Avoid 'Armageddon' By Jane Horwitz Special to The Washington Post Friday, July 3, 1998

Also Playing Okay for 6 and Up "Mulan" (G). Gorgeous animated fable based on Chinese legend of girl who goes to war in ailing father's place. Over-the-top comic elements detract slightly. Intense battle scenes, scary Hun invaders; tots may jump when Mulan's ancestors come alive; other children may be moved when she leaves home. "Quest for Camelot" (G). Spunky teen girl saves King Arthur from villainous knight in entertaining, jokey animated musical that gives the legend a feminist twist. Funny two-headed dragon, scary fire-breathing one, giant ogre, sword battles may scare tots. Okay for 10 and Up "The Truman Show" (PG). Profoundly clever falbe features Jim Carrey as unwitting star of TV soap who finds he's been surrounded by fakery all his life. Mild profanity; flashbacks of boy losing dad in sailing accident. "Godzilla" (PG-13). Mega-lizard takes Manhattan in uninspired but amusing udpdate of '54 classic. Less violent than "Jurassic Park" flicks; rare mild sexual innuendo, profanity. "Almost Heroes" (PG-13). The late Chris Farley and Matthew Perry as dim duo out to beat Lewis and Clark in dismal period farce. Binge drinking, poop jokes, rare profanity, semi-nudity, sexual innuendo, homophobic gags. PG-13's and Why "Smoke Signals." American Indian travels off Idaho reservation to retrieve ashes of long-estranged father in touching past-present tale of friendship, self-discovery that celebrates Indian culture, spiritual life, oral tradition. Rare profanity; drinking. Mature themes. "The X-Files." FBI duo Mulder and Scully track extraterrestrial microbes bent on colonizing humanity in long but arresting feature. Glimpses of gore; humans inhabited by wormy critters; shootings, explosions; profanity; drinking, smoking. "Can't Hardly Wait." Graduating high-schoolers' test romantic boundaries at party in semi-smart, semi-raucous comedy. Beer, hard liquor; implied marijuana use; muted sexual situation; suggestive dancing, necking; profanity, sexual innuendo; racial slur; shoplifting. Mostly R's – Arty'N Ordinary "Hav Plenty" Penniless writer, snooty rich girl fight mutual attraction in upper-middle- school African American comedy of manners that drags, but shows new director's promise. Profanity; graphic verbal sexual innuendo; steamy sexual situations. Older high-schoolers. "The Land Girls." Young Englishwomen volunteer as farmhands during World War II, find sex, romance, adventure in atmospheric tale. Explicit sexual situations, mild verbal innuendo; issues of loss. High schoolers. – Jane Horwitz

"Armageddon" (PG-13)
The action is loud, long and virtually impossible to follow in this second asteroid-headed-for-Earth movie of the summer. Still, teens and many kids 10 and up who balked at the snail's pace of "Deep Impact" may find "Armageddon" more to their taste in terms of speed and volume. But it's bloated with meaningless action sequences, jingoistic rah-rah dialogue and insultingly simplified science. It also takes nearly half of its 2 1/2 hours to get into space, and by the end it becomes as fake teary-eyed and pseudo-spiritual as the earlier film. The rating has to do with scattered profanity, a couple of understated love scenes, mild sexual innuendo, and scantily clad dancers in a bar. Violent moments include non-injurious gunplay and astronauts wounded in space with smashed helmets and bloodied faces. The sub-theme of losing a parent may also upset some young people.

Bruce Willis plays Harry, an oil drilling expert who, along with his macho crew, is recruited by NASA to accompany astronauts on two space shuttles up to the Texas-sized asteroid. They must drill a hole into its core and plant a nuke therein. Tensions between oil roughnecks and astronauts waste time, as does a love story between Harry's daughter (Liv Tyler) and his youngest crew member (Ben Affleck). It's just a sop to the ladies in a basically chauvinistic-in both senses-flick.

"Dr. Dolittle" (PG-13)
This Eddie Murphy-centered adaptation of the Hugh Lofting stories turns out to be a disappointment. Charmless and crude, it makes the animals as petty and crass as the people around them. Kids 10 and up may laugh at the thermometer-in-the-dog's-behind gag and the rat-with-gas joke but the movie won't tug at their emotions. And why should a film based on children's books be rated PG-13 at all? Because the filmmakers appear to have settled on toilet humor and animal copulation jokes to substitute for their lack of ideas, that's why. The movie's only endearing quality is a subplot about a Dolittle daughter who gets teased for her fascination with science and animals and learns that it's okay to follow one's own drummer.

Murphy plays Dolittle as a people doctor who has repressed the memories of his childhood ability to talk with animals. Just when he and his partners are about to get rich merging with an HMO, his ability comes back and he finds himself dogged by furry and feathery creatures who need medical help. Animal lovers can always find something endearing in a movie full of critters, but little thought seems to have gone into anything except the special effects. Unlike that mini-masterpiece "Babe" (G, 1995), "Dr. Dolittle" has no feeling.

"Out of Sight" (R)
A nifty thriller with a smart-alecky attitude and a welcome reticence regarding graphic violence, sex and language, "Out of Sight" should amuse and challenge high-schoolers with its time-twisting narrative. The R rating covers occasionally strong profanity and bloody gunplay in the finale. Characters also drink and talk about being high on marijuana. Based on an Elmore Leonard novel and directed with clever caprice by Steven Soderbergh, "Out of Sight" explores an eccentric array of on-the-edge characters who bumble more than they succeed.

George Clooney plays a nonviolent but notorious bank robber who escapes from prison and is immediately spotted by a beautiful federal marshal (Jennifer Lopez). Amid the chaos, he and his partner (Ving Rhames) kidnap her. Their mutual attraction generates much heat with little more than glances-and later on, an understated love scene in, by today's standards, a modest state of undress.