DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES `SUNSHINE' BURNS IN THE MEMORY.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Jim Carrey does serious right in ``Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,'' a film by Michel Gondry (``Human Nature'') from a script by Charlie Kaufman (``Adaptation''). Carrey plays bookstore employee Joel Barish, who has fallen in love with the dour Clementine (Kate Winslett). Somewhere along the way things have gone badly, and when Joel finds that Clem has had her memory of him and their affair erased, he wants the same dubious procedure done to him.

So Joel goes to Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) at Lacuna Inc., who tells him that the process is a form of brain damage (``On a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.''), but he opts for it anyway. He has second thoughts as a couple of lab technicians - Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo - comically carry out the eraser. This allows for a very dizzying Kaufman-esque mix that shuttles between the present and past, facts and the fantastic; so that what emerges is a disorienting reality. (I dare say it's akin to most of our own memories.)

Like other of Kaufman's scripts (``Being John Malkovich''), ``Sunshine'' is a bleak trip into the world of the emotionally stunted. It is, of course, broken up by Kaufman's odd wit and his sharp dialogue. (``Are we like couples you see in restaurants? Are we the dining dead?'' Joel asks.)

In a splendid performance, Carrey fills out the bland, socially inept Joel but without resorting to the manic muggings of his comedies. Instead he registers just enough emotion and recognition of his gloomy Gus existence to give life to the film. Eventually, ``Sunshine'' does allow some enlightenment on Joel's life but not before taking the audience on a long, strange trip. Like ``Malkovich'' and ``Adaptation,'' the film is easy to appreciate but sometimes may be a bit hard to swallow.

``Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (Universal; $29.90) includes a making-of documentary, a conversation with Gondry and Carrey, deleted scenes and a music video.

`Super Size Me,' `The Alamo,' `The Hunting of the President'

Morgan Spurlock's ``Super Size Me'' seems like a prescription for suicide. For 30 days, the documentarian ate nothing but McDonald's fast food - three meals or more a day, from hotcakes-and-sausage breakfasts to burger combo meals for dinner. Though while doing this he was supervised by three doctors and a nutritionist, the ravages of consistently inhaling McD's took its toll. He gained 18 pounds, sustained liver damage and was often out of sorts - including sexually.

Certainly, the film is in some ways a condemnation of the fast-food industry, but you also have to remember that this was an extreme lack of dieting. However, there is a sense of humor in how Spurlock approaches his goal as he travels around the country sampling McD's cuisine. Along the way he makes a case for the country being overfed on fast food - especially students who sometimes have it foisted on them by schools - while being stuffed with ads for bad foods that contribute to obesity and heart disease.

While Spurlock's methods may have been extreme (hopefully he won't use the same technique if he takes on pharmaceutical companies), his conclusions about the dangers of fast food should give anyone pause before biting into a Big Mac.

``The Alamo,'' directed by John Lee Hancock, is a spectacle that never really comes to life. The story of the famed battle in 1836 for Texas independence seems to carry the same doom that we see in the names of those that fought there - Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.

The film does have its virtues, though. Billy Bob Thornton's Crockett is not the bigger-than-life version we got in John Wayne's 1960 depiction of the story, but a man who knows his limitations and the reality of the situation. And Thornton's performance is well-modulated, making Crockett all too human. We also see that in the other men - Jason Patrick's dying Bowie and Patrick Wilson's Col. William Barrett Travis, the firebrand commander of the garrison.

There are also a number of well-choreographed battle scenes that bring home the terrors, heroics and stupidity of war. But ``The Alamo'' tries to be too much - there are flashbacks to an Indian massacre and an ending showing Mexican troops led by Santa Ana (Emilio Echevarria) getting their comeuppance from Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) and his Texicans. In the end, this undercuts the film. Still, it is a more honest work than what's come before.

``The Hunting of the President'' is a fairly interesting documentary about what Hillary Rodham Clinton called a ``vast right-wing conspiracy'' against her husband, Bill Clinton, when he was in the White House.

Directed by Nickolas Perry and Harry Thomason (the Hollywood producer and ``friend of Bill''), the film is not meant to be impartial, but it is credible enough with its interviews and documentation to make a legitimate case. Vast conspiracy would seem an overstatement, but there seems to be a number of Clinton foes whose hatred of the man was irrational, disproportionate to any mistakes he made. And it can be argued that their obsession to take him down had nothing to do with making the country a better place - perhaps more about dirty tricks and power. The documentary, though, suffers from the monotony of talking heads and odd choices in cuts.

