
DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110034

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie Review 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

COMPLEX GANG FILM IS OVERBLOWN ``HOODLUM'' LOOKS GOOD, BUT IT MISSES AN OPPORTUNITY

``HOODLUM'' IS A cool, handsome movie that has a lot of period detail, from a Cotton Club floor show to antique automobiles. It's too bad, though, that the Packards are more engaging than the plot.

Too many sidetracks and subplots get in the way of what occasionally appears to be a meaningful study of gangland violence hardened by ambition and, finally, turning to redemptive conscience. We've seen this before with ``The Godfather'' trilogy, but ``Hoodlum'' attempts to put across the same moral in rushed time.

You've probably heard of Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano, but not of Ellsworth ``Bumpy'' Johnson, the black godfather of Harlem. That's because so little of black history has been etched on screen. A screen biography of Bumpy could have been intriguing, but this script is not content to stick with that agenda. It throws in numerous subplots to slow things down.

At the center, somewhere, is the story of Dutch Schultz's attempted takeover of numbers-running in Harlem.

Laurence Fishburne comes back from his inertia in ``Event Horizon'' and his overly showy ``Othello'' to etch a charismatic Bumpy - his best role since Ike Turner. The script, though, doesn't allow him much depth. His redemption in the last reel is too rapid to be believable. A love interest, supplied by Vanessa L. Williams, merely serves as an interruption.

Tim Roth, as Dutch, has some of the over-the-top mannerisms left over from ``Rob Roy.'' His character is portrayed as so dense that he is never the threat he should be.

Andy Garcia, forsaking his usually righteous characters, essays Lucky Luciano - quietly smart in trying to negotiate a bargain between the two adversaries.

Cicely Tyson, an actress of classic stature, resorts to a standard character role - as Harlem's queen of crime - dressing elegantly to attend the opera between her crime sprees.

The film asks too much when it asks that Bumpy be seen as a hero, supposedly because he can't get a legal job elsewhere. But then, gangster flicks are always insults to law-abiding citizens who are asked to shell out honestly earned money to watch crooked bums show off. Still, it's been working for generations.

We just wish the historical aspects could be trusted. The story of Bumpy Johnson should make an important movie. This, in spite of its handsome look, is not quite that. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Hoodlum'' Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, Vanessa Williams,

Andy Garcia, Cicely Tyson

Director: Bill Duke

Music: Elmer Bernstein

MPAA rating: R (graphic violence, language)

Mal's rating: ** 1/2

Photo

Laurence Fishburne...