HICKEY & BOGGS

The saga of two ageing, seedy, unhappy ex-policemen-turned-private-investigators is an empty film. Bill Cosby and Robert Culp play two men beset with personal and professional problems. Hickey is estranged from his wife and child, and Boggs, slowly turning to drink as an escape, is also unhappily sepe-rated from his wife, and has found her work as a nude dancer. They have fallen on hard times but agree to try and locate Mary Jane (Carmen), who unknown to the detectives is married to one of the Quemando brothers, who managed to steal 400.000 dollars from a Pittsburg bank. The story has scope for plenty of mindless action, slick clever camerawork and minimal dialogue, none of which compensates for the almost total absense of character development. Robert Culp has directed it in TV series style, cutting fast and concentrating on things like the blowing up of a couple of cars, the riddling with bullets of a Rolls Royce and harmless attempts at comic relief «Got to get a bigger gun - I can't hit nothing!» Safe territory then for the throngs of cinema-goers who prefer to pay to watch <i>Steptoe and Son </i>and have an evening out rather than be stuck at home with the box every night. There's the assurance that nothing new will disturb or stimulate the mind - it's all right! You won't have to think!