`Hard Promises' Fell Short Of Its Promise

The opening film at last year's Vancouver and Boston film festivals, "Hard Promises," fell on hard times and never got much theatrical play, despite a cast that includes Sissy Spacek, William L. Petersen, Mare Winningham, Peter MacNichol, Amy Wright, Ann Wedgeworth and Brian Kerwin.

Scheduled for video release Wednesday, it's a romantic comedy with a dark side, about a restless, charismatic world-traveler (Petersen) whose neglected wife (Spacek) divorces him and plans to marry a dull appliance dealer (Kerwin). Petersen rushes home to win her back and prevent the wedding.

Variety's critic, Daniel M. Kimmell, wrote that the early scenes play "like a bucolic remake of `The Awful Truth' " but that the movie doesn't deliver as a comedy. Bruce Feld, writing in Box Office magazine, echoed that opinion: "Some scenes are meant to be funny, but they are strained and badly executed." The L.A. Weekly's Ella Taylor was considerably less patient: "Everybody has to work, but you'd think Sissy Spacek could have found a better vehicle for her gifts than this 3-D (Dumb dialogue, Disjointed directing, Dreary didacticism) romantic comedy about marriage and commitment."

Australian director John Power's "Father," which will also turn up on cassette Wednesday, had a somewhat happier reception during its brief New York run a couple of months ago. Max Von Sydow plays a transplanted Australian and Carol Drinkwater is his daughter, who refuses to believe a Holocaust victim's accusations about his Nazi past.

Von Sydow won a British Film Institute prize for his performance, and Newsday called the picture "powerful and emotionally jarring." But the Village Voice's Lisa Katzman, who found the plot almost identical to the Jessica Lange/Costa-Gavras movie, "Music Box," wrote that the two films share the same problem: "The audience is way ahead of the dutiful daughters."

September's straight-to-video sequels include "Bikini Summer 2," starring Jessica Hahn (due Wednesday), and "Stepfather III: Father's Day" (due Sept. 30), in which Terry O'Quinn, who played the family-killer in the first two films, is replaced by Robert Wightman.

"Fatal Instinct," starring Michael Madsen as a San Francisco detective who falls for Catherine (Laura Johnson), the aloof, seductive chief suspect in a murder case, sounds enough like one of last spring's box-office smashes to suggest something more than coincidence.

But "Basic Instinct" won't be out on video for another month, and the packaging for this picture may fool a few renters into thinking they're getting it. Both movies will be released in R-rated and unrated versions.

Also going direct to video this month:

"Sexual Response." Shannon Tweed, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, plays a radio sexologist who's unhappy with her marriage to Vernon Wells and starts an affair with Emile Levisetti. This, too, is available in R-rated and unrated versions.

"Severed Ties." A black comedy about a young scientist whose experiments with regenerated genetic material play into the hands of ex-Nazis. Oliver Reed, Elke Sommer and Garrett Morris are in the cast.

"Street Crimes." R-rated police drama starring Dennis Farina as a cop who convinces gang kids to put down their weapons and settle their grudges in the ring.

"The Human Shield." Michael Dudikoff, the "American Ninja" star, plays a man in search of his brother during the Gulf War. Directed by Ted Post, whose long list of Hollywood credits includes Clint Eastwood's "Hang 'Em High" and "Magnum Force."

"Roots of Evil." Erotic thriller with Alex Cord as a cop on the lookout for a serial killer who specializes in Hollywood prostitutes.

"The World's Oldest Living Bridesmaid." R-rated comedy with Donna Mills as a woman who falls for her male secretary.

"Round Trip to Heaven." Corey Feldman and Zach Galligan play cousins who head for Palm Springs to find Feldman's dreamgirl (Rowanne Brewer). Ray Sharkey is a felon who stashes a suitcase full of stolen cash in their trunk.

"Blackmail." Not to be confused with the 1929 Hitchcock classic that has just been released on laserdisc, this thriller about two con artists blackmailing a gangster's wife stars Susan Blakely, Mac Davis and Dale Midkiff.

