ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996                TAG: 9607020011
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT 

"STRIPTEASE" IS NOT A COMPLETE WASTE.

The film provides Burt Reynolds with some of his funniest work in years, and it establishes Ving Rhames as one of the most impressive character actors in the business. Beyond that, though, this adaptation never captures the freewheeling comic energy of Carl Hiassen's novel.

The reason is simple: Hiassen's political/crime comedy has been transformed into a star vehicle for Demi Moore, and her limitations have seldom been more apparent.

She plays Erin Grant, a plucky mom whose no-good, rotten ex-husband (Robert Patrick) has won custody of their little daughter. To earn enough to pay her attorney's fees, she is cruelly forced to be a dancer at the Eager Beaver strip joint. That's where Congressman Dilbeck (Reynolds) first sees her and falls in love. At the same time, he brains another patron with a champagne bottle and sets in motion a plot that attempts to combine pathos with slapstick, suspense and topless dancing.

Dilbeck is in the pocket of the sugar industry and the people who run it will do anything to keep him in office. The only help Erin can find is from Shad (Rhames), the brainy bouncer, and a homicide cop (Armand Assante).

Writer/director Andrew Bergman (``Honeymoon in Vegas'') never manages to establish a consistent tone. The various strip routines seem more embarrassed than lurid, and the attempts at outright political humor are even worse. Bergman's off-hand slamming of the Christian Coalition is particularly crude and poorly handled.

Still, the central flaw is the star. It's clear that Demi Moore has been watching what she eats and she's doing her sit-ups regularly, too. But that's where her talent as an actress begins and ends. She uses one unfocused stare into the middle distance to approximate all serious emotions.

Despite her co-stars' best efforts, that's not enough. "Striptease" has a hollow core.

Striptease

* 1/2

A Columbia Pictures release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall. 111 minutes. Rated R for strong language, violence, brief nudity.

LENGTH: Short :   48 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Demi Moore stars with real-life daughter, Rumer, in 
          "Striptease." color.