What’s Hot

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. “Any Given Sunday” (special edition director’s cut) (1999). An energetic and diverting Oliver Stone-directed soap opera about professional football that makes a few head fakes in the direction of an iconoclastic examination of the sport but, at the end of the day, comes out squarely for--hold onto your hats--teamwork and unselfish behavior. Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, Al Pacino and Cameron Diaz star. (Kenneth Turan, Dec. 22) R for strong language and some nudity/sexuality.

2. “Mission to Mars” (2000). A notably lifeless film about the possibilities of life on Mars. The clunky, unconvincing and just plain bad dialogue leaves this movie as cold and distant as the Red Planet itself. Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins and Don Cheadle star. Directed by Brian De Palma. (Turan, March 10) PG for sci-fi violence and mild language.

3. “Erin Brockovich” (2000). Irresistible, hugely satisfying feminist tale about a woman the world didn’t take seriously who empowered herself by helping others gain justice. A career milestone for director Steven Soderbergh and star Julia Roberts. (Turan, March 17) R for language.

4. “American Psycho” (2000). Nominally a satire on the excesses of the 1980s (who knew!), this adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel asks us to sit through more elegant carnage than the obviousness of its targets makes worthwhile. Starring Christian Bale and directed and co-written by Mary Harron. (Turan, April 14) R for strong violence, sexuality, drug use and language.

5. “The Whole Nine Yards” (2000). An occasionally amusing comedy about a friendly hit man (Bruce Willis) who moves in next door to a dentist (Matthew Perry). (Turan, Feb. 18) R for some sexuality/nudity and violence.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. “Mission to Mars”

2. “Any Given Sunday”

3. “Erin Brockovich”

4. “American Psycho”

5. “Reindeer Games” (2000). This noir-ish tale of an ex-con (Ben Affleck) and the beautiful woman he becomes involved with (Charlize Theron) is hampered by miscast stars and an implausible script. (Turan, Feb. 25) R for strong violence, language and sexuality.

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS sellers:

1. “The Tigger Movie” (2000). This brightly colored, upbeat animated film centers on Tigger, Winnie-the-Pooh’s rambunctious friend, who goes in search of other tiggers. Small children will be pleased, but parents and older siblings may grow impatient with the uneven execution that weakens the genuine charm the film sporadically exhibits. (Charles Solomon, Feb. 11) G.

2. “The Sound of Music” (1965). Audiences loved this Robert Wise-Ernest Lehman adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s last stage musical like no other movie of the ‘60s, some seeing it hundreds of times. It’s an archetypal story: the spunky governess (Julie Andrews) in the gorgeous chateau, taming the chilly master and his adorable motherless tots, with mountains, lakes, Nazis and world catastrophe in the background.

3. “Erin Brockovich”

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.” (Gene Seymour, Jan. 12) R for strong language, drug use and sexual content.

5. “Buzz Lightyear: The Adventure Begins” (2000). Made-for-video spinoff of the “Toy Story” hero.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD sellers:

1. “Any Given Sunday”

2. “Braveheart” (1995). Mel Gibson directed and stars in this almost three-hour epic about 13th century Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace. (Peter Rainer). R for medieval bloodshed.

3. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991). A cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from the future time-travels to 1991 to save a boy (Edward Furlong) who will one day become a resistance leader.

4. “Men in Black” (1997). Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are the kings of cool as government agents determined to keep visiting aliens from messing up planet Earth. (Turan, July 1, 1997) PG-13, for language and sci-fi violence.

5. “Men in Black” (special edition)

What’s New

Black and White (1999). Young white New Yorkers in cultural-sexual thrall to black hip-hop culture. Tiresome when it’s not being either amateurish or offensive. With Bijou Phillips, Power, Allan Houston, Mike Tyson, Claudia Schiffer, Ben Stiller, Brooke Shields, Robert Downey Jr., Gaby Hoffmann. Written and directed by James Toback. (John Anderson, April 5) Columbia: no list price; DVD: $24.95; (CC); R for strong sexuality, graphic language, some violence and drug use.

