By Jim Beckerman
Bergen Record (NewJersey), May 5, 1995

MOVIE PREVIEW
RIDE FOR YOUR LIFE: An interactive film  directed by Bob Bejan. Produced
by Bill Franzblau. Written by Bejan and and Tracy Fullerton.
Cinematography by Daniel Shulman. Music by Peter Fish. With Tyrone
Henderson, Matthew Lillard, Amy Hargreaves, Adam West, and Betty
Buckley. 20 minutes.  Rated PG. Opens today.

Riddle me this, Batman: Why is former Caped Crusader Adam West, star of ABC's cult "Batman" series, appearing in a quirky film experiment aimed at teen audiences too young to have seen him in the Sixties?

The Bat Answer: to stay current.

"I have no patience with dinosaurs," says West, who plays corporate CEO Monty Oliver in the new interactive movie "Ride for Your Life."

This high-tech meld of movie and video game also features Broadway veteran Betty Buckley.

Opening today at specially equipped Sony theaters in Ridgefield Park, in Eatontown, and at 19th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, "Ride for Your Life" allows the audience to guide the progress of two racing bicycle messengers (Tyrone Henderson and Matthew Lillard) by pushing buttons to "vote" for the plot twists they prefer.

For their $5 admission, viewers get to see the 20-minute film twice -- each time with a radically different story line.

"This is the first sophisticated interactive film, and I wanted to have a little piece of that," West says. "I didn't do a movie here -- I did a movie game, which has different requirements."

"Ride for Your Life" is a follow-up to "Mr. Payback," a prototype by New York's Interfilm Inc. that opened in February in 44 theaters around the country to cool reviews and lukewarm business.

This new film is a distinct improvement on the last, Interfilm promises. The technology -- in which viewer choices are conveyed by computer to a laser disc capable of changing the story line seamlessly based on audience preference -- has been upgraded to the point where audiences will be voting as often as once every 15 seconds, four times as often as the earlier film.

"Where `Mr. Payback' was a movie with choices, `Ride for Your Life' is like a group video game," says Bill Franzblau, an Interfilm co-founder.

Interfilm combined $18 million of its money with $3 million from Sony New Technologies to launch the interactive film project, which they hope will revolutionize movies and lure the Nintendo generation away
from their TV sets.

Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - Matthew Lillard and Tyrone Henderson portray daring
bike messengers in the interactive film "Ride for Your Life."