"A Woman, Her Men and Her Futon." Jennifer Rubin and Lance Edwards star in this low-budget movie, which Variety's Joe Leydon called a "laughably stilted and sophomorically self-referential drama about L.A. script-writer wannabes, their sexual hang-ups and mind games."

"My Grandpa Is a Vampire." An excruciatingly unfunny children's comedy from New Zealand, with Al Lewis in the title role.

"Can It Be Love." Promoted as "the ultimate beach movie," this R-rated comedy stars Richard Beaumont and Blake Pickett as two Bill-and-Ted types who are hired to "research" 50 sorority girls and find the one with the hidden birthmark.

"Birds of Paradise." Three women inherit a luxury yacht off the Florida Keys and pay the $10,000 loan installment by throwing a car wash.

"Miracle Beach." More beach adventures, with Dean Cameron as a Los Angeles man who has lost his job, girlfriend and apartment, then gets rescued by a genie (Ami Dolenz).

"Sideburns." A Soviet satire about the threat of fascism in contemporary Russia, directed by Yurii Mamin. Released by Facets Video.

"A Matter of Cunning." R-rated drama about an ambitious woman who tries to get to the top of an international corporate empire.

"Wildfire." Steven Bauer and Linda Fiorento play a couple on the run in the latest erotic thriller from writer-director Zalman King ("Wild Orchid," "Two Moon Junction").

"Red Wind." Psychological thriller starring Lisa Hartman as a therapist who becomes obsessed with the abusive new lover of one of her clients.

"Mikey" (due Wednesday). A horror film in the "Bad Seed" tradition, starring Brian Bonsall as a homicidal child who goes from foster family to foster family. From the producers of "Point Break."

"Doctor Mordrid: Master of the Unknown" (due Thursday). Jeffrey Combs of "Re-Animator" stars in the latest fantasy-thriller from the creators of the "Puppet Master" series.

"Love Kills" (due Thursday). Thriller starring Virginia Madsen as an heiress who falls for a man who may be an assassin hired by her husband. With Jim Metzler ("One False Move") and Lenny Von Dohlen ("Twin Peaks").

"Comrades in Arms" (due Sept. 30). Lance Henriksen ("Terminator," "Aliens") plays an aggressive CIA chief in this action film about Soviet and American forces joining to battle an international drug cartel.

Video Watch by John Hartl appears Sundays in Arts & Entertainment. You can get more video information by calling the Seattle Times' 24-hour free service Infoline. Call 464-2000 from any touch-tone telephone and when instructed, enter the category number 7369 to reach the Video Hotline. You may replay all information by pressing "R" (7); back up to previous information by pressing "B" (2); and jump over over current information by pressing "J" (5).

------------------------------------- NEW VIDEOS IN STORES THIS WEEK --------------------------------------

Today - "Girls Bite Back," "Best of Berlin Independence Days 88," "Gong Maison," "Punk and Its After Shocks," "Kings of Independence."

Tuesday - Bob Marley in "Time Will Tell," "NFL Country," "NFL Kids: A Field of Dreams," "Los Angeles Raiders: The Team For All Decades," "Master Blasters."

Wednesday - Bill Paxton in "One False Move," Josie Bissett in "Mikey," Sissy Spacek in "Hard Promises," Jessica Hahn in "Bikini Summer 2," Max Von Sydow in "Father," restored versions of Francois Truffaut's "Confidentially Yours," "The Last Metro" and "The Woman Next Door."

Thursday - Brigitte Rouan's "Overseas," Jennie Livingston's "Paris Is Burning," Irene Jacob in "The Double Life of Veronique," Don McKellar in "Highway 61," Jeffrey Combs in "Dr. Mordrid," Virginia Madsen in "Love Kills."

New laserdiscs: Paul Newman in "Exodus" (letterboxed), Jeff Fahey in "The Lawnmower Man," Armand Assante in "The Mambo Kings" (letterboxed), John Wayne in "Operation Pacific," Ned Beatty in "Hear My Song," Lorraine Bracco in "Radio Flyer," "Captain America," "Billy Joel Live at Yankee Stadium," "Harry Connick Jr. Sings Out," Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Telephone."