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Suspense, mysteryyand thrills are all absent in Scanners. And. as American actress' Jennifer trNeill also gets to twitch a bit, but most of the time she just looks worried, in the role of a scanner who, somewhat reluctantly, aids the hero in his search for the evil scanner. There is some hint at ro- mance here. but this aspett of the story is kept very low-key. - Michael Ironside. as the' evil scanner, and Lawrence Dane, as a traitorous security company em- ployee, give standard interprets tions of their single-dimension characters. The good-guy scanner is por- trayed by a Canadian actor. Ste- phen Lack. whose surname could be punned on at great length in de scribing his performance in this movie. But, in all fairness, the part he plays doesn't call for great act- ing, just the ability to twitch a lot. Manipulating the scanners is one of those slightly-mad scientists. played rather lethargically by American actor Patrick Me- Goohan, the one-time dynamic star of the British TV series Secret Agent and The Prisoner. The plot, as it barely exists, fo- cuses on a good-guy telepath who is sent out by an international se- curity company to track down and destroy a bad-guy telepath. Alth- ough it is demonstrated early in the picture that the telepaths - or scanners, as the movie calls them - can destroy without the use of conventional weaponry and can well defend themselves against such weapons, a lot of screen time is devoted to people being gunned down. In his inept hands, the idea for a science-fiction thriller becomes a warped excuse for some gruesome, but not really horrifying, special effects. _ Besides the stars reteamed for the first time since their Foul Play outing. Charles Grodin. as the dis- trict attorney, and Robert Guil- laume tTWs Benson), as his as- sociate, provide pleasantly funny characterizations that don't suffer too much from their rather stereo- type (certainly, in Grodin's case) quality. The picture moves along at a fairly good clip and if it doesn't ex- actly overwhelm the audience with hilarity in either its dialogue or ac- tion, it does keep the chuckles com- ing pretty consistently. But there is a kind of spirited charm to the whole thing, and the players are generally such a likea- ble lot of oddballs. that the movie deserves a passing mark for its, congeniality. if nothing else. This basic situation. compounded by the fact that the district attor- ney is initially unaware that his wife is harboring a fugitive at the same time as he is planning a poli- ticaliy opportune private dinner for the state governor, has the poten- tial for more humor than is ultima- tely drawn from it. . Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase star as ex-spouses whose paths re- cross when he. a writer, is forced to commit a bank robbery and she. a lawyer now married to the, dis- trict attorney, decides to defend him. The Neil Simon one-liners are a little thin and spread farther apart in Seems Like Old Times. but the picture is still a Moderately enter- taining comedy in the spirit of the "serewball" genre of Hollywood movies made in the late '30s and early AOS. "Sounds like New York," commented Rich as the fans started loosening up and calling out requests. He also took time out to compliment the Centre and. perhaps it was the almost perfect acoustics or the enthusiastic response from such a staid looking venue tat first glance). but Rich was more con- It was never quite explained, though, exactly what happened to the regular bass man so we can assume that he just couldn‘t take the weather this far north and was probably hiding out in New Orleans, Still taking most of the solo work for the band Was the devastatingly innovative tenor saxophonist Steve Marcus, who was given some extensive solo and bridge work during Good News, the dominating three-theme portion of the evening. Polus looked quite at ease after that as he played through charts he had never previously seen, and even came back and played the encore. Love For Sate, without a chart. to, and Rich jurnped at the oppdrtunitf to ham it up. After explaining to the audience that he had never met Poles before, he enquired his name. The 64-year-old drum genius' charm and public appeal lies in his inability to age mentally or get in a Tu! and so become the property of a particular gen- eration or group. This constant appreciation of new ideas was reflected in Rich's incorporation of many jazz-rock fusion and funk-oriented rhythms in Fri- day night's two sizzling 45-minute sets. To Keep up with Gm, he uses a band whose average age looks about 35 but whose technical ex- ce!lence is _a_hove reproach in any circle. A new addition to" the band Jas electric bassist John Bolus: imported for one night only from Town- by Erich Rautenbach Buddy Rich and his youthful M-piece band just played and played and played, leaving both old fans and the surprisingly liberal sprinkling of young con-, verts more exhausted than he on Friday at the Cen- tre in The Square. Patrick McGoohan stars in the roIeVof Dr. Ruth, supervisor of the Scanner program in Scanners, a science fiction film dealing with extra-sensory powers. Also starring in the movie are Jennifer O'Neill and Stephen Lack. Buddy Rich shows why he's rtittfi.,tii,tp.tirsirt, "You've got alot of class kid," he said to one arid. walking back to his drums. muttered over his shoulder. "too bad it's all third .. The only time Rich showed a hint of his sharp ton- gue was near the end of the show when the audience almost got out of hand with their shouting and friendly heckling. Surely it could not take much more effort on the part of the Centre's publicity department to provide a more in-depth description of the evening's enter- lainment. The only complaint that was voiced during the whole show was the usual "how come the program doesn't list the musicians or names or the song titles" type complaint. . Rich reads no music at all. but throughout the whole evening. through some incredibly complicat- ed charts, he always had time to look up and nod or shout encouragement to whatever section as coming in with a chorus. bridge or solo. The range of sound that the Centre allows let Rich take the volume right down and caress his cymbals, every note cutting, and then shake every last vestige of complacency out of his listeners with an array of speed and rolls and complex rhythms that left no doubt whatsoever that this was indeed the living master of the skins. The second set began with a revamped version of Birdland, an interpretation that made Weather Re- port's synthesized 1977 treatment of that tune seem dated. Carrying on through One O'clock Jump and their still innovative West Side Story medley, the band took a back seat as the "Greatest Drummer in the World" showed us that, not only had his speed remained undiminished, but his accuracy had in- creased and his sensitivity to dynamics and mood had "acquired what only so many years on the road could produce - love and respect for the history of drums. genial than his reputation would ever suggest. After all, he came back for an encore didn't he?