FAMILY FILMGOER By Jane Horwitz Special to The Washington Post Friday, October 13, 2000

Also Playing Kids 5 and Older "Digimon: The Movie"(PG). Feature based on hit TV toon puts cyber-savvy kids in adventures with Digital Monsters, or Digimon, that materialize via computers, turn from cuddly pets into good or evil monsters, do battle, eat Internet data, launch missiles in incoherent kid flick that looks like wallpaper. More violent than G-rated "Pokemon" features; toilet humor. Mature Pre-Teens and Older "Remember the Titans"(PG). Denzel Washington in inspiring, but TV-movie-ish feature based on first African American head coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. circa 1971 – how he overcame prejudice, won respect, how black and white kids did, too. Racial slurs; rare profanity; understated violence. Sugarcoated, but okay preteen intro to history of civil rights, race relations. PG-13s "Meet the Parents." Robert De Niro as picky, paranoid retired CIA agent, Ben Stiller as nurse who tries desperately to prove worthy of marrying the man's daughter in amusing comedy that never quite becomes hilarious. Occasionally crude verbal, visual sexual innuendo; toilet humor; profanity; marijuana jokes. R's and One Unrated "Dr. T and the Women." Richard Gere and all-star female ensemble in gently amusing fable from Robert Altman about wealthy gynecologist who treats overdressed women, whose pampered wife goes loopy, whose daughters are in turmoil and who finally changes his life. Sexual innuendo; nudity; gynecological examination and birth scenes; smoking, drinking; profanity. Older high-schoolers. "Dancer in the Dark." Gut-wrenching, odd film stars Icelandic pop singer Bjork as simple, saintly, near-blind Czech immigrant in 1960s United States who saves factory wages to get son an eye-saving operation, but is devastated by a betrayal and blocks out ugliness by imagining herself in musical numbers; Catherine Deneuve as her pal. Two violent deaths. Mature high-schoolers. "Get Carter." Sylvester Stallone as grim mob enforcer who goes home to investigate, avenge brother's death in well shot but unintelligible remake of 1971 British film. Mildish R – fights, chases, shootings done with flair, but no bloodletting; subtle verbal, visual sexual innuendo implying rape of teen girl on video; profanity; drugs; smoking, drinking. High-schoolers.

"Best in Show" (PG-13, 90 minutes)
A deliciously droll sendup of dog shows and the humans who participate in them, "Best in Show" is a naughty PG-13, but most of its off-color humor is likely to go over the heads of preteens and even some young teens. In fact, the satire may not amuse them as much as the slapstick elements and toilet humor. The sexual innuendo is comic, implying one character's promiscuity, another couple's sex habits.
Directed by Christopher Guest, who gave us the equally amusing "Waiting for Guffman" (R, 1997) and was part of "This Is Spinal Tap" (R, 1984), "Best in Show" was improvised by a gifted cast playing, among others, a bickering yuppie couple (Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock) with a Weimaraner; a Midwestern couple (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) with a terrier; a country guy (Guest) with a bloodhound; and gay partners (John Michael Higgins, Michael McKean) with a Shih Tzu.

"The Contender" (R, 130 minutes)
A glib, fast, crisply acted political potboiler that tackles real issues, "The Contender" gives political junkies a fine sideshow this election season. Explicit sexual language, sexual-themed photos and briefly graphic sexual situations make it problematic for high-schoolers under 16. Other mature ingredients are partial nudity, profanity, smoking and drinking. The film's liberal stances may put off some.
Set in the near future, the story recounts how a second-term Democratic president (Jeff Bridges, in a terrific, hearty performance) nominates a female senator (Joan Allen) to succeed his deceased vice president. Hearings before a House committee led by a vengeful GOP leader (Gary Oldman) unearth sexual shenanigans that the senator may have committed in college. She refuses to confirm or deny, insisting that her right of privacy is absolute.

"The Ladies Man" (R, 87 minutes)
Yet another popular "Saturday Night Live" character gets a whole movie to him/herself, but this is better than usual – an extended comedy skit that's juvenile in its silliness, adult in its humor and fairly funny. Many parents will consider "The Ladies Man" too lewd for high-schoolers under 16, though many teens will want to see Leon Phelps's flick.
He's the sex-talking Lothario with the Afro and the disco duds created by former "SNL" regular Tim Meadows. The script bristles with explicit sexual innuendo and crude slang and includes jokes about promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, posters showing sexual positions, nude scenes, gags about attempted suicide, toilet humor and characters using liquor and cigarettes. Suave but dumb, Leon loses his job as a radio call-in host because his amorous advice is too explicit. While he and his producer pal Julie, (Karyn Parsons), look for a new gig, a posse of cuckolded husbands trails him.

"Lost Souls" (R, 102 minutes)
Handsomely designed, moodily filmed, better acted and less violent than other recent films in the genre, this fable of demonic possession offers nothing new or memorable to ponder. Still, teens who like occult thrillers may find "Lost Souls" provocative. As directed by Janusz Kaminski, the movie deals, thankfully, more in tension and creepiness than in mayhem. There are moderately intense hallucinations and demonic-sounding voices, and the icky sight of someone's limbs dislocating under Satan's thrall. Other mature elements include muted gun violence, talk of an incestuous birth and a suicide, occasional profanity and smoking.
Winona Ryder plays a devout Roman Catholic who has reason to believe that an author (Ben Chaplin) of books about the criminal mind is about to be inhabited by the Devil and will become the Antichrist. He, needless to say, remains incredulous for a good while until events prove otherwise. Then he must decide what sacrifice to make.