DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

De Niro playing 'Hide and Seek'

Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro used to go up against the likes of Harvey Keitel or Meryl Streep in powerhouse dramatic scenes from films such as ``Taxi Driver'' or ``The Deer Hunter.'' Now he's got Dakota Fanning - not that the now 11-year-old is a bad actress, as she shows currently in ``War of the Worlds.'' But you have to wonder when De Niro will stop taking the money and running in marginal projects like ``Hide and Seek,'' a horror-thriller long on atmosphere and short on logic.

De Niro still can be a commanding presence on screen, as he is here as a widower and New York City psychologist who moves to the country with his daughter (Fanning) after the suicide of his wife. There he encounters the creepiness he had tried to escape with a scary imaginary friend and blood-scrawled messages. Mostly, though, you just wait for the twist at the end.

There have been concept films before, but ``Bride and Prejudice'' may take the cake - a Bollywood-style musical updated adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel, ``Pride and Prejudice,'' which was meant to be a satire of manners. If you've seen any of these colorful Bollywood musicals - the better of which seem like inspired lunacy - the idea of bringing social commentary into them seems like a strange idea at best - or simply another form of lunacy. Directed by Gurinder Chadha (``Bend It Like Beckham''), the film, which espouses commendable ideas like tolerance, is neither Bollywood nor Hollywood - nor a good screen version of classic literature, but somewhere in the ether.

If you're looking for a sweet movie - long on sentimentality and short on believability - then Shona Auerbach's ``Dear Frankie'' is your man. Boy, actually - since Frankie (Jack McElhone) is 9 years old and deaf and lives with his mother, Lizzie, (Emily Mortimer), who moves around a lot to hide from the boy's father, a nasty, violent sort. In order to hide the truth from Frankie, she tells him his dad is a sailor and sends the boy fake notes.

When Frankie learns that the ship his father is supposedly on is scheduled to stop for a day in the seaport town they're living in, he begs his mother to meet his dad. Rather than fess up, Lizzie recruits one - the hunky Gerard Butler (the Phantom in the movie version of ``The Phantom of the Opera''). Most women would be thrilled to be half as lucky. So you know ``Dear Frankie'' is fantasyland.

John Boorman has made some great films - ``Deliverance,'' ``Hope and Glory'' - but ``In My Country,'' with its subject the atrocities committed during apartheid in South Africa, is weighed down by its good intentions. Starring Samuel L. Jackson as Langston Whitfield, a reporter from the Washington Post, and Juliette Binoche as Anna Malan, a poet and journalist covering South Africa's public hearings on the atrocities that were held in the late 1990s. Getting to the truth in such matters is always a tricky business, but an affair between Whitfield and Malan only contributes to the murkiness of the race picture, which shows that no one is entirely blameless. Still, while the drama isn't always there, the film does address an important subject.

A much better Boorman film is the 1967 ``Point Blank,'' a visually sumptuous thriller starring Lee Marvin as a bad guy (Walker) who steals from the mob, only to be double-crossed by his wife and his partner. They take the money, shoot him and leave him for dead (always a mistake). Walker then sets out to exact his revenge and get the money back. (It was remade as ``Payback'' with Mel Gibson in 1999.) A great performance by Marvin, and a deadly good time.

You've probably heard the theme song, but the 1966 ``Georgy Girl'' with its top-flight cast - James Mason, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling and Lynn Redgrave in the title role - is still delightful. Set in the swinging London of the '60s, Georgy is a plain Jane whose parents are servants in the household of a rich man (Mason) with an ailing wife. He has always treated Georgy well while growing up, but he now wants her to be his mistress. Meanwhile, her flighty roommate (Rampling) has a baby out of wedlock and wants to give it up for adoption. Georgy won't have it. The plain Jane also suddenly finds herself the object of the attention of the baby's father (Bates). Love, money and unexpected motherhood add up to a charming dilemma.

``Hide and Seek'' (Fox; $29.98) includes alternative endings, 14 deleted and extended scenes, plus commentary from director John Polson.

``Bride and Prejudice'' (Disney; $29.99) includes commentary by Chadha and deleted scenes.

``Dear Frankie'' (Miramax; $29.99) includes commentary by Auerbach and deleted scenes.

``In My Country'' (Sony; $24.96) includes commentary with Boorman and interviews with Boorman and Binoche.

``Point Blank'' (Warner; $19.97) includes commentary by Boorman and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.

``Georgy Girl'' (Columbia; $24.96).

'The Film Noir Classic Collection - Volume Two'

Warner Bros. is releasing another film noir collection, and while this one doesn't have titles as well-known as those in the previous one, it does have some good movies.

You wouldn't expect Robert Wise (``West Side Story'' ``The Sound of Music'') to direct ``Born to Kill'' (1947). It starred Laurence Tierney as a killer (``the coldest killer a woman ever loved'') who's hot for his wife's sister (Claire Trevor).

The 1947 ``Crossfire'' received five Oscar nominations, including a best supporting actor nod for Robert Ryan. In the Edward Dmytryk film, Ryan plays a sadistic GI who beats a Jewish man to death in a drunken rage. when a cover-up occurs, a detective played by Robert Young and another GI (Robert Mitchum) search for the truth.

The one-of-a-kind Barbara Stanwyck shows off her tough side in the 1952 Fritz Lang-directed ``Clash by Night.'' Stanwyck plays Mae, a housewife with an urge for trouble in the form of Ryan. Marilyn Monroe - in an early role - provides some steam.

The 1945 ``Dillinger,'' starring Edmund Lowe and Lawrence Tierney as the notorious gangster, is considered a solid B movie, while the 1945 ``The Narrow Margin,'' directed by Richard Fleischer about a tough cop (Charles McGraw) transporting a gangster's widow (Marie Windsor) on a train while being pursued by hit men, is suspense-filled. It was remade less effectively in 1990 with Gene Hackman and Anne Archer.

All the films come with extras, including commentary by Wise on ``Born to Kill,'' Peter Bogdanovich with archival contributions from Lang on ``Clash by Night,'' John Milius on ``Dillinger,'' and William Friedkin and Fleischer on ``The Narrow Margin.''

The Film Noir Classic Collection - Volume Two (Warner, the five-disc set is $49.92, movies available individually for $19.97).

`Monk'

Midway through season three on ``Monk,'' the obsessive-compulsive detective's (Tony Shalhoub) longtime assistant Sharona, played by Bitty Schram, departs the series, supposedly moving back to the East Coast from San Francisco. (The off-screen reason is rumored to be Schram wanting more money.) The new assistant, Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), is supposed to fill the same sort of role - a levelheadedness contrasting with the brilliant Monk's flaky behavior. Through the eight episodes that Howard is on, her character and Monk never build the chemistry that Sharona had with the detective. But luckily, it detracts little from the quirkily enjoyable show - sort of a 21st-century ``Columbo,'' in that no one takes the detective seriously until he solves the case.

``Monk: Season Three'' (Universal; $59.98).

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) DAKOTA FANNING and ROBERT DE NIRO in ``Hide and Seek''

(2) EMMY CLARKE, left, TRAYLOR HOWARD and TONY SHALHOUB in ``Monk''