A GOOD MAN IN AFRICA (1994)

Not good enough. Considering the interesting talent amassed for William Boyd's screen adaptation of his own nicely mordant 1981 novel, a variation on the stuffy-white-colonial-undone-by- mysterious-black-Africa theme, this production, directed by Bruce Beresford, is disappointingly tired, unfunny, and disengaged. Sean Connery plays the title role, an altruistic doctor in a fictional country just getting on its feet; Colin Friels is the narrator, a mid-level bureaucrat nonplussed by his mission. With Diana Rigg, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Louis Gossett Jr., and, in the film's only display of the nutty gung-hoism needed to make this creaky thing work, John Lithgow as a British high commissioner whose idea of bang-up relaxation is watching old newsreels of Her Majesty on the job.

You Might Also Like

• Movie Commentary Michael Crichton's pre-dinosaur films | Ty Burr
• Movie News Movie trailers' lack of voiceovers (1989) | Gregory Kirschling
• News Summary FBI warns Hollywood studios of terrorist threat (Dec 13, 2002) | Gary Susman
• Movie News Ashley Judd gets some tips from 007 (1999) | Liane Bonin
• Ask the Movie Critic Who made a mistake turning down a great movie role? | Lisa Schwarzbaum
• Movie Commentary Funny film dads: Sean Connery in ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989)