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* 1/2 “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.”

Lorimar. $79.95. 1987. R.

After the freshness and subtlety of “My Beautiful Launderette”--the previous film by writer Hanif Kureishi and director Stephen Frears--it is no fun to report that, by whatever name, “Sammy and Rosie” is stunningly, ponderously bad. Starring Shashi Kapoor, Frances Barber and Claire Bloom, the film tracks three unloving couples--married, related or intertwined with each other--against the blazing background of the street riots in Margaret Thatcher’s London, which seems almost indistinguishable from Beirut. The theatricality is relentless, the characters talk ceaselessly but say little that doesn’t seem to have come from some 1960s time capsule.