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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995                   TAG: 9503270050
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YOU'LL GET A PAIN IN YOUR SIDE FROM `MAJOR PAYNE'

Damon Wayans - star, co-writer and co-producer - has finally found the right vehicle for his kind of humor. Curiously, it's a remake of a 1955 Charlton Heston film, "The Private War of Major Benson," though no one's going to confuse the two.

Maj. Benson Winifred Payne (Wayans) brags that he has "trained 20,000 killing machines" as a Marine. He's a blood-'n-guts warrior who has no idea of what to do with himself after he's released from the Corps, until he takes over the R.O.T.C. program at Madison Academy (actually the Miller School near Charlottesville).

There he finds the squad of undisciplined cadets, the pretty teacher (Karyn Parsons), the dithering head master (William Hickey) and all the other familiar elements. At first, the kids hate him; he tries to mold them into a unit; she thinks he's too tough on the boys; he thinks she babies them; etc. etc.

What sets this one apart is Wayans' letter-perfect characterization. His Payne never turns into a sap, and when he takes over in the big scenes, the results are terrific. His version of The Little Engine That Could will set bedtime stories back a hundred years.

He and director Nick Castle give "Major Payne" a rough, gritty texture that's a bracing antidote to the avalanche of "dumb" comedies currently infesting theaters.

Major Payne ***

A Universal release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. 97 min. Rated PG-13 for blunt humor, some violence.