James Caan

James Caan is back with a vengeance from his self-imposed && hiatus. He says he wasn't interested in making films like "Goonies" and "Star Wars," so he took a few years off."Misery" marked an illustrious return for Mr. Caan, who'd done some fine work in the '70s and '80s with films such as "The Godfather," "Cinderella Liberty" and "The Gambler." Last year he made "For the Boys" with Bette Midler, which bombed with a deadening thud."Unfortunately [that resulted] from too much politics and cowardice and stupidity," says the 53-year-old actor.

Norman Jewison's endearingly clunky 1975 cult movie Rollerball was like Brave New World on roller skates. It presented an anti-utopian vision of a corporate future, with Teflon design and architecture, feel-good drugs and a soulless high life straight out of Antonioni movies or Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Jewison's movie is erratic even on a sci-fi pulp level. But it tells a coherent and quasi-adult tale. An omnipotent international corporation invents the sport of Rollerball - combining roller derby, rugby and motorbikes - to demonstrate the superiority of teams to individuals.

BETTE MIDLER'S ''For the Boys'' is an epic motion picture that covers three wars, beginning with World War II.The star's image and the trailer might persuade Midler fans to assume that she is her old, tacky self in the film.That's close to the truth. Midler is not exactly back to playing the tacky roles she once did, but she is a lot tackier than she has been in her more recent films.The trailer also might persuade people to assume that ''For the Boys'' is a musical. It isn't. There is music in it, but not that much.

Stock options aren't just for chief executive officers anymore.Long traditional at Silicon Valley start-ups and in the upper echelons of corporate America, options are moving into the mainstream. PepsiCo Inc., Starbucks Coffee Co., NationsBank Corp., Chase Manhattan Corp. and BankAmerica Corp. are among companies that now grant stock options to on, who is vice president of marketing. "Because of the skill level, it may take two employees to replace one retiree. You can't even find tailors in Italy anymore."

* ''Misery'' Stephen King again, but this time the script was done by William Goldman, and Rob Reiner directed. James Caan is the novelist who is rescued when his car goes off the road. His rescuer, however, is as mad as any of the characters in the writer's books. Kathy Bates co-stars.

A review of "For the Boys" Wednesday incorrectly identified the film's studio. It was made by Twentieth Century Fox.* The Sun regrets the error.Of course "For the Boys" isn't really for the boys or for the girls; it's for the dopes.An tear-jerker that never nudges when it can pound and never pounds when it can smash, it does offer seven or so minutes of dynamite music and several neat explosions.When Bette Midler teeters onstage in an RAF tunic on a set of legs that might have been borrowed from Betty Grable, then rocks back on her (very high)

"Honeymoon in Vegas" easily has 11 or 12 of the funniest minutes in an American movie this year. Unfortunately it also has 80 of the unfunniest, in which not much happens except that James Caan tries to get the Academy Award he thought he deserved for "Misery."The movie is from a writer-director who actually has a doctorate in American intellectual history. Andrew Bergman knows everything about humor except how to make you laugh. He'll try anything. And now and then he seems to break into some subconscious stream of completely free-associative, almost surrealistic stuff that kills you. It seems to come from nowhere.

FOR THE BOYSOriginal Soundtrack (Atlantic 82329)Considering that Bette Midler built her reputation around sassy send-ups of big band-era songs, her musical contributions to the soundtrack album from "For the Boys" ought to show off all her strengths. And indeed, they do -- up to a point. Give her a ballad as brassy as "Come Rain or Come Shine" or an arrangement as understated as "In My Life," and she shines. But saddle her with second-rate songs or a third-rate duet partner -- in this case, actor and vocal non-entity James Caan -- and all visible signs of Midler's charm cloud over, leaving much of the album with little listener appeal.

Gregg Allman, who plays a drug dealer in the film ''Rush,'' said he got the role because director Lili Fini Zanuck saw him do a couple of acting roles on television.''I had done a 'Superboy.' I also did a talk show. Lili happened to catch them back to back, so she called me,'' he said.''She asked me to read, and I guess I lucked out,'' he added. ''I met two or three well-known actors who were on their way out of Lili's office as I was waiting to read. I guess I'm lucky to have gotten the role because I'm pretty much an unknown.

'If Lucy Fell'*; Rated R"If Lucy Fell" is built on the conceit that its star is lovable. And who directed it? Why, the star, but, after all, he was working from a script. And who wrote the script? Why he did, too.The movie has the stench of a vanity product to it, insisting that we take on Eric Schaeffer's word that Eric Schaeffer is a lovable guy. But what I see is a dumpy looking young man with ugly teeth and bad hair who, directing himself in the clinch with Elle Macpherson, gives himself the close-up.

