Cinema: Snake Eyes Of Death

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THE PICK-UP ARTIST

Here's what James Toback brings to the table: an obsession with gambling as a metaphor for life's scariest risks, a connoisseur's eye for beyond-gorgeous women, and a choice collection of vintage 45s. As writer-director of Fingers, Love and Money and Exposed, Toback got high on violence of word, motive and deed, where every roll of the dice can reveal the snake eyes of death. Now, with Molly Ringwald as his star and the lure of a PG-13 rating, Toback comes up with the Judy Blume version. Robert Downey (desperately charming) is a young man on the perpetual make; Ringwald (way too pouty) is his mysterious prey, willing to bet her future on a single game of blackjack. With its saucy patter, crisp editing and brazen sentimentality, The Pick-Up Artist is Toback's first conventional, sit-throughable picture. It is also his most negligible. No life or art is on the line here, just the career of a panther who wants to convince Hollywood he's a pussycat. -- R.C.