HERO. Columbia Pictures, 1992. Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy Garcia, Joan Cusack, Maury Chaykin, Tom Arnold. Director: Stephen Frears.

   I’ve never seen Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie, but in every other movie he’s been in that I have seen, he’s stolen the show. This one’s no different.

   You probably know the story. He’s the petty crook (dealing in stolen goods) who, in spite of his own basic cynical outlook on life, helps rescue all of the passengers on a downed airliner, then sees someone else steal the glory while he’s spending time in the pokey.

   One of the passengers is hard-nosed newslady (Geena Davis) who’s just won an award for her (um) hard nose for news. I know the story itself is meant to be satire, and TV news is a pretty easy target, but I think they might possibly have ladled it on a little more lightly.

   Some of the zingers pack a pretty good punch, but most of them suffer from a surfeit of superciliousness, shall we say. (This comment does not apply to Dustin Hoffman. He’s one who makes the film as watchable as it is, no doubt about it.)