Daily News from New York, New York • 227

Wednesday, July 17, 1991 DAILY NEWS 37 IBlfTPfl FMTPBTAIMMFMTI 3 ONDO BIGELOW: Kathryn (Near Dark, Blue Steel) Bigelow scores again with another flashy, fast-paced actioner, the surf caper Point Break. As in her previous efforts, the distaff auteur splashes the celluloid canvas with kamikaze characters, colorful locales, spectacular action and ever-escalating violence that compensate for her flick's occasionally overheated dialogue and lack of narrative sense. Keanu Reeves and a hyper Gary Busey team up as FBI 1 PHANTOM fcj OF THE MOVIES LJi pm 1 IJ1 Break" runs a tad long and, like the director's earlier "Blue Steel," doesn't fare well under intensive post-bijou analysis. But if it's pulsing action you're after, Bigelow delivers it nonstop, with primo surfing footage, great skydiving sequences, high-energy chases and shootouts galore. PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM: Sam Fuller's 1982 White Dog, currently enjoying its belated U.S.

premiere, ends its week-long Film Forum 2 (209 W. Houston St.) run tomorrow. The title, taken from the original Romain Gary novel, refers to a canine trained by a white racist to attack blacks. Paramount honchos initially tagged the movie'as too controversial for a stateside theatrical release, though it has been exhibited overseas and aired on domestic cable TV where yours truly first saw it as early as 1984. Kristy McNichol stars as an actress who adopts the seemingly benign canine after accidentally striking the stray with her car.

Kristy soon sniffs out the dog's secret and entrusts him to an animal-training institute operated by Burl Ives. Rather than destroy the ferocious fido, black trainer Paul Winfield assigns himself the task of ridding it of its violent racist streak. Despite its unusual premise, "White Dog" is a fairly straightforward film, with few of Fuller's patented perverse flourishes. Still, the pic works well on its dual thrillermessage levels. Winfield turns in top work as the determined trainer who views the brainwashed dog as a personal challenge, while Fuller lends detailed attention to their combative scenes together.

"White Dog" ROGUES' GALLERY: The "Ex-Presidents" bank robbers in a scene from "Point Break" agents on the trail of the "Ex-Presidents," a quartet of slick stickup artists who wear Reagan, Carter, LBJ and Nixon masks (Ford continues to get no respect) while taking off area banks. Keanu goes the surf-dude route in a bid to hook the culprits, led by Patrick Swayze as a pseudo-Zen hang-tenner named "Bodhi" (the same Buddhist-derived name, you'll recall, owned by the. glowing alien beachball in the 1987 Brooksfllms bomb Solarbabies). While learning his watery ropes, our hero not only male-bonds with the bank-robbers, but he also tumbles for tough, sexy surferette Lori Petty. And he still finds time to get shot, bashed by surf Nazis, bitten by attack dogs and beaten by a naked lady two hours-plus, "Point (Aug.

22): Santa Sangre (Aug. 29) and Freaks (Sept 5). For further info, call (516) 423-7610. SON OF SEQUEL RITES: To the litest fear-film follow-up roster, add Child's Play 3 (due next month). The Omen IV, Prom Night IV: Deliver Us From Evil, Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 and Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case 3, with jazz chanteuse Annie Ross reprising her role as freaks-rights activist Granny Ruth.

WISH I'D SAID TnAT Heroine Crystal Bernard to mom in 1987's Slumber Party Massacre 2: "It's my birthday and I don't want to go to a mental hospital!" An official Phantom T-shirt goes to Manhattan's Chris Hasler. may not rate among Fuller's idiosyncratic gems, like Shock Corridor or The Naked Kiss, but remains well worth a look. NIXON'S THE ONE: And speaking of ex-President masks, as we were earlier, your Phantom also retrieved from his video archives a copy of Horror House on Highway 5 (Simitar, the last flick we caught wherein a Nixon likeness played a pivotal role in the plot Here, that notorious visage is worn by a supposedly dead German V-2 rocket scientist hidden away on the California title location and played by a thesp listed in the end credits as "Ronald Reagan." That's about the level of wit that informs most of this ga rage frightcom crammed with deliberately brain-dead antics and primitive gore FX. Though a few funny moments survive, "Horror House on Highway 5" is recommended mostly for fans of writer Richard Meltzer, who makes a rare screen appearance here as a beer-guzzling lout who's easily dispatched by the masked menace. HUNTINGTON HORRORS: Huntington, L.I.'s New Community Cinema launches its 12th Annual Science-Fiction HorrorFantasy Film Festival tomorrow eve with the 1956 SF classic Forbidden Planet.

