Critics' Voices

MOVIES

ROCKY V. In his last fight he beat up on the whole Soviet Union, and look what happened to them! This time Rocky Balboa's goal is more modest: to become the street-fighting champ of West Philly. Sylvester Stallone goes for the heartstrings, not the head butts, and the movie is sloppily good-hearted: primal schmaltz.

THREE MEN AND A LITTLE LADY. The bachelor trio (Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson) of the 1987 box-office champ Three Men and a Baby are now in charge of a six-year-old. The jokes and plot lines are way older, and everyone plays breathlessly cute. Pablum for the masses: it'll make zillions.

TATIE DANIELLE. "She doesn't know you, and already she doesn't like you." That's how the French advertised this bracingly malicious comedy about an old auntie who upends every sentimental notion about the kindness of the aged. Now it comes to U.S. theaters. Will the Gray Panthers picket?

BOOKS

IN ALL HIS GLORY: THE LIFE OF WILLIAM S. PALEY by Sally Bedell Smith (Simon & Schuster; $29.95). An 800-page biography that flattens the image of the late self-inflating CBS founder and relentless socialite to 21-inch size and even smaller.

THE HOUSE OF BARRYMORE by Margot Peters (Knopf; $29.95). The rollicking lives and boozy times of Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore, the silver siblings of stage and screen whose character roles delighted millions but whose flawed characters inflicted havoc on their own lives and those of their children.

TELEVISION

A MOMENT WITHOUT TELEVISION (Cable, Dec. 1, 8 p.m. EST). Twenty-three cable networks will interrupt programming for one minute to dramatize the impact of AIDS. It's part of a two-day, 26-hour telethon, Unfinished Stories II: Artists and AIDS, sponsored by the Bravo channel.

DECORATION DAY (NBC, Dec. 2, 9 p.m. EST). James Garner plays a retired judge in a Georgia town who encounters the bitterness of a black World War II vet in this languid, treacly slice of Americana from the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

ART

THE TECHNOLOGICAL MUSE, Katonah Museum of Art. Inaugurating its stylish new building by Edward Larrabee Barnes, the former Katonah Gallery, 45 miles north of New York City, offers a survey of technology's impact on art, from 19th century folk objects to contemporary computer images. Through Feb. 3.

ANTHONY VAN DYCK, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Child prodigy, assistant to Rubens, Van Dyck rose to become a major artistic force in 17th century Europe and a potent influence on painters in the 18th century and beyond. Here are more than 100 examples of his bold virtuosity in portraits and religious and mythological scenes. Through Feb. 24.

AGAINST NATURE: JAPANESE ART IN THE EIGHTIES, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. A reverence for nature has shaped Japanese art for centuries, but these 10 artists born since 1950 break from the tradition in video installations, performance art, conceptual sculpture and other radical, Western-influenced modes. Through Feb. 3.

MUSIC

CARLENE CARTER: I FELL IN LOVE (Reprise). Country without sentiment, autobiography without tears. Carter's first album in seven years is not only a welcome return but also a reminder that she's one of the best down-home singer-songwriters around. Nothing could be finer.