BLACK AND BLUE IN VELVET

Those ads for “Blue Velvet” are touting lots and lots of raves. Makes it sound like . . . wow. True, some critics loooooooove the weird psycho-sexual mystery, but plenty hate it. And some who love and hate it.

Samplings you may not find in the ads:

“Plotless, pretentious and putrid”--Michael Medved and Jeffrey Lyons, “Sneak Preview.”

“Disturbing and disturbed”--Bill Harris, “At the Movies.”

“Sickest wallow in filth and sleaze”--Rex Reed, “At the Movies.”

“Maddening ballet of brutality”--David Sheehan, KNBC-TV.

“In a strange and ironic way, a film like ‘Blue Velvet,’ superbly made or not, adds to the ugliness it seems to be deploring. Do we add to it by being there? I say we do, but that’s a moral call, not a critical one”--Gerald Nachman, S.F. Chronicle.

Orange County Register’s Michael Burkett sums up what many fans feel--that they’re in a strange minority: “There is brilliance everywhere you look. . . . Too bad I can only think of three or four people I know who might actually enjoy the movie.”