MOVIE REVIEW : AN UNEVEN ‘HUNK’ OF ENTERTAINMENT

Imagine “Faust” transposed to contemporary Malibu, and you’ll have a rough idea of what Lawrence Bassoff’s sunny and amusing “Hunk” (citywide) is like.

Few are the men who haven’t identified with Charles Atlas’ proverbial 97-pound weakling who gets sand kicked in his face when he goes to the beach. But instead of sending away for a body-building course or joining a gym, nice but nerdy computer hack Bradley Brinkman (Steve Levitt) succumbs to the shortcut of selling his soul to the devil. Bradley wants it all--not just a perfect body. He also wants everything that constitutes yuppie success.

It’s a terrific moment when Bradley awakens to discover his entire identity and life style transformed. Instead of his usual Joe Average self, looking back at him in the mirror is the epitome of physical perfection: a handsome, tanned, blue-eyed, blond Apollo called Hunk Golden (John Allen Nelson). He’s an instant sexual and social triumph, and when he discovers by chance that he’s as strong as Superman, fame and fortune soon follow.

Now you don’t have to know your “Faust” to figure that eventually the devil (the late James Coco) is going to exact his price. Fledgling writer-director Bassoff develops and sustains Bradley-Hunk’s predicament with considerable ingenuity and even poignancy, and he’s very lucky in having Nelson as his star. For John Allen Nelson is not just another pretty face but a talented actor who succeeds in keeping Bradley very much alive inside an increasingly distraught Hunk.

It’s fortunate that “Hunk’s” premise is as sturdy as its hero, for the film is rough around the edges. Bassoff’s flair is for allegory, not something usually found in a Crown International sun ‘n’ surf epic. There’s wit in Hunk’s exchanges with the devil’s gorgeous emissary (Deborah Shelton) and the pretty psychiatrist (Rebeccah Bush) to whom he has turned for help.

“Hunk” (rated PG for some mild sexual innuendo) seems a picture in which ambitions exceed genre and budget, and although entertaining, the film is inevitably uneven as a result.