Fun and Inspired 'Quest' By Jane Horwitz Special to The Washington Post Friday, May 15, 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 "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 and Why "Deep Impact." Comet threatens Earth in turgid, ponderous sci-fi epic. Not too intense for many 10 and up. Profanity; mild sexual innuendo. "Black Dog." Pointless, plotless highway chase flick. Vehicular mayhem, fisticuffs, gunplay, bloody wounds; rare strong profanity; mother, child threatened. "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. "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. More Art Films and R's "Shooting Fish" (PG). Cute con artists bilk English folk in frothy, forgettable, off-the-wall comedy. Verbal sexual innuendo, toilet humor and profanity. "Wild Man Blues" (PG). Documentary follows Woody Allen and his Dixieland band. Rare profanity. Mature high-schoolers. "The Chinese Box" (R). Moody tale of journalist struggling with mortality, unrequited love in last days of Hong Kong changeover to China. Explicit sexuality; profanity; rare violence. High-schoolers. "TwentyFourSeven" (R). Bleak, semi-tragic tale of idealistic bloke who starts teen boxing club in English slum. Profanity; drug use; fistfights; nudity; unintelligible accents. High-schoolers. "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. "Woo." Jada Pinkett Smith as party girl on date with uptight lawyer in crude, underwritten comedy. Profanity, racial slurs; liquor, marijuana; mild sexual situation; slapstick fight. – Jane Horwitz

"Quest for Camelot" (G)
Kids 6 and up will find plenty to capture their fancy in this fun and occasionally inspired animated musical, loosely based on Arthurian legend (and the novel "The King's Damosel" by Vera Chapman) and given a feminist lilt. They'll see a two-headed dragon that argues with itself (voices of Eric Idle and Don Rickles), a scary fire-breathing dragon, a giant ogre, sword battles and, of course, romance. Some kids under 6 will love it; others will be spooked by the battles and weird creatures. Purists may cringe at the anachronistic humor about lava lamps and Elvis and the implication that Stonehenge was built in Arthurian times, not thousands of years earlier.

The heroine, Kayley, is the daughter of Sir Lionel, a knight of the Round Table who dies defending King Arthur from a would-be usurper, Sir Ruber. Years later, Ruber launches his maniacal plan to invade Camelot and takes Kayley's mother hostage. Kayley, who has longed to be a knight like her father, sets off to warn the king. In the spooky Forbidden Forest she meets a blind hermit who helps her on her quest and wins her heart.

"The Horse Whisperer" (PG-13)
A long, leisurely, delicately acted character study set in the starkly beautiful West, this is a story of people and animals with grave emotional and physical wounds-and how they heal. Though they may chafe at the slow pace, thoughtful teens should be moved by the film and identify with the troubled young girl. The PG-13 reflects rare profanity and barely implied sexual innuendo, but doesn't prepare you for the harrowing horse-vs.-truck accident that begins the story. Anyone who can't watch animals suffer, even in a simulated stunt, should be warned.

Based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Evans, "The Horse Whisperer" is about a high-strung and bossy magazine editor, Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas), and her teenage daughter Grace (Scarlett Johansson). Grace loses a leg and her horse, Pilgrim, is frightened nearly to insanity in the accident. Annie and Grace drive Pilgrim from New York to Montana to see whether horse expert Tom Booker (Robert Redford, who also directed) can help him. He can, and the ranch life mellows mother and daughter, too. Tom's strong, silent charms also threaten Annie's strained marriage and give her daughter a new fear. Note to lovers of the book: The ending has been radically softened.

"Artemisia" (R)
A fascinating chapter in European art history has been fictionalized and unduly eroticized in "Artemisia," a steamy costume drama appropriate only for high-schoolers and of interest to only a few. The rating means nudity and explicit sexuality. A French film with English subtitles, "Artemisia" looks at the life of the painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who became famous in the early 1600s-unheard of for a woman. She studied with an artist whom her father later accused of raping her. The film implies that the affair was consensual and helped her art. Feminist scholars take issue with that, but other elements in the film, such as artists' techniques and period atmosphere, are well evoked.