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etazteca /j ; 2600 E. 7th St. Austin, Texas 447-4701 vegetarian food OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 10-6 AND OPEN SUNDAY 10-4 WATSON & COMPANY BOOKS SOCIAL CAUSE CALENDAR Notices of future events must reach the Observer at least three weeks before the event. ALL-NIGHT JAM A continuing series of free and open performances and musical jam sessions, hosted by the San Antonio Musicians and Performers Jam Session, will be held every other Wednesday, beginning February 6, Cine Mdxico, 319 Castroville Rd., San Antonio, 7 p.m. The public is invited to listen, enjoy, and participate. details. MAGIC OF FACES The Austin Children’s Museum, a nonprofit corporation, is a hands-on museum for children and their families, with programs, exhibits, and activities that invite participation by visitors of all ages, backgrounds, skills, and learning styles. It focuses on the humanities and sciences, with three major themes: the human body, how different people live, and everyday science and technology. The Museum’s “Magic of Faces” exhibit will be at the Northwest Recreation Center, Austin, February 11-22. exhibit times and to arrange group tours. Free. HANDY DANDY “Handy Dandy, a comedy but . . . , by William Gibson \(author of “The Miracle Worker” and “Two For the See a Boston group of non-violent peace activists in early 1984 and was made available to the anti-nuclear movement prior to professional use. This engaging conflict of judicial and religious consciousness on the subject of nuclear destruction and platonic love will continue at the Hyde Park Showplace, Austin, February 11, 12, 18, 19, and 20, 8 p.m.; $5 donation to benefit the nuclear freeze campaign. with “names like Rashib Quadruple-X” who have no sense of history was a neat way of giving a little background about everything and calls it like he sees it, the acting and dialogue are so good you forget you’re on a movie seat and not a barstool. This is unquestionably a John Sayles movie. Sayles, the bullheaded young writer/director of Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lianna, and Baby, It’s You, not only wrote, directed, edited and acted in “Brother” but co-wrote some of the serves a lot of credit for making this movie magical in a way E. T. , for all its expensive effects, never quite was. Brother may strain now and then to be a feel-good film for guilty liberals, but in the end it succeeds on its own unique terms: it’s an enchanting sci-fi tragicomedy about life in Harlem. WELL, THE MANTLE \(or merly bestowed on Richard Pryor as Hollywood’s Resident Superne-. gro seems to have been passed on to Eddie Murphy. Murphy, who already has his own production company and whose five-picture deal with Paramount was recently renegotiated to include a concert film and several millions more, seems to be handling success better than Pryor \(it helps, no doubt, to come from BED & BREAKFAST CORPUS CHRISTI Take a break from the sameness of motel accommodations. Over 20 listings, many within walking distance of the water. Friendly, hospitable hosts. Breakfasts continental to Texas-size. Rates from $20. Sand Dollar Hospitality, 3605 Mendenhall, Cor.. –.f.-1 ,=1,=11c But how is success handling him? From its first scene, which ends in a boring and gratuitous car chase, to its last cocky punchline of a -freeze-frame, Beverly Hills Cop is just the Eddie Murphy vehicle you’d expect from Paramount and the producers of Flashdance: fast-paced, action-packed young detective in the Detroit police force whose unconventional methods have already gained him a reputation for brilliance and insubordination. When a good friend returns from Beverly Hills and is murdered, Axel is sure the desk cops on the case won’t solve it. He disobeys his chief and goes to L.A. to do it himself. In short, sort of a Dirty Harry movie with Murphy playing Clint Eastwood’s part. Only Axel is a cop that talks in fact, he hardly ever stops talking. Murphy’s irreverent, almost bullying but ultimately generous wit is showcased shamelessly: locked doors and armed guards mean nothing to Axel, who can fast-talk or sweet-talk his way through anything easily maybe too easily. Beverly Hills Cop has drawn fire from some reviewers for being a vigilante movie that camouflages its message by having a black hero flaunt rules and regulations to nab a powerful white villain, when in fact those rules were often invented, and are still needed, to protect minorities and the poor from cops. I can see the point any time a movie makes me rejoice at the sound of a clip being loaded into a handgun, I get nervous but I enjoyed Beverly Hills Cop. It’s such a cartoon movie I couldn’t take much of its violence seriously \(the only killing that looked “real” was the murder of Axel’s friend, movies are like dreams, allowing us to work out some of our unspoken fears and hopes, it’s no wonder so many movies like so many dreams should be revenge fantasies. And it’s not until the fantasies become reality that you need to worry. Despite the remarkable self-confidence and charisma he projects or maybe because of it there’s something universal about Eddie Murphy. Like the Brother, he has some essence nearly everybody can identify with, and that makes him fun to watch in Beverly Hills Cop, whether he’s creaking with laughter at two Californians in outlandish scifi clothing or blowing away thugs. \(The like Brother, Beverly Hills Cop is essentially an optimistic fairy tale. Everyone has heard of Harlem and Beverly Hills, but for most of us they are more legendary than real, and more intimidating than either. Since most of us would feel like aliens in either place, it’s easy to identify with aliens who show up there to find they’re not so scary after all. Throughout literature and film, the alien, the “other,” serves as a means to see the society he/she/it has entered through new eyes. It is not the alien who stands out but society. And when the alien is not a threat but a brother that may bring out the brotherhood in us all. 20 FEBRUARY 8, 1985