``Super Size Me'' (Hart Sharp; $26.99) includes commentary by Spurlock, deleted scenes and an interview with Eric Schlosser, author of ``Fast Food Nation.''

``The Alamo'' (Touchstone; $29.99) includes deleted scenes and documentaries.

``The Hunting of the President'' (Fox; $19.98).

`Easy Rider,' `I Wanna Hold Your Hand'

When you look at Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, it's hard to imagine that it's been 35 years since the release of ``Easy Rider,'' which is out in a special-edition set. The success of the 1969 indie film about a couple of bikers (Fonda and Hopper) and their odyssey across America changed American film. The reason was not because of what Fonda and Hopper, who co-directed, did cinematically, but because the film opened a new pop-culture avenue and loosened up staid Hollywood. (Both Fonda and Hopper subsequently directed better films, by the way.)

Looking at ``Easy Rider'' today, it's definitely a film of its time, experimental in good and bad ways but still a trip. Nicholson, who became a star from this film, is terrific as a drunken lawyer who gets turned on by the pair. The soundtrack is a great collection of songs from the era.

Director Robert Zemeckis (``Back to the Future,'' ``Forrest Gump'') and executive producer Steven Spielberg brought the likable ``I Wanna Hold Your Hand'' to the screen in 1978. It's about four Jersey girls who try to meet the Beatles during their appearance on ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' during the Fab Four's first tour of America. They don't, of course, but there is lots of energy and cute high jinks, and the soundtrack is real Beatles music (17 cuts). The boys weren't in the film, of course; there are actors seen from the waist down impersonating them.

``Easy Rider (35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)'' (Columbia; $29.95) includes commentary by Hopper, interviews with Hopper, Fonda and others, a making-of documentary, the British Film Institute's book on the film and a CD of some of the music.

``I Wanna Hold Your Hand'' (Universal; $19.98).

`Leonard Bernstein,' `Silk Stalkings,' `Touching Evil 2'

Being old enough to remember ``Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts With the New York Philharmonic,'' I can attest that the maestro conveyed the joys of classical music to kids of all ages with the same verve and excitement as when he took the podium.

Despite the fact that I played guitar and loved rock and folk, I became a fan of Bach, Mozart and the rest of the classical greats thanks to Bernstein. But the series actually did more than that; it opened my ears to other types of mucic - from world to jazz to electronic (we're talking Stockhausen here, not dance music).

Now Bernstein's complete series, which ran from 1958 to 1973, is out on DVD. The conductor discusses some obvious questions, like ``What Does Music Mean?'' and ``What Is an Orchestra?'' But along the way he also tackles folk, jazz, Latin American music, Mahler (one of his favorites), Stravinsky, 3/4 time and Sibelius, all with the help of the N.Y. Phil to illustrate his points. Although the programs are obviously dated, Bernstein's verve doesn't date. There is no better introduction to classic music.

``Silk Stalkings,'' was an early-'90s cable series (USA) that combined mystery with the suggestion of something kinky. While the crimes (or sex) on the show was never as explicit or edgy as what's airing on cable now, Mitzi Kapture and Rob Estes, who played a pair of Palm Beach homicide detectives, did have a nice sexual tension between them that made the show watchable as they investigated murders amid a decadent high society.

``Touching Evil 2'' is from one of those superior British mysteries that makes most American crime shows pale in comparison. (Actually, USA did a reasonably good version of ``Touching Evil'' last year but apparently isn't bringing it back.) The British series stars Robson Green as Inspector Dave Creegan, a detective who's slightly crazed because of a near-death experience. He's paired with the more by-the-book D.I. Susan Taylor (Nicola Walker), who has learned to trust Creegan's more-bizarre techniques. Far darker and grittier than what you see see on network TV, ``Touching Evil 2'' is an intense experience.

Other notable TV box sets out today are also listed below.

``Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts With the New York Philharmonic'' (Kultur; $149.95) on nine discs.

``Silk Stalkings - The Complete First Season'' (Anchor Bay; $59.98) includes 22 episodes and an interview with the show's creator, Stephen Cannell.

``Touching Evil 2'' (WGBH; $39.95) on three discs.

``Strangers With Candy - Season Three'' (Paramount; $28.99) on three discs.

``Ellen - The Complete Season One '' (A&E; $39.95) 13 episodes on two discs.

``Homicide: Life on the Street - The Complete Season 5'' (A&E; $99.95) on six discs.

``Star Trek Voyager - The Complete Fourth Season'' (Paramount; $129) on seven discs.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) JIM CARREY and KATE WINSLET in ``Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind''

(2) MORGAN SPURLOCK in ``Super Size Me''