Rushes

WARNING SIGN

At the higher levels of cautionary thoughtfulness to which it aspires, Warning Sign is debatable. Is the Government, despite denials, secretly working on weapons for biological warfare? If so, is there a clear and present danger that the bugs might get loose and start a devastating plague? But on a simpler level, this screenplay by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, directed by the former, works very well as a hard-charging chiller. The nasty microbe in the lab turns people into murderous psychopaths when it infects them. And they, in turn, convert the facility into a kind of high-tech haunted house. Kathleen Quinlan is attractive as the uninfected security guard most imperiled by these creatures. She may be scared, but never out of her wits. Jeffrey De Munn nicely underplays the independent scientist trying to set things to rights. The rest of the cast is not as strong, but Barwood effectively hurtles the action down its dark and twisting course. THE BRIDE

O Sting, where is thy sting? For unfathomable reasons, the rock star has been cast as Dr. Frankenstein in The Bride. This is less a remake of The Bride of Frankenstein, the most joyously self-satirizing horror movie ever made, than a radical revision of it. In this version, the good doctor is no longer obsessed with challenging God for the secrets of the universe. He is now moodily in love with the mate (Jennifer Beals) he created for his original monster, who has run off with the circus. Since neither Sting nor Beals seems capable of full human animation, it might be argued that they are made for each other. It might also be argued that Franc Roddam's palely loitering direction would defeat even more experienced actors. What is inarguable is that this is the year's most excruciatingly chichi film. PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE

Pee-wee Herman is a tiny but otherwise normally formed man who makes his living imitating an icky-sweet, or perhaps brain-damaged, prepubescent boy. The act consists mainly of mincing, prancing and an inane giggle, so that sometimes it seems he is a little mixed up and may be doing a bad female impersonation. His Big Adventure (directed by Tim Burton) consists of trying to recover his stolen bicycle. His big mystery lies in his strange appeal for adolescents. Is he yet another vehicle through which they can sentimentalize their childhoods? Is he just the latest grotesque fad? Is he to the Reagan era what Pinky Lee was to Eisenhower's? Impossible to say. But fair warning: this movie could induce terminal boredom in adults and rot the minds of the young.