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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994                   TAG: 9402260019
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S GETTING HARDER TO SCARE UP A GOOD SCI-FI FLICK

"Future Shock" has nothing to do with Alvin Toffler's book. Instead, it's an anthology of three loosely connected short films. The first is about a wealthy woman (Vivian Schilling, also one of the writers) who is either paranoid or well-informed. When her husband leaves her alone overnight in their huge house, she fantasizes about a pack of wolves lurking outside. Is she delusional? Is someone trying to frighten her? Or is she reacting to the violence and horror that she sees on the evening news?

In part, the film is a nice combination of elements; the traditional Gothic heroine in her nightgown caught up in a science-fiction story. Vivian Schilling is one of the most interesting people working in home video, and she manages to put a different spin on the proceedings. The effects aren't all they could have been, and the tone is uneven. The film works better as a black comedy than as a thriller, but it's still worth a look.

The second part, "The Roommate," is fast-forward material. The third, "Mr. Petrified Forest," is less ambitious than the first, but it may be more successful. It's a wry, offbeat story of a man who appears to be having a near-death experience. Despite the flaws in the films, director Eric Parkinson shows that he knows what he's doing and can juggle different tones.

"The Seventh Coin" is an adventure with only a passing s-f element to the plot. That's a coin minted by King Herod, and it's the motivation for a long chase set in contemporary Jerusalem. The main characters are bad guy Emil Saber (Peter O'Toole); a Palestinian street kid, Selim (Navin Chowdhry); and Ronnie (Alexandra Powers), an American teen-ager on vacation. Providing support are John Rhys-Davies as the top cop and Ally Walker as a comic policewoman.

The plot won't win any prizes for originality, but writer-director Dror Soref does a good job with the young characters. They're believable enough and likeable. He also made effective use of the locations. Much of the action takes place on rooftops, giving the city an exotic, sun-bleached look. With two on-screen killings, the PG-13 rating is questionable but, on balance, there's nothing here that's too strong for most younger videophiles.

"The Crawlers" is your basic low-budget drive-in creature feature that appears to have been made somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Could it be that the managers of the local nuclear plant have been dumping their radioactive waste out in the woods? Is that what's causing tree roots to become wriggling monsters that attack the townspeople? There's hardly a serious moment in this one, and the special effects aren't particularly special. Still, fans of the genre who are in the mood for a chuckle will get their money's worth.

At the other end of the s-f budgetary spectrum, there's "Demolition Man," due in video stores this week. Though this shoot-'em-up was a moderately successful hit last year, it ought to do big business on video.

The story of a criminal (Wesley Snipes) and a cop (Sylvester Stallone) flash-frozen in 1996 and let loose in the relentlessly peaceful 21st century has been criticized for being so graphically and ludicrously violent. And it certainly is graphic and ludicrous. But it's also funny with some serious satiric points to make about individual rights and saturated fat. Those most offended by the film seem to be the new Puritans of the left and right, those humorless defenders of "family values" and the many forms of "correctness" who need to be offended from time to time.

Beyond the extended fights, explosions and shattering glass, the vision of the future presented by "Demolition Man" is disquieting. It's a place where any physical contact between individuals is avoided and "fluid transmission" is forbidden. Is that so far-fetched?

Next week: Guilty Pleasures 1994, pt.1!\ THE ESSENTIALS:

Future Shock ** 1/2 Hemdale. 93 min. Rated PG-13 for some violence and language, and unrated. (The unrated version contains one exploding head special effect.)

The Seventh Coin ** 1/2 Hemdale. 95 min. Rated PG-13 for violence, brief nudity.

The Crawlers ** Columbia Tristar. 94 min. Rated R for unpersuasive violence, language.

Demolition Man *** Warner. 120 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, brief nudity.