RICOCHET. Directed by: Russell Mulcahy. Written by: Steven

E. de Souza. Starring: Denzel Washington, John Lithgow,

Ice T, Kevin Pollak, Lindsay Wagner. Playing at: Cinema 57

Rated: R (skewerings, nudity)

If you like your revenge slow and cliched, you may like "Ricochet." The plot, which by now may be too stock even for TV police dramas, is about an escaped convict bent on torturing the cop who put him behind bars. Even the '90s makeover -- a video-age Los Angeles dressed in lurid blues with a drug den run by Ice T -- can't hide the staleness at the movie's center.

Denzel Washington is a cocksure cop-law student who, in a moment of glory, cleverly captures a nasty criminal played by John Lithgow. The moment is fortuitously caught on videotape by an onlooker, and Washington becomes an instant media hero. While Lithgow festers in jail, becoming kingpin of the viscious Aryan Brotherhood, Washington is made assistant district attorney and finds domestic bliss with a beautiful wife and two cute daughters.

Guess what happens. Lithgow breaks out, stages his own death, then goes after Washington -- but not to kill him. Lithgow wants to bring him down, attempting to destroy his public image by linking him to child pornography, drugs and prostitution. Lithgow even manages to infect Washington with a venereal disease. Of course no one believes Washington when he cries that Lithgow is framing him -- even though Lithgow had pictures and news clippings of Washington plastered all over his jail-cell wall. Such are movieland conveniences.

These gurgitations are given some small life by Lithgow, Washington and, in a minor role, Ice T. Lithgow's expressions are priceless, as he evilly plays with Washington's children, face dead still but eyes on fire. Washington, who has a number of occasions to remove his shirt, is persuasive as a vain yuppie learning the hard way to appreciate what he's got. Why should he be any different than any other movie yuppie in 1991?