A Murder of Crows

From the director of Striking Distance & Road House, trumpets the box copy, as if the prospect of another ludicrous thriller from cut-rate auteur Rowdy Herrington (now going direct to video) were likely to make movie buffs salivate. In A Murder of Crows Gooding plays a disbarred Louisiana attorney who passes off another man's Grishamesque manuscript as his own; Berenger's the crusty cop who discovers that the novel's plot dovetails with a series of real-life unsolved homicides. A bunch of lackluster chase scenes (run, Cuba, run!) lead inexorably to a finale that's almost, but not quite, as preposterous as the N'awlins accent employed by Eric (''Pointless cameo? When have I ever refused?'') Stoltz. C-