A YOUNG MILLIONAIRE

So Shane Black hit the jackpot--$1.75 million for “The Last Boy Scout.” Hooray!

The script was just handed to me by a colleague. As I read it, I couldn’t believe that James Greenberg could have lauded this young man with such accolades. The script is peopled with totally unpleasant characters, and the two protagonists are as unsavory as the scum they systematically decimate in the 138 lurid, overwritten, obscene, puerile pages.

I counted 40 bodies slaughtered in every conceivable method that a sick, depraved mind can invent, to say nothing of the beatings, torture and general mayhem inflicted on one-dimensional characters throughout this piece of tasteless cliched trash.

With Bruce Willis in the lead, it’ll probably do $200 million at the box office. I guess Black was too busy dancing his way to the bank to notice the headline in The Times reporting that crime is up 69%. Geffen and Warner Bros. will doubtless do their level best to keep those figures soaring with the release of movies of this ilk.

ALAN A. ROSS

Venice