‘Two Mikes Don’t Make a Wright’ (NR)

Because "Two Mikes Don't Make a Wright" is three short films under one title, it's tempting to say that it's two-thirds good. But the vague feelings of dissatisfaction it produces don't reflect the arithmetic.

Two of the three -- Mike Leigh's "A Sense of History" and Michael Moore's "Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint," his documentary follow-up to the surprise hit "Roger & Me" -- are first-rate examples of their form. And the third -- Steven Wright's "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings" -- is no worse than passable. Still, walking out of the theater, you can't help but think that what you could use about now is a real movie.

This is the sad state of affairs facing the makers of short films today. Now that short subjects are extinct in commercial movie houses, the filmmaker who chooses -- or is forced by poverty -- to make a picture under feature length virtually guarantees that his film will never be seen by any but the hungriest film lovers. Or be shoehorned -- as these three completely unrelated shorts have been -- into a format for which the work was never intended.

The first piece is a short story. Or more of a vignette, actually, about a very odd person named Dennis (Steven Wright) who has a very difficult time connecting with reality. "Yesterday, I tried to daydream but couldn't," he intones. "My mind kept wandering." About his story nothing more need be known except that he is trying to gun down his shrink (played by the chronically unfunny Rowan Atkinson) for stealing his girlfriend (the inimitably depressed Laurie Metcalf).

About all that can be said for the film is that it is precisely what it sets out to be, which is a brief glimpse inside Steven Wright's head. This movie, which won the Oscar in 1989 for Best Live Action Short, is not Wright's stand-up act (though some of the material from his stage work does sneak in); it is more an attempt to reproduce the world as seen through the distorting lens of his own brand of surrealism. Still, "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings" is nothing more than an appetizer followed by more appetizers.

Moore's piece seems to be the main course, but it also comes across as a bit of a trifle. Designed partly as an update on the happenings in Flint, Mich., since the release of "Roger & Me," the movie revisits some of that film's more memorable characters, including the sheriff in charge of evictions and the famous bunny lady -- whose advertisement, "Rabbits: For Pets or Meat," gave the new film its title. But this time the jokes aren't as fresh or as cutting. Instead of coming across as social critic, he looks more like a show biz smoothie running through some guaranteed crowd-pleasers. And, context being everything, this time he does seem guilty of the accusation aimed (without justification) at the earlier film; he does seem to be making fun of his subjects.

Of course, that gets into class issues, which, if we stretch the point, could be said to be the crux of "A Sense of History," a savage attack on the British ruling class by Mike Leigh ("High Hopes" and "Life is Sweet") and actor-writer Jim Broadbent. The picture is a walk down memory lane for the fictional 23rd Earl of Leete, who as he measures his domain near the end of his life reveals the rather drastic lengths to which he has resorted over the years -- including the murder of his father and his older brother -- to keep his holdings intact. That he reports this in dead earnest is the central gag. Proving that behind every great fortune lies a great crime, the 23rd Earl talks about his acts with the pride of a man who has done what was needed to protect the family name for future generations. He is, in other words, a coldblooded, inbred twit -- as Broadbent plays him -- every inch the stereotypical Englishman.

Though Broadbent is playing a type, he plays it to such a T that the type has been reinvented. Broadbent, who looks like a lost Quaid brother, has a spooky talent. Though I knew he was associated with the piece, I watched him up until the very end without once recognizing him. For that time, he was another person. He is outstanding. This last entry is the only one of the three satisfying on its own. The rest, sadly, feel like doodling.