`RUSH' IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE COP FILM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992                   TAG: 9201180288
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
`RUSH' IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE COP FILM
"Rush" is a gritty, sweat-stained look at illegal drugs and the people who enjoy them - junkies, dealers and cops. By Hollywood standards, it's a remarkably realistic movie about believable, deglamorized characters.
The main flaw - and it's a whopper - is a completely unrealistic, cliched conclusion.
The setting is Texas in the mid-1970s. Jim Raynor (Jason Patric) is an undercover narcotics cop deeply involved in the drug subculture. His new partner, Kristin Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is a blonde innocent who's quickly seduced by this world of danger and lies.
Their boss, a politically ambitious Bible-thumping police chief, has decided that their prey is Will Gaines (rocker Gregg Allman), a nightclub owner and dealer who's too smart to get caught. The chief tells them to do whatever it takes to get Gaines.
That's the key to the story: Which rules can be broken? What personal limits can be set and exceeded? At what price?
The film considers those questions without ever losing sight of the real people involved. Some scenes have an authenticity that raises the film well above the usual level of cop melodrama.
Leigh does her best work to date. Patric is just as strong. People have been comparing him to a young Brando, and he seems to have taken it to heart.
If first-time director Lili Fini Zanuck tends to show off with the camera, that's OK. The story is strong enough to take it. But the last 10 minutes almost ruin everything. It wouldn't be fair to describe that ending, but this compelling work deserves better. `Rush': A 20th Century Fox release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 120 min. Rated R for graphic drug use, violence, strong sexual content, language.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB