DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES WHERE HIGH-SCHOOL FOOTBALL IS ALL.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

As a USC alumnus, producer Brian Grazer was happy about the Trojans' recent national championship, but he says it was his days on campus back in the early '70s that gave him some insight into his film ``Friday Night Lights.''

``I dated (former coach) John McKay's daughter in college, and Lynn Swann (the hall of fame receiver) was a good friend,'' says Grazer, whose films have gotten numerous Oscar nominations, including the 2001 winner, ``A Beautiful Mind.'' ``But having gone to USC and having known the football players, I was able to get an intimate look at the culture and its enormous competitive nature.''

Adapted from a book by H.G. ``Buzz'' Bissinger, ``Friday Night Lights'' tells the true story of the Permian High School football team's improbable run to the Texas state championship game in 1988 under the leadership of Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton in a great understated performance). High-school football in Odessa, Texas, is more than just a passion; it's the town's identity. ``Take us to state, coach,'' is the refrain heard over and over. When the team loses its star running back Boobie Miles (Derek Luke) early in the season, Gaines' mission looks impossible, but the pressures remain. After a loss, Gaines returns home to find for-sale signs on his lawn.

Grazer says his experience at USC made him ``able to see how these 18- and 19-year-old boys are treated as they're trying to form their identity and just how fragile it is. How one day they're pedestaled, and the next day they're hurt and become invisible. Certainly, when I read the book I was able to transpose my knowledge into what it would be like for a high-school student, particularly in a small west Texas town like Odessa, where everything there gets so magnified. It becomes an emotional-life- and-death situation for these kids.''

It took Grazer a while to get the project off the ground, including finding a director. He settled on Peter Berg (``Very Bad Things''), who also co-wrote the script. ``What got us all very excited about Pete was that he spent months down there living with the people. At first they were apprehensive, but ultimately they believed in him. He got to know the people, so he wanted to put the emphasis on them.''

``Friday Night Lights'' is shot in a gritty docudrama style with the colors as bleak as the Odessa landscape. The town is viewed in a fairly nonjudgmental light by the filmmakers. Racial tensions are an issue, but they are shown as part of the lives of these people rather than hammered home.

``We didn't want it to be about race, but it does exist,'' says Grazer. ``I think that film is such a magnifier. We wanted to show (the racial friction) but not magnify it.''

With the underdog team beating more talented opponents, ``Friday Night Lights'' has the sports cliches that you come to expect in such films. But those cliches are countered by a sobering reality. Country singer Tim McGraw plays a former star player whose team had won a state championship. Now he publicly berates his son, a receiver on Gaines' team, for fumbling while he himself seeks solace in a bottle. He is like the subject of Bruce Springsteen's ``Glory Days.'' McGraw, the son of baseball great Tug McGraw, is surprisingly powerful in the role.

``If you have the skill, which Tim clearly does, it is much easier to act against the type of who you are, because then you have something to do,'' Grazer says. ``If Tim were to play a good-natured guy, that probably would have been much harder for him, because that's who he is.'' (McGraw is the subject of one of the DVD extras.)

The busy Grazer (he has ``The Da Vinci Code'' among a multitude of other interesting projects coming up) says what attracted him to ``Friday Night Lights'' was that the book transcended football. ``When I did 'Apollo 13,' the thing that interested me was the aerodynamic culture. The mission itself was in a way secondary. It was a way to learn about the people, these three men on a flight.''

What we learn about the people of ``Friday Night Lights'' is brought home at the end when see what happened to the real members of the 1988 Permian team, which gives this intelligent film far more resonance than most sports movies.

``Friday Night Lights'' (Universal; $29.98) includes commentary by Berg and Bissinger, deleted scenes and featurettes.

`Cellular,' `The Forgotten,' `Catwoman'

In ``Cellular,'' Kim Basinger, Oscar winner for ``L.A. Confidential,'' stars as Jessica, a high-school science teacher who is kidnapped and held prisoner by men who want something from her husband.

The kidnappers put her in a room with a smashed phone, but posh-looking Jessica (that's part of the secret) with her science knowledge is able to wire it together long enough to make a random call.

She reaches a young man (Chris Evans) who doesn't believe her at first but eventually is convinced enough to go to a police station with her still on the line. There, a desk officer (William H. Macy) listens to Jessica and at first dismisses her plea, but he, too, begins to think something is amiss.

``Cellular, directed by David R. Ellis, is a well-made straight-ahead thriller - all too rare these days. And even if the film has its implausibilities, it rings true entertainment-wise.

Considering the number of award shows, it's surprising that there isn't a category for best performance in a film of dubious artistic distinction. Two fine actresses would have a shot at that award from the films out on DVD this week.

Four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore plays Telly, a New York City mother in mourning over the loss of her son, Sam, in ``The Forgotten.'' But she suffers a breakdown after being confronted by her husband (Anthony Edwards) and psychiatrist (Gary Sinese) with the information that she never had a son and instead had suffered a miscarriage and invented the boy. Unconvinced, Telly heads off on a crazy crusade to prove them wrong.

Eventually, ``The Forgotten'' moves into ``X-Files'' land - and not even a good episode. Moore is always worth watching, but you get the feeling she was as uninvolved as anyone watching the film is likely to be.

Oscar winner Halle Berry looks great in leather - and anything else - but the costume changes in ``Catwoman'' won't be enough to overcome this silly exercise in MTV/video-game/comic-book style. Directed by a Frenchman, Pitof (let's have a moratorium on one-named directors), ``Catwoman'' has little to recommend it other than Berry's outfits. As Patience Philips, an artist who designs ads for a big cosmetics firms, Berry gives her a reasonable timidness early on, followed by a feline aggressiveness needed when she becomes Catwoman. But any effort Berry put into this jangle of noise and messy special effects seems a waste.

``Cellular'' (New Line; $27.95) includes commentary, deleted scenes and featurettes.

``The Forgotten'' (Columbia; $28.95) includes the theatrical release and an extended version with an alternative ending, commentary and featurettes.

``Catwoman'' (Warner; $27.95) includes an alternative ending, deleted scenes and featurettes.

`Curb Your Enthusiasm,' `Kung Fu,' `Farscape'

On the TV front, Larry David (co-creator of ``Seinfeld'') remains as obnoxious as ever in his third season of ``Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' which sees him and Ted Danson opening a restaurant. But it isn't long before Larry manages to annoy not only Danson but just about everyone else he comes in contact with during this 10-episode season, including Richard Lewis and Martin Scorsese. If you haven't seen ``Curb,'' think of it as ``Seinfeld'' without the likability factor but just as funny.

``Kung Fu - The Complete Second Season,'' the Western martial-arts series, starring David Carradine, features episodes with, among others, Harrison Ford, Don Johnson, Slim Pickens, Gilbert Roland, Tina Louise and Carradine's father, John. ``Farscape - The Peacekeeper Wars,'' the recent miniseries of the popular Sci Fi Channel show that ended in 2003, gives the story a somewhat happier ending than the series did.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Third Season (HBO; $39.90) includes 10 episodes and two featurettes on two discs.

Kung Fu - The Complete Second Season'' (Warner; $39.90) on four discs.

``Farscape - The Peacekeeper Wars'' (Lions Gate; $19.90) includes a making-of featurette.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

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(color) BILLY BOB THORNTON in ``Friday Night Lights''