DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES IT'S GETTING A BIT HOT IN HERE.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Director Roland Emmerich says his first goal in a film is to entertain. Everything else comes after that.

So ``The Day After Tomorrow'' is not meant to be a message film about global warming, although the German-born Emmerich, like many in Europe, believes in the theory of climate change.

Judging by reviews, which either lambasted ``The Day After Tomorrow'' for stilted dialogue or bad science, you'd think the $125 million film was a failure. But it took in $186.6 million domestically and did even better overseas with $355.5 million. Still, Emmerich was a bit disappointed.

``It played so much better outside America.'' He noted that the film got good reviews in his native Germany, where he admits he usually gets slammed. ``But it was surprising how bad the reaction in America was.''

Before it opened, ``Day After Tomorrow'' had critics and scientists on both sides of the global-warming issue lining up to use the film to push forward their views.

Emmerich doesn't pretend that the catastrophe that befalls the Earth is likely to happen. But he insists that ``the cause of the disaster is total mainstream science, and it's everything happening in one storm that is Hollywood made up.''

Starring Dennis Quaid as a scientist whose warnings of an impending global weather disaster go unheeded and pooh-poohed by a Dick Cheney-like vice president, ``The Day After Tomorrow'' does boast some dazzling special effects. Emmerich has already destroyed large parts of the planet in the films ``Independence Day'' and ``Godzilla,'' but in ``Day,'' he has tornadoes ripping up Los Angeles, wiping out the Hollywood sign and finishing off the Capitol Records building among other things.

As for the story and dialogue, ``Day'' isn't any worse than those classic, cheesy disaster flicks like ``Towering Inferno.'' So just keep eyes

on the effects, and you'll be entertained.

In ``Raising Helen,'' Kate Hudson plays a career woman in the fashion world who suddenly becomes the guardian of her sister's three children after she and her husband are killed in a crash.

Even if you haven't seen something like this before (if that's possible), you'll think you have as Hudson's character is forced to grow up herself as she deals with her new responsibilities. And of course she finds love to help fill her once-vacuous life in the form of a good-looking, hip minister played by John Corbett. Director Garry Marshall (``Pretty Woman'') obviously has a thing for fairy-tale endings, but only Hudson's buoyant energy keeps this from being a horror story.

Better to check out Roger Michell's ``The Mother,'' written by novelist Hanif Kureishi. The story of a woman in her 60s (Anne Reid) having a sexual relationship with her daughter's boyfriend, a young hunk in his 30s (Daniel Craig), ``The Mother'' is a taut psychological drama. It's nakedness (sometimes literally) may be startling, but it's worth the effort.

``The Day After Tomorrow'' (Fox; $29.98) includes commentary, deleted scenes and a making-of documentary.

``Raising Helen'' (Buena Vista; $29.99).

``The Mother'' (Columbia; $24.96).

`The Battle of Algiers,'

`Bush's Brain'

For political junkies, the 1965 ``The Battle of Algiers,'' which shows Algeria's struggle for independence from the French, gets a special edition from Criterion that includes numerous extras. The film - called a ``powerful cry for Marxist revolutionaries'' - makes no apology for its politics. Shot in grainy black and white, which gives it a documentary feel, ``The Battle of Algiers'' has a timeliness about it as it shows Arabs trying to take control of their own destiny.

``Bush's Brain,'' which was just out in theaters, makes the case that Karl Rove - the president's chief political adviser, is the man - make that evil man - behind the puppet. The filmmakers - Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies Shoob - never completely make their case, but they show Rove as a man who knows how to attack the opposition, usually going after an opponent's strength. (Think Kerry's military record.)

``The Battle of Algiers - Criterion Collection'' (Criterion; $49.95) has the remastered film and a number of featurettes, including one on directors Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh and Oliver Stone talking about the film, on three discs.

``Bush's Brain'' (TLA; $19.99).

