FREEZE FRAMES

ARMY OF DARKNESS - Macho guy battles monsters in medieval world. Among the sources that filmmaker Sam Raimi steals from are Mad magazine, the Three Stooges, special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, and a zillion old movies from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Fans of ultraviolent sword-and-sorcery nonsense will have a good time; others will head for the exit. (Rated R) LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE - Sex and food are chief ingredients of this Mexican historical saga about a young couple's long and complicated road to togetherness. Directed by Alfonso Arau with fashionable touches of magic realism. Laura Esquivel wrote the screenplay, based on her novel. "Como Agua Para Chocolate" is the original title. (Rated R) LOVE FIELD - Traveling through the South to attend President Kennedy's funeral, an unhappily married white woman gets involved with a somewhat mysterious black man and his little daughter. The film is not insightful enough to do justice to the subjects of American racism and sexism, but some scenes are sensitively acted. (Rated PG-13)