Grade: C

Verdict: Where's Rod Serling when you need him?

Details: Starring Kevin Pollack, Timothy Hutton and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Rated R for strong language and violence. 1 hour, 31 minutes.

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Review: One of the more memorable original Twilight Zone episodes years ago was the one about an eclectic group of people stranded in a diner, trying to deal with the startling information that one of them was an extraterrestrial leading a possible invasion of earth. Deterrence, written and directed by former movie reviewer Rod Lurie, strands an eclectic group of people in a diner and lets them deal with the startling information that they may be witnessing the start of World War III.

The odd man out, so to speak, in Deterrence isn't a killer alien but the president of the United States. President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollack) is an appointed leader, having inherited the job when his boss died. He's been in Colorado campaigning for election when he and his staff are caught up in a humongous blizzard (the year is supposedly 2008, but we still can't do a thing about the weather).

As the assorted "little people" sort themselves out -- the diner's owner, his Canadian waitress, the pool-playing redneck, the upscale couple who've brought along their own chessboard, etc. -- everyone sorta watches a cable news channel that has mostly been reporting on the election and reminding viewers that President Emerson is "more vice presidential, more second banana-ish" than presidential. Then comes some truly alarming news: Saddam Hussein's son has just invaded Kuwait, killing some American peacekeeping troops in the process.

Most of the country's military might is otherwise engaged in the Sea of Japan. What's a president -- even a supposedly second-rate one -- to do? Well, this one wants to drop the Bomb.

The fallout is considerable, especially in our little diner, where everyone from the president's advisers (Timothy Hutton and Sheryl Lee Ralph) to the president of France (via a secure phone) weighs in on the consequences of such an act. And, for a while, you're interested in what's going to happen, what strategy Emerson will employ (you don't toss a chessboard into a diner booth for nothing), how the characters will reveal themselves, etc. But the talk grows tired while the tension, alas, barely grows at all. And the ending is a cheat, pure and simple.

So what's left is a so-so Twilight Zone episode -- except that, unlike the one about the alien, no one reveals a third eye in the back of their head.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service