A RUNDOWN OF SUMMER THRILLERS

In a tough little bit of song parody, the Rolling Stones once suggested: "Summer's here, and the time is right/ For fighting in the streets." It's also a prime time on screen for assorted brawls, mysteries, plots, tests of valor and full-fledged battles, as the current crop of thrillers amply demonstrates.

THE WIND AND THE LION. A rambunctious, romantic pageant, filled with sentimental splendors, all about a brave Berber bandit (Sean Connery) and a beautiful American woman (Candice Bergen) of true grit. Writer-Director John Milius has captured both the sweep and the spirit of such classic adventure romances as Four Feathers.

FRENCH CONNECTION II. John Frankenheimer's jolting, street-tough companion piece to William Friedkin's original, this tune featuring Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) prowling Marseille, looking for the Frenchman who got away.

NIGHT MOVES. Gene Hackman again, this time as a former football player turned private eye trying to graft the pieces of his own past onto a missing person's case. Arthur Perm's sometimes sober, sometimes pyrotechnic film is a rather too eager attempt to lift the genre into the realm of metaphysics.

THE EIGER SANCTION, by contrast, is straightforward stuff, featuring Clint Eastwood pulling some derring-do on the side of one of Switzerland's highest mountains.

ROLLERBALL, about to open, boasts James Caan in a futuristic speculation in which aggression has been channeled into a single deadly team sport.

BREAKOUT is the seasonal visit from Charles Bronson, this time more expansive than usual as a Texas border rat who is hired to bust Robert Duvall out of a Mexican prison. This caper--based on fact--also has the distinction of having inspired a real-life jailbreak in Michigan two weeks ago. Life is not always scrupulous about imitating art, however. The real convicts got caught.

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