Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 47

Wednesday. Oct. 7. 1987 PHILADELPHIA lDA(LYr NEWS Page 47 9910 Frankfort Ave-Phila. (Morrell Shopping Plaza) NE 7-9855 By Objective career in 'Baby Boom Of the i DANCE PARTYLpK FRIDAY SATURDAY Sensational All New Sound Light Show with D.

J. Honk i it "A SOPHISTICATED, SCREWBALL COMEDY THAT'S A WORK OF ART." Rex Reed, ATTHE MOVIES "It's impossible to resist Diane Keaton gives an Oscar-calibre performance." Michael Medved. SNEAK PREVIEWS "Tvo thumbs up for 'BABY SISKEL EBERT THE MOVIES "'BABY BOOM' is a total 10. It's the most original, witty, inventive comedy in years -genuinely, gloriously funny." Susan Granger. WMCA RADIO "'BABY BOOM puts the class back in classic screen comedy.

It's a must-see for everyone." -Ceorge Anthony. TORONTO RUN "Brilliantly comia" Dennis Cunningham. WCBS-TV "Hooray! Hooray! Absolutely terrific The brightest sassiest and wittiest comedy of the year." Jeffrey Lyons, SNEAK PREVIEWSINN MOVIE REVIEW Motherhood Keaton juggles baby "Baby Boom," a comedy starring Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard, Sam Wanamaker and Harold Ramis. Directed by Charles Shyer. Screenplay by Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer.

Running time: 106 minutes. A United Artists release. At area theaters. By BEN YAGODA Daily News Movie Critic Dean see where "Baby Boom" might make some people The movie is about J.C Wiatt (Diane Keaton), a management consultant who gives new meaning to the word yuppie. Not content simply to wear running shoes along with her business suit, she actually ru ns to work in them, so eager is she to get crack-ing.

J.C. resolutely does not want it all. She's single (her live-in boyfriend is as much of a workaholic as she is; they make the kind of couple whose idea of a good time is reading the funny parts of annual reports out loud), and has gladly let her biological clock run out. She won't even get a dog. As she says, "You know me, I'm not really great with living Then, through the kind of circumstances that are always happening in the movies (though, oddly, never in real life) she finds herself the possessor of a 13-month-old baby girl.

At first, she balks: "I can't have a she says. "I have a 12:30 meeting." But she soon grows accustomed to the kid's face, and resolves to keep her -with the unfortunate result that she loses both her boyfriend and her job. So far, so unobjectionable. But at this point roughly halfway through the film "Baby Boom" takes a turn to the acutely implausi-' ble, the politically incorrect and, worst of all, the not very amusing; J.C. leaves New York and (sight un: seen) buys a farmhouse in Vermont! where, after experiencing the kind of rural misadventures that have been more sharply satirized on "Ne-' whart," she settles into a quite comfortable existence.

She meets a cute, sensitive veterinarian who looks like Sam Shepard (by Jove, he is Sam Shepard), and does so well in the other measures of life that when her old company offers her an offer that Diane Keaton weighs pros and cons Harold Ramis (who's excellent as J.C's all-business boyfriend) says, "Now, Elizabeth, just grow up." Perfect. They also have a way with sight gags not pies in fares or cars hitting fruit stands, but the subtler-stuff. After the spit-up episode, We see: J.C. wiping off the baby; at the edge of the frame is a container of Fantastic. And when she has to take Elizabeth along on an important luncheon meeting, how does she carry the baby? Under her arm, like a sack of potatoes.

Parental guide: The only people "Baby Boom" will offend are feminists. 3 Presents Tonight Only! Sensational Nostalgia Revue "CREATIONS" Performing Hits of thra 80' THURSDAY WET T-SHIRT NIGHT THIS MONJ TEUROPEAN MALE REVUE OCT. Castor Av. and Knorr St(, N.I. PA Call 728-9087 6238 Busltelon Ave, PMta.

289-1525 "Where BusHeton Meet the Boulevard" TONITE ft EVERY WEDNESDAY "Red Hot Oldies" with the i 5 THURSDAY LADIES NIGHT Featuring "THE CUTTERS" Sal. Oct. 10 "THE BOX TOPS" CamllM.atllOMmlllM.FMta. MS-C2M 1 APPEARING TONTO! SECRET SERVICE Sat. "SLEEPY LACOO" "Birtl Cmtj's Mtst luton CM" 287 E.

