DVD REVIEWS CTRL-ALT-DEL THIS LAST 'MATRIX'.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

``The Matrix Revolutions'' - the final installment of the trilogy - is more an exercise in noisy bookkeeping - tying up plot points, etc. - than revolutionary. Only Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News could love this film - and he did. That should tell you something about online critics.

The Wachowski brothers, the creative team behind ``The Matrix,'' were lauded for creating such an intriguing world in the first film - a solid mixture of philosophy, sci-fi and entertaining action - that everyone expected much from the sequels. When ``Reloaded'' fell short, part of it could be attributed to the second film being a bridge to the grand finale, but it's clear that the Wachowskis were running out of inspiration. (Or perhaps, I suspect, they never really know where they were going in the first place.)

``Revolutions'' isn't a complete failure. Taken on its own, it's a better-than-average action flick with its sometimes stunning special effects. The Wachowskis also have an eye for fascinatingly strange visuals that just pop up from time to time. That they don't seem to mean anything in the context of the overall story, however, turns them into simply mildly interesting diversions, which is what ``The Matrix'' franchise has become now that the last two films have lacked the creative firepower of the first one.

``The Matrix Revolutions'' (Warner; $29.95) includes a number of featurettes on different aspects of the making of the film and an online game.

`Grapes of Wrath' retains its power

John Ford's ``The Grapes of Wrath'' isn't quite as extensive as its source material - John Steinbeck's novel, which is a sympathetic portrayal of the Depression's poor and an indictment of the business establishment - but nevertheless it's a very powerful film. This is due as much to Ford's ability to capture the plight of the common man as it is to Henry Fonda's portrayal of Tom Joad, the Okie who has just been released from prison and returns to his family only to find a world of woe.

Forced to leave their home, which has been devastated by the Dust Bowl, the Joads look for work as farm pickers in California's San Joaquin Valley. There, like thousands of other migrants - who had no protection or help as workers - they are subject to whims of the farm owners. The migrants live in dreadful conditions, and attempts to organized them into a union are met with strong-arm tactics.

You've seen the photos by Dorothea Lange and Horace Bristol chronicling the woes of the Depression, and Ford, who won the directing Oscar, used them as inspiration for the film - which has been digitally restored for DVD - even going so far as to try to cast actors who looked like those he saw in Lange and Bristol's pictures. The film, with cinematography by the great Gregg Toland, boasts a number of fine performances, notably by Jane Darwell as the pillar of strength Ma Joad, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress, and John Carradine as a discouraged former preacher who finds a new spirit as he fights against injustice. But it is that final speech by Fonda - who should have won an Oscar - and the shot of his face that everyone remembers.

``The Grapes of Wrath'' (Fox; $14.98). Side 1 of the disc includes commentary with film scholar Joseph McBride and Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw. Side 2 includes a documentary on the film's producer, Darryl F. Zanuck, and three Movietone News reports on the Dust Bowl from 1934.

Get Clouseau

`The Pink Panther Film Collection'' (``The Pink Panther,'' ``A Shot in the Dark.'' ``The Pink Panther Strikes Again,'' ``Revenge of the Pink Panther'' and ``Trail of the Pink Panther'') offers the highs and lows of this franchise. (OK, not the low point. That's ``Son of the Pink Panther'' with Roberto Benigni.) Directed by Blake Edwards,``The Pink Panther'' (1963) had David Niven as the jewel thief who eyes the title diamond, but it was Peter Sellers as the bumbling and often incomprehensible French Inspector Jacques Clouseau who stole the movie.

The two best ``Panther'' films are ``A Shot in the Dark'' (1964) which was the first to focus on Clouseau, and ``The Pink Panther Strikes Again'' (1976), which is inspired lunacy from top to bottom. (Sellers' return to the screen as Clouseau in 1975's moderately funny ``The Return of the Pink Panther'' is not included her for legal reasons.)

``Revenge'' (1978) was the last to star the actor, who died in 1980, while ``Trail'' (1982) consists of a series of outtakes involving Sellers, while a journalist played by Joanna Lumley (``Absolutely Fabulous'') tries to track the missing Clouseau down. Both have their fun Sellers moments, but you have to wade through a lot of ordinary ones, too. All in all, though, there aren't many - if any - franchises that can supply so many laughs.

