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THE NEWTON BOYS Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Julianna Margulies (1998, Fox, PG-13, $103.99) Is it really time for imitations of 1970s outlaw movies? Cowriter-director Richard Linklater seems to think so. As he follows the exploits of his 1920s bank robbers, he evokes memories of such films as Dillinger and Thieves Like Us, while recapturing none of their desperado appeal. Of course, the best of those movies relied on misfit characterizations. Watching Linklater's film, you naturally wonder: Where's Warren Oates? Where's Ben Johnson? In their place we have to make do with bright-eyed boy wonders like McConaughey, who stresses surface charm so much that he seems not the star of the movie but its emcee. C-


Posted Aug 14, 1998
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