After hearing several critics compare debut director John Herzfeld's "2 Days in the Valley" to Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," I finally broke down and headed for the theaters. How did the two films compare? Well, like its predecessor, "2 Days in the Valley" takes place in crazy LA and supports a long line up of diverse and quirky characters. Its construction also resembles "Pulp Fiction" somewhat, as several story lines interrelate to form a single complex plot. But despite all this, "2 Days in th e Valley" fails to achieve both the off-beat humor and the surprising and intelligent plot line of Terantino's hit film.

"2 Days in the Valley" concerns the fate of ten characters who are forced together by chance and proximity in the wake of a murder in LA's San Fernando Valley. We follow a professional killer (James Spader) as he murders the ex-husband of an Olympic skie r (Teri Hatcher) and attempts to pin the crime on his temporary accomplice Dosmo, a soft hearted has-been hit man played by Danny Aiello. The crime is discovered too late by an apathetic racist cop (Jeff Daniels) and his ardent partner (Eric Stoltz) whose aspirations to become a homicide detective lead him to stick his nose where it doesn't belong. A self absorbed British art dealer (Greg Cruttwell) and his sweet yet insecure assistant (Glenne Headley) are taken hostage by Dosmo and are eventually joined by a washed up suicidal film director (Paul Mazursky) and the art dealer's sister (Marsha Mason). Sound complicated enough? The plot moves along these lines, accumulating characters, until it reaches an inflated climax where the fate of almost all of th e characters is resolved.

Unlike Tarantino's characters, who come to life through off-beat dialogue, the characters in "2 Days in the Valley" are flat and can only talk along the lines of their one or two allotted characteristics. The British art dealer (picture an evil version o f Hugh Grant) can do nothing but wallow in self pity and insult everybody in his surroundings. And the racist cop can do nothing but talk about the "chinks" he wants to bust in the "hand job house" that poses as a massage parlor.

The film gets its laughs, not from quirky dialogue, but from more conventional situation comedy. Dosmo, for example, cooks a gourmet Italian meal for his hostages -all while holding them up at gun point.

This type of irony is lacking in the really violent scenes. Lee, the professional killer, takes out a stop watch and gives his victims one minute to live before he shoots them. While "Pulp Fiction's" Joules could joke about his "last line," this characte r has no self irony. By taking its sex and violence too seriously the film ends up approaching the norms of a typical Hollywood crime thriller.

What really separates "2 Days in the Valley" from "Pulp Fiction" and other independent style films is its implied moral message. The invisible hand of a fair and moral God seems to guide the action in this film. Punishments and rewards are portioned out f airly: The cold professional killer gets killed, the racist cop gets fired, and the selfish art dealer gets hit over the head several times. The good male characters become heroes and win their token love interests.

Although I didn't enjoy this film to any great extent I could see how many people might. After all it has all the elements of good entertainment. Not only does it provide sex and violence, it gives us situation comedy and, towards the end, mushy romance as well.

For all its attempts at being another Terantino film, however, "2 Days in the Valley" boils down to a fairly conventional movie. In the end it turns out to have more in common with the pulp fiction contained in glossy paperbacks than it does with Quentin Terantino's film.

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