Nights of The Falling Stars

By RICHARD CORLISS

Remember the 1980s? They had movie stars then. Burt Reynolds was the hot-shot hero with a good ole boy's heart. Richard Pryor was the clown who mined laughter from his own black rage. Molly Ringwald was the teen queen who knew that growing pains could hurt like an all-over, seven-year toothache.

By 1987, though, things had changed: shooting stars can be falling stars too. And sometimes audiences can get along very nicely without stars at all. Only three of the year's ten top box-office hits could be called star vehicles, and each of them fronted a performer who seemed a corrupted form of one of the earlier models. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator: instead of an amiable hunk like Reynolds, an incredible hulk, muscle-bound and soul-bare -- Robo-star. Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop II: instead of the wailing bantam Pryor, a strutting rooster, increasingly aloof from his genial gifts. Michael J. Fox in The Secret of My Success: instead of the teen queen, a yuppie pup, too eager to make it, too hungry to charm. He was a scrubbed-up version of the rich preppie Ringwald usually ditched in the last reel.

Meanwhile, Reynolds and Pryor kept making movies, but no one paid much attention. (Remember Malone? Critical Condition?) Reynolds occupied himself as director at his dinner theater in Jupiter, Fla., and as executive producer of the TV game show Win, Lose or Draw. Pryor retreated into the shadows of his fading celebrity. Both stars made bigger news appearing with Johnny Carson or Barbara Walters to refute stories that they were ill with AIDS. Ringwald switched mentors, leaving John Hughes, who had made her a star with Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink, for Warren Beatty. It didn't work. Their film, The Pick-Up Artist, was the Ishtar of youth comedies: better than its rep, but still a resounding flop.

And now that the big Christmas films have made their mint, each of these former reliables tiptoes into town with a new movie designed not to stir a sensation but to fill booking dates. Pryor's film, Moving, is a comedy about a mass-transit engineer who loses his job, relocates to the Idaho ruburbs and declares war on his "neighbor from hell" (Randy Quaid). Among the cast are < Saturday Night Live's Dana Carvey, SCTV's Dave Thomas and the World Wrestling Federation's King Kong Bundy. Behind the camera is Alan Metter, who directed Rodney Dangerfield's 1986 hit Back to School. Since Moving was unavailable for screening last week, we can only wish Pryor good luck. Reynolds and Ringwald, though, may need the power of prayer. Their new pictures, Rent-a-Cop and For Keeps?, indicate that these engaging stars face a tough battle to win back their old fans.

Reynolds has gone back to basics. He played a policeman on TV's Hawk and Dan August and in the films Hustle and Sharkey's Machine. In Rent-a-Cop, he is Church, a good detective in bad odor because of a fatally botched drug bust. There's a psychopath (James Remar, all hollow-eyed menace) on the loose, and only a chatty tart (Liza Minnelli) to lead Church to the killer. While Minnelli wears earrings the size of headlights and puts way too much spin on every line of dialogue, Reynolds relaxes into his role. He has become the Perry Como of action-movie stars, never wasting a motion or spending emotion. As written by Dennis Shryack and Michael Blodgett and directed by Jerry London, Rent-a-Cop rarely rouses itself beyond cliche; it looks content to mark time till it hits the less demanding venue of pay cable. This is the kind of no-frills, no-surprises movie that a box-office champ could coast on, but that greases an ex-champ's skids.

For Keeps? -- or Molly Ringwald Gets Pregnant -- tries much harder. The movie juggles conflicting moods and humors in its tale of two high school seniors who must face every parenting crisis before they are old enough to vote. Darcy (Ringwald) and Stan (Randall Batinkoff) are bright, sensitive teens -- he wants to be an architect; she's a fledgling journalist -- with a romantic sense as high as their SAT scores. On a weekend camping trip, Stan serves Darcy wine out of a thermos, toasts "Here's to forever" and gazes up with her at the stars through the plastic skylight of the tent he's designed. But when the unexpected baby boom comes, Stan is flummoxed: "Maybe we could put it up for abortion?" And when he determines to keep the child, his father (Kenneth Mars) reminds him: "You had a gerbil last year. You forgot to feed it. It died."

Though Screenwriters Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue try hard to play fair, For Keeps? still trumpets a tattered teen-movie message that only the young think clearly and feel deeply. Darcy's mom (Miriam Flynn) does get to display some wistful despair -- "Sooner or later, everybody leaves," she says, referring to family and pals as well as lovers, "that's what love's all about" -- but in general she is a snooty shrew. Director John G. Avildsen (Joe, Rocky, Neighbors) relies mostly on his young star to bring passion and balance to the piece. And Ringwald, in a hospital scene with her mom, proves she can still deliver the best movie tantrums since Margaret O'Brien hit puberty. It is possible that this Two Kids and a Baby will win audiences who went for last year's flock of natal-attraction movies. But Molly Ringwald still has to wonder: Will they love me for keeps the way they did when I was in the Pink?