CELEBRATE 'INDEPENDENCE'.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Every year during the Fourth of July celebration, Americans show their independence (at least from critical demands) by cramming themselves into multiplexes to gawk at Hollywood's latest blockbuster offerings rife with expensive action and special-effect sequences.

Rarely do any of these films make critics' top-10 lists, but, hey, so what? In 1996, the team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin rolled out ``Independence Day,'' a story of locust-like aliens that invade Earth. The plot, many critics thought, resembled a bad '50s sci-fi film. But Emmerich and Devlin, who are currently responsible for turning Mel Gibson into a Mad Max-like ``Patriot,'' charged ahead with so much panache that the ``biggest B movie of all time,'' as Variety called it, turned out to be a lot of fun.

Earlier this week - in true blockbuster fashion - Fox released the ``Independence Day Special Edition,'' a two-disc DVD. The first disc includes a special edition of the film with nine additional minutes of footage.

Most of the scenes help clarify the relationship between Randy Quaid, a drunken crop duster and former Vietnam War pilot who had been abducted by aliens (that description alone is enough to make most critics cringe), and his children. While they fit fairly seamlessly into the film, they don't really add much to it, either. The scene in which a crazed scientist (Brent Spiner) shows off the inner workings of the alien spacecraft to computer scientist David (Jeff Goldblum) does have some wit to it, though. Disc 1 also includes scene commentary from Devlin and Emmerich, as well as special-effects wizards Volker Engel and Doug Smith.

The interesting stuff is on Disc 2, which includes the original ending, where Quaid's character destroys the alien spacecraft while flying a biplane instead of a jet fighter. Even Devlin and Emmerich found this too ludicrous, but it's a hoot to watch. The disc also includes a 30-minute making-of documentary, which explains the wide range of special effects used in the movie, an alien invasion ``mockumentary'' and HBO's ``First Look'' featurette. Some of this is overkill; we learn in minute detail how they blow up the White House (it was a miniature).

What comes through is just how much thought and effort went into creating this film. Makes you glad they weren't trying to take over the world. Hmmm, maybe they were.

SPEAKING OF MEL: Although George Miller's ``The Road Warrior'' (1981) - the second part of the Mad Max trilogy - made Mel Gibson a star in America, it was Richard Donner's ``Lethal Weapon'' in 1987 that made him a superstar. Earlier in the month, Warners released the director's cut of the first three films in the series.

As Martin Riggs, the suicidal ex-Vietnam War special-service vet turn L.A. detective, Gibson is a hero with an edge - cool but vulnerable. Danny Glover as his older partner makes a nice counterpoint. As they chase after the bad guys, their buddy relationship develops, giving what might have been just a run-of-the-mill action picture an emotional underpinning.

``LW2'' (1989) is the best of the four films and introduces Joe Pesci as a mob-fleeing accountant who the boys have to guard. In doing so, Donner cranked up the humor, also using it to take advantage of Gibson and Glover's on-screen chemistry. All three DVDs, as expected, contain additional scenes.

OK, ``Independence Day'' and ``Lethal Weapon'' aren't new, but they're still fun and you won't have to wait in line at your local cineplex.

``Independence Day: Special Edition'' is $34.98. The price of the ``Director's Cut'' DVD of the first three ``Lethal Weapon'' films is $24.90 each.

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Photo: ``Independence Day,'' starring Will Smith, now comes in a two-disc DVD, which includes nine more minutes of footage.