Why a good film takes more than high ambitions; 'Where the Buffalo Roam', Starring Bill Murray and Peter Boyle. Directed by Art Linson.

How many bad movies are we going to get from the "Saturday Night Live" crowd? They TV humor is uneven, but their film humor tends toward the terrible: Witness Steve Martin in "The Jerk," etc. Even when the picture, itself had some merits, the "Saturday Night" participants rarely did themselves proud.

There have been exceptions to this regrettable trend -- mostly involving John Belushi -- but Bill Murray in the distasteful "Where the Buffalo Roam" is not one of them. He plays a movie version of Hunter S. Thompson, the prouedly drug-dazed journalist best known for his articles in Rolling Stone magazine. The film invites us to chuckle along with Thompson as he indulges in a series of objectionalble episodes.