Misguided message in `Tribe' Story-Date: 03:49 a.m. PST Tuesday , March 3, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ Misguided message in `Tribe' By Jane Horwitz Washington Post "Krippendorf's Tribe" (PG-13, 1 hr., 34 min.) Teens will be tickled at all the silly sex jokes in this comedy about academic fakery. "Krippendorf's Tribe" is amusing, but it also seems to glorify a parent teaching his kids dishonesty. The PG-13 covers verbal and visual sexual innuendo (about primitive circumcision and mating rituals), occasional profanity, toilet humor and drinking. Anthropology professor James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) has frittered away a research grant because he's so paralyzed with grief over his late wife. His children raise themselves in the trash-strewn family home. When Krippendorf realizes that he's supposed to give a lecture on his discovery of a lost tribe in New Guinea, he and his kids put on body makeup and film phony footage of themselves as members of a tribe. An eager young scholar (Jenna Elfman) promotes the "discovery" to talk shows. Never does the film deal with the taste question of white Westerners dressing up as tribe members, or the academic sin of faked research. It's Disney cute. P.S. FOR KIDS: Though it has some funny moments, "Krippendorf's Tribe" is about someone being seriously dishonest in his profession and getting away with it. Bad message, huh? "Kissing a Fool" (R, 1 hr., 33 min.) Teen audiences will gravitate toward this glib and witty but thin romantic comedy about best friends who fall for the same woman. Parents may take issue with the movie's acceptance of premarital sex. The rating reflects strong and frequent profanity, as well as verbal sexual innuendo, though love scenes are understated. Characters drink alcohol and once refer jokingly to drug use. David Schwimmer plays -- expertly -- a boorish TV sportscaster and womanizer who falls hard for a classy book editor (Mili Avital). When he asks his more sensitive pal (Jason Lee) to make a play for her as a test of fidelity before the wedding, unsurprising complications ensue. One annoyance: Hollywood's version of a book editor says at one point, "What do you think of Max and I?" Of Max and I? "Dark City" (R, 1 hr., 40 min.) High-school science-fiction buffs (and some younger teens, with permission) will find a feast for thought in this terrific film, which blends dark 1940s-style detective fiction with brainy futuristic fantasy. A mildish R rating overall, "Dark City" shows a couple of female murder victims, partially nude and bloodied; these scenes are stylized more than graphic, but disturbing. Fight scenes aren't overly violent, but aliens do stick needles cleanly into human foreheads. Directed by Alex Proyas, who did "The Crow" (R, 1994), this fable unfolds in a sunless, surreal urban landscape. A man (Rufus Sewell) awakens with no memory; he's lying next to a dead prostitute. He flees, pursued by a detective (William Hurt). But both men are pawns of mysterious Strangers who live underground and stop time. Silent classics like "Metropolis" (1926), surrealist art and existentialist literature all echo in "Dark City." "Dangerous Beauty" (R, 1 hr., 55 min.) The explicit discussion of sex, as well as graphic sexual situations and nudity, render this opulent, lascivious historic swooner inappropriate for all but mature high-schoolers. It will embarrass younger teens and its values will confuse many girls. "Dangerous Beauty" abounds in history, as well as passion. Set in Renaissance Venice, it touches on art, politics, the Plague and the Inquisition. Based on a biography by Margaret Rosenthal titled "The Honest Courtesan," the film traces the life of Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack), whose mother trains her to please powerful men for money, because she's too poor to marry the aristocrat (Rufus Sewell) she loves. We learn that in 16th-century Italy, courtesans, not wives, were allowed to read, study and join in intellectual discourse. P.S. FOR OLDER HIGH-SCHOOLERS: Movies get their "looks" from older films and from art. "Dark City" was inspired by the awesome 1926 silent film "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang, and the paintings of surrealists Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. "Dangerous Beauty," set in 1500s Venice, reflects Renaissance artists, such as Caravaggio and Jacopo Tintoretto. "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn" (R, 1 hr., 26 min.) There's absolutely no reason why high-school audiences should find this cheesy attempt at a Tinseltown spoof entertaining. It's a crude, endless inside joke, rated R for profanity and graphic sexual situations and innuendo. Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg and rappers Coolio and Chuck D, among numerous cameos, can't help. Screen scribe Joe Eszterhas of "Basic Instinct" (R, 1992) and "Showgirls" (NC-17, 1995) fame wrote this tattle tale about a crazed Hollywood hack. Alan Smithee is the pseudonym that's used when directors want their names taken off the credits. It's quite appropriate here. ------------------------------------------------------------