The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 27

ON THE TUBE VIDEO NEWS AND REVIEWS Some flood movies rise above the dull gauge New releases "The First Wives Club" (Paramount, no suggested retail price) The star power of Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton makes this movie more entertaining than it has a right to be, but not as effervescent as it could have been. The three play rich, middle-aged Manhattan women who take revenge on the ex-husbands who have ditched them for younger women. Rated PG. "Flirting With Disaster" (Buena Vista, $99.98) David O. Russell directs this wonderfully mad odyssey in which a man sets out to find his biological parents and meets more weirdos than Alice found down the rabbit hole.

The strong ensemble cast includes Ben Stiller, Tea Leoni, Patricia Arquette, Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal. Rated R. "American Buffalo" (Hallmark, $99.98) This dazzling adaptation of David Mamet's play about small-time crooks planning a score is anchored by great performances by Dennis Franz and Dustin Hoffman. Michael Corrente is the director. Rated R.

"The Long Kiss Goodnight" (Warner $103.98) Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson star in this action thriller that has spectacular stunts but a silly plot about a suburban mother who turns out to be a government assassin with amnesia. Directed by Renny Harlin, Davis' husband. Rated R. "Walking and Talking" (Buena Vista, $99.98) Anne Heche and Catherine Keener star in Nicole Holofcener's first feature that examines two women's friendship by watching them face life's little insults with fresh, disarming humor.

Unrated. "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" (Buena Vista, $22.98) Rick Moranis returns as the shrink-happy Wayne Szalinski in this family comedy. This time around Wayne accidentally shrinks himself, his brother and their wives, leaving the kids to run the house. Rated PG. From staff and wire dispatches Top video rentals Here are the top videocassettes in rentals for the week ending today, as reported by Billboard.

1. "Phenomenon" 2. "A Time to Kill" 3. "The Fan" 4. "Jack" 5.

"Kingpin" 6. "Fargo" 7. "The Rock" 8. "Last Man Standing" 9. "Trainspotting" 10.

"Escape From L.A." By VINCE STATEN Special to The Courier-Journal It could That's what I ing myself as buckets of the basement. I could be STATEN Sissy Spacek Gibson in "The be worse. kept tellI carried water out of like poor and Mel River," battling to save their farm from a swollen river. We got less than an inch in our basement, enough to make a mess but nothing compared with what many folks around the area had to deal with. If you were hit hard and you believe in the old misery-loves-company or if you weren't hit hard and you want to reflect on how "it could be worse" here are a selection of flood movies.

"The River" was part of an accidental trilogy of save-the-farm films that arrived in theaters in the mid-1980s. Preceded by "Country" and "Places in the Heart," "The River" got lost in the shuffle. It deserved more attention, particularly Spacek's portrayal of the indomitable Mae Garvey, who fights floods as well as she fends off sleazy financiers who want to buy her farm so they can dam the river and open a hydroelectric plant. The only problem I had with this movie was the premise. What's so wrong about building a dam and harnessing the river so that it won't keep flooding all the area farms? "The Rains Came" has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? Actually, it's an earthquake that begins the havoc that rains on the fictional Indian city of Ranchipur in this 1939 film.

The quake brings on rain and flooding that messes up Myrna Loy's lovely little life of luxury. She's an upper-crust English girl who's carrying on an affair with Tyrone Power. Then the earth opens up and the rains pour down and, well, get out your handkerchiefs. The spectacular for 1939 anyway earthquake and flood scenes won an Oscar for special effects. Actually, the movie "Flood!" is closer to our recent predicament.

Plus it's just out-and-out action, as opposed to the melodramatic little plot of "The Rains Came." Producer Irwin Allen, fresh from his successes with the disaster epics "Airport," "Earthquake" and "The Towering Inferno," made this 1976 dambursts disaster flick for television. And you can tell. It's definitely a made-for-TV cast: Robert Culp plays a helicopter pilot who braves raging waters and cheap special effects to save Richard Basehart, Barbara Hershey, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Martin Milner, Cameron Mitchell, Teresa Wright and Francine York. Did I leave any mid-'70s "Love Boat" rejects out? OK, "The Poseidon Adventure" has nothing to do with flooding, but it has everything to do with water, lots and lots of water. I feel wet just thinking about Free-lance writer Vince Staten's column appears weekly in SCENE.

Write him at The -Journal, 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, Ky. 40201-7431. STATEN Left to right, Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek and Shane Bailey played the Garveys in "The River," in which they tried to save their farm from a raging river.

this movie. This film and "Airport" put disaster flicks on the map. "The Poseidon Adventure" features an all-star cast of midlevel talent climbing, swimming, paddling, in general doing anything to escape the disaster of a luxury liner turned upside down. The biggest cheer in the movie comes when irritating old Shelley Winters buys the farm. Here's another familiar feeling: In "Ti.

dal Wave" Japan is slowly sinking into the sea. That's how I felt trying to keep up with the water coming in my basement. Islanders must be evacuated before the waters overtake the island. I'm told the original Japanese version is much better than this 1975 bastardization that features much of the original film with footage of Lorne Greene slapped in to make it look like an American production. I can't say if the original was better.

I can say that the rest of the cast isn't served well by bad dubbing and editing. This is no "Godzilla." The '37 flood How did our flood compare with the mother of all local floods, the 1937 disaster? Find out in The Flood: produced documentary that has been around