DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES SMITH LOVES VIDEO.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

When director Kevin Smith calls himself ``a glorified straight-to-video filmmaker who gets a large theatrical window,'' he's not being totally disingenuous.

Smith knows he's improved as a director in the 10 years between his first release, the rough-edged, cheeky ``Clerks,'' and his most-recent film, the kinder and gentler romantic comedy ``Jersey Girl.'' But he also knows his strengths and likes.

``I'm a better storyteller now in that I don't solely rely on dialogue anymore,'' says Smith from his home in Los Angeles, adding that the look of the film depends primarily on who's shooting it. ``I'm all for pretty-looking pictures, but since 'Clerks' was my first movie ... and got favorable critical notices as a movie that looked like hell but still worked, I'm kinda still in that mind-set.''

His home, by the way, happens to be the former residence of pal Ben Affleck, who was in a few of Smith's movies - ``Dogma,'' ``Chasing Amy,'' ``Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back'' - before starring in ``Jersey Girl.''

That was a release ``fraught with peril'' for Smith, who thought the film would be an easy sell with Affleck, Jennifer Lopez and Liv Tyler on board, but that was before the disaster of ``Gigli'' and the tabloid frenzy that was ``Benifer.''

That led Smith to assume his familiar role as the ``voice of the movie,'' something that began when Miramax opted to send only him on tour to promote ``Clerks,'' and he became popular with reporters who liked to listen to the director's amusing stories. This has made him a personality, rare for most directors, even rarer for low-budget ones like Smith. (He's even done Panasonic commercials.) Of course, he did want to draw the line at having his face on the ``Jersey Girl'' DVD box. ``I called up Harvey (Weinstein, the head of Miramax) and said, 'Please, dude, don't put me on the box of the DVD.' ''

He's there anyway and doesn't hold it against Weinstein, who he says has always treated him fairly.

``Miramax always turned a nice profit off our stuff, both theatrically and when the films went to video; so they tend to leave us alone. ``And that Harvey Scissorhands stuff I never had to deal with personally.''

While ``Jersey Girl'' didn't set the world on fire in theaters, Smith credits Miramax with preventing the movie - which is a sweet comedy with a ring of truth - from turning into another ``Gigli'' after all the bad press on that film.

Besides, Smith says, his films do well on video, which may account for his earlier statement. (``Jersey Girl'' and a 10th-anniversary edition of ``Clerks'' are out today on DVD.)

``That's why I love video, man. Nobody will ever remember the box office for the movie, and it will live its life on video ...''

And Smith loves video stores (``Clerks'' was even set in one). The day we talked, he had just returned from his Tuesday (video-release day) shopping and had brought home two bagsful of DVDs - including a copy of the Olsen Twins' ``New York Minute'' ``because I have a kid.''

``You do weird, stupid things when you have a kid,'' he says, including making a romantic comedy about being a father. ``I wanted to see if I could pull off a PG movie, and I got close and pulled off a PG-13 movie. But I got that out of my system.''

Another of Smith's loves is comic books, and he has opened a new store in Westwood devoted to them called Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash (1045 Westwood Blvd., 310-824-1373), where from 5 to 10 tonight Smith will sign copies of ``Clerks'' and ``Jersey Girl.''

``Clerks (10th Anniversary Edition)'' (Miramax; $34.99) includes commentary, a documentary on the making of the film and the original movie on three discs.

``Jersey Girl'' (Miramax; $29.99).

ALFRED HITCHCOCK, JIMMY STEWART

Those who call themselves film fans will put ``The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection'' on their holiday wish list if they haven't already bought it themselves.

The nine films - seven new to DVD - range from OK Hitchcock, which is very good, to great Hitchcock - like ``Strangers on a Train'' and ``North by Northwest.'' The others are: ``Foreign Correspondent,'' ``Mr. & Mrs. Smith,'' ``Stage Fright,'' ``I Confess,'' ``The Wrong Man,'' ``Dial M for Murder'' and ``Suspicion.''

Spicing up the whole endeavor are wonderful covers on each DVD using original poster artwork, along with terrific documentaries and interviews with people who include director Peter Bogdanovich, ``Psycho'' screenwriter Joseph Stephano and film historian Richard Schickel.

``The James Stewart Hollywood Legend Collection'' includes two great Hitchcock films - ``Vertigo'' and ``Rear Window'' - as well as Anthony Mann's gritty psychological Western ``Winchester '73,'' plus ``Destry Rides Again'' and ``Harvey.''

The latter two showed off the deft, understated comedic touch of Stewart, one of Hollywood's most versatile actors, while in ``Winchester,'' he gave an edgy, intense performance. In the Hitchcock films, both of which explored different sides of obsession, Stewart gave nuanced, fascinating portrayals.

``The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection'' (Warner; $99.92) on 10 discs.

``The James Stewart Hollywood Legend Collection'' (Warner; $59.98) on five discs.

`COLUMBO,'

`MORK & MINDY,'

`ALIAS,'

`KEEN EDDIE,'

`AMERICAN DREAMS'

Maybe it's because of the fall TV season kicking off, or maybe it's a reminder that there were better things on television, but there are more than a dozen series box sets being released today.

A few titles leap to the top of the bunch, starting with ``Columbo - The Complete First Season,'' which starred Peter Falk as the disheveled, cigar-smoking LAPD detective. One gimmick used in the whodunit was following the killer - always a top-flight guest star - around for the first 20 minutes or so of the 90-minute show (it ran in rotation with other mysteries) as he or she committed the murder, before introducing Columbo.

The detective was inevitably dismissed by the killer as a buffoon, but Columbo - with his signature line, ``Oh, there's just one more thing ...'' always got his man or woman in the end.

