The Boring 'Blues' By Jane Horwitz Special to The Washington Post Friday, May 8, 1998

Also Playing Okay for Tots on Up "Barney's Great Adventure: The Movie" (G). Barney and pals chase magic egg in well-made whimsical tale. Kids 2-6 can sing along sometimes, only worry when egg nearly falls. Better for 8 and Up "Paulie" (PG). Smart, chatty parrot has cross-country adventures looking for little girl it belonged to in disjointed, bittersweet fable. Themes of separation and loss; rare, mild crude language; youngest may cringe at clipping of Paulie's feathers. Okay for 10 and Up "My Giant" (PG). Talent agent Billy Crystal convinces 7'7" Romanian- basketballer Gheorghe Muresan-to try movies in sentimental, but amusing buddy comedy. Scary-comic car wreck; rare profanity, mild sexual innuendo; gross vomiting scene. "Lost in Space" (PG-13). Special- effects-laden update of '60s TV show starts out fun, grows corny. Not too intense for many preteens. Occasional profanity; mild sexual innuendo; fights; creepy creatures. PG-13's "Les Miserables." Solid, uninspired adaptation of Victor Hugo novel of redemption in 19th-century France. Prostitutes; semi-nudity; verbal sexual inuendo about child; muted violence, explosions; fatal illness. "City of Angels." Nicolas Cage as restless celestial falls for human Meg Ryan in gorgeous but sentimentalized Hollywood take on 1988 German gem, "Wings of Desire." Child dies in upsetting early scene; mild sexual situation; subtle sexual innuendo; brief nudity. "Sliding Doors." Clever, poignant romantic tale traces woman's life in two directions based on whether she gets on a London subway or misses it. Steamy, not graphic bedroom scenes; rare profanity; out-of-wedlock pregnancy discussed. Art Films and R's "He Got Game." Spike Lee's flawed, long, but oft-inspired morality tale of big-time sports, inner city teens. Denzel Washington as convict dad with hoop star son. Explicit sex scenes, nudity; family violence; profanity; drugs, booze. Mature high-schoolers. "Sour Grapes." Cousins bicker over slot machine jackpot in cynical, sometimes funny comedy about selfish schemers from creator of "Seinfeld." Mean-spirited racial, ethnic stereotypes; strong language; masturbation jokes. Older high-schoolers. "The Big Hit." Hit man framed for kidnapping in flawed, funny farce. Gun, knife mayhem; dismembered body glimpsed; nudity; sexual situations, including near-rape; profanity; liquor; ethnic stereotyping, misogyny. – Jane Horwitz

"Wild Man Blues" (PG)
Teens would have to be die-hard Woody Allen fans or lovers of Dixieland jazz to like this documentary. Barbara Kopple's fascinating, apparently candid study of Allen on a 1996 European tour playing clarinet with his beloved jazz band will bore teens silly but intrigue many adults. Allen comes across as even more self-absorbed than his movie persona as a nerdy, anxious hypochondriac. The music is catchy, and Allen can't help but be funny. The mild rating reflects rare profanity.

"Deep Impact" (PG-13)
A dreary, lugubrious, sentimental sci-fi epic about a huge comet threatening to wipe out civilization on Earth, "Deep Impact" is so awful it makes annihilation seem a rather pleasant prospect. Kids 10 and up can probably handle the film, for it rarely gets intense -- the "extinction level event" looks fake despite the latest special effects -- but they'll lose patience with it. The rating involves profanity and mild sexual innuendo.

Tea Leoni plays the ambitious but incompetent TV reporter who breaks the story. Her relationship with her divorced parents (Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell) is one of many meandering subplots. Another is a teen romance (featuring Elijah Wood) that turns serious at the prospect of death. And another is the crew of astronauts led by Robert Duvall in an effort to nuke the comet. Duvall and Morgan Freeman as the president are convincing, even when the movie around them has no impact at all -- deep or otherwise. Kids who get nightmares about such things should probably stay away.

"Black Dog" (PG-13)
There is absolutely nothing to recommend about this third-rate action film except that its lack of story is padded with spectacular truck chases, crashes and explosions; "Black Dog" is really a cinematic tractor pull. Teens (and no doubt some kids 10 and up) into such bumper-car epics may enjoy the ride. The rating encompasses vehicular mayhem, fisticuffs, gunplay resulting in a couple of bloody wounds, and occasional strong profanity. A mother and child are threatened at gunpoint.

Patrick Swayze shifts into macho overdrive as a trucker just out of prison for causing a fatal highway accident. Unable to drive big rigs legally, he agrees to haul contraband weapons. After the plan goes sour, he just wants to come out alive.

"Woo" (R)
The Woo of the title is a bossy but gorgeous New York party girl (Jada Pinkett Smith) who goes on a nightmare blind date with a bespectacled lawyer (Tommy Davidson). Woo appears to have no profession other than shopping, dancing and manipulating men. Each supposedly learns a lesson about understanding, but they argue a bunch before they fall in love. High-schoolers may roar at the date humor and crude jokes, but this isn't much of a movie, even with cameos by comic Dave Chappelle, rapper LL Cool J and actor Billy Dee Williams. Inappropriate for kids under high school age, "Woo" contains much profanity, verbal and visual sexual innuendo, frequent use of a racial slur, liquor and marijuana consumption, and a mild sexual situation. There's also a bit of slapstick fighting. Woe to "Woo," too, for fleshing out its nothingness with cheap, homophobic and sexist humor, along with jokes at the expense of the overweight and hearing-impaired.