The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 30

30 THE BOSTON GLOBE WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 1987 1 1 1 1 iiuiiiii-iuiiu II I ill 'Babysitting' is likable if not exactly original sort guaranteed to soothe suburban imaginations rather than confirm their worst suspicions about the dangers lurking in urban situations. In the end, the problem no longer is whether the kids will be killed, but whether they can beat their parents home and thus conceal their illicit spree. Although the kids have been taught to fear blacks, the blacks they meet, aside from one chop shop heavy and an unlikely en counter with warring gangs on an el, all are kindly guiding spirits, especially Calvin Levels, as the charming and warmhearted car thief, and Albert Collins, whose blues Joint briefly shelters them. The kids' fears and fantasies arer realized in ways that approach danger, but never go over any edge. The babysitter even dumps her sleazold bojirlend for an altogether more acceptable frat type.

In other words, Columbus and his screenwriter David Simklns make only the kind of trouble people expect a movie such as this to make. Nighttime Chicago is a good supporting actor, too. Dramatically lit and photdgraphed, it feeds a vivid kind of visual underpinning, even after the story veers off into niceness. Miraculously, the cast never succumbs to terminal cute- ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING Directed by Chris Columbus, screenplay by David Simklns. Starring Elisabeth Shue.

Mala Brewton, Keith Coogan. Anthony Rapp. Calvin Levels. Vincent Philip D'OnoJrlo, Penelope Ann Miller. George Newbern.

John Ford Noonan. Bradley Whltford. Ron Canada. John Chandler. At the Paris and suburbs, rated PG-13.

By Jay Can-Globe Staff Well, OK on "Adventures In Babysitting." It's awfully synthetic. It cops a lot from "Risky Business" and "Ferris fiQYj3 Bueller's Day Off." Mostly, it suggests a reYISW bubblegum "After Hours," playing on white suburban kids' fears of the city. But it's a passable summer movie all the same, mostly because Chris Columbus, in his directing debut, becomingly photographs the fresh, sympathetic performances he gets from Elisabeth Shue, the babysitter, and the kids she shepherds through a series of escalating misadventures in Chicago (in some scenes Toronto plays stand-in). In fact, the best part of "Babysitting" may be that Columbus will keep on directing and thus spare us the sort of screenplays with which he began his career "Goonies" and "Young Sherlock There's a sympathy for kids in his directing that doesn't make it into his writing, and if he isn't quite ready to make a run at John Hughes, there's enough in "Babysitting" to suggest that he might after a few more films. Like Hughes, he knows how to convey a sense of identification with his 'if Elisabeth Shue in a scene from "Adventures in Babysitting strives for stops to help.

But, with their car in tow, he's diverted to his own house when his two-way radio tells him that his wife is two-timing him, and they're off. Bullets fly, they become separated from their car, hop into another one that's In the process of being stolen, get plunked into a big-time chop shop, and in no time are fleeing through Chicago's alleys, swerving further and further away from the babysitter's ness, not even 9-year-old Maia Brewton, who heads into Chicago looking for her comic-book hero, Thor. Keith Coogan and Anthony Rapp are winning presences as the young teens, with whose heroine. It starts with Shue (Ralph Macchio's girlfriend in "Karate reluctantly agreeing to babysit after her two-timing boyfriend stands her up. There's barely enough time to establish the characters of the kids she's minding before a collect call from a runaway girlfriend stranded at a bus station yanks them out of their suburban cocoon and into a series of increasingly ominous complications.

When their car has a flat tire on the expressway, and they find they have no spare and no money, a good-natured tow-truck operator sometime playwright John Ford Noonan, who captures precisely the blend of edgy warmth the film Columbus remembers stranded girlfriend and any sem- yearnings blance of safety. Globe staff photoBarry Chin Sammy Davis Jr. performs at Cohasset last night. Davis still troupin' SAMMY DA VIS JR. With Carter By Aarlk and Chanel at the South Shore Special to the Globe Music Circus last night.

"'All A CCPT Ul to identify. And Shue, although seeming a bit old for high school ers' roles, obviously and deservedly has a bright future. Although far from original. "Adventures in Babysitting" is a likable exercise In soft-core Juvenile anarchy. It's at this point that Columbus seems to remember the teen and preteen market he's targeting.