'If Lucy Fell'*; Rated R"If Lucy Fell" is built on the conceit that its star is lovable. And who directed it? Why, the star, but, after all, he was working from a script. And who wrote the script? Why he did, too.The movie has the stench of a vanity product to it, insisting that we take on Eric Schaeffer's word that Eric Schaeffer is a lovable guy. But what I see is a dumpy looking young man with ugly teeth and bad hair who, directing himself in the clinch with Elle Macpherson, gives himself the close-up.

"Honeymoon in Vegas" easily has 11 or 12 of the funniest minutes in an American movie this year. Unfortunately it also has 80 of the unfunniest, in which not much happens except that James Caan tries to get the Academy Award he thought he deserved for "Misery."The movie is from a writer-director who actually has a doctorate in American intellectual history. Andrew Bergman knows everything about humor except how to make you laugh. He'll try anything. And now and then he seems to break into some subconscious stream of completely free-associative, almost surrealistic stuff that kills you. It seems to come from nowhere.

James Caan is back with a vengeance from his self-imposed && hiatus. He says he wasn't interested in making films like "Goonies" and "Star Wars," so he took a few years off."Misery" marked an illustrious return for Mr. Caan, who'd done some fine work in the '70s and '80s with films such as "The Godfather," "Cinderella Liberty" and "The Gambler." Last year he made "For the Boys" with Bette Midler, which bombed with a deadening thud."Unfortunately [that resulted] from too much politics and cowardice and stupidity," says the 53-year-old actor.

Gregg Allman, who plays a drug dealer in the film ''Rush,'' said he got the role because director Lili Fini Zanuck saw him do a couple of acting roles on television.''I had done a 'Superboy.' I also did a talk show. Lili happened to catch them back to back, so she called me,'' he said.''She asked me to read, and I guess I lucked out,'' he added. ''I met two or three well-known actors who were on their way out of Lili's office as I was waiting to read. I guess I'm lucky to have gotten the role because I'm pretty much an unknown.

FOR THE BOYSOriginal Soundtrack (Atlantic 82329)Considering that Bette Midler built her reputation around sassy send-ups of big band-era songs, her musical contributions to the soundtrack album from "For the Boys" ought to show off all her strengths. And indeed, they do -- up to a point. Give her a ballad as brassy as "Come Rain or Come Shine" or an arrangement as understated as "In My Life," and she shines. But saddle her with second-rate songs or a third-rate duet partner -- in this case, actor and vocal non-entity James Caan -- and all visible signs of Midler's charm cloud over, leaving much of the album with little listener appeal.

A review of "For the Boys" Wednesday incorrectly identified the film's studio. It was made by Twentieth Century Fox.* The Sun regrets the error.Of course "For the Boys" isn't really for the boys or for the girls; it's for the dopes.An tear-jerker that never nudges when it can pound and never pounds when it can smash, it does offer seven or so minutes of dynamite music and several neat explosions.When Bette Midler teeters onstage in an RAF tunic on a set of legs that might have been borrowed from Betty Grable, then rocks back on her (very high)

Stock options aren't just for chief executive officers anymore.Long traditional at Silicon Valley start-ups and in the upper echelons of corporate America, options are moving into the mainstream. PepsiCo Inc., Starbucks Coffee Co., NationsBank Corp., Chase Manhattan Corp. and BankAmerica Corp. are among companies that now grant stock options to on, who is vice president of marketing. "Because of the skill level, it may take two employees to replace one retiree. You can't even find tailors in Italy anymore."

Los Angeles - James Caan glances around the dimly lit living room of the big rustic home in Bel Air that he has just sold. The actor built the house years ago at the peak of his career; it is a movie star's home, richly paneled and filled with leather furniture and cluttered with western-style paintings and reproductions of Remington statues.Giving up the house and trying again to accommodate his new family is, for Mr. Caan, a metaphor for renewing himself. At 51, he is at an age when most movie actors find it virtually impossible to revive their careers.

BETTE MIDLER'S ''For the Boys'' is an epic motion picture that covers three wars, beginning with World War II.The star's image and the trailer might persuade Midler fans to assume that she is her old, tacky self in the film.That's close to the truth. Midler is not exactly back to playing the tacky roles she once did, but she is a lot tackier than she has been in her more recent films.The trailer also might persuade people to assume that ''For the Boys'' is a musical. It isn't. There is music in it, but not that much.

Los Angeles - James Caan glances around the dimly lit living room of the big rustic home in Bel Air that he has just sold. The actor built the house years ago at the peak of his career; it is a movie star's home, richly paneled and filled with leather furniture and cluttered with western-style paintings and reproductions of Remington statues.Giving up the house and trying again to accommodate his new family is, for Mr. Caan, a metaphor for renewing himself. At 51, he is at an age when most movie actors find it virtually impossible to revive their careers.