From "Schindler's List" to "Species." Yikes.

There's something disconcerting about seeing Ben Kingsley, the Oscar-winning actor who gave us an unforgettable "Gandhi," wielding an automatic weapon. Not to mention that odd, half-American accent he affects.

But there he is in the final moments of "Species," walking around in the sewers of Los Angeles with some kind of huge flame-thrower on his hip. (There's a metaphor for the film in there somewhere, but I won't pursue it.)

In recent interviews, Kingsley has said that making this film was a calculated career move, so that he won't be excluded from moneymaking, mainstream action films in the future. But it might instead simply have every sleazy filmmaker who ever turned out a straight-to-video horror film knocking on his door.

Kingsley is the kingpin among a familiar ensemble cast in "Species," playing a government scientist with ulterior motives. In the opening scene, he is attempting to terminate a top-secret experiment at Dugway — yes, our Dugway — which consists of combining alien and human DNA. The resulting, rapidly maturing creature appears to be a little girl (Michelle Williams, of last year's "Lassie"). And as she knows no other habitat than a glass cage in this secured facility, she doesn't take kindly to having her "home" flooded with cyanide.

So she breaks out, escapes Dugway and hops a train headed for Los Angeles. On board, she spins a gooey cocoon and matures to adulthood (European model Natasha Henstridge in various stages of undress). Once in L.A., she begins a predatory hunt for a man, so she can mate. Naturally, she finds a few volunteers, all of whom wind up dead in disgusting ways (including a head-bursting French kiss).

Meanwhile, Kingsley has organized a team of experts to track her down — a biologist (Marg Hel-genberger), an anthropologist (Alfred Molina), an empath (Forest Whitaker) and a hitman (Michael Madsen). Right.

As written by Dennis Feldman ("The Golden Child") and directed by Roger Donaldson ("The Getaway," "Cocktail"), the rest of the film is pretty simple-minded — the team stalks her, she stalks men in L.A. bars, and gross-out special effects stalk the audience. And for a couple of jump-out-at-you scares, a transient suddenly appears from behind a trash dumpster and a squirrel leaps out of a tree! Honest!

There is even an ill-advised and very chauvinistic attempt to create a romantic triangle with Madsen, Helgenberger and Molina. When Helgenberger literally leaps for joy because Madsen pays a late-night visit to her hotel room, women in the audience may groan.

As you might suspect from the television ad spots, "Species" steals liberally from "Alien," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "The Thing" and numerous other recent sci-fi thrillers. (With impressive if "Alien"-style creature effects designed by artist H.R. Giger, who won an Oscar for the original"Alien.")

Oddly, however, it seems to owe even more to an obscure 1991 yarn called "Eve of Destruction." That film had a female robot, a ticking time-bomb, running amok around the country. "Species" has a female half-alien/half-human, a tick-ing time-bomb of another sort, running amok in Los Angeles.

As both films concentrate more on shocks and gore than anything else, the effect is surprisingly similar.

And it won't take long for "Species" to become equally obscure.

"Species" is rated R for considerable violence, gore, sex, nudity and profanity.