VIDEO NEWS

What’s New

Kikujiro (2000). Takeshi Kitano, film noir star and director of the first rank, shifts gears to cast himself as an irascible type who accompanies a little boy on a journey in search of his mother. Much humor, much heart-tugging, carried off with wit and style by the discreetly detached Kitano. In Japanese with English subtitles. Columbia: no list price; DVD: $29.95; (CC); PG-13 for a threatening incident.

The Road to El Dorado (2000). Animated tale about two feckless guys looking to get rich quick, who stow away on Cortes’ ship bound for the New World and actually stumble onto that fabled lost city of gold, where their adventures leave them with less materialistic values. Universal: $24.99; DVD: $26.99; (RR); PG, for mild thematic material and language.

Scary Movie (2000). Keenen Ivory Wayans, with help from his brothers Shawn and Marlon, among many others, sends up the “Scream” franchise and a slew of other horror pictures and skewers the cliches of teen pics with an envelope-pushing dose of raunchy humor. Thanks to Wayans’ all-crucial light touch, the result is frequently hilarious. Capable newcomer Anna Faris heads a lively ensemble cast. Miramax/Buena Vista: no list price; DVD: $29.99; (CC); R, for strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use and violence.

Shaft (2000). Director and co-writer John Singleton’s updated take on the 1970s detective benefits greatly from a galvanic performance by Samuel L. Jackson in the title role. Otherwise, this is standard-issue, cops-and-crooks fare. With Vanessa L. Williams, Christian Bale and Toni Collette. Paramount: no list price; DVD: $29.95; (CC); R, for strong violence and language.

Shower (2000). Beneath a folksy, sentimental veneer, Zhang Yang deals forthrightly with universal themes of father-son relationships, the inevitability of change and especially the loss of warm, personal community life in modern cities. The masterful Zhu Xu plays the elderly proprietor of an old Beijing bathhouse and Pu Cun Xin portrays his distant, upwardly mobile son. Columbia: no list price; DVD: $29.95; (CC); PG-13 for language and nudity.

Whipped (2000). Whipped is how you may feel after watching this nihilistic take on the battle of the sexes, contemporary-style. Brad Van Holt, Jonathan Abrahams, Zorie Barber and Judah Domke are four crass Manhattanites and Amanda Peet the beauty who gives them their comeuppance. But debuting filmmaker Peter M. Cohen’s point is that women are just as coarse as men in their view of sex. Columbia: no list price; DVD: $29.95; (CC); R for strong sexual content and language.

What’s Hot

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. “Gladiator” (2000). Director Ridley Scott’s latest is a supremely atmospheric film that shrewdly mixes traditional Roman movie elements--like senators in carefully pressed togas and fighters who say, “We who are about to die salute you”--with the latest computer-generated wonders. Russell Crowe is commanding as the heroic gladiator Maximus. But the movie--too long at 2 1/2 hours--is not as nimble outside the arena as inside. R, for intense graphic combat.

2. “The Replacements” (2000). A cliche-ridden, stereotype-driven comedy, starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman, about average guys following their dream of football glory. PG-13, for some crude sexual humor and language.

3. “The Perfect Storm” (2000). Creating one of the most terrifying storms in screen history goes a long way toward obliterating flaws in character and dialogue that crop up in this version of the best-selling book about a 1991 Atlantic maelstrom and the people unlucky enough to be caught in it. George Clooney stars. PG-13, for language and scenes of peril.

4. “X-Men” (2000). A solid summer entertainment with “The Usual Suspects’ ” Bryan Singer directing British heavyweights Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. It doesn’t take your breath away, but it’s an accomplished piece of work. PG-13, for sci-fi action violence.

5. “Big Momma’s House” (2000). If you think Martin Lawrence dressed up as a hefty grandmother is funny, this is the movie for you. But the whole project works so hard at creating funny situations that Lawrence gets no chance to be funny as himself. PG-13 for crude humor, including sexual innuendo, and for language and some violence.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. “Gladiator”

2. “X-Men”

3. “The Perfect Storm”

4. “The Replacements”

5. “M:I-2” (2000). Hong Kong action-meister John Woo brings his marvelous visual sense and showy flair to this follow-up to the 1996 blockbuster. Tom Cruise, looking a bit shaggier but still appropriately steely-eyed in this new incarnation of special agent Ethan Hunt, is one of “M:I-2’s” strongest weapons. PG-13, for intense sequences of violent action and some sensuality.

Last week’s Top 5 VHS sellers:

1. “Chicken Run” (2000). Nick Park, British master of clay animation and three-time Oscar-winning creator of “Wallace and Gromit,” and co-director Peter Lord have put chickens front and center with this gleeful parody of prison and escape movies. G.

2. “X-Men”

5. “Fantasia / 2000” (2000). A sequel that was 60 years in the making, a blending of animation and classical music that is more ephemeral than epochal. A pleasant enough diversion that doesn’t leave much of a residue. G.

4. “Toy Story 2” (1999). Lively and good-humored with a great sense of fun, it picks up where its predecessor left off. With the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack. G.

3. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1966). Animated made-for-TV version of the Dr. Seuss classic.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD sellers:

1. “Gladiator”

2. “X-Men”

3. “Big Momma’s House”

4. “The Perfect Storm”

5. “The Replacements”

What’s Coming

Tuesday: “The Cell,” “Chuck & Buck,” “Loser,” “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “Road Trip,” “Saving Grace,” “Small Time Crooks,” “Where the Money Is” and “The Virgin Suicides.”

Dec. 26: “The Art of War,” “The Exorcist” and “Godzilla 2000.”

Jan. 2: “Autumn in New York,” “Crime + Punishment in Suburbia,” “Hollow Man,” “Under Suspicion” and “The Way of the Gun.”

Jan. 9: “Me, Myself & Irene” and “Wonder Boys.”

Jan. 16: “Battlefield Earth,” “Coyote Ugly” and “Disney’s the Kid.”

Commentary by Times critics.

Rental video charts provided by VSDA

VidTrac, sales charts by VideoScan Inc.