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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995                   TAG: 9507040020
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`POWER RANGERS' MIGHTY GROSS

Like being taken to "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie."

Well, ignore their plaintive cries.

The first movie spinoff of the obnoxious Power Rangers television show is more violent, more disgusting, more annoying than even the worst episode of the series. And to make matters worse, the distributor - Twentieth Century Fox - is requiring theaters that show the movie to show a preview of a new Steven Seagal movie, complete with big guns blasting, bodies flying and psychotic faces snarling.

It seems fitting, somehow: Here's what you graduate to, kids, just a few years after the Power Rangers.

Actually, the Power Rangers movie is in many ways a leap up (or down) to another level. Those acrobatic kicks and punches that the Rangers throw on television that never seem to make physical impact - but magically drop the villains in their tracks - have been morphed, if you will, into jaw-thudding, skull-rattling blows. And the kiddies clap their hands and cheer.

The silly, screeching Rita Repulsa (Julia Cortez) and her sidekicks Goldar and Lord Zedd have been pushed aside by a truly evil Heinous Highness called Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman), who hocks up giant purple multipurpose phlegm wads. These can 1) neutralize an enemy, 2) turn into nasty henchmen, and 3) turn parents into mindless zombies.

Number 3 above presents the most serious nightmare potential for kids under 7. While the Rangers are off on another planet cavorting with a green-bikinied master warrior called Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) who possesses the power secret, the parents are being oozed into servitude and suicide. Their kids go off and party because, well, that's what kids would do if their parents went away.

It's 90 minutes of marketing for a whole new set of toys - in short, a very slick, sick marketing tool. I'd call it mindless if it weren't so cunning.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

* 1/2

From Twentieth Century Fox. Rated PG. 88 min. At Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6.