So he eases up on the kind of edge he briefly flirts with, and veers off into high-velocity fantasy of the Sammy Davis Jr. is the consummate master of the craft of Show biz; the show-stopper's show-stopper. To his detractors, he is the syrupy relic ot show-business tra TWO THUMBS UP FOR THIS AMBITIOUS SCIENCE-FICTION COMEDY. Dennis Quaid is charming. Martin Short is terrific.

I was amazed by the humor and effects going on in Short's body." SISKEL EBERT THE MOVIES dition rightly exiled fitUSlC to Las Ve8as casl" nos and weepy pi- reVlSW anobars. And to Davis himself? "1 am a saloon performer; vaudeville entertainer." Davis told the sold-out Music Circus crowd last night. "Everybody knows that, and I'm proud of it. There's not too many of us left." At 61 Davis clearly relishes his role, and moved through nearly two hours of "givlng-the-folks-what-they-want" to prove it. In marvelous voice he crooned, barreled and strutted through familiar songs; ranging from the quiet confessional intimacy of "If I Loved You" to a sassy, brassy tongue-in-cheek "The Lady Is A Tramp." Cole Porter's "Begin the Begulne" was delivered with a breezy finger-snapping command, and Davis' crisp phrasing brought out all the fun in the clever tongue-twisty lyrics of Duke Ellington's classic "Satin Doll." "ingenious and hilarious! A truly terrific movie comedy.

Martin Short is amazing." CBS-TV, Dennis Cunningham "inner is a winner!" ABC-TV, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, Joel Siegel In between songs Davis strolled the stage sharing corny Jokes and show-business anecdotes, including a very funny story about being forced to use a jukebox as a backup band in a tough Eastport, Maine, nightclub. He had no compunctions about drawing easy applause with mentions of his Hartford Golf Open, how long he has been married, how long he has been on the wagon, and with eulogies to Jackie Gleason and Fred Astaire, but he kept the preceed-lngs light and easy with a steady banter of self-assured self-deprecating wit: "My drummer is 22. I've got Levis older than that." As he peeled off his sport coat he said, poking fun at his diminutive size, "I had this shirt made from one of Tom Selleck's sleeves. Dont' laugh: It's not easy having to buy your clothes at Toys 'R' Us." Steven Spielberg presents 1 "f3 II, I- lJH llll AJC3D" ite F' Now in shirt sleeves, displaying all his famous, gaudy jewelry, Davis closed with a rat-a-tat medley of his hits from the still affecting "What Kind of Fool Am to the still sappy "Candyman." With self-lampooning mischief and one-liners, he moved the finale brightly, breezily along. And, as he donned a derby for the inevitable Innerspace AGuber-Peters Production Starring Dennis Quaid Martin Short Meg Ryan Kevin McCarthy Directorof Photography Andrew LaSZlO, A.S.C.

Production Designer JaiTieS H. SpenCer Music by Jerry GOldSITlith Co-Produced by Chip PTOSer Co-Executive Producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy Evan it-iwo DroHi irorc qtpypn Snielhera Peter Guber and Jon Peters Storv bv Chio Proser LAUUblVW -f Screenplay by Jeff rey B03ITI and Chip PTOSer Produced by Michael Finnell Directed by Joe Dante Original soundtrack Available on Ceffen Records, Cassettes CDs Pfl oct-BY stereo WARNER BROS PG PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED 'AMBLIN SELECTED THEATRES AWAKNU COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY Mr. Bojangles and postured theatrically, who cared if it was a bit too much? To spend this much time In the hands of an artist who Is so good at his job, so completely aware of what that job is, and so clearly In love with doing was a simply elegant way to spend a fine summer evening. Carter and Chanel came on in between Davis' two sets; and their warm-up-the-crowd, "Are-We-Having-Fun-Yet" exuberance was a bit brassy after the crowd had already spent 40 minutes with the headllner. What was very winning about this husband and wife 9 IN! Mm iNt Urn.

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NEAI OOV'T CT8. 227-1330 duo apart from their cheerful high-kicking energy and tight, clear harmonies was that they seemed to really like one another, making their flirting and teasing great fun to watch..