County Line Rd. Warminster. Pa. (5 ittltos west of BuMtoton Call 675-7882 COMEDY NIGHT TONITE FEATURING BIG DADDY GRAHAM Plut MIKE EDWARDS THURS. NITE "THE ELASTICS" THIS FM.

SAT. WITNESS EVERY WEDNESDAY REDUCED DRINK PRICES D.J. ISM WE KOI AN THURSDAY LADIES NITE Filtering OCEAN LADIES DRINKS $1 EVERT StINOAT-HARVEY HOLIDAY MA 4-9941 sra EXOTIC DANCERS Pertertmi Mon-Tlwr HAM 2AM Fri Sat HAM 8PM Kitchen Open Daily 11AM-10PM 2 ALL YOU CAN EATB: 1 WEST LANCASTER AVE AROM ORE 2000 ARDMORE TIMESt WED. AND THURS. 7:15 and 9:25 (WED.

MAT. 1 PM) $2.50 Till 7 PM NEW JERSEY ERIC TWIN GARDEN NassauSt. ERIC TWIN PLAZA M00REST0WN In the Moorestown Mall i seems impossible to' refuse, she Fade to black. Conclusion: You can have it all riches, Sam Shepard, Diane Keaton's looks, adorable farmhouse and even more adorable baby (which you can get without going through pregnan cy, childbirth or the first, unphotoge-nic, year of life). I'm usually the first to say, ''It's only a movie," but the message of "Baby Boom" is so wildly dubious that it impossible to ignore.

When you think of it as only a movie, however (and a slick, manipu lative light comedy at that), you have to admit that "Baby Boom" does a nice job. Like "Private Benjamin" and "Irreconcilable Differences," it's a product of the husband-and-wife team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers. (He directs, she produces, they write). In this film, they've put together an odd but effective combination of styles; 30s screwball comedies (in which people, like Rosalind Russell wore suits and in which sojourns to the country were often taken), '50s corpo- rate comedies like "The Apartment" and very up-to-date references. They've also elicited a very good performance from Diane Keaton, especially in the first part of the film when she's the "dragon lady" of her firm.

In comedies (as opposed to dramas like "Reds" and "Mrs, Soffel," where she can be tiresomely solemn), we've gotten so used to Keaton as a dizzy Annie Hall that it's invigorating tO; see her play straight. Unfortunately, once she gets to Vermont, she commences to stutter, blush and act goofy, as though the.mountain air unloosed a screw in her constitution. Especially objectionable is the way she turns to emotional Jello at the sight of Shepard, who himself is not at his best. Given very little in the way of good lines or motivation, he takes to grinning and rubbing his nose, both to the point of annoyance. Where Meyers and Shyer excel is in gags a rarer talent these days than you might think.

They produce the kind of finely-honed, character-based laugh lines that have all but disappeared from the movies, now found only in sitcoms like or "Designing Women." When the baby does something on the order of spitting of parenting in "Baby Boom" II 0 on An Unexpected Comedy. UNITED ARTISTS PRESENTS a nnr meyerscharlb shyeb ramnioN "babk buost HAROU! RAMS SAM WAMAMAKER aitd SAfJ SHErMl as JIFF COOPER Music by BUCOKTI Director of ftiotognvli, WILLIAM A. FRAJCER. A Wrmen by NAtO MEYERS CHAHLFS S3MH Produced by NANCY MEYERS Directed by CHARLES SKYER I THE 1TH IN 4-CHANNEL STEREOI (AT SAM'S PLACE) SAM'S PLACE TIMES WED. AND THURS.

Is 15, 3:30, 5:45, AND 10:10 PM $2.50 TILL 1:15 PM DOORS OPEN 12:45 ERIC 3 MONTGOMERYVILLE Rts. 309. 202 463 i ERIC TWIN CHESTNUT HILL hi the Market Square ERIC 4 CONCORDVILLE Rt.202&Jct.US1&322 ERIC TWIN PLAZA ERIC 4 FEASTERVILLE Rts. 202, 363. Expy.

a Tpke. GCC DEPTFORD MALL Street Rd. ft Bustleton Pk. King of Prussia Shpg. Plaza Depttord Center Rd..