Newton-John Mythical Muse
Two of a Kind is almost pure commodity. Its success at the box office suggests once again that a large segment of the country’s moviegovers might be better classified as shopper/consumers than as members of an audience. What they’re getting is not so much a movie as it is a neatly labeled package.
It is, of course, a John Travolta-Olivia Newton-John package, but part of the point is that Newton-John and Revolta (John) are what the package is wrapped in, and in Two of a Kind, the wrapper is nearly all there is. It’s not that this package/film has no “content(s)” but rather that the wrapper is given such importance that it (at the very least) neutralizes what’s “inside.” As it turns out, in this case, the wrapper is the package.
There is a story of sorts here a fantasy/fable in which John and Olivia are the prime specimens is a pseudo-angelic effort to save the human race from extinction by divine decree. God, you see, has gotten sick of our constant screw-ups, and only some 1 Ith-hour finagling by guardian angel-types among His lackeys in Heaven has made it possible that “The End” can be averted. All those kindly lackeys have to do is find a couple of redeemable human beings. Even a couple of media-made humanoids will do, it seems.
The only religion involved here, however, is the religion of escapist fantasy in its most facile and goo-goo predictable form.
The preview trailer for the film has a glimpse of John and Olivia doing some Heavy Petting, and the film has a Heavy Petting scene which looks as though it’s in the movie so they could put part of it in the preview. The stars performance seem almost entirely advertisements for themselves, which helps insure that whatever interest the script might have originally had is casually tossed aside.
The presence of Charles Durning, Beatrice Straight, and Scatman Crothers lends the enter-prise a hint of dignity that it doesn’t deserve. Oliver Reed is type-cast as the Devil, and someone who sounds a lot like Gene Hackman does the Voice of God.
Two of a Kind has been playing locally at the Senator.
By JUAN-CARLOS SELZNICK