THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996              TAG: 9602170055
SECTION: DAILY BREAK              PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Movie Review 
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines

YOU WON'T FIND ANYTHING RIGHT ABOUT ``MR. WRONG''

``MR. WRONG'' is the most outright unfunny comedy in a long while.

``Mr. Wrong'' takes a funny premise and turns it into something approaching ``Fatal Attraction.'' Psychotic men who stalk women and won't take ``Get away'' as a serious statement are not funny. We might ask Nicole Brown Simpson, if she were alive.

Someday someone might make a charming comedy about the woes of the dating game. It might even deal with a woman who thinks she's met the perfect guy but learns otherwise. There is comedy inherent in the situation, but none of it is realized in the dreadfully dull and slow-paced ``Mr. Wrong.''

The greatest mystery is just who, in the Hollywood brain pool, thought that television star Ellen DeGeneres was strong enough to carry a film. Whatever her talent might be, there is little clue to it here.

DeGeneres seems to think that she is Medea for half the film. For the other half, she does fitful imitations of Lucille Ball. Understandably, the two don't merge into a single character. First, she is a troubled young woman who borders on mental disorder. Moments later, she seems to remember that she's doing a comedy. Her only resort is to mug, bump into the furniture or faint. In the film's more unintentionally serious moments, she is most ineffectual.

She plays a TV talk show producer who takes up with a weirdo played by Bill Pullman - a date from hell.

Pullman is one of our better comic actors, but the role of a psychotic is one he can't lighten it up.

This guy steals beer from convenience stores and throws the can at old people on the street. When DeGeneres finally notices his peculiarities, he becomes a persistent pest.

At first, one wonders why DeGeneres can't just get rid of this guy. Then one wonders how to get out of this neurotic and sadly sick movie.

The exit sign, in this case, looks like heaven. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW

``Mr. Wrong''

Cast: Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, Joan Cusack, Dean Stockwell,

Joan Plowright

Director: Nick Castle

MPAA rating: PG-13 (bedroom scenes, some language)

Mal's rating: *

by CNB