TV box sets

The first season of HBO's ``The Wire'' is the best of the TV box sets out this week. The richly textured series chronicles the failed drug war in Baltimore's inner city. Created by David Simon,``The Wire'' is gritty and compelling. If you don't get the pay cable channel, you're missing out on the best crime show on television.

In the early '90s, HBO aired the racy comedy ``Dream On,'' starring Brian Benben as Martin Tupper, a divorced New York City book editor. His ex (Wendie Malick) was happily remarried, and envious Martin was left to the worlds of dating and his fantasies, which were amusingly illustrated by clips of old TV shows. While ``Dream On'' doesn't achieve the heights of later HBO shows like ``The Larry Sanders Show'' or ``Sex and the City,'' it was pretty funny.

When ``Taxi'' started in 1978, Andy Kaufman's Latka, the Sunshine Cab Co.'s mechanic, was a minor character. The series' other breakout star was Danny DeVito, which gives you an idea of how offbeat ``Taxi'' was for network programming. The rest of the cast - Judd Hersh, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza and later Christopher Lloyd - helped make it one of TV best sitcoms ever.

The Wire - The Complete First Season (Warner; $99.98) includes all 13 episodes and commentary on five discs.

``Dream On - Seasons 1 & 2'' (Universal, $59.98) on five discs.

``Taxi - The Complete First Season'' (Paramount; $38.99) includes all 22 episodes on three discs.

`THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT,'

`BROADWAY - THE AMERICAN MUSICAL,'

`THE ROLLING STONES - ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS'

Some critics have noted that the great martial-arts films of today are like the great musicals of yesterday - all style, color and movement with plot secondary. But both can be sublime, whether the dazzling balletic fight scenes staged by Ang Lee in ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' or Fred Astaire's casual grace in the exquisite dance number ``A Shine on Your Shoes'' in Vincent Minnelli's ``The Band Wagon.''

Probably the best overview of the great Hollywood musicals was the 1974 film ``That's Entertainment,'' which both highlighted the era, which ran from the early '30s to the mid-'60s, and said goodbye to it. The film was so successful that two sequels were done - ``Part 2'' in 1976 and ``Part 3'' in 1994. The remastered films, plus a fourth disc containing three documentaries, are out in a handsome set.

While the sequels don't measure up to the first - which had all the classic scenes, like Gene Kelly splashing around in ``Singing in the Rain,'' that even casual movie fans know - there are still plenty of lesser-known but interesting moments, including Lena Horne in ``Cabin in the Sky'' in ``Part 3.''

There is a sadness to seeing the ailing Kelly in the last film. Both he and Astaire had been hosts/narrators for the first two, but Astaire was gone by ``Part 3,'' and soon Kelly would be, too.

Julie Andrews hosts ``Broadway - The American Musical,'' which airs on PBS starting Oct. 19. The documentary tries to tell the story of the Great White Way in relationship to the different aspects of American life that contributed to the musical. Some of those interviewed are Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Betty Comden, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Jerry Herman, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Joel Grey, Harvey Fierstein, Jerry Orbach, Arthur Laurents, Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Tommy Tune and Ben Vereen. If you're interested in musical theater, you'll probably enjoy ``Broadway - The American Musical,'' but you may want to judge for yourself and wait for the broadcast.

For something completely different, there's ``The Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll Circus,'' the documentary of the rock legends' 1968 staged show around the time of ``Let It Bleed.'' On board are John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull, The Who, Marianne Faithfull and Taj Mahal, plus some circus acts.

While the endeavor has its moments, it also seems like an item taken from a time capsule that someone thought would mean something but only seems odd.

The disc has some extra songs not part of the original program and the requisite commentaries, including ones from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

``That's Entertainment Trilogy Giftset'' (Warner; $49.92).

``Broadway - The American Musical (the PBS series)'' (Paramount; $59.99).

``The Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll Circus'' (Abkco Films; $19.98).

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) ``The Day After Tomorrow''

(2) DOMINIC WEST in ``The Wire''