CINEMA: DON'T TAKE CANDY FROM KIDS

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In 1989, when MST3K made its network debut, so did the Kids in the Hall, the Toronto quintet noted for their daft, deadpan playlets about modern domesticity--and for their fondness for women's frocks. From these five young men (David Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson) now comes the inevitable feature film, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. This movie, borrowing the plot of the 1951 Alec Guinness comedy The Man in the White Suit; is about a "happy drug" that makes everyone miserable. Bad news for the Kids: the movie (directed by Kevin Makin) will have the same effect. The story is flat and shrill; the characters show little life; the needle on the giggle-ometer barely flinches. The Kids don't have the wit to harness their galloping contempt.

They are not the first to find that transplanting skitcom to the big screen carries as many perils as seductions. Sometimes the result is Wayne's World, and sometimes It's Pat. Thanks for trying, Kids, but Brain Candy is the latter.

--R.C.