
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 19, 1995                   TAG: 9508220009
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`CLUB' IS ONLY FOR FANS OF BOOK

Here's the thing: I never read any of the "Baby-Sitters Club" books. Maybe they were slightly ahead of my time.

Had they been around, however, I have a feeling I would not have been a big fan. These adolescent girls are just too sweet, too nice to each other to ring true. They "stick together," they hardly ever fight and they seem to have endless patience for small children.

My girlfriends were more like the little threesome that follows the BSC gang around, making fun of their wholesome ways and plotting ways to put an end to those ways. We weren't bad - just bored in the summer, and we'd hardly have thought up a day camp for toddlers to break up the monotony. Prank phone calls, maybe, but not endless baby-sitting.

That said, I guess "The Baby-sitters Club" is true to its source material, and little girls who love the books will probably love the movie.

It's directed by Melanie Mayron (the photographer from "thirtysomething"), and she by no means attempts to give the baby-sitters a more realistic feel. Kristy, Stacey, Mary Anne, Dawn, Claudia, Mallory and Jessi dress cute, talk cute, are forever vowing to be friends forever - and it all looks very much like a McDonald's commercial.

But this is the summer that they deal with some really big problems, like boys (ewwww) and prodigal fathers. Kristy (Schuyler Fisk), the tomboyish head of the club, is wrestling with the surprise arrival of her dad (Peter Horton - also of "thirtysomething") and the demands of the BSC's summer day camp.

Claudia (Tricia Joe) has a really tough science test to pass, Stacey has a European boyfriend who doesn't know she's diabetic - OR 13 years old, and Mary Anne's boyfriend has become the love target of the evil Cokie (Marla Sokoloff) - leader of the evil threesome.

All these pressures cause them to utter the "F-word" for the first time: that's ``fight,'' the only one the baby-sitters have ever had, apparently.

But they work it out in good girlfriend fashion, and no one gets hurt. Except (almost) the good-hearted neighbor Mrs. Haberman (Ellen Burstyn, providing reality relief) whose snapdragons get pulled out by some BSC day-campers.

Is this escapism? Maybe for some. It's too boring to be fantasy, too ridiculous to be reality, but it apparently satisfies some need in young girls. It certainly can induce a nice, safe, warm feeling, and that may be exactly its appeal.

The Babysitters Club ** 1/2, A Columbia Pictures' release showing at the Salem Valley 8, Valley View 6. 95 min. Rated PG for one stray vulgarity, a Columbia PIctures release, showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Cinemas, 94 minutes.

by CNB