``The Pink Panther Collection'' (MGM; $69.96). Besides the five films, a sixth disc includes a documentary called ``The Pink Panther Story,'' ``Behind the Feline: The Cartoon Phenomenon,'' and six ``Pink Panther'' cartoons.

'Cheaper,' not better

It's hard to call ``Cheaper by the Dozen,'' starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, a remake of the 1950 family comedy starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy. Somewhere along the way, the current filmmakers dump charm and restraint for sitcom banality. Martin as Tom Baker is a football coach who has taken his dream job at a big-time university in the Midwest. Meanwhile his wife, Kate (Hunt), a former journalist, has published a best-selling tome on the trials and tribulations of raising her large brood and ironically must abandon her family for a book tour. That leaves the rambunctious kids to go wild. Well, not too wild - just enough to try to squeeze out a few laughs. When the film takes its inevitable serious turn (see the original movie and novel - but things are changed here), nothing has been substantive enough to that point to give it any weight. The new ``Cheaper By the Dozen'' isn't terrible, but it's not worth much more than a onetime rental.

``Cheaper by the Dozen'' (Fox; $29.90) includes commentary by director Shawn Levy, commentary by the actors who played the Baker kids and deleted/extended scenes.

Colorfully wonderful

Vincente Minnelli was only rivaled by the combo of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen in the direction of musicals. The 1944 Technicolor ``Meet Me in St. Louis,'' starring Minnelli's future wife Judy Garland, is simply enchanting, and like his other musicals, Minnelli took full advantage of Technicolor, creating some of the most vibrant scenes in film history.

In the film set in 1903, the Smith family are in turmoil. The oldest brother is headed to Princeton, the older sisters are looking for husbands, the father has been promoted to a new job in New York and the clan must leave their beloved home in St. Louis. While there are wonderful musical numbers like ``The Boy Next Door'' and ``The Trolley Song,'' watch the scene where Garland as daughter Esther sings ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' to her little sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) after the young girl has had a nightmare. It was a hallmark of Minnelli to wring real emotion out what in other hands might have been merely sentimental.

``Meet Me in St. Louis'' (Warner; $26.99). The two-disc set includes an introduction by Liza Minnelli, two featurettes on the making of the film and commentary by Garland biographer John Frock along with O'Brien and a number of others.

Victorian `View'

The 1985 ``A Room With a View'' made many of us sit up an take notice of then-19-year-old Helena Bonham-Carter, who starred as the respectable Lucy in this charming adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel about a young Victorian girl on a trip to Italy with her female chaperon. And standing out wasn't easy considering she was surrounded by the stellar cast of Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands, Daniel Day Lewis, Simon Callow and Judi Dench. From the filmmaking team of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the newly restored ``A Room With a View'' may be about the British upper-class, but the storytelling - smart and thoughtful - is hardly stuffy.

``A Room With a View'' (Warner; $26.99). The two disc set includes commentary by Merchant, Ivory, Callow and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts and featurettes on Forster and Merchant-Ivory films.

The TV spin

There are three TV series on DVD to keep in mind: ``Freaks and Geeks,'' Judd Apatow's 1999 NBC series about life at a Michigan high school set in the early '80s only clicked with critics, unfortunately. Anyway, here's your chance to catch up with one of the best shows on TV of the last decade. Then there's the first season of ``In Living Color,'' the hilarious sketch comedy show that made stars out of the Wayans brothers - Keenan Ivory, Damon, Shawn and Marlon - as well as Jim Carrey, and the seventh season of ``Friends.'' In case your wondering which one that is, it's the one where Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) are engaged.

``Freak and Geeks'' (Sony Music; $68.90) includes all 18 episodes on six discs, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes and commentaries.

``In Living Color - Season 1'' (Fox; 39.90). The three discs include all 13 episodes and two featurettes.

``Friends - The Complete Seventh Season'' (Warner; $44.90). The four discs include all 23 episodes as well as unseen footage and commentaries.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) KEANU REEVE, right, in ``The Matrix Revolutions''

(2) HENRY FONDA in ``The Grapes of Wrath''

(3) TOM DRAKE and JUDY GARLAND in ``Meet Me in St. Louis''