Then there is ``Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season.'' One one level, it is a dumb show with a dumb concept - an alien from the planet Ork sent to Earth to observe humans. If anybody other than Robin Williams had been cast in the role, the show would have been dead by midseason.

But Williams was brilliant as Mork, using his improv skills (spaces were left in the script for the comic to ad lib) to make so-so situations flat-out funny.

``Alias - The Complete Third Season'' has something unique in ``An Unknown Chapter of Sydney's Missing Two Years Revealed.'' For those who follow the high-adrenalin series, CIA super spy Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) had disappeared for two years before the start of the third season, only to suddenly reappear with no memory of what happened. This animated featurette fills in the missing time, which was never fully explained.

While the series created by J.J. Abrams, who's directing the next ``Mission: Impossible,'' occasionally gets lost in its own mythology and is often convoluted (there's a group called the Covenant, and everybody is after something called the Rambaldi device), the show's kinetic energy and great cast more than make up for it. Besides the irrepressible Garner, the cast boasts some top-notch actors in Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin and Carl Lumbly, who manage to make some strange conversations about techno stuff or dark conspiracies sound normal. And when Syd's mother, played by Lena Olin, was nowhere to be seen, the series had some fun guest stars: Ricky Gervais, Justin Theroux, Djimon Hounsou, David Cronenberg, Quentin Tarantino, Vivica A. Fox and Isabella Rossellini.

It's called ``Keen Eddie - The Complete Series'' because Fox never figured out what to do with this smart, offbeat show about an American detective, Eddie Arlette (Mark Valley), who goes to work for Scotland Yard after botching a drug arrest in England. The humor of the show essentially centers around the clash of cultures between Eddie and his uptight female roommate, and his New York City style of detective work and the more prim British style. It also made for some fun mysteries. Throw in some wild, slightly kinky fantasies about one of Eddie's co-workers, and you know why the few who caught the series lament its demise and the rest of the television audience missed out.

``American Dreams - Season One (Extended Music Edition)'' also has a gimmick. The series set in the '60s uses contemporary acts to impersonate performers of the time who were on Dick Clark's ``American Bandstand.'' This set includes extended performances by a number of the acts, including Usher, Ashanti, Leann Rimes, Michelle Branch and India.Arie.

``Columbo - The Complete First Season'' (Universal; $58.98) includes the two original Columbo movies - ``Prescription: Murder'' and ``Ransom for a Dead Man'' and seven episodes on five discs.

``Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season'' (Paramount; $38.99) on four discs.

``Alias - The Complete Third Season'' (Buena Vista; $69.99) on six discs.

``Keen Eddie - The Complete Series'' (Paramount; $38.99) on four discs.

``American Dreams - Season One (Extended Music Edition)'' (Universal; $89.98) on seven discs.

Other notable series coming out today are listed below. Though some of the sets include extras, for space reasons we did not include information on them:

``Angel - Season Four'' (Fox; $59.98) on six discs.

``Magnum, P.I. - The Complete First Season'' (Universal; $59.98) on four discs.

``Will & Grace - Season Three'' (Fox; $44.98) on four discs.

``Everwood - The Complete First Season'' (Warner; $59.98) on six discs.

``My Favorite Martian - The Complete First Season'' (Rhino; $39.98) on three discs.

``The Twilight Zone - Season One'' (New Line; $59.98) on six discs. Note that this is the revived 2002 series, not the old Rod Serling show.

``Without a Trace - The Complete First Season'' (Warner; $59.98) on four discs.

`THE LADYKILLERS,'

`THE PUNISHER,'

`IRON JAWED ANGELS'

Coen brothers films either tend to be gems (``O, Brother, Where Art Thou,'' ``Fargo''), odd and hard to warm up to (``Barton Fink''), or odd and likable (``The Big Lebowski''). ``The Ladykillers,'' the reimagined version of the 1955 Alec Guinness heist comedy starring Tom Hanks, falls uneasily into the last category. That's mostly because of Hanks' strangely effective performance as Professor Goldthwait Higgins Dorr, who oversees a gang of knuckleheads as they plan the robbery of a riverboat casino, and Irma P. Hall as the hilarious landlady of the house where the criminals have set up shop. While uneven - the Coens never find the right tone, it still generates some laughs.

Based on a Marvel Comics superhero series, ``The Punisher'' plays out as a long revenge film. Thomas Jane plays Frank Castle, a retired FBI agent whose family (a whole lot of family - including aunts, uncles and cousins) is killed by bad guy Howard Saint (how ironic) played by John Travolta. Miraculously, Castle survives - despite a bullet in the chest - and goes about punishing those responsible. If you like explosions and violence and don't mind implausibilities, this film is for you.

One film to unequivocally recommend is ``Iron Jawed Angels,'' an HBO movie about American suffragettes who struggled for the vote in the early part of the 20th century. Yes, women got the vote less than 100 years ago. Oscar winner Hilary Swank leads an excellent cast of Frances O'Connor, Julia Ormond, Anjelica Huston, Molly Parker and Laura Fraser in the straight-ahead and compelling story of how the suffragettes endured often brutal abuse (the title refers to their toughness) in order to win women's equal rights.

``The Ladykillers'' (Buena Vista; $29.98).

``The Punisher'' (Lions Gate; $27.98).

``Iron Jawed Angels'' (HBO; $26.98).

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1) ``Jersey Girl'' director KEVIN SMITH

(2) CARY GRANT in ``North by Northwest''

(3) JAMES STEWART in ``Rear Window''

(4) TOM HANKS and IRMA P. HALL in ``The Ladykillers''