'CITY HALL' TRIES TO THRILL, BUT IT'S JUST PLAIN BORING.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

Much like the recent "Casino," "City Hall" is at its best when depicting the complex inner workings of a major institution. In this movie's case, it's the New York mayor's office and all the political, financial and legal interests that orbit around it 24 hours a day.

Also like "Casino," "City Hall" has a slack and uninvolving plot line. But unlike Martin Scorsese's sporadically shocking indulgence, this alleged political thriller is thrilless and predictable.

Though based on a story by former New York Deputy Mayor Ken Lipper and doctored by some of Hollywood's most distinguished writing talents, the lackluster events of "City Hall" swirl around a tragedy the implications of which seem overblown from the start. It then turns into a mystery with an outcome much too easy to guess. Al Pacino tries to goose things along with some spasms of overacting, but even his hammy self-parodying can't energize the movie for long.

Pacino is John Pappas, the savvy, ambitious and well-liked mayor with a knack for turning scandalous situations to his advantage. And he's got a doozy on his hands, or so the script keeps insisting, when an African-American child is killed in the crossfire between a Brooklyn cop and a Mafia don's son.

Busy trying to lure the Democratic Party convention to Manhattan and enhance his own chances for national office, Pappas delegates damage control to his savvy, ambitious and likable young deputy, Kevin Calhoun (John Cusack). A native Louisianan, the idealistic Calhoun gradually uncovers some shooting-related skulduggery involving a compromised judge (Martin Landau), the Rodgers and Hammerstein-loving Brooklyn party boss (Danny Aiello) and, of course, the mobster (Tony Franciosa).

Together with a combative-but-plucky lawyer for the police union (Bridget Fonda), who he never quite gets around to romancing like he should, Calhoun follows a trail of corruption that leads, inexorably, in directions he wishes it wouldn't. Not to give away too much, but by the end of "City Hall," all the scenes are getting lit as if this were "The Godfather Part IV" or something.

Cusack does the best he can with a floating Cajun accent and wounded naivete. Fonda barely registers in an underwritten role. Aiello is quite good as the corrupt-but-charismatic political fixer; he has a wonderful horse-trading scene with Pacino that, unlike the ripoff duet with De Niro in "Heat," actually shows two great Italian-American actors cooking superbly together.

That's one of several "City Hall" scenes in which Pacino's old, smart, impacted magic shines through. But for every bit of solid steel-trap precision he gives to the movie, Pacino flies off the rails just as often. The low point is Pappas' grandstanding eulogy at the dead child's funeral service. It's supposed to be the movie's emotional centerpiece, but it's so steeped in rhetoric and bluster - so fundamentally fake, in the persistant manner Pacino has been indulging too much recently - that the scene becomes as laughable as it is condescending.

But at least it's not boring, which most of the rest of "City Hall" is. Last time out, director Harold Becker served up the ludicrous, overheated "Malice." Pacino's sporadic outbursts aside, "City Hall" plays like a 180-degree mood swing from that one. It's sober, comparatively plausible and concerned with a serious matter - how ethics are distorted by expediency in even the best-intentioned public figures.

If it weren't so tedious, I'd vote for it.

THE FACTS

The film: "City Hall" (R; language, violence).

The stars: Al Pacino, John Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Danny Aiello, Martin Landau, David Paymer, Tony Franciosa.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Harold Becker. Written by Ken Lipper, Paul Schrader, Nicholas Pileggi and Bo Goldman.

Running time: One hour, 51 minutes.

Playing: Citywide

Our rating: Two Stars.

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PHOTO

Photo John Cusack, left, plays a savvy, ambitious deputy handling damage control for Al Pacino's power-hungry New York mayor in "City Hall."