Tim Allen In ‘Jungle 2 Jungle’ Turns Up Volume On Tired Old Song

As the host of the sitcom “Tool Time,” Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) believes the answer to every household problem is “More power!”

As the star of his first two movies, actor Allen apparently believes the answer to comedic problems is more volume.

Although they are two different films completely, 1994’s “The Santa Clause” and “Jungle 2 Jungle” have at least a couple of things in common. One is director John Pasquin.

The other is Allen’s characterization: Each film’s protagonist is an unremitting jerk.

Of course, since both films are Disney productions, the respective story arcs involve how that jerk ultimately sees the error of his ways and, eventually, becomes a nice guy.

Based on a French comedy called “Un Indien dans La Ville,” “Jungle 2 Jungle” concerns a self-absorbed, workaholic commodities broker (Allen) who, in the course of getting a long-delayed divorce (from JoBeth Williams), discovers that he is the father of a budding teenager (Sam Huntington).

Only this is no ordinary young man. Raised from birth in the Amazon jungle, he is native to the core. That causes nothing but problems when the broker returns to New York with the boy in tow.

Think of “‘Crocodile’ Dundee” and you’ll know what I mean.

The plot involves Allen’s character trying to keep his son out of trouble, maintain his relationship with a ditzy fashion designer (Lolita Davidovich), salvage a deal involving 50 tons of coffee beans and dodge a gang of Russian hoodlums (led by David Ogden Stiers).

Director Pasquin, who is lucky to have the talents of cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, goes for the easy laugh at every opportunity. And all too often, Allen is at the center of the action.

“I said I was going to go fight the chief,” he says at one point, “not kill the chief.”

If Allen isn’t bad enough, then there’s always Martin Short. A comic genius on such sketch-oriented shows as “SCTV” and “Saturday Night Live,” Short in his films tries too hard to be his generation’s Jerry Lewis (and isn’t one enough?).

“Jungle 2 Jungle” isn’t bad exactly, but it just isn’t very good. Allen, so entertaining when he does stand-up, is too obvious in his films. Many more efforts like this one and Disney is likely to reduce his wattage. Permanently.

Rated PG-13. **

The week’s other main release:

Albino Alligator ***

Many people never heard of Kevin Spacey until 1995 when he picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Bryan Singer’s complex neo-noir “The Usual Suspects.”

The makes him the movie-making equivalent of an overnight success.

But like many of Hollywood’s instant hits, Spacey wasn’t a rookie actor. He’d already put in a decade’s worth of solid work, some of which went unwatched, most of which was second- or third-billed, hardly any of which went unnoticed.

In the television series “Wiseguy,” he was the male half of the smuggler team of Mel and Susan Profitt (Joan Severance was his partner). He performed in a number of films, from a television-produced version of “Long Day’s Journey into Night” (1988) to such big-screen efforts as “Henry & June” (1990), “Consenting Adults” (1992) “Glengarry Glenn Ross” (1992), “Outbreak” (1994) and “Seven” (1995).

Yet it was his turn in the 1994 independent film “Swimming With Sharks” that first showed his full range. Playing a vitriolic, unscrupulous and utterly unredeeming movie executive, Spacey made “Swimming” a hit of the film-festival circuit.

It’s only natural, then, that upon turning to direction, Spacey would demonstrate a knack for pulling good performances from his actors. He demonstrates that ability in the indie film “Albino Alligator,” which stars a variety of talents such as Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, Faye Dunaway, Joe Mantegna and M. Emmett Walsh.

The film’s concept is a simple one: Three would-be thieves (Dillon, Sinise and William Fichtner) get mistaken for international arms dealers. And when they stumble into a late-night bar to escape, they end up taking the bar’s patrons hostage.

Staged like a play, “Albino Alligator” - whose title comes from a southern saying about sacrificing the weak so that the strong can survive - is a exercise in mounting tension. Not all of it is believable, and a lot of it feels familiar (written by Christian Forte, son of the ‘50s heartthrob Fabian, it is a loose adaptation of the Humphrey Bogart classic “The Petrified Forest”).

But Spacey keeps the heat on, and such worthy performers as Dunaway, Sinise, Dillon and Fichtner (“Contact”) respond with what may be their best work ever. Rated R.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo