DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

`When you got it, flaunt it,'' sings sexy secretary/showgirls Ulla (Uma Thurman) in the filmed musical version of ``The Producers.''

Flaunting it is pretty much all this film has -- and sometimes that's enough.

The problem, of course, is how to do you turn the comic gem of the 1968 Mel Brooks film, which was already a bit of satirical nostalgia for a bygone era (the `50s Broadway scene) into something that will play for modern audiences. While on stage, the musical ``Producers'' made its mark, with Nathan Lane playing con man/producer Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as nebbish accountant Leo Bloom, who comes up with a scheme to raise millions to put on a Broadway show and then staging a flop in order to keep the money.

On film, the new ``Producers'' labors under the shadow of the perfectly cast original. Zero Mostel as Bialystock and Gene Wilder as Bloom created two indelible characters, and watching Lane and Broderick -- as good as they are -- say the same lines often brings comparisons that pale.

(``I'm wet! I'm hysterical and I'm wet!'' screams Bloom after Bialystock has thrown water on him to calm him down. And after slapping him, ``Ow, I'm in pain! I'm in pain, and I'm wet, and I'm still hysterical!'' Broderick plays the role; Wilder was the role.)

And director Susan Stroman -- the Broadway director and choreography whiz -- doesn't do the film any favors. Keeping the camera at a distance, it gives the film a staged, static feel. At other times, you feel you're on top of the characters.

That said, those who enjoy ``The Producers'' are already -- like me -- suckers for nostalgia and bad taste. In 1968, Brooks had already trafficked in offending some people with the premise of the would-be flop called ``Springtime for Hitler.''

Less than 25 years after World War II and the Holocaust, even satire of that tragic era made some uncomfortable. Today you're asked to laugh at send-ups of showgirls, sex-starved little old ladies and gay stereotypes. And you can, because you are laughing at the stereotypes.

Luckily, Brooks, who also wrote the score, has added new material. Some of it seems like padding; but Brooks has always shotgunned his humor, and there are some funny moments.

There are also some terrific casting choices. Thurman shines as Ulla, the leggy receptionist with the bizarre Swedish accent who refers to herself in the third person and with whom Bloom is in love. Will Ferrell, as the loony Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind, is consistently funny. And Gary Beach, as the flamboyantly gay director Roger DeBris, and Roger Bart as his equally flamboyant assistant, Carmen Ghia, along with their Village People household, bring verve to the production of the song ``Keep It Gay'' -- as painful as that could have been.

I doubt if this new ``Producers'' plays well with younger audiences, though. It's pointless and silly, for sure, and overblown. But for those who remember the original and/or enjoy old-fashioned Broadway (though Brooks' score is aimed at humor and is hardly Lerner and Lowe), ``The Producers'' is not half bad.

The extras on the disc yield one gem -- Lane doing a number called ``King of Broadway,'' which was cut from the show.

``The Producers'' (Universal; $29.98)

A haunting `White Countess'

Merchant-Ivory films can seem precious and airless, but the best -- like the 1993 ``The Remains of the Day'' -- pack an emotional wallop. The final collaboration, ``The White Countess,'' between director James Ivory and his longtime partner, producer Ismail Merchant, who died during post-production, falls somewhere in between.

The original screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro places his story during pre-World War II, but unlike his novel for ``Remains,'' which is set in England, ``Countess'' occurs in Asia. Ralph Fiennes plays Todd Jackson, a blind, disillusioned American diplomat and businessman. He has one fantasy: to open a cosmopolitan nightclub to cater to varied international sophisticates that flow in and out of Shanghai.

When he bets everything he has on a horse and wins, he can realize his dream. He names it The White Countess, after Sofia Belinskya (Natasha Richardson), a Russian (hrt)migr(hrt)e countess he befriended after she saved him from a mugging one night. Sofia had been reduced to working as a taxi dancer (and worse) in order to support her daughter, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt and uncle. Todd makes her the nightclub's hostess and The White Countess operates as a dream, as crowds of every political and moral stripe float into and mingle in this ``Casablance''-like refuge to hear good music and satisfy other needs.

Meanwhile, the war looms, but the rumble is muffled. It isn't until the bombs fall very late in the film that ``The White Countess'' is jolted out of its reverie. By then you may have grown impatient with the understated emotional mood. But actors like Fiennes and Richardson can say volumes with the slightest of gestures. Ivory may have counted on that too much, but while ``The White Countess'' plays as a hazy dream, it also can be haunting.

``The White Countess'' (Columbia; $26.96)

`Duma' evokes spirit, beauty of South Africa

In an era when there are few quality family films, it was unfortunate that Carroll Ballard's ``Duma'' was dumped into theaters and subsequently overlooked by audiences.

Ballard has already directed some excellent family films before -- ``The Black Stallion'' (1979), about a boy and a horse who are shipwrecked together; ``Never Cry Wolf'' (1983), about a man who lives in the wild observing wolves, and ``Fly Away'' (1996), about a 13-year-old girl who flies an ultralight aircraft, leading a flock of pet geese south from Canada.

``Duma'' tells the story of a troubled South African youth, Xan (Alex Michaeletos), who takes off to the desert with his pet cheetah. Like Ballard's other films, ``Duma'' is gorgeously photographed, giving you the feel of the awesomeness of nature.

But there is nothing static about the way he tells a story, with both his animal and human characters springing to life. The learning experience Xan goes through is not unpredictable.

