Subject: REVIEW: THE RUNESTONE

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: 1 Apr 92 16:38:09 GMT

[Followups directed to rec.arts.movies.  -Moderator]

				THE RUNESTONE
		       A film review by Mark R. Leeper
			Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper

	  Capsule review:  Rent this one for a Friday night and
     make some popcorn.  There is a monster loose in New York and
     its roots are in Norse mythology.  If the plot is less than
     totally original, the writing and acting are good and the
     cast is impressive.  Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4).  (Minor
     spoilers below)

     By this point there is little original that can be done with the stale
plot that some myth about a fabled monster has a basis of truth and the
beastie is loose in a modern city.  And, of course, nobody believes that the
myth can be true.  It was even a weekly television series, KOLCHAK: THE
NIGHT STALKER.  THE RUNESTONE does just about the best that can be done.
First, it uses a genuine myth and, at the same time, not a myth that has
been over-used.  In Norse mythology the world end sin a battle between Aesir
and the powers of Hel, led by Loki.  One of Loki's children was the monster
wolf Fenrir.  It was really Fenrir and his wolf-cub children who bring about
Ragnarok, the great icy apocalypse of the world--icy because one of the
wolf-children stole the sun.  It is Fenrir who killed and devoured Odin.
Previously Tyr once allowed the gods to capture Fenrir, but at the cost of
his right hand--bitten off by the great wold.  Just what all this has to do
with modern-day New York is rather neatly set up in the plot of THE
RUNESTONE.

     Willard Carroll directed and wrote the screenplay based on a novella by
Mark E. Rogers.  The writing is actually very crisp and witty without
lowering itself to self-satire or camp.  These are several throwaway jokes,
some actually quite funny., but the main plotline is still taken seriously.
Because the script is so well-executed, the producers were able to attract a
surprisingly good cast.  Top-billed, though not quite the main character, is
Peter Riegert of OSCAR and CROSSING DELANCEY, playing Gregory Fanducci, a
likable sarcastic Italian policeman with a taste for Pez candy.  William
Hickey, who played the aging godfather in PRIZZI'S HONOR, has a decent-sized
role as an eccentric expert in Norse mythology who tries to straddle the old
gods' world and the modern world.  Alexander Godunov plays a clockmaker with
mystical ties to the old world.  And at the center of all the activity is
Joan Severance, playing young artist Marla Stewart.

     I do not know if this film has had a theatrical release.  After seeing
a positive review I rented it on tape.  Like last year's WARLOCK, this is
not a great film, but it is certainly a fun film.  Great for a Friday night
watch after a hard week.  I give it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					att!mtgzy!leeper
					[email-masked]