FREEZE FRAMES

A weekly update of film releases

January 22, 1993

BODY OF EVIDENCE - A lawyer falls in love with his client, a beautiful woman accused of murdering a man by overdosing him with sex. The movie is so flatly directed that all the performers are at a disadvantage, including such professionals as Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer; but Madonna has so little imagination that she actually copies Willem Dafoe's verbal inflections instead of finding her own voice and personality. Uli Edel directed the melodrama, which is as boringly predictable as it is sexually explici t. (Rated R)

TRESPASS - Ice Cube and Ice T are together at last in this action drama about urban criminals and their friends battling two treasure hunters in an abandoned industrial building. The picture is energetically acted, sharply photographed, nastily violent, and implicitly racist in its portrait of white adventurers surrounded by black thugs with lots of guns, dope, and attitude. Directed by action specialist Walter Hill from a screenplay by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, who are usually associated with less heav y-handed stuff. (Rated R)

IL PORTABORSE - A literature professor succumbs to temptation and takes a job writing for an ambitious politician. Daniele Luchetti directed this topical but not very memorable Italian comedy-drama. Silvio Orlando and Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti head the cast. (Not rated)