The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 53

Looking for a summer kick? Sammo I lung will provide plenty this week as CBS shows reruns of his first-year karatecop series, "Martial Law," for Ave nights in a row, beginning Tuesday at 8 p.m. It's set in LA Goo Anjaclcs Simco MONDAY AUGUST 16, 1999 WWW.CALENDARUVE.COM ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT I I TONY ESPARZA 'Sense' Scares Off Challengers 'Witch's' Brew Is Bad for Studios There's a message in the success of the movie as young audience votes with its dollars. Box Office Thriller holds onto No. 1 spot, keeping 'Bowfinger' comedy at bay. By R1CIIAD NATALE Sl'l-CIAI.

TO Till- TIM1S Studio executives are not yet insisting that moats and drawbridges be added to their stately homes, but it would be understandable if they were. For after the huge success of "The Blair Witch Project," trumpeted on simultaneous covers of Time and Newsweek, movie industry players may be forgiven for feeling just the slightest bit besieged. If ever a film's triumph could be called unprecedented, "Blair Witch" is the one. Made that for a sizable portion of the movie audience what Hollywood does best is not only not working, it may even be counterproductive. Worse still from a studio point of view, the "Blair Witch" crowd is composed largely of the under-30s who are the week-in-and-week-out core of the business' paying customers.

If these kids' parents display a weakness for upscale sophistication like "The English Patient," the studios couldn't care less, but to A -ri if I Commentary KENNETH TURAN Over the weekend, Disney's "The Sixth Sense" accomplished what no movie since "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace" has been able to do all summer long: hold onto the No. 1 slot for more than one week running. Even more impressive, the psychological thriller with a twist is showing all the earmarks of an hit, remaining almost dead even with its first weekend and racking up an estimated $26.1 million on 2,395 Please see Box Office, F10 have their own best customers, their bread-and-butter demographic, desert them for 81 minutes of crude black-and-white footage is an "Et tu, Brute" moment of betrayal that has got to hurt. There are several reasons for "Blair Witch's" success, starting with its undeniably clever mock documentary format of footage supposedly left behind by three young filmmakers after their mysterious disappearance while on the track of Please see Turan, F6 for an estimated $35,000, its total domestic gross is expected to top out at $150 million it's made $108 million after only three weeks in wide release making it probably the most successful film from a cost versus box office standpoint that anyone's ever made. For studio executives, the scariest thing about "Blair Witch" is not what's on the screen, which is mildly spooky at best, but the extent to which consumers have embraced it.

For the success of this film is the most tangible evidence yet 2ADE ROSENTHAL Martin, left, and Murphy in "Bowfinger." i I. M.m.,..,, At. 4 Yji .1 1 Tom Petty the Heartbreakers played hits from the 1960s through the '90s to a virtually sold-out house. Photos by KEVIN P. CASEY Los Angeles Times Echoes of the Past, Present Tom Petty the Heartbreakers strike a balance between old glories and fresh inspiration.

Pop Music Review By MIKE BOEHM T1MUS STAFF WR1TF.R I middle age, "damn the torpedoes" typically turns to "darn the torpedoes." Cer Playing Friday in the first show of a two-night stand at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Tom Petty the Heartbreakers made some compromises that were livable, if not entirely thrilling. "Echo," released last spring, is the most personal, penetrating and perhaps finest album of Petty's career. That's something to celebrate in a band that debuted in 1976 and stands as the last of rock's arena-level old guard, a breed we expect to recy-Please see Petty, F8 tain compromises become necessary especially if the midlifer is a touring superstar baby boom rocker trying to balance the hot fires of fresh creativity with the nostalgic glow that a good part of his audience expects from a i Tom Petty delivered well-rendered favorites over the weekend at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. hi I i ill if i'i iii Sex and the Single-Minded: A 'History IV" 'i Howard Rosenberg TELEVISION Take us, take all of us, we're yours. Yes, just another underwear ad in your friendly newspaper.

A staple of newspapers almost since the creation of modern lingerie, these ads are intended to invite bra-and-panty sales, not lust. Yet candor intervenes here, for if you find nothing erotic about them, either your eyesight or embalming fluid is failing. Sex is a subtext, whether it's females believing what they see is what they will be if they buy what these models are wearing, Please see Rosenberg, Fll firm, so sexy, press against the wisp of fabric, inviting one to fantasize about what's behind the ivory lace. Her smooth, silky panties are high cut, the delicate material rising provocatively toward her slender waist to display the panorama of her satiny thighs. There's a hint of wildness in the blond hair swept back from her lovely neck, and with an adventurous smile and soft, dark eyes, she beckons all admirers, as do the other barely clad, nubile young females flanking her.

One can almost hear them saying: The History Channel begins a five-part documentary tonight tracing sex through the ages. Showtime recently aired a documentary on sex this century, HBO's "Sex and the City" comedy is nominated for an Emmy, the new MTV series "Undressed" is largely about the same topic, and last month UPN presented its "Teen Files: The Truth About Sex." The truth about sex is that it remains just about everywhere in the cosmos. For example, observe: Her ample breasts, so full, so Documentary looks at an artistic aspect of the history of sex with "Francesca Da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta." GiraudonArt Resource. NY I i'lifi'M In the Know F2 Openings F4 TV logs Fl 1-12 ABC's "Millionaire" game show has a catch: Contestants have to pay to play. F2 A duo of fest reviews: Summer Jam, a survey of rap and and Watcha Tour, showcasing cutting-edge Latin rock.

ywiMMiiuii.uwi.in ill I. mm Singer Adalberto Santiago, left, and other veterans of the famed Fania All-Stars salsa band fire up the audience at a Hollywood Palladium reunion performance. F3 Michael Crawford embraces a surprisingly wide range of musical styles in a warmly delivered program of songs and anecdotes. F3 Fireworks cap a lively Bowl performance by the Russian National Orchestra. F4 A black actress in a Swedish role? Why not, asks Kelley A.

Barton, who says that the world is more diverse than Hollywood may think. F3 The Calendar section: E-mail: calendar.letterslatimes.com U.S. mail: Calendar Letters Los Angeles Times, Tisies Mirror Square Los Angeles, CA 90053 PERRY C. RIDDLE Los Angeles Times.