Hackman

"Crimson Tide" and "The Hunt for Red October": Separated at birth?There are similarities, to be sure. Let's call them inspirations -- like the mood lighting on the submarines and the swelling choral music in both movies. But, hey, if a formula works, let's confirm the missile launch and go go go!"Crimson Tide" has a different plot, and after that deja vu feeling leaves you it's gripping in a more intense way. While "The Hunt for Red October" felt like a breathless video game, "Crimson Tide" has a more claustrophobic and desperate sense of what's at stake: nuclear war. Even a routine missile drill aboard the sub has an eerie sense of foreboding.

Two of the biggest movies of 1992 go head to head tonight, making their respective cable premieres. Showtime has "A Few Good Men" with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, and HBO has a few good men of its own: Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman in "Unforgiven."* "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (6-7 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley when this series first began, returns in a plot line that has Work (Michael Dorn) inexplicably married to one of the other Enterprise crew members.

They're fixing again!Oh, I love it when they fix! Here's John Grisham's "The Firm," a huge, huge, megahuge best seller that has delighted and transfixed millions of readers the globe over. And here's Sydney Pollack, whose last film, "Havana," was a megabomb of staggering proportions.Obviously, Grisham doesn't know what he's doing. Obviously, Grisham's millions of readers don't know what they're reading.Obviously, Pollack has to "fix" the story. The result leaves us a long way from Terra Firma.

NEW YORK -- In Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," due in theaters Friday, Gene Hackman has the plum role of Little Bill Daggett, a frontier lawman willing to kill to keep his community free of killers.Mr. Hackman could not care less about the advance scuttlebutt -- a virtual consensus among American film critics -- that his portrayal is among the year's more appealing Oscar bait."I doubt I'll even watch the thing," the celebrated actor shrugged during a visit heralding the opening of "Unforgiven."

* ''Class Action'' Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio play father and daughter attorneys who find themselves working on opposite sides of a court case. A drama.* ''Guilty By Suspicion'' Robert De Niro plays a 1952 Hollywood movie director who is told he must appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee to ''clear'' himself of taint. A drama.* ''If Looks Could Kill'' Richard Greico plays a student who goes to Paris where he is mistaken for an undercover agent. Action, comedy.

From behind the wheel of the little Chevrolet truck, Dorothy Hackman peels her eyes for something shiny in the roadside brush. Budweiser, Busch, Miller Lite, Coca-Cola, Pepsi -- that's money out there.She's pointing out the window: there, over there. "Check that box."Now one, two, three skinny boys and a girl jump off the tailgate, hustle to the roadside and return, each chucking a can or two or three into the back of the truck, taking care not to strike the younger children inside.It comes to about a penny per aluminum can at today's scrap metal rates.

In "Narrow Margin," Gene Hackman catches the train but misses the boat. There's no doubt that Hackman is a great film actor, but it's a shame he doesn't display more discrimination in picking his vehicles.Derived from a 1952 black-and-white film noir about a cop and a female witness (Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor) fleeing hit men on a transcontinental train, this movie lumbers along as if fueled by coal, not diesel. It's the little engine that couldn't.The original had one great advantage.

NARROW Margin'' takes us over a very familiar roadbed, but the trip is nonetheless enjoyable.Its familiarity, in fact, may be added reason to see the film, which, to be fully enjoyed, should be attended in a group. Pooling your predictions on which way the plot will go, labeling all the new characters and predicting the surprises is the pleasure this film offers us.The thriller, which takes place on a train bound for Vancouver, carries us along. It's a very fast ride. The scenery may be the same, but it doesn't take from the trip.