On subsequent Thursdays through Sept. 5, the NCC will host Night Tide (July 25); Daughters of Darkness (Aug. 1); Rouge (Aug. 8): Night of the Hunter (Aug. 15); Solaris REEVES FROM COVER matter made him think twice, Reeves draws an odd distinction, explaining that he doesn't consider his role controversial because his character doesn't engage in anal sex.

Phoenix' character is more likely to, signifying an image-leap for the actor, which Reeves admires. "River is great man. He just opened himself up. To take that on. To act so free, so expressive.

Reeves notes, staring in awe. Talking about other actors seems to make Reeves more comfortable, as ''V DAISY EAGAN, THE 1 1-YEAR- old Tony Award winner for her performance in "The Secret Garden," and her co-star John Bab- cock will read from the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel on which the Broadway musical is based, tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at Bren-tano's, 597 Fifth Ave. (at 49th The event marks the release of an 80tn anniversary edition of the classic. Patricia O'Haire KNIGHT MILES.

KNIGHT George: Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, currently on tour in Europe, has been named a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government He and another American. George Wein. founder of the JVC Jazz Festival in New York and organizer of the annual Grand Jazz Parade in Nice, were -given the medal of honor at a ceremony Tuesday in Paris. P.O'II. CORRECTION: In yesterday's item on the upcoming revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire," we incorrectly noted Kevin Spacey was being considered for the role of the Gentleman Caller, a character in a different Tennessee Williams play, "The Glass Menagerie." Spacey is being considered for the role of Mitch, Stanley Kowalski's poker-playing friend.

P.O'II. thought about the video; it doesn't work." Asked whether his macho role in "Point Break" reflects less of his true self than the vulnerable roles he usually plays, he laughs derisively, repeats the question, then stares off in silence. Gestures dominate the conversation. Pulling at his hair, swatting his face and peppering his speech with astonished, open-mouthed "whoas" Reeves can fashion an entire monologue out of tics. Discussing his role opposite Patrick Swayze in "Point Break," where the two had to learn to surf, Reeves waves his hands, rocks in his chair, and says, "Patrick had it harder.

He had to be a good surfer." For his part, Reeves plays an FBI agent and self-proclaimed rebel. When queried as to whether these qualities suggest a certain contradiction, Reeves bristles. "You think a rebel is outside the system? Hey I'm a junkie yeah!" Just as pithy is a discussion of his role in the "Bill Ted" sequel. "We die. We go to heaven.

We go to hell. It's cool." The actor doesn't begin to relax until talk turns to "My Own Private Idaho," the new movie directed by the critically praised Gus Van Sant, of "Drugstore Cowboy" fame. Reeves plays the son of a powerful politician 7 keep walking out of he declares. does discussion of anything but himself. He'll happily expound on racism, inspired by his father's Hawaiian heritage: white man, we're the Or media coverage of the war only way to know what's going on is if you read The Nation or Or current Hollywood keep walking out of movies 'Robin 'Backdraft'.

For all his initial reluctance to talk, the conversation somehow stumbles on for 90 minutes. Before leaving, Reeves even returns, momentarily, to a discussion of himself and the difficult time he has had with being 26. "It's been a lot," he says, slackening his jaw in total astonishment. "It's like, you know, ichoa." RENT-A-BOY: Reeves plays a male hustler in "My Own Private Idaho." who, as an act of rebellion, joins a band of male prostitutes. Reeves stars opposite River Phoenix, who is cast as a gay hustler who falls in love with Reeves.

The two actors decided to do the film simultaneously on the set of their previous project, "I Love You to Death." "I talked to River, and he talked to me, and we said 'Whoa, yeah, let's do Keanu explains. When asked whether the subject.