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Dubbed "A feel-good Seven with a heart" by Entertainment Weekly , this film is sure to disappoint any movie-goer seeking something more intellectually stimulating than your average slasher flick.

Based on the best-selling novel by James Patterson, the movie presents an intriguing premise. It traces the search for a serial killer/kidnapper in the research triangle of South Carolina.

"We are not dealing with your average killer," Cross warns. "He is a collector."

This time our resident bad guy, known only as Casanova, played by Tony Goldwyn, has an unusual fetish -- he likes kidnapping beautiful and exceptionally talented young women for his personal harem.

As should be expected, not all of the women like the idea of spending eternity as a love slave, so they misbehave.

Unfortunately, the punishment for such disobedience is being tied to a tree in the middle of the woods and systematically murdered.

Enter our hero, Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman), the only cop who drives around Washington, DC, in a spiffy leather jacket and a Porsche. He becomes personally involved in the case when his niece becomes Casanova's newest victim.

In typical Hollywood fashion, Cross defies all practical reason (not to mention a few laws) and flies down to take charge of the case, whether wanted or not.

This brings us to Kate McTieman (Ashley Judd), the one victim who has escaped from Casanova's clutches. When Cross and McTieman join forces, it's a wonder how the police force ever got along without them.

Cross single-handedly outsmarts the DC and South Carolina police departments, confounds the entire medical community with his expertise and even manages to override the FBI in solving the crime.

Kiss the Girls not only lacks the originality and intelligence we have come to expect from psychological thrillers such as Seven and Silence of the Lambs , it also lacks their conviction.

Kiss the Girls fails to take the next step beyond its interesting premise. Its carbon copy characters don't evolve and rarely show any emotion that might draw an audience into their world.

Even Casanova lacks the appeal and intensity to properly engage an audience.

I was particularly disappointed by Ashley Judd's forgettable performance. After receiving such high acclaim for her first endeavor, Ruby in Paradise, it has been almost painful to witness her slow but unwavering assimilation into the world of mindless commercialism.

Add a group of stale, generalized characters, a handful of canned Hollywood scenarios and about a dozen pathetic southern accents, and you have concocted the perfect recipe for this film's failure.

My feeling is that if you can figure out who the killer is simply by reading the opening credits, the movie has its flaws.

Don't get me wrong, Kiss the Girls is not boring. It has its cheap thrills, good direction, minimal suspense and even a hilariously funny cameo by Jeremy Piven ( PCU , Ellen ).

But if you are searching for a film to keep you on your toes, the kind of flick that leaves you walking out of the theater feeling challenged, this is not your movie.

This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the September 26, 1997 issue.