manipulative. I, however, am extremely cynical of such critics who only analyze certain films and don't really FEEL anything. This is a film of pure emotions, ranging from comedy, both dark and slapstick, to tear-jerking drama to a suspense and terror-laden climax. The cinematography and the special effects are typical for Spielberg--convincing and top notch. Spielberg, however, wisely, does not stint on the drama. Dreyfuss and Hunter are excellent, as are Goodman and Hepburn. Johnson, often heavily trashed, does a fairly good job with his role, complete with his John Wayne imitation (specifically borrowing a line from John Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE).

A typically fine score by John Williams, which presages his work for Spielberg's controversial 2001 sci-fi drama A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, tops off ALWAYS, one of the most misunderstood movies of recent times. For poignant romantic drama, this is an essential movie, a true must-see.

One of the best double-CD sets in classical music is this superlative reissue of top-notch performances of space-related music by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor who put it into world-class status, Zubin Mehta.

On Disc One, we get the orchestra's epic 1971 recording of Gustav Holst's celebrated suite "The Planets." In terms of the recording and performance, this has to rank as one of the greatest recordings this piece has ever had, right alongside Ormandy's equally vibrant 1975 RCA recording. The women's voices of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in "Neptune" are appropriately haunting and interstellar. This is followed by the orchestra and the chorale in a 13-minute arrangement of themes from the 1977 Steven Spielberg sci-fi classic CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND by John Williams, and it is something to behold.

Disc 2 opens up with the celebrated "Dawn" sequence that opens up Richard Strauss' celebrated tone poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra"--the music that became well known worldwide in 1968 thanks to director Stanley Kubrick's cagey use of it in his classic sci-fi epic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Mehta and the orchestra recorded Strauss' 34 minute tone poem shortly after "2001" was released, and they came up with a version that arguably surpasses the 1954 Reiner/Chicago version that so often grabs the glory. The disc concludes with more John Williams, this time a symphonic suite of themes from STAR WARS, dating like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS from 1977. This ultra-familiar music is excellently performed and recorded.

Mehta and the L.A. Philharmonic made a great deal of fine recordings, and the four works featured on this double-disc set are proof of that. This is a two-fer that is not to be missed.

Organized by Cajun music mistress Ann Savoy, this all-star effort is a tribute to the Cajun music of southwestern Louisiana which has had a great, though largely unacknowledged, effect on both country and rock since the 1960s. To show how this came to be, Savoy assembles the best Cajun musicians of the region and puts them together with a whole lot of really great folks, including ex-CCR frontman John Fogerty, British rocker Nick Lowe, the highly underrated Maria McKee, and country-rock goddess Linda Ronstadt.

Although Cajun music, like almost every other form of ethnic music in America, tends to be a largely acquired taste, EVANGELINE MADE is a good way to get involved in it. Linda harmonzies with Savoy on "Song Of A Fifteen Year Old Girl" and "Oh My Dear Little Girl", and in Acadian French yet, while Maria gets her licks in on "My Blonde Left" and "On A Beautiful Evening While Walking." And Fogerty gets to essay the Cajun standard "Diggy Liggy Lo."

All that's missing from the album, of course, is "Jole Blon", and probably only because it is now far too well known outside the Cajun world. All in all, this is a well-thought-out album done for the love of a style that is not heard often in its unadulterated form on the radio. It is also proving at this time to be a hard album to find in regular record stores, but don't hesitate to seek it out. You won't be sorry that you did.

After having basically drawn up the blueprint for the modern horror film in 1960 with PSYCHO, Alfred Hitchcock took another step into the macabre with his 1963 thriller THE BIRDS. In spite of the advancements made in special effects and computer graphics in the nearly forty years since it was originally released, THE BIRDS still manages to be extremely convincing in its own way, and terrifying as well...

Rarely in the horror film genre has there ever been a film as low-key on the acting side that at the same time has ever been this strikingly well made. This was almost certainly what Hitchcock had in mind when he and screenwriter Evan Hunter adapted the Daphne Du Maurier story upon which THE BIRDS is based. The general low-key tone of acting is in keeping with the film's approach, which is cold, clinical, and deeply unsettling. THE BIRDS is also claimed by science fiction film fans as one of their own, but at no time does Hitchcock offer any real explanation, scientific or otherwise, for the birds' attacks. But there is clearly a great deal of psychological tension, and this is far more disturbing than any long-winded explanations of any kind.

Featuring Oscar-nominated special effects work from Ub Iwerks, Ray Berwick (who trained the birds), and Lawrence Hampton, along with pictorial designs by master effects artist Albert Whitlock, THE BIRDS has proven to be every bit as influential on the horror genre as PSYCHO, though in a different way. One can see the influence of this film's final sequence on films like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and STRAW DOGS, where homes come under violent nighttime sieges. Even better, one can clearly see the influence this film has had on Steven Spielberg, whose two suspense masterpieces DUEL and JAWS clearly owe a debt to the Master.

If one can get past the film's age, and the arguably dated special effects work, one is left with one of the most brilliant and chilling horror movies of all times. It is rated 'PG-13' for scenes of tension and slightly bloody violence, but it is yet one more masterpiece in Hitchcock's lengthy and distinguished canon.

