Lassie

With all of the marvelous new technologies and mind-boggling inventiveness of the age, you'd think that Hollywood could come up with something more creative than another Lassie flick. But noooo. The world's smartest collie is back in a new movie that isn't discernibly different from "her" previous adventures. The story is yet another run-through of boy-meets-dog, dog-saves-boy, boy-loses-dog, dog-returns-to-boy. There, you've just experienced the whole movie.

There are a few minor changes to update the formula for the '90s. For ex­ample, Lassie's new family is com­pletely dysfunctional (they could use a healing visit from Oprah). Dad (John Tenney) is an unemployed white-collar worker who's emotionally estranged from both his son (Thomas Guiry) and his own father (Richard Farnsworth). The son is still grieving over his moth­er's death and refuses to accept dad's new wife (Helen Slater). The wife, in turn, is unhappy with the family's move to a run-down farm in Virginia. Only the daughter (Brittany Boyd) seems relatively content (but, after an initial appearance, she virtually vanish­es from the story).

So Lassie has her work cut out. But, as the movie repeatedly reminds us — with its off-the-wall references to Joseph Campbell — Lassie is no ordi­nary collie. The story lays on the eter­nal archetype stuff with music-swelling vengeance as it reveals the pooch with a thousand faces. (And dang, she's smart, too. Rumor has it that in the se­quel, Lassie's going to discover a cure for cancer.)

If you're younger than 10, the new Lassie probably will hold your interest. If you're older than that, you're bark­ing up the wrong cinematic tree. If you've got to take your kids to see it, you might consider taking a Walkman and a book-on-tape.