"Tattoo" opens so promisingly that its crucial scenes are doubly disappointing.

The book opens promisingly, with Gojiro at home on Radioactive Island, somewhere in the nuclear-tested Pacific.

He makes several tentative stabs at polite conversation, stammering sentences that open promisingly and end up trailing off doubtfully.

A jumble of contemporary and, frustratingly, undated talking-head interviews, undated archival film material and still photographs, the film opens promisingly.

The dance opened promisingly with two solos with a jazz-dance feeling.

"Basins," choreographed by Mr. Beck and Nancy B. Hill, opened promisingly with the potent visual image of a man dressed in a black religious habit.

Scotland opened promisingly but Benoit Bellot's downwind, downfield punting made it difficult for the home side to sustain pressure.

The evening opened promisingly with Kenny Rankin crooning an a cappella semi-improvisatory "Always."

The hunters become the hunted March 1943 opened promisingly for the U-boats.

The fourth quarter opened promisingly for Calgary.