Best Bets / FEBRUARY 20-26, 2000

MOVIES

The thriller “Reindeer Games” stars Ben Affleck, right, as an ex-con all set to start a new life with the girl of his dreams, Charlize Theron, but bad guys Gary Sinise and Clarence Williams III have other ideas. Directed by John Frankenheimer from Ehren Kruger’s script. Opens wide Friday.

MUSIC

Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” comes to Opera Pacific in four performances at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Tuesday through next Sunday. In the title role, French soprano Sylvie Valayre returns; her Des Grieux is played by both Hugh Smith and Patrick Denniston, alternating; Lescaut is sung by Frank Hernandez. John DeMain conducts, and Bernard Uzan is stage director.

THEATER

“Martin Guerre,” a romantic musical set against the backdrop of the religious wars of 16th century France, is based on the legend of a soldier who comes to a small village, claiming to be a man who disappeared mysteriously seven years earlier. Written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, the new version of the epic opens Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre.

DANCE

In its full-evening dance drama “Kanata,” the contemporary Japanese neo-Expressionist ensemble Buto-sha Tenkei creates a haunting metaphor for the bridge between the living and the dead. With the amazing Mutsuko Tanaka as its principal dancer and Ebisu Torii as its choreographer-director, the four-member company performs Saturday in the Japan America Theatre downtown.

VIDEO

“Double Jeopardy” was one of the surprise hits of last fall. Ashley Judd proved she could be a box-office draw with her performance as a married woman who is unjustly sent to prison for murdering her husband. Tommy Lee Jones stars as her parole officer, and Bruce Greenwood is Judd’s conniving husband. The thriller hits video shelves Tuesday.

POP MUSIC

A little less than a year ago, George Jones was critically injured in an auto accident. Now he has added to his legend with two Grammy nominations--one of them for best country album for “Cold Hard Truth”--the record he was in the midst of recording when his SUV spun out. Jones warms up for the big night with a concert Monday at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center.

ART

From detailed cookbooks to a full-scale sugar sculpture, “The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals” documents the elaborate culinary feats created in European cities and courts during the 17th and 18th centuries. Opening Saturday at the Getty Research Institute, the exhibition will include some 70 prints of “grand edible monuments.” Cookbooks and serving manuals on the art of making desserts in the form of palaces, festival books and a sugar sculpture by culinary historian Ivan Day will also be featured.