What’s Hot

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. “The Green Mile” (1999). Though its Stephen King story is a good one, this Frank Darabont-written and -directed version is hampered by excessive length, the suffocating deliberateness of its pace and some truly stomach-turning moments. Even Tom Hanks’ compelling performance as the head guard on death row in a 1935 Louisiana prison can’t overcome that. (Kenneth Turan, Dec. 10) R for violence, language and some sex-related material.

2. “Girl, Interrupted” (1999). Susanna Kaysen’s exceptional memoir of two years spent in a mental institution is graced by exceptional leading performances by Winona Ryder and Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie but held back by a plot that verges on the manufactured. (Turan, Dec. 21) R for strong language and content relating to drugs, sexuality and suicide.

3. “Bicentennial Man” (1999). Robin Williams gives a touching performance as a robot who gradually transforms into a human being in this romantic but overly glossy sci-fi fable. (Kevin Thomas, Dec. 17) PG for language and some sexual content.

4. “Next Friday” (2000). Sequel to the 1995 hit comedy takes Ice Cube’s slacker hero from South-Central L.A. to a multicultural suburban enclave. Much raunchier and far less funny than the last “Friday.” Written and produced by Cube. (Gene Seymour, reviewed Jan. 12) R for strong language, drug use and sexual content.

5. “Sleepy Hollow” (1999). An exquisitely mounted (if ghoulish) retelling of the Washington Irving short story (with Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel) created to the exact specifications of bizarre-meister Tim Burton. How pleased others will be depends on their tolerance for the grotesque. (Turan, Nov. 19) R for graphic horror violence and gore, and for a scene of sexuality.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. “Green Mile”

2. “Bicentennial Man”

3. “Girl, Interrupted”

4. “Next Friday”

5. “Fight Club” (1999). A witless mishmash of whiny, infantile philosophizing and bone-crunching violence that posits that what all men secretly want to do is bash each other into bloody pulps. So vacuous it’s more depressing than provocative. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star. (Turan, Oct. 15) R for disturbing and graphic depiction of violent antisocial behavior, sexuality and language.

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS sellers

1. “The World Is Not Enough” (1999). James Bond is back for the 19th time, with Pierce Brosnan effortlessly reprising his splendid take on Agent 007. Not so effortless for the viewer is trying to keep track of a murky plot. (Thomas, Nov. 19) PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some sexuality and innuendo.

2. “American Pie” (special edition) (1999). An unexpected hybrid of “South Park” and Andy Hardy that uses its surface crudeness as sucker bait to entice teenagers into the tent to see a high school movie that is sweet and sincere at heart. With a cast of likable young people. (Turan, July 9) R for strong sexuality, crude sexual dialogue, language and drinking, all involving teens.

3. “Stuart Little” (1999). The shy and pleasant mouse of E.B. White’s famous children’s book has been turned into a rodent whose ready line of patter would make him at home on the “Tonight Show.” The computer animation is excellent. Stuart is voiced by Michael J. Fox. (Turan, Dec. 17) PG for brief language.

4. “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” (1999). Though this prequel to the original “Star Wars” trilogy is certainly serviceable, it’s noticeably lacking in warmth and humor. Its visual strengths are considerable. (Turan, May 18, 1999) PG for sci-fi action/violence.

5. “The Matrix” (1999). A wildly cinematic futuristic thriller that stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne as battlers against a computer-controlled world that treats people like Eveready batteries. (Turan, March 31, 1999) R for sci-fi violence and brief language.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD sellers

1. “Green Mile”

2. “Fight Club”

3. “Next Friday”

4. “Bicentennial Man”

5. “The Matrix”

What’s New

In stores this week:

“Beautiful People” (2000). Jasmin Dizdar’s bravura, caustic yet tender allegory offers a vision of a multicultural metropolis--London--that is full of pain, anger, outrageous humor and tenderness. From this perspective, Dizdar drives home the agony in Bosnia. A dazzling first feature. (Thomas, March 3) Trimark: no list price; DVD, $24.99; (CC). R for drug use, language and some violent content.

“Hanging Up” (2000). The idea of Meg Ryan coping with her irascible dying father (Walter Matthau), a phone addict, and two self-absorbed sisters (Diane Keaton, who also directed, and Lisa Kudrow), sounds promising as a serious comedy, but the father and the sisters are so unlikable and the relationships so underdeveloped that the result is synthetic and contrived. (Thomas, Feb. 18) Columbia TriStar: no list price; DVD, $24.95; (CC). PG-13 for language and some sex-related material.

“The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999). This Anthony Minghella-directed version of the Patricia Highsmith novel about an amoral wannabe (Matt Damon) who worms his way into the good graces of clueless U.S. expatriates (Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow) in 1950s Europe is unexpectedly lacking in emotional impact. (Turan, Dec. 24) Paramount: no list price; DVD, $29.99; (CC). R for violence, language and brief nudity.

What’s Coming

Tuesday: “Scream 3.”

July 11: “All About My Mother,” “The Hurricane,” “Mansfield Park,” “My Dog Skip,” “Onegin,” “Boiler Room” and “Down to You.”

July 18: “The Whole Nine Yards,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “Map of the World,” “What Planet Are You From?,” “Isn’t She Great,” “The Ninth Gate,” “Ride With the Devil,” “The Big Tease,” “Diamonds” and “The War Zone.”

July 25: “Magnolia,” “The Beach” and “Drowning Mona.”

*

Commentary by Times critics.

Rental video charts provided by VSDA

VidTrac, sales charts by VideoScan Inc.