Writer-director John Waters is back in Baltimore! Unfortunately, this cheeky spin on the Patty Hearst saga--wherein a Hollywood actress, kidnapped by a radical filmmaking group of punks, is forced at gunpoint to star in their underground movie--is all quick one-liners and no plot...and no pay-off (the third act being a sloppy free-for-all, a typical John Waters failing point). Melanie Griffith, dryly and amusingly resolved in the lead, acquits herself well here; she's surprisingly in tune with Waters' predictably gross sense of humor, but Waters himself never cuts loose. There's no sting in the comedy because the points he makes on the current state of cinema aren't points at all--just cute jabs in the ribs. *1/2 from ****