HOME ENTERTAINMENT : A Look at B-Grade Movie Hits and Misses

Has this ever happened to you?

You go to a video store and the hit movies you wanted to rent are all checked out. So you sift through videos you really know nothing about, hoping to find something interesting to take home.

Here’s a guide to some recent, lesser-known, mostly low-budget, B-movie videos.

Worth a look:

* “The Crazysitter” (New Horizons): Beverly D’Angelo’s character makes this one interesting. She plays a crude ex-con who’s hired to take care of some bratty rich kids and then tries to sell them on the black market. Low-brow with some dark comic elements.

* “Embrace of the Vampire” (New Line): Many people rent vampire movies looking for an erotic charge. That’s what you get from this one, starring Alyssa Milano of TV’s “Who’s the Boss?” as the virginal victim of a vampire. This direct-to-video movie, featuring considerable nudity, focuses on the victim/stalker element angle that attracts many to the genre.

* “The Granny” (WarnerVision): Stella Stevens as a mean ol’ granny who comes back from the dead to haunt her enemies. Part parody, part gross-out splatter flick, it features some decent moments of dark humor. Fairly entertaining B-movie.

* “Dominion” (Turner): Weekend hunters are stalked by a lunatic who sees them as trespassers. Starring Brad Johnson, it rips off “Deliverance,” but is basically an OK action thriller.

Skip these:

* “Night Train to Venice” (LIVE): A terrible, pretentious 1993 thriller starring Hugh Grant as a Nazi-hating writer.

* “Hellbound” (Cannon): Action hero Chuck Norris has made some exciting adventures but this isn’t one of them. He plays a cop tracking a killer in Israel. It doesn’t even have any decent action sequences.

* “Dead Air” (MCA/Universal): Gregory Hines plays a deejay whose girlfriends are being murdered. Co-starring Debrah Farentino, it’s a badly written thriller.

* “The Ascent” (Cabin Fever): Dumb World War II movie about two soldiers (Vincent Spano and Ben Cross) climbing Mount Kenya.

* “The Spy Within” (New Horizons): A demolitions expert (Scott Glenn) and a spy (Theresa Russell) are chased by other spies. Cardboard characters, wretched script.

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Special Interest: The revealing 95-minute documentary “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream,” first shown on cable in April, is about the life of the baseball star who broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. One of its strengths is that it gives a strong sense of the racial barriers that Aaron, who’s black, had to hurdle. Surprisingly downbeat--not the usual sports-documentary fluff. Including interviews and highlight footage, from Turner at $60.

“You Can Ride a Horse” cleverly capitalizes on the fact that children not only like horses but also like seeing other kids ride and talk about horses. This 30-minute video is packed with information and should enthrall kids of ages up to 7 or 8. From Blackboard Entertainment, (800) 968-2261.

“Beavis & Butt-head: The Final Judgment” isn’t quite as funny as the first two compilations of clips--minus music videos--featuring the MTV cartoon characters. But it proves again that these two teen nitwits don’t have to be commenting on music videos to be funny. Especially hilarious is their attempt to stifle their laughter in a sex-education class. From Sony Music Video at $15.

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What’s New on Video: “Legends of the Fall” (Columbia TriStar): Brad Pitt stars in this decades-spanning drama, set early in the century in Montana. It’s mostly about the relationship between a high-spirited maverick (Pitt) and his brother (Aidan Quinn), his father (Anthony Hopkins) and the woman (Julia Ormond) who loves both brothers. It’s sometimes contrived and brimming with the over-the-top passion of an opera, but it’s generally entertaining--especially for Pitt fans.

“Richie Rich” (Warner): Macaulay Culkin plays the comic book character Richie Rich, the world’s richest 12-year-old. Along with a simplistic plot--about Richie’s parents being kidnaped by an evil employee (John Larroquette)--there are some upbeat messages about friends being more important than money, etc. Great for the subteen set, but adults will be bored silly.

“Heavenly Creatures” (Miramax): In New Zealand in the early 1950s, two teen-agers (Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet) who partly live in a fantasy world get so attached to each other that impending separation drives them to murder. Based on fact, it’s absorbing, unique, well-made and among last year’s best films. Part of its intrigue is based on hindsight--one of the teens grew up to be celebrated writer Anne Perry.

“Pontiac Moon” (Paramount): Continuing his string of bad movies, Ted Danson plays a man looking to spice up his dull life. Inspired by Apollo XI’s moon trip in 1969, he takes his wife (Mary Steenburgen) and son (Ryan Todd) on a car trip in an old Pontiac. The length of the trip is the same number of miles traveled by the spaceship. Corny, silly and often wildly overacted.

“Clerks” (Miramax): On a shockingly paltry budget--$27,000--writer-director Kevin Smith has made an amusing comedy about the daily trials of two twentysomething clerks working in a mall--one in a convenience store (Brian O’Halloran) and the other in a video store (Jeff Anderson). In black-and-white and teeming with X-rated language, it’s basically a series of vignettes. Funny about half the time.

“S.F.W.” (PolyGram): An aimless smart-aleck (Stephen Dorff) becomes a national celebrity after being held hostage in a convenience store by terrorists seeking media coverage. Geared to a Generation X audience, it has the same reckless satirical approach as Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers”--but is vastly inferior. Director/co-writer Jefrey Levey’s parody is way overdone.

“A Low Down Dirty Shame” (Hollywood): A detective named Shame (Keenen Ivory Wayans) and his sidekick (Jada Pinkett) battle drug lords in a sort of comic homage to ‘70s-style black-action films. If fans of Wayans’ “In Living Color” TV show expect lots of comedy of that high caliber, they’ll be disappointed. Written and directed by Wayans, this one is just funny in spots. Budding star Pinkett, though, is excellent.