FEW ORIGINAL MOMENTS IN THIS DOUGLAS FAMILY OUTING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

HOPEFULLY, Kirk Douglas won't call it a career with ``It Runs in the Family.'' Though surrounded by Douglases our former Spartacus may be, this strained bit of sappiness should be no screen legend's swan song.

Directed by Aussie Fred Schepisi (``A Cry in the Dark,'' ``Plenty'') ``It Runs ...'' feels like a nostalgia gimmick hatched at the Douglas family holiday gathering. Hey, gang, let's get together and put on a movie. Everybody gets in on the action - exes included. Could it be a coincidence that the film's most credible performances are delivered by the two performers whose names aren't Douglas?

Every scene between Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas (who also produces) has to contain some forced bit of poignancy. They're playing a father and son, heads of a family of upper-middle-class Jews. Will they finally make a connection by movie's end? Bet on it.

Father Mitchell Gromberg (Kirk) is the patriarch, expected to have ``a few good years left'' even after suffering a stroke. Alex (Michael) is a high-powered attorney with conscience enough to have made an unsuccessful bid for political office. He also volunteers in a soup kitchen where a near fling with a fellow volunteer threatens to send the perfect little Gromberg union between Alex and his psychiatrist wife, Rebecca (Bernadette Peters), careening off the track.

Of course it isn't so perfect. Despite a lakeside apartment with enough space to store small aircraft, the Grombergs are fraying. Elder son Asher (Cameron Douglas, Michael's son) is a lovable slacker who is flunking college and dealing pot. Kid brother Eli (Rory Culkin) is a buttoned-down little neurotic whose problems his too-smart parents can't easily define (although basic early-teen shyness would probably cover it).

Jesse Wigutow's script unfolds in what feels like a series of vignettes: Mitch at the doctor, Alex at the office, Eli on the playground, Asher tormenting a female classmate and then asking for her ``digits'' (phone number). Asher arriving late to pick up his grandmother (Diana Douglas) from dialysis. The clan gathers at a Passover meal and then scatters for more vignettes: Alex and Rebecca, Eli and his classroom and, of course, Alex and Mitch.

What the ``it'' of ``It Runs in the Family'' is isn't exactly clear. Neurosis? Dysfunctionality? Love of Viking burials? To a person, the Douglases are all perfectly charming, but the story takes them nowhere except into predictability. Kirk gets to slide into loneliness and borderline decrepitude. Michael plays the type of aged yuppie angst that he could do in his sleep. Cameron, but for his sensitive soul, belongs in a ``Bill & Ted'' movie.

The film's heavy lifting, so to speak, falls to Peters and Culkin. Yes, Rebecca is a sketch, but Peters makes you believe that she's divided, and fed up with this sham of an ideal marriage. Culkin showed he could act with the best of his siblings in ``You Can Count on Me.'' His part here is easier. He has minimal screen time and gets to be in love with a junior-high-school rebel.

Peters, Culkin and the Douglas clan will all live down ``It Runs in the Family'' Here's hoping 86-year-old Kirk, looking to be in fine fettle, is making his next movie even as we speak.

IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY - One and one half stars

PG-13: (drug content, sexual material, language)

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Bernadette Peters, Rory Culkin.

Director: Fred Schepisi.

Running time :1 hr. 49 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: So many Douglases, so little import.