The Cup (2000). This charming, slyly comic and far from conventionally religious film shows what happens when, of all things, an intense case of World Cup fever infects the young residents of a holy Tibetan exile monastery. The movie stars Tibetan monks and was written and directed by a man described as “one of the most important incarnate lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.” In Tibetan with English subtitles. (Turan, Jan. 28) Warner: no list price; (CC); G.

Final Destination (2000). Swift and scary thriller of the supernatural, starring Devon Sawa as a high school student who has a sudden premonition that the jetliner that’s about to take him and 39 classmates to a Paris field trip will explode on takeoff. The film has an intelligence and reflectiveness atypical of the genre. (Kevin Thomas, March 17) Warner: no list price; DVD: $24.98; (CC); R for violence and terror, and for language.

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000). This is a love story--the tale of how Fred and Barney (Mark Addy and Stephen Baldwin, respectively) meet and fall in love with Wilma and Betty (Kristen Johnston and Jane Krakowski). (Eric Harrison, April 28) Universal: no list price; DVD: $24.98; (CC); PG for innuendo and brief language.

Joe Gould’s Secret (2000). This small-scale film based on the real-life relationship between boisterous bohemian Joe Gould (Ian Holm) and journalist Joseph Mitchell (played with remarkable stillness by Stanley Tucci, who also directed) is graceful and insightful. Set in 1940s Manhattan. (Turan, April 7) USA: no list price; DVD: $24.95; (CC); R for some language and brief nudity.

The Last September (2000). A superb film from Elizabeth Bowen’s novel centers on a woman’s loss of innocence as her world of Anglo-Irish aristocracy draws to its end as the Irish become increasingly successful in their fight for independence. With Keeley Hawes, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon. Directed by Deborah Warner. (Thomas, April 28) Trimark: no list price; DVD: $24.99; (CC); R for some violence and sexuality.

Screwed (2000). The screenwriting team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (“The People vs. Larry Flynt,” “Man on the Moon”) make their directing debut with a comedy about a chauffeur (Norm Macdonald) who kidnaps his employer’s dog. (Thomas, May 15) Universal: no list price; DVD: $26.98; (CC); PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, nudity, language, some violence and brief drug content.

Waking the Dead (2000). An uncommonly passionate and honest story of love and politics in the 1970s and its bittersweet aftermath. Billy Crudup reveals authentic star power as a young politician who, on the eve of his campaign for U.S. senator in 1982, becomes haunted by a past love, a ‘70s radical (Jennifer Connelly). With Janet McTeer and Hal Holbrook. (Thomas, March 24) USA: no list price; DVD: $24.95; (CC); R for sexuality and language.

Where the Heart Is (2000). Treacle and caricature threaten to drown Natalie Portman’s affecting portrait of an abandoned pregnant teenager who builds a life for herself in a small Oklahoma town. With Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, Sally Field and Joan Cusack. (Thomas, April 28) Fox: no list price; DVD: $34.98; (CC); PG-13 for intense thematic material, language and sexual content.

What’s Coming

Tuesday: “Bossa Nova,” “But I’m a Cheerleader,” “East-West,” “The Skulls,” “Snow Day” and “U-571.”

Oct. 10: “Committed,” “8 1/2 Women,” “Love and Basketball,” “Pitch Black,” “Rules of Engagement,” “Shanghai Noon” and “Time Code.”

Oct. 17: “American Pimp,” “Keeping the Faith” and “Toy Story 2.”

Oct. 24: “Center Stage,” “The Idiots,” “The Patriot” and “Up at the Villa.”

Oct. 31: “Frequency,” “Gossip,” “Return to Me” and “Thomas and the Magic Railroad.”

Nov. 7: “M:I-2” and “Titan A.E.”

Nov. 14: “Boys and Girls,” “Fantasia/2000,” “Hamlet,” “The Perfect Storm,” “Price of Glory” and “Running Free.”

Nov. 21: “Gladiator” and “Chicken Run.”

*

Commentary by Times critics.

Rental video charts provided by VSDA

VidTrac, sales charts by VideoScan Inc.