VIDEO 3 IF BY LAND, 1 IF BY SEA `O BROTHER,' CAST AWAY' COMPELLING IN THEIR OWN UNIQUE WAY EXPLORATION.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Both films feature attractive leading men, and both films have a lot of water. But ``O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' and ``Cast Away'' - which arrived on video and DVD this week - are miles apart in tone.

Part of this can be seen in the way the DVDs were approached. ``Cast Away,'' directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, is a two-disc set that includes a long interview with Hanks by PBS' Charlie Rose, commentary by Zemeckis explaining the special effects, a documentary on the island used in the film, a 27-minute featurette called ``S.T.O.P.: Surviving as a Castaway,'' and a featurette on Wilson the volleyball.

``O Brother,'' from the Coen brothers and starring George Clooney, takes a lighter approach with a humorous documentary and a Soggy Mountain Boys music video.

``Cast Away'' is the story of Federal Express troubleshooter Chuck Noland (Hanks), who is sent on an emergency flight that goes off course and crashes in the Pacific. The only survivor, he washes up on an unknown island where he lives for a number of years until ... OK, I won't give away the ending. The early part of the film sets up Noland's life and his impending marriage to his girlfriend, Kelly (Helen Hunt). He is left on the island with only a pocket watch she has given him with her picture inside, and it is this ideal of her that sustains him in his ordeal.

But the longest relationship he has in the film is with Wilson. Much of ``Cast Away'' is Noland's time on the island, and his only ``friend'' is a volleyball that washed ashore with him (in a Fed Ex package). He paints a face on Wilson and eventually begins to talk to it. (It's the ultimate product placement; not only do we see the Wilson company's logo but we hear it repeated over and over.)

With ``Cast Away's'' five Oscar nominations and two wins, no one is going to question Hanks' ability to carry a movie. But at two hours, 23 minutes - much of which finds Hanks alone - this movie is a load for any actor. As likably everymanish as Hanks is in this modern-day Robinson Crusoe tale, the predictability of the story undermines the film. It's not that ``Cast Away'' doesn't do a credible job of showing Noland's metamorphosis from a comfortable member of the middle class to a survivalist; it just doesn't spend much time going beyond it.

At the beginning we have a man who let his job take him anywhere without thinking; at the end we have a man who can choose any direction and he's not sure where to go. (OK, so I gave away that he lives.) But that psychological and philosophical metamorphosis is never explored - at least in any depth. You're just supposed to chalk it all up to the idea that trauma will change a man. The rest is just a lot of water to watch.

``O Brother's'' ambition was to be the `` 'Lawrence of Arabia' of hayseed movies,'' joke the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan (``Fargo,'' ``The Big Lebowski''), who took a ``comic-book'' version of Homer's Odyssey and applied it to the Depression-era South. Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, the leader of a trio of escaped convicts from a Southern chain gang. Along the way, the three encounter rustic versions - a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman), a trio of seductive country sirens singing a gospel number - of what the original Ulysses met along his journey home to his long-suffering wife, Penelope - in this case, Penny (Holly Hunter).

What makes ``O Brother'' so delightful is its delicious mixture of Americana, from movie references to literary ones, all backed by a wonderful soundtrack of blues, country and gospel music. (This is a movie just worth listening to.) Also holding this crazy odyssey together is Clooney's performance. With his hair slicked down with his Dapper Dan pomade, Ulysses is a fast-talking con man who's about 10 times more articulate than his companions - played by John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson - but not as smart as he thinks. Clooney throws himself wholeheartedly into the role - hair net and all. It's a performance that winks at us, like the movie. And by the time the flood comes at the end, instead of washing away what has come before, ``O Brother'' - with all its inventiveness - seems shiny and new.

``Cast Away'' (Fox) is $29.98 on DVD and for rent on VHS. ``O Brother, Where Art Thou'' (Buena Vista) is $29.99 on DVD and for rent on VHS.

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Escaped convicts Tim Blake Nelson, left, George Clooney and John Turturro record a runaway hit song in the Coen brothers' ``O Brother, Where Art Thou?''