HOME ENTERTAINMENT : Movies for Mothers: ‘Psycho,’ Anyone?

With Mother’s Day coming next weekend, video retailers will be spotlighting movies that focus on mothers--most of them positive, but a few negative.

In the week leading up to the holiday, some families gather and watch these movies as part of the celebration. All of the following are available for rental or for sale, in the $12-$18 range.

Shirley MacLaine stars in two of the most effective, weepy melodramas about mother love. In “The Turning Point” (1977), she plays a woman whose old ballerina dreams intrude in the life of her daughter, who’s also a ballerina. The woman’s conflict with a friend who did become a dancer (Anne Bancroft) is the heart of the movie. MacLaine also had the lead role in the great mother-daughter relationship movie of the ‘80s, the soap opera “Terms of Endearment” (1983), playing a mother who has years of struggles with her feisty, ailing daughter (Debra Winger).

The best mother-daughter relationship movie of the ‘90s is “The Joy Luck Club” (1993), about four Chinese women living in America and their difficulties in dealing with their daughters. Somewhat of a tear-jerker but still absorbing.

One of the finest dramas ever made about an African American family, “A Raisin in the Sun,” from 1961, is always a popular movie around Mother’s Day. Claudia McNeil plays the matriarch of a family that’s about to move into a white neighborhood. During that time of turmoil, her strength and wisdom hold the family together.

Not everyone, though, has fond memories of mother. If your mom was a monster, then you might not appreciate a movie that tries to make you feel warm and fuzzy about motherhood. So your idea of celebrating Mother’s Day might include watching one of these movies:

“Mommie Dearest” (1981): Faye Dunaway plays actress Joan Crawford, who viciously abuses her adopted daughter Christina (Diana Scarwid). This lurid drama, about the mother from hell, is based on a book by Christina.

“Throw Mama From the Train” (1987): A man (Danny DeVito) whose mother is a nagging shrew plots to bump her off. Stinging black comedy, directed by DeVito, makes motherhood a dirty word.

“Postcards From the Edge” (1990): Shirley MacLaine gives one of the best performances of her career as the conniving show-biz mom responsible for most of the emotional scars of her actress-daughter (Meryl Streep).

“Psycho” (1960): Some retailers report that this chilling tale, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is always a big renter around Mother’s Day. It’s about the strange goings-on at the Bates Motel, where quiet Norman (Anthony Perkins) “lives” with his mean ol’ mom.

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Special-Interest Videos: In case you missed it or didn’t tape it, that funny Jerry Seinfeld homage to comedy stars Abbott and Costello is coming to video on Tuesday. The 48-minute “Abbott and Costello Meet Seinfeld” is on MCA/Universal at $15. Also due out that day at $15 is “Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff,” from 1949, one of the duo’s funniest movies.

With Sony Music Entertainment’s first two “Beavis and Butt-head” titles in the Top 10 on the Billboard sales charts, the company is bringing out another, “Beavis and Butt-head: The Final Judgment,” on May 16 at $15. These packages are best-of cartoon segments strung together with a theme--minus the music videos. It turns out these nitwit metalheads are much funnier without those intrusive videos.

The best home-video record of the UCLA basketball team’s triumphant performance in the NCAA tournament is CBS-Fox’s new “Wizards Again!” But for a comprehensive look at the team’s 25-2 season, including its conference championship run, check out “Return to Glory: 1995 UCLA Basketball.” Done more from a hard-core Bruins’ fan perspective, it has far more interesting and informative behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. From UCLA Home Video, at $20, (800) 529-4500.

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What’s New on Video: “Trapped in Paradise” (FoxVideo): Another unfunny comedy from “Saturday Night Live” alums. Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey team with Nicolas Cage, playing three bone-headed brothers who rob a bank in Paradise, Pa. When the getaway is botched, they’re “trapped in Paradise,” among kindly townspeople who don’t realize they’re crooks. Lots of terrible jokes and cheap sentiment.

“Terminal Velocity” (Hollywood): A sky-diver (Charlie Sheen) helps an ex-Russian secret agent (Natassja Kinski) in her battle with Russian villains over gold in the Arizona desert. Thrilling sky-diving sequences buoy an other otherwise so-so action movie. A number of witty moments, but there are a lot of trite sequences too.

“The Road to Wellville” (Columbia TriStar): A feeble satire on health fads set in a wacky spa run by cereal king John Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins) around the turn of the century. Don’t let the all-star cast--including Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, Dana Carvey and John Cusack--sucker you into renting this turkey. Alan Parker, normally a fine director, was responsible.

“Radioland Murders” (MCA/Universal): Terrific period sets and costumes are the lone assets of this lame screwball comedy/mystery, set in a radio station in 1939. In one long night, a writer (Brian Benben of TV’s “Dream On”) has to prove he’s not guilty of murder while at the same time trying to salvage his marriage to the station owner’s secretary (Mary Stuart Masterson). Frantic but rarely clever, it wastes a talented cast, including Christopher Lloyd and Corbin Bernsen.

“I Like It Like That” (Columbia TriStar): Gritty comedy-drama about the turmoil in the life of a poor Bronx couple and their three children when the wife (Lauren Velez) is forced to work after the husband (Jon Seda) is jailed. Raw, funny, touching and beautifully acted. Remarkable feature-film debut by Darnell Martin, one of the few African American females ever to write and direct a major movie.