DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

(heart) and soul

David O. Russell's ``I (Heart) Huckabees'' is a daring, quirky comedy that slyly disassembles human angst, juggles the pieces and then leaves them lying around like shiny baubles to ooh and aah over.

Young Jason Schwartzman's Albert Markovski is having a crisis. (Aren't we all?) As head of an environment advocacy group, he has met with little success and has recently made an uneasy deal with Brad Stand (Jude Law), an all-smiles type who is climbing the corporate ladder at Huckabees, a Wal-Mart-type corporation that is gobbling up a local woods and wetland in order to build one of its megastores. Brad has promised to make things right in return for some good publicity for Huckabees.

Albert has one other problem: No one wants to read his poetry. But all he wants when he hires the existential detective team of Vivian (Lily Tomlin) and Beatle-mop-haired Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) is to figure out whether or not it's a coincidence that he has met a tall Sudanese man three times. But Albert gets more than he bargained for when he signs a contract with the pair, who then have the right to probe into every facet of his life. Soon the investigation spills over to include Brad (who becomes a client, allowing Bernard and Vivian to snoop into his life, too); Brad's girlfriend (Naomi Watts), the face of Huckabees who is tired of being pretty; and Tommy (Mark Wahlberg), a firefighter and another client, who after 9/11 has come to see a world of tragedy - from famine in Africa to gas-guzzling SUVs.

Challenging Vivian and Bernard's theory of connectedness (Bernard uses a blanket to explain, giving it a warm and fuzzy feeling) is Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert, as sexy as ever), the author of a nihilist manifesto, ``If Not Now,'' which boils down the world to ``cruelty, manipulation, meaninglessness.'' This yang to the pair's yin is attracting both Albert and Tommy.

As loony as this sounds, Russell has created a heartfelt movie that makes sense in its nonsense - a small picture about the big picture that in the end gives hope in its energy and curiousness even without having any answers.

``I (Heart) Huckabees'' (Fox; $27.90) includes commentary by Russell and a second commentary by Schwartzman, Wahlberg, and Watts. ``I (Heart) Huckabees (Two-Disc Special Edition) ($39.90) includes the commentaries plus featurettes, extended and deleted scenes and outtakes.

Get Shorty'

Director Barry Sonnenfeld left out what he considers the funniest scene in ``Get Shorty,'' the clever 1995 adaptation of novelist Elmore Leonard's wry take on Hollywood. The reason? ``I sit in movie theaters and in my basement watching movies, and my right arm will be making that sort of circling motion of, 'Let's get on with it,' '' explains Sonnenfeld, and my wife will hold my arm down and say, 'Just relax.' It seems to me that if you're trying to make a movie to entertain people, you want to entertain people. As horrible as recruited audiences are, I'm one of the directors that needs them. I need to see which jokes are working and which aren't.''

In ``Get Shorty'' (the sequel ``Be Cool'' is out next week without Sonnenfeld), the director edited out a scene with Ben Stiller, John Travolta and Gene Hackman. Stiller is a recent film-school grad shooting a low-budget horror flick for Hackman's low-rent producer Harry Zimm and Travolta's hood Chili Palmer, who is trying to muscle into Tinseltown. Danny De Vito, who produced the film, was originally going to play Palmer but ended up with the Shorty role.

``The scene was funny, but it didn't serve the overall movie,'' says Sonnenfeld. ``So get rid of it. Don't bore your audience.'' Not to worry, the scene is included on the special edition of the film out today.

The director, who is preparing a movie (comedy, of course) with Robin Williams, says he was lucky to get Hackman, who had done a table reading of the script as a favor.

``The funny thing was when I called Gene and asked him to do the movie, he said, 'I'm not a comedy actor.' I said, `I'm not looking for comedy actors, I'm looking for actors.' The secret to these kind of movies is that you don't want anyone to think they're in a comedy. ... You want really great unusual situations, great characters and great dialogue, and then you want the actors to play it for the reality of the scene.''

That's why he feels Tommy Lee Jones was so terrific in his ``Men in Black'' movies, because he could play off of funnyman Will Smith. He admits he broke the rule on ``Wild, Wild West,'' and that was part of the problem with the film. ``I had two funny guys (Smith and Kevin Kline) in the movie and had to have Will play the straight man.''

As for how much reality ``Get Shorty'' has in relation to the cutthroat business of making a Hollywood movie, Sonnenfeld's answer is simple: `` 'Get Shorty' was letting the film business off easily.''

Get Shorty (Special Edition) (MGM; $29.95) includes commentary by Sonnenfeld, a free movie ticket to ``Be Cool'' (valid through March 25), and featurettes including the ``Deleted Graveyard Scene.''

`Nausicaa,' 'Porco Rosso,' 'The Cat Returns'

Disney is releasing three films from the Japanese master of animation, Hayao Miyazaki (director of the Oscar-winning ``Spirited Away''). The 1984 ``Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind'' is a marvelous tale set in the future, a thousand years after a great war when there are a few areas populated by man, but much of the Earth is covered by a poisonous jungle protected by giant insects known as ohmu. Nausicaa is a princess in a peaceful valley who has begun to understand the mysteries that have befallen the planet since the great war. Unfortunately, mankind is still fighting one another, and misguided or greedy motives threaten to cause more catastrophe.

