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>>Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd hunt a killer in Kiss the Girls by MATTHEW HAYS W ith so many tired old rehashes and disappointing sequels populating the summer releases, why not start the autumn season with something that feels like a rehash and a sequel? Morgan Freeman stars in Kiss the Girls, and if you caught the trailers, you probably also caught the Seven parallel. Freeman, though a tremendously talented actor, didn't have to do a whole lot of work to his character in Girls--much of it already existed in his cop-buddy role with Brad Pitt in Seven. Freeman plays a forensic psychologist/detective who has become a minor celebrity based on the wonders he performs in the investigative field. Soon after the opening credits there's news--very bad news indeed--that his niece has gone missing, apparently kidnapped from a campus town where a number of women have already been snatched up and are presumed dead. Freeman can now pursue the case like the good cop that he is, with the added emotional ferocity of a good uncle. Cut to Ashley Judd, another idealistic doc. She's also a babe, and a feisty one at that. She kickboxes, she bitches about the dearth of good men to boink and soon enough, she's the next victim of Kiss the Girls' psychotic villain, who dubs himself "Casanova." Turns out Freeman's hunch was correct (one of many that turn out that way), and Casanova is not killing all of his victims. Most of them are being kept alive, chained up in some underground complex somewhere, drugged up and serving as slaves to their captor (and you thought Marv Albert was a wildman). Casanova's troubles begin when Judd manages to kickbox her way out of his clutches, and though delirious, remembers enough to bond with Freeman in an effort to catch the creep. The literate and mysterious psycho killer, the tough gal, Morgan Freeman--this thing really should have been titled Seven of the Lambs. It's entertaining enough, if you can stand its jarring pastiche of various plotlines from the aforementioned blockbusters. What's most interesting about watching Kiss the Girls is the way in which it straddles the line between gratuitous violence against women and its lofty feminist aspirations. Judd, in a clear high-kicking nod to Jodie Foster's Lambs' characterization, is in place to set up some balance. She may spend some time in chains, but she's smart and fights back. In cultural critic Susan Douglas' insightful book on women and popular culture Where the Girls Are, it is argued that Charlie's Angels was mainstream TV's perfect compromise between sexism and feminism; tits and ass with brains and cool jobs in male-dominated professions. Kiss the Girls feels a lot like that; a prime example of Hollywood's ability to marry apparently opposite styles and ideologies in the pursuit of a fast buck. Opens this Friday, Oct. 3. See listings for showtimes
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