TV Reviews : ‘The Fatal Image’ of Love in Paris

Ah, love. Ah, Paris, city of love. Ah, Americans on vacation in Paris, one with a video camera taking pictures of kissy-face lovers along the Seine . . . one of whom puts a gun in her boyfriend’s ribs and shoots him dead!

Put them all together and they spell “The Fatal Image,” which CBS airs Sunday night at 9 (Channels 2 and 8).

Mom Barbara (Michele Lee) and daughter Megan (Justine Bateman) are the innocents abroad, who come under murderous duress and finally realize that they have the fatal images on videocassette.

A handsome French detective is bemused at first--but matters quickly turn into a lot of automatic gunfire, clattering chases through town and tricky intrigues. And if that isn’t bummer enough, Megan is kidnaped.

Bateman gives a spunky edge to the daughter; Lee has a rougher ride, since she has a lot of sappy things to do and silly things to say; the others try seriously to take it all seriously.

The movie is worth faint praise. It has some perkiness but the plotting falls over itself and the jeopardy is about as scary as an ordinary evening of “Family Ties.”