We're getting used to seeing products being ostentatiously plugged in movies, the same way that we've gotten used to air pollution. Problem Child, with a flagrant soft-drink commercialette, is just another typical example. The way things have been going lately, though, it won't be long before we start seeing coming attractions interrupted by commercials. (Hmmmm, is an idea like that patentable?)

>NO CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

Tom Cruise confirmed his credentials as a serious actor with a grueling performance as paraplegic Vietnam vet Ron Kovic. But Kovic's search for meaning in his life's tragic events is done a disservice by director Oliver Stone. The often-pedantic Stone gives a lecture in movie form here, un-convincingly charging that self-deception in American society was responsible for the war. Kovic co-wrote the polemical script. Still, he seems to have been misused—again. (MCA)