It's too wet to carouse, so take in a movie this weekend. The Moscow Times recommends:





Makarov. Vladimir Khotinenko 1993's film poises a poet, Makarov, against a pistol, also called Makarov. The poet, a respected member of a provincial town, where he lives a comfortable, serene life with his family, unwittingly destroys his own life with his growing obsession over a pistol. As Makarov becomes increasingly obsessed, his family and personal life are destroyed. The film, starring Sergei Makovetsky and Vladimir Ilich, is intelligent, entertaining and thought-provoking. Saturday at 6 P.M. at the Kinoteatr Moskva, 1 Triumfalnaya Square. Tel. 251-5860. Nearest metro: Mayakovskaya.





Patriotic Comedy. Khotinenko's semi-fantastic story blends everyday life and the supernatural world with subtle irony and a playful sense of the uncanny. The beautiful Zinaida and her brother Mikhail live together in a dilapidated wooden house, sharing quarters with a benevolent, impish domovoi (house spirit), Pinya. Max, another domovoi, has negligently abandoned his own home and is plotting to lay seige to Pinya's "force." For all its playfulness, the film, which stars Makovetsky and Yelena Shamrayeva, affirms and reaffirms the theme of Russia -- the spiritual anchor for those who are born on her soil. Saturday at 8 P.M. at the Moskva.





City Slickers. Three American city boys head off to a dude ranch in the southwest for their annual get-away-from-the-wives vacation and become sensitive guys in the process. Touchy-feely scenes involving barnyard animals dominate. The film stars Billy Crystal and Daniel Stern, among others. Saturday at 5 and 8:50 P.M., with Russian voice-over, at Zaryadye, 1 Moskvoretskaya Naberezhnaya. Tel. 298-5686. Nearest metro: Kitai-Gorod.





I Love Trouble. Vapid, vapid, vapid -- but somehow watchable all the same. "Trouble" models itself after savvy, verbal drawing-room comedies like "His Girl Friday" -- films that made journalism look like the domain of wise-cracking, tough-as-nails adventurers. As reporters competing for a hot story, Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts come off as well-dressed but not much more. The story of their investigation and blossoming romance is mildly diverting, and it's amusing to think of journalists as people who wear Armani jackets, but the films is brainless and insubstantial. Saturday at noon, 4 and 8 P.M., with Russian dubbing, at Perekop, 33 Kalanchyovskaya Ulitsa. Tel. 280-4077. Nearest metro: Komsomolskaya.





Schindler's List. Steven Spielberg racked up seven Oscars for "Schindler's List," and no wonder. The film tells the story of a German war profiteer played by Liam Neeson who becomes so emotionally involved with his Jewish factory workers that he eventually risks everything to save them from concentration camps. With a few exceptions, the cinematography and acting display a most un-Spielberglike restraint, which saves "Schindler" from becoming gimmicky or maudlin, a la "The Color Purple." At three hours and 13 minutes, the film is a dense and exhausting experience, but you don't notice it until you walk blinking out of the film and realize what time it is. This is to Spielberg's credit. Saturday and Sunday at noon, 4:30 and 8 P.M. Monday to Wednesday at 4:30 and 8 P.M., in English and Russian, at the Americom House of Cinema, in the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel. Tel. 941-8890. Nearest metro: Kievskaya.





Duba-Duba. Andrei, a film student, organizes an escape from jail for his girlfriend Tanya, who fell in with a group of drug dealers. He robs a gangster king-pin for money, bribes a guard, and arranges Tanya's escape, only to discover that she is no longer in love with him. She is in love with the leader of the drug gang, Nikolai, in fact. She goes back to Nikolai, and is arrested again. The inevitable confrontation between Andrei and Nikolai is not for the faint-hearted. Alexander Khvan's 1992 film is good detective fare, with a post-modernist twist -- reminiscent of David Lynch, but not as free-wheelingly grotesque. As Andrei, Oleg Menshikov is an uncommon talent. Sunday at 6 and 8:30 P.M. at the Moskva.





The Freak. Roman Kachanov's 1992 "grotesque" (1992) comedy, written by new-waver Ivan Okhlobystin, traces the story of a young man who is less a freak than simply a person possessed with an other-worldly nature. The film, which features music by Joanna Stingray and Boris Grebenshchikov, stars Nikita Vysotsky and Stingray herself, showing off her charmingly flat American accent. Monday at 8 P.M..Oct 9 at 6 P.M. at the Moskva.





Love. Valery Todorovsky's 1991 film traces the rocky course of first love in the lives of two young couples. It is a film that manages to squeeze in everything from anti-semitism to teenage alcoholism, but the action weaves all of these themes together in a harmonious whole. Todorovsky, whose earlier works include the acclaimed "Adam's Rib," gives us a fresh look at the growing pains of Russia's young: Poised at the threshold of adulthood, they have to deal with grownup issues without the resources or maturity to do so. The acting is excellent, the language fresh, the plot absorbing. A must-see. Wednesday at 4 P.M. at the Moskva.





The Waltz of Peshevar. Two students at the Screenwriters' and Film Directors' Institute, Timur Bekmambetov and Gennady Kayumov, made this stylish feature 1994 film based on the riot of Soviet POWs in a Pakistani military camp. In 1984, 20 Soviet prisoners murdered their guards and radioed a desperate appeal for help only to have their message interpreted as a deliberate provocation. The film portrays these events in a series of chaotic collages of weary faces and sweaty bodies. Kaumov and Bekmambetov paint a ruthless portrait of the repressive pecking-order mentality of the Soviet Army. In June, this film won the Film Critics' Board prize at the Sochi film festival. Oct..8 at 6 and 8 P.M. at the Moskva.