DIE HARD remains one of the best action films of the last twenty years because, unlike so many of the Schwarzenneger, Stallone, and Segal pics, this film actually has a great deal of tension, suspense, and even terror. It has, of course, the requisite violence and blooshed, but at no time does it ever succumb to the kind of gratuitous hyper-violence we've grown accustomed to in the testosterone action genre.

Bruce Willis became a star here as New York cop John McClane, out on Christmas sabbatical to see his wife (Bonnie Bedelia), from whom he has been estranged for six months. Clearly, they are at odds with one another, what with Willis' line of work and Bedelia's need for independence, being as she is an executive at the Nakatomi Plaza in West L.A., where they reunite. Willis berates himself for not being more sympathetic to Bedelia's desires, and waits in her office while the Nakatomi Christmas party goes on.

But when a heavily armed band of terrorists, led by a suave German (Alan Rickman), seize the building and everyone at the party for the purposes of stealing the $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds from the company's computer-controlled vault, Willis is forced into a life-or-death situation. Escaping detection, he finds and kills Rickman's associates one by one, all the while as the LAPD and the FBI mistake him for one of the terrorists. The vault's computer codes are broken and Rickman gets his hands on the money. But eventually, Willis catches up with him and, in a showdonw that pays homage to the 1952 western classic HIGH NOON, shoots and kills Rickman and saves Bedelia.

I have only ever had one major complaint with DIE HARD, and it has nothing to do with the violence or the language (though the 'R' rating is obviously there for a reason). In trying to make Willis THE hero of the piece, the screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. DeSouza (based on Roderick Thorp's 1979 book "Nothing Lasts Forever") makes the LAPD captain (Paul Gleason) into an incompetent, trigger-happy buffoon and the FBI men, led by Robert Davi, into a gang of trigger-happy psychopaths who seem far worse than Rickman's companions. Aside from slowing the film down to an extent, these depictions of law enforcement are rather distasteful and grossly inaccurate.

That complaint aside, however, DIE HARD is very skillfully directed by John McTiernan, who doesn't stint with the suspense and keeps things moving in this 132 minute-long film. Willis is at his best here, as is Bedelia, who makes for a far better than average heroine. VelJohnson's performance is also quite commendable.

Finally, no action film can expect to be truly memorable unless the villain is every bit the match for the hero. Few action films understand this, resulting in villains who are basically straw dummies. Not so with Rickman, whose performance as Hans Gruber makes for one of the most compelling and crafty villains the cinema has ever had.

Boosted by Richard Edlund's great special effects work and a high-tension orchestral score by Michael Kamen (plus an uncredited use of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony), DIE HARD, while not exactly an unflawed film, is far superior to just about everything else the action genre had to offer in the 80s and, with a few exceptions, has had to offer since then.

It is typical to write off the decade of the 1970s as just the era of disco, polyester, glam rock, and such, though there was much more to the era than those things. But in that now much-maligned style known as disco, there remains one undisputed masterpiece, the soundtrack to the 1977 blockbuster SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER.

Even though both the film and soundtrack are now approaching the quarter-century mark, the music here seems timeless and holds up to a great deal of scrutiny. Three #1 hits from the Bee Gees and one #1 from Yvonne Elliman originated from this album, which sold a then-unheard-of twenty-six million copies, a figure which keeps climbing. The album stayed at #1 on the US album chart for twenty-six consecutive weeks.

Among the many lesser-heard gems of the album are Kool and the Gang's "Open Sesame", MFSB's "K-Jee" (originally a hit for the Nite-Liters in 1971), and David Shire's "Night On Disco Mountain" (a discofied adaptation of Mussorgsky's 1867 tone poem "A Night On Bald Mountain"). The entire albums captures the time, the feel, and the essence of an era that a lot of people make the mistake of ridiculing. Time has shown the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack to have endured well beyond its Seventies heyday. In twenty years, can the same be said for the soundtracks to either THE BODYGUARD or TITANIC? Only time will tell.

The first film to challenge the Warren Commission's "lone gunman" theory about the Kennedy assassination, EXECUTIVE ACTION, although overlooked and overshadowed by Oliver Stone's later 1991 epic JFK, is an equally substantive film about how people in high places can destroy a man of peace and help to wreck a nation with their obsessions with war and murder.

Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Geer portray a cabal of right-wing businessmen clearly concerned about what Kennedy might do with respect to the Cold War and our involvement in Vietnam if he is re-elected in 1964. The film concerns itself with the assassination teams that these men manage to assemble that will end up being at that appointed place of destiny, Dealey Plaza in Dallas at 12:30 PM Central Time on November 22, 1963.

Though much less flashy than Stone's film, EXECUTIVE ACTION, directed by David Miller (LONELY ARE THE BRAVE), and scripted by former blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo from Mark Lane's book "Rush To Judgement", has its own style of credibility. Lancaster and Ryan (the latter in one of his final films), known for their liberal politics, give extremely convincing and low-key portrayals of the right-wing businessmen at the center of this film's conspiracy theory. Talk about the chilling banality of evil.

EXECUTIVE ACTION is not a very easy film to find; and like JFK, it blows holes big enough into the Warren Commission report to drive a truck through and make apologists like Gerald Posner absolutely apoplectic. If you can find it, however, it makes for an extremely worthy film, both on its own and in tandem with JFK.