``Porco Rosso'' takes a different flight in the story of a former World War I ace whose face has been transformed into that of a pig by a spell and who now works as bounty hunter in his seaplane among the islands in the Adriatic.

``The Cat Returns,'' which Hiroyuki Morita directed (Miyazaki is credited with the concept), involves a magical cat who transforms a young girl's life.

Each of the films has been remastered, and English-speaking voice talent has been seamlessly added. ``Nausicaa'' has Alison Lohman as the princess along with Uma Thurman, Patrick Stewart and Edward James Olmos. ``Porco'' has Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes and Brad Garrett, and ``Cat'' boasts Anne Hathaway, Tim Curry and Peter Boyle.

``Nausicaa'' and ``Porco'' are elegantly drawn features, while ``Cat'' has a more traditional look. But each has its delights for both young and old.

``Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,'' ``Porco Rosso'' and ``The Cat Returns'' (Buena Vista; $29.99 each) all include featurettes.

'Sex Is Comedy,' 'Twentieth Century,' 'Our Town,' 'On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,' 'Edison,' 'Bobby Darin'

French director Catherine Breillat continues her carnal deconstruction with the story of a director (Anne Parillaud) trying to get her cast - particularly her leading man - up for a semi-explicit sex scene in ``Sex Is Comedy,'' which is hardly one. Nor is it erotic. It's another challenge from Breillat about the nature of sexuality - either that or an attempt to turn people off.

``Twentieth Century'' is a 1934 Howard Hawks screwball comedy starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard that takes place on a train from Chicago to New York City. The Charles MacArthur/Ben Hecht screenplay allows Barrymore, as the unscrupulous Broadway producer Oscar Jaffe, to ham it up and keep things moving.

``Our Town'' is the production that Paul Newman took to Broadway a few years back, with the Thorton Wilder play being specially filmed as a television special. The small world of Grover's Corners is still as timeless and timely as ever, and the production, directed by James Naughton, though a bit stiff, is well-acted. And, of course, there is the priceless Newman as the stage manager.

The 1970 ``On a Clear Day You Can See Forever'' was one of the great director Vincent Minnelli's final films and, alas, not one of his best. It stars Barbra Streisand as a woman whose past spills out after her psychiatrist (Yves Montand) hypnotizes her. A silly plot, but it does have some decent tunes from Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane for Babs to sing - and some of that old Minnelli dazzle.

For film historians there is ``Edison - The Invention of the Movies,'' which has 140 restored and remastered Edison Co. films from 1891-1918 with new musical scores. On hand are archivists and scholars to explain the films' significance.

If ``Beyond the Sea'' made you want to look beyond the movie, then check out ``Bobby Darin - Beyond the Song,'' originally a PBS documentary, which does a reasonable job in covering the singer's life.

``Sex Is Comedy'' (MGM; $29.90).

``Twentieth Century'' (Columbia; $19.94).

``Our Town'' (Paramount; $19.99).

``Bobby Darin - Beyond the Song'' (Kultur; $14.99).

``Edison - The Invention of the Movies'' (Kino; $99.95).

``On a Clear Day You Can See Forever'' (Paramount; $14.99).

'South Park'

The animation is fairly crude and often so is the humor, but ``South Park'' consistently shined when taking on delicate subjects. During the fifth season, 9/11 occurred, and series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone responded a couple of weeks later with the episode ``Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants.'' While some may have been appalled, ridiculing your enemy is often the best way of cutting him down to size. World War II yielded numerous patriotic calls and depiction of selfless acts in films, but Hitler came in for his share of mockery, from the zaniness of Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny to the sophistication of directors like Ernst Lubitsch.

Of course, Parker and Stone also keep up their outrageous quotient with an episode on sex education (``Proper Condom Use'') and one called ``It Hits the Fan,'' which had a good portion of it bleeped for obvious reasons.

And using the principle ``from the mouths of babes'' - in Cartman, Kyle and Stan's case, the foul mouths of babes - ``South Park'' delivers its own, often hilarious wisdom. Oh yeah, poor silent and doomed-to-die Kenny gets killed during season five and isn't resurrected until the next season.

Other TV box sets are listed below.

``South Park - The Complete Fifth Season'' (Paramount; $49.99) includes mini-commentaries on three discs.

``The Shield - The Complete Third Season'' (Fox; $59.90) includes deleted scenes and selected commentary on four discs.

``The King of Queens - The Complete Third Season'' (Columbia; $39.95) on three discs.

``Ellen - The Complete Season Two'' (A&E; $49.95) on three discs.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1) JASON SCHWARTZMAN, left, and JUDE LAW in ``I (heart) Huckabees''

(2 -- color) JOHN TRAVOLTA in ``Get Shorty''

(3 -- color) ``Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind''

(4 -- color) ``South Park''