DVD REVIEWS CATCH 'RUNAWAY JURY' ON VIDEO.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

It would be naive to think that psychological profiling of perspective jurors doesn't occur in the American legal system. After all, it had been employed by the legal defense team in the Angela Davis trial some 30 years ago, and it was reported then that even some jurors who acquitted her had joined her in a post-trial victory celebration.

Undoubtedly over the years, the tactics of finding jurors who will be sympathetic to your client - either in a civil or criminal case - have grown more sophisticated, meaning that only those who can afford the expense - the rich - can employ them. (Can you think of anyone with money who has gotten off and didn't seem to deserve it?)

Whether such tactics have grown to such a degree as those employed by Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman), an amoral jury consultant employed by a gun manufacturer (it was a tobacco firm in the book) in ``Runaway Jury,'' the latest adaptation of a John Grisham courtroom potboiler, is unlikely. Fitch and his team, holed up in a warehouse, are seen using all sorts of high-tech equipment - from spy cameras (including in the courtroom) to phone taps and computer searches that pull up possible embarrassing information potential jurors.

Directed by Gary Fleder, ``Runway Jury'' pits Fitch, who is the man behind gun-company defense lawyer Cable (Bruce Davison), against wily Southern lawyer Wendall Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), who is suing on behalf of his client who lost her husband when a disgruntled employee shot dead 11 co-workers using a semiautomatic weapon he had purchase illegally. Added to this legal high-stakes game is a wild card - Nick Easter (John Cusack), whose attempt to avoid jury duty so angers the judge (Bruce McGill) that he nearly forces the lawyers to empanel the video-game-store clerk. It soon becomes apparent that Easter has his own agenda and a few psychological tricks up his sleeve as well as having an outside accomplice (Rachel Weisz).

While the characters in ``Runway Jury'' are out to manipulate the jury, the filmmakers are out to manipulate the audience. Luckily, they still allow enough room for the stars to maneuver. The taller Hackman, with his goatee and menacing stare, looks like Satan incarnate with an expensive suit, and the Oscar winner underplays to great effect. Hoffman, with a suspect Southern accent, comes across as a smarter-than-average everyman with a conscience who's being outgunned. Easter is the most interesting character. Seemingly a clown at first, he keeps his smarts and cleverness close to the vest, and Cusack uses that caginess to his advantage.

If ``Runaway Jury'' seems overwrought in the end, it still has plenty of entertaining moments and makes some cautionary - if clearly overly paranoid - points about the justice system.

The DVD has commentary from the filmmakers and stars, but it might have been more interesting to have brought in a legal expert to talk about how psychological profiling on juries is really used today.

``Runaway Jury'' (Fox; $27.98) includes commentary by Fleder, scene- specific commentary by Hackman and Hoffman, deleted scenes with optional commentary and five featurettes.

Get back to 'Blow-Up'

Michelangelo Antonioni's ``Blow-Up'' became part of pop culture in 1966, despite the fact that it was really an artistic study of perception. Set in swinging London, it involves hedonistic fashion photographer Thomas (the late David Hemmings), who snaps a series of photos from a distance of two lovers in a park. After developing the pictures, Thomas spots something - a man with a gun - and returns to the park to investigate, only to find the man's corpse. But when he comes back the next day, the body is gone. Soon he is visited by the woman in the photo, Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), and ``Blow-Up'' evolves into a strange existential mystery.

What most people remember about the film - especially if you saw it around that time - were the orgy scene and appearance by the Brit rock band the Yardbirds (with both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on guitars) doing ``The Train Kept a Rollin'.'' The film today seems a bit dated, and Antonioni's moody style is far from the rapid jump cuts modern audiences are used to. But it is a visual film about seeing; so if you stay with ``Blow-Up,'' there are rewards.

Warners is also releasing two films by another great Italian director, Luchino Visconti. ``The Damned,'' starring the late Dirk Bogarde, examines the decadence in early '30s Germany as Nazism was taking hold. The story involves a power struggle for the fortunes of a giant family-owned steel company between Bogarde's outsider, the sleazy Bruckmann, and the disreputable grandson of the retiring patriarch, Martin (Helmet Berger), who is a bisexual, sadistic pedophile.

``The Damned'' is drenched in a baroque atmosphere of sex and evil. Spectacular at times, the film is often disquieting, but don't let that put you off.

``Death in Venice'' also has Bogarde, this time as the dying German composer Gustav von Aschenbach in the Thomas Mann novella. Aschenbach is obsessed with beauty, which extends to an angelic blond Italian boy named Tadzio (Bjorn Andersen) who he follows through the city. The film doesn't match Mann's literary work but has virtues of its own. Bogarde's performance is excellent. And while the discussions of art and beauty may be a bit ponderous, its beautiful cinematography and the music of Gustav Mahler (the third and fifth symphonies) will sweep you along. By the way, Mahler was Mann's model for Aschenbach, and in Ken Russell's musical biopic ``Mahler,'' he makes sly references to the Mann novella.

Blow-Up (Warner; $19.98).

``The Damned'' (Warner; $19.98) includes a feature on Visconti.

``Death in Venice''(Warner; $19.98) includes a behind-the-scenes featurette, ``Visconti's Venice.''

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) JOHN CUSACK in ``Runaway Jury''

(2) no caption (``Blow-Up'')

(3) no caption (``Death in Venice'')