DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES.

Byline: ROB LOWMAN

There is something about Mary Louise Parker's face.

Whether it's her wide-eyed look or her slightly crooked smile, the star of the Showtime single-camera comedy ``Weeds'' says so much with just a look. And the satirical series about a soccer mother in the upper-middle-class fictional L.A. suburb of Agrestic who makes ends meet after her husband dies by selling marijuana gives Parker plenty to say.

When you hear folk singer Malvina Reynolds' ``Little Boxes,'' a little ditty that sweetly attacked suburban conformity, that opens the show, you know the gated community where Parker's character Nancy Botwin does her dealing is ripe for lampooning. Drugs, infidelity and hypocrisy are all part of the culture.

Take the nearly always-

stoned Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon). Not only is he Nancy's accountant, helping set up a front business for her, he's also one of her best clients. Then there's Nancy's mooching brother-in-law, Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk), who keeps failing at get-rich-quick schemes until he deals himself into his sister-in-law's pot business. In contrast, there's the African-American family of pot suppliers -- Heylia (Tonye Patano) and her nephew Conrad (Romany Malco) -- who, despite drive-by shootings in their neighborhood, seem more grounded than any of Nancy's neighbors.

As funny as those characters can be, it's Nancy's friend Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) who supplies the series with presence. At first, Celia comes across as a haughty, manipulative suburban b----.

As president of the PTA, she plays the role of supermom with a perfect marriage, but that's hardly a reality. (She discovers that her husband is cheating on her while spying on her overweight daughter, who pretty much despises her.)

It takes until the fourth episode of its first season that ``Weeds'' kicks in and moves from being a sendup of surburbia and starts digging into the characters' angst and disappointment. Celia's insecurities and failings are eventually exposed. And she does some exposing of her own after finding out she may have breast cancer.

Of course, it helps to have an actor like Perkins, who received an Emmy nomination Thursday, playing the role of Celia to go along with Parker. (I can't think of another comedy series that has two such brilliant actresses as leads.) Perkins, with her weariness, makes the unsympathetic Celia if not sympathetic, at least understandable, while Parker coolly traverses Nancy's many faces -- from an Alice-in-Wonderland bemused/confused drug dealer to a caring mom -- with style.

``Weeds,'' which begins its second season Aug. 14, is uneven, careening from hilarious to too-much at times, but you can count on the laughs.

The extras on the DVD set include commentaries and a featurette called ``Smoke and Mirrors Original Marijuana Mockumentary,'' an Agrestic herbal cookbook and the music video ``More Than a Friend'' by All Too Much.

Rob Lowman [phone]

[e-mail]

NEW FILMS

Somewhere in the middle of Michael Winterbottom's film ``Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story,'' actor-comedian-author Stephen Fry appears to explain that the Laurence Stern novel the movie is based on is really about nothing, that life is ``chaotic and amorphous,'' subverting any attempt to impose a design on it. That can be seen in the book's hero and narrator, who gets so bogged down with digressions while telling his life story that he isn't born until the fourth and last volume. The novel ends with him barely out of infancy.

The landmark of English literature, which was published in installments from 1759 to 1767, ``TS'' has always been considered unfilmable because of its structure. With blank pages, rows of asterisks and dashes, it would be akin to making James Joyce's ``Ulysses.'' So what Winterbottom does is make a film about a film being made based on the novel.

Steve Coogan plays Tristam, his father Walter, and a somewhat vain actor named, Steve Coogan. Get it? Of course, what gets made reflects the ``chaotic and amorphous'' nature of the novel. It is an amusing, if not profound, conceit.

What it is, though, is amusing, especially the bickering between Coogan and Rob Brydon, who plays Tristan's uncle Toby as well as version of himself who has a sexual fixation with former ``X-Filer'' Gillian Anderson (playing a version of herself), who has been hired midway through the picture for the role of Widow Wadman to give the film a love interest.

Winterbottom's handheld style gives the film a mockumentary feel and allows the cast, including Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran, Jeremy Northam, Naomie Harris and Kelly Macdonald plenty of room to hit the right comic notes.

Some 14 years later, Sharon Stone returns as dangerous novelist Catherine Tramell in ``Basic Instinct 2.'' It would seem Hollywood would need a better reason to make a sequel than the fact that Stone still can take her clothes off and look good. But apparently not, since ``BI2'' lacks a coherent plot, with all logic gone out the window. As for Stone, director Michael Canton-Jones must have thought Catherine was a dominatrix and eventually serves up the splashy full-frontal-nudity scene the four people who saw the film were waiting for.

MUSIC

The hot musical release of the week is ``Pink Floyd -- Pulse,'' the first-ever film of the band's live performance of its classic album, ``The Dark Side of the Moon.'' The band -- minus Roger Waters -- recorded ``Dark Side'' over 14 days in London's Earls Court. The two-disc DVD includes rare backstage scenes. ``Phish -- Live in Brooklyn,'' which was filmed at Coney Island in 2004 as the jam band was breaking up, should cheer its fans. And the recently released ``Let's Rock Again'' is an intimate look at Joe Strummer, the former frontman of the seminal '70s punk band The Clash, in the 18 months before his death in 2002. During that time, Strummer was with his new band, The Mescaleros, touring and promoting their second album, ``Global a Go-Go.'' Seeing Strummer have to talk his way into a radio station for an interview by telling them he used to be in The Clash is a sad and revealing moment about the state of music. The disc includes live performances of Clash classics as well as Mescaleros tunes.

THE PRICE TAGS

NEW FILMS

``Tristram Shandy -- A Cock and Bull Story'' (HBO; $27.98)

``Basic Instinct 2 -- Unrated, Extended Cut'' (Columbia; $26.96)

``Protocols of Zion'' (Thinkfilms; $29.99)

``Soundless'' (Koch; $24.98)

OLDER FILMS

``Grand Prix -- Two-Disc Special Edition'' (Warner; $20.98)

``The Black Swan'' (Fox; $14.98)

``The Keys of the Kingdom'' (Fox; $14.98)

TELEVISION

``Weeds -- Season 1'' (Lionsgate; $39.98)

``Bill Maher -- New Rules'' (HBO; $19.98)

``Perry Mason -- Season 1, Vol. 1'' (Paramount; $49.99)

``ER -- The Complete Fifth Season'' (Warner; $49.98)

``Reno 911 -- The Complete Third Season'' (Paramount; $26.99)

``I Dream of Jeannie -- The Complete Second Season'' (Columbia; $39.95)

``Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season 1 Vol. 2'' (Fox; $39.98)

``House of Eliott -- Series Three'' (Acorn; $59.99)

``The Ellen Show -- The Complete Series'' (Columbia; $29.95)

``Dennis Miller -- All in'' (HBO; $19.98)

``McCallum: The Complete Series'' (Koch; $59.99)

MUSIC

``Pink Floyd -- Pulse'' (Columbia; $24.98)

``Phish -- Live in Brooklyn'' (Rhino/Warner; $29.98)

``Let's Rock Again'' (Image; $19.99)

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Kevin Nealon, Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins star in Showtime's ``Weeds.''