Review/Film; Shields As Intrepid Reporter (original) (raw)
Movies|Review/Film; Shields As Intrepid Reporter
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/19/movies/review-film-shields-as-intrepid-reporter.html
Advertisement
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Brenda Starr
Directed by Robert Ellis Miller
Adventure, Comedy, Romance
PG
1h 33m
- April 19, 1992
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
April 19, 1992
,
Section 1, Page
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
There were more than 13 stars in the flag when "Brenda Starr" was filmed (actually in 1986, but audiences may find that hard to believe). This would-be comic romp is badly dated in several conspicuous ways. Its cold war villains are embarrassingly outre (even allowing for the film's 1940's look, in keeping with the peak popularity of Brenda Starr as a comic strip heroine). And its narrow view of the comic strip's screen possibilities, in the wake of such visually ambitious projects as "Batman" and "Dick Tracy," is similarly outmoded.
Most dated of all is Brenda herself (Brooke Shields), the "girl reporter" who worries chiefly about not running her stockings or breaking her high heels and who in one scene actually uses a black patent leather handbag as a secret weapon. "I'm having a terrible time with some of these purses you're having me wear," she complains to Mike Randall (Tony Peck), the artist who draws her and who winds up as part of the film's fantasy action. "They're just too small!" (Dale Messick, who created Brenda Starr, is mentioned separately, but the use of the Mike Randall character is more confusing than helpful.)
Bob Mackie, who designed extravagantly madcap costumes for Ms. Shields and has her looking variously like Celebrity Barbie and Carmen Miranda, appears to have had more fun than anyone else connected with this production. Ms. Shields, who performs gamely and is not to blame for the film's listlessness, sensibly treats this more as a modeling assignment than an acting job. Also on hand, though not able to rise above the film's dull and scenery-logged adventure plot, are Timothy Dalton as the terminally dashing Basil St. John and Diana Scarwid as Libby Lips, Brenda's archrival in the reporting game. Viewers who are not won over by Brenda's incessant costume changes will probably not warm to Libby, who in one scene bribes a man with her garter belt to scoop Brenda on an important story.
How important? Vintage comic strip aficionados will easily guess. The survival of the free world depends upon it. "Brenda Starr" is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It includes mild expletives ("Shoot!" "Blast!") and even milder sexual situations.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement