An Unfavorable 'Martian' By Jane Horwitz Special to The Washington Post Friday, February 12, 1999

Also Playing Better for 8 and Up "Prince of Egypt" (PG). Gorgeous animated retelling of biblical Exodus tale dramatizes heroism and faith with drama, songs, rare humor. Scary bits: Angel of Death drawing last breath from Egyptians' firstborn; plagues of blood, locusts, hail; God speaking from burning bush; Hebrew slaves with whip scars; baby Moses in roiling Nile. Read kids Bible story first. PG-13's "She's All That." Teen golden boy courts nerdy artistic girl on bet in refreshing, witty high school romance. Crude language, profanity; non-graphic sexual situations; suicide joke, breast jokes; teens at party drink, seem stoned; gross gag with pizza; theme of parental loss. "A Civil Action." John Travolta, Robert Duvall in smart fact-based tale of slick personal injury lawyer who fights for families hurt by corporate pollution. Recurring theme of parents losing child, with upsetting flashback to moment of death; profanity; smoking. R's, etc. "The General." Fascinating, fact-based, black-and-white tale of legendary Dublin criminal who hated cops, Church, IRA equally. Brief, intense shootings, beatings, torture; implied molestation of boy by priest; profanity; smoking, liquor. High-schoolers. "Rushmore." Geeky prep school kid competes with Bill Murray's unhappily married millionaire for pretty teacher's love in kindly, oddball comedy. Profanity, verbal sexual innuendo; teens drinking, smoking; nude photos. High-schoolers. "Shakespeare in Love." Gwyneth Paltrow in literate, bawdy fantasy as Elizabethan lass who inspires young Shakespeare to pen "Romeo and Juliet." Steamy love scenes, some with semi-nudity; bloodless fights. High-schoolers. "A Simple Plan." Brothers discover fortune in downed plane, ruin their simple lives lying, killing to keep cash in well-acted but slow tragicomic tale. Violence; profanity; drinking; nudity. High-schoolers. – Jane Horwitz

"My Favorite Martian" (PG)
Special effects fail to fill the comic void in this lame update of the 1960s TV sitcom. The PG covers rare crude language, a joke about breasts and a creepy bit about detached Martian limbs. The Martian's true monster form may scare tots. Dreary though it is, the banana-peel humor in "My Favorite Martian" may amuse kids from 6 on up to 10- or 12-year-olds. Fans of the TV show will like seeing Ray Walston (the original Martian) as a UFO expert, but Christopher Lloyd as the Martian and Jeff Daniels as the reporter who discovers him are defeated by the hollow, heartless script.

"Blast From the Past" (PG-13)
Hilarious and warmhearted, "Blast From the Past" takes the fish-out-of-water story a step further, and lots of teens may want to swim along. The PG-13 reflects profanity, sexual innuendo and druggie-hippie jokes. Brendan Fraser plays 35-year-old Adam, who emerges from an elaborate fallout shelter where he and his eccentric parents (an inspired Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek) lived during and after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Now, believing the worst is over, they send him out to get supplies and Adam discovers life in the crude, rude '90s. His 1950s-style politeness dumbfounds folks he meets – particularly the tough – talking Eve (Alicia Silverstone). Love and enlightenment follow.

"Message in a Bottle" (PG-13)
An endless, soapy tale of love lost and found, filled with much sighing and swelling of violins, "Message in a Bottle" should win the hearts of many teen girls, possibly some younger. Aside from a central theme about loss, the PG-13 covers rare profanity, wine and beer drinking and a muted bedroom scene. Alas, the movie isn't very good, despite beautiful seascapes and a nice cranky performance by Paul Newman as hero Kevin Costner's father. The story focuses on a recently divorced woman (Robin Wright Penn) who finds a message in a bottle at Cape Cod. It's a moving note from a man to the woman he's lost. Touched and curious, she tracks down the man (Costner) and finds he's a boat builder from North Carolina still grieving for his dead wife. They fall in love and Dad approves, but obstacles ensue.

"Simply Irresistible" (PG-13)
"Simply Irresistible" was designed for girls 10 and up. The rating reflects mild sexual innuendo and occasional profanity, as well as wine and martini consumption. Two pretty actors, Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Sean Patrick Flanery ("The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles"), star in this cotton-candy romance. Gellar plays a chef whose restaurant is failing, while Flanery's a playboy who designs fancy eateries. He falls in love – first with her pastries and then, against his will, with her. A magical crab (honest) in her kitchen guides her in making food so aphrodisiacal that it makes the two lovers float up as they kiss – a bald rip-off of the film "Like Water for Chocolate" (R, 1992).

"Affliction" (R)
This searing portrait of a soul in torment moves slowly and subtly and may put off all but the most thoughtful high-schoolers. They'll be rewarded with a profoundly sad but compelling story (adapted by writer-director Paul Schrader from the novel by Russell Banks). The R reflects violence, not graphic by Hollywood standards except for a do-it-yourself tooth-pulling. Divorce, alcoholism and abusive parents figure strongly, and characters drink, smoke and swear. Set in a snowy New Hampshire town, "Affliction" follows the local cop (Nick Nolte, in a masterful meltdown) as he descends into an abyss of beery self-hate, failing to deal with the drunken father (James Coburn) who ruined his childhood and bedevils him still, and with a daughter who can't stand him.