Ballard always has an edge to his filmmaking, though this being family fare, it's somewhat blunted. Still, when the word heartwarming is tossed out, it applies to his films, including ``Duma.''

``Duma'' (Warner; $19.98)

Breaking new ground in `Something New'

`Something New'' is a likable romantic film with a twist. Sanaa Lathan plays a professional woman, Kenya McQueen, a top exec at an L.A. accounting firm. Simon Baker is Brian, a hunky gardener.

That's not the twist. She's black; he's white, and that's where the real flak comes in.

Love is already a minefield, but trying to negotiate an interracial relationship, even in the supposedly enlightened city of angels, is more like a suicide mission. Directed by Sanaa Hamri, in her fine feature debut, ``Something New'' isn't really new, but there is an honesty to its familiar romantic arcs while it comments about racial unease.

Helping matters is the chemistry between Lathan and Baker. There is nothing uneasy about that. ``Something New'' has modest aims, but it succeeds and feels much more real than the overwhelming majority of sappy Hollywood romantic movies.

``The Ringer,'' a comedy about a man who pretends he is mentally disabled in order to enter the Special Olympics, was endorsed by that organization. The Johnny Knoxville film was seen as showing the Special Olympics in a positive light. While that may be true, the Farrelly brothers-produced comedy is asking an awful lot of its audience as it tries to jab at stereotypes. (Are you laughing at them or because of them?)

I never got over the uneasiness but, as with most Farrelly films, there is a sweet -- even soft -- center, which redeems it somewhat. Still, you have to find it funny for the film to really work, and it's just not that clever.

The 1979 ``When a Stranger Calls'' was an overrated horror film. The new version should have gone straight to cable.

``Something New'' (Universal; $29.98)

``The Ringer'' (Fox; $29.99)

``When a Stranger Calls'' (Columbia; $28.95)

No Waterloo in sight for `Napoleon Dynamite'

`For reasons that escape me, ``Napoleon Dynamite'' has become a cultural phenomenon. It makes ``Dumb and Dumber,'' which I loved, look like Shakespeare. Director Jared Hess' 2004 debut requires you to buy into humor based on zoned-out youths in a podunk Idaho town epitomized by the blank-staring Napoleon (Jon Heder).

I quickly grew impatient with the lot, including Nappie's bizarre relatives and friends who seem recruited out of bad movie parodies. If ``ND'' is supposed to be a satirical look at high school, it forgot to aim. Hess, though, is undoubtedly a talent, and the film does at times capture the ennui of high-school students.

My guess is that ``ND'' proved to be an unexpected winner because, at its heart, it's really the mushy tale of a loser who becomes an improbable winner, told in an offbeat way. Now the film is being released in a special-edition DVD loaded with extras that is truly one for the fans.

Other releases of older films are listed below.

``Napoleon Dynamite -- Like, the Best Special Edition Ever!'' (Fox; $26.98)

``Crimson Tide -- Unrated Extended Edition'' (Touchstone; $19.99)

``Con Air --Unrated Extended Edition'' (Touchstone; $19.99)

``Enemy of the State -- Unrated Extended Edition'' (Touchstone; $19.99)

``Every Time We Say Goodbye'' (Columbia; $14.94)

`The Six Wives of Henry VIII,' more TV

A couple of BBC productions highlight the TV-related discs. The 1970 ``The Six Wives of Henry VIII,'' which was broadcast on CBS and PBS, is an excellent telling of the legendary British monarch and his marital and papal woes. The other is the ``George Bernard Shaw Collection,'' which includes ``The Devil's Disciple'' with Patrick Stewart and Ian Richardson, ``Mrs. Warren's Profession'' with Coral Browne, Lynn Redgrave in ``Pygmalion,'' ``Arms and the Man'' with Helena Bonham Carter, ``The Millionairess'' with Maggie Smith and Tom Baker, and ``Heartbreak House'' with John Gielgud.

Marlo Thomas' character Ann Marie in ``That Girl'' may not have been the first independent woman to have a sitcom centered around her, but she reflected the changing times of the late '60s. A would-be actress, Ann Marie worked odd jobs to make ends meet, and that's where the laughs mostly came in. ``That Girl'' was hardly groundbreaking, though. Ann Marie had a boyfriend and the show's humor was fairly conventional. Thomas, however, gave the role a certain welcome spunkiness.

Other television-related discs are listed below.

``Hill Street Blues - Season 2'' (Fox; $39.98)

``That Girl - Season One'' (Shout Factory; $39.98)

``Big Valley - Season 1'' (Fox; $39.98)

``Here Come the Brides - The Complete First Season'' (Columbia; $49.95)

``Home Movies - Season Four'' (Shout Factory; $34.98)

``Monarch of the Glen - Series Four'' (BBC Warner; $59.98)

``George Bernard Shaw Collection'' (BBC Warner; $59.98)

``The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (BBC Warner; $69.98)

``Grounded for Life - Season 2'' (Anchor Bay; $29.98)

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1) NATHAN LANE, UMA THURMAN and MATTHEW BRODERICK in `THE PRODUCERS'

(2) NATASHA RICHARDSON and RALPH FIENNES in `THE WHITE COUNTESS'

(3) MARLO THOMAS in `THAT GIRL'

(4) SIMON BAKER and SANAA LATHAN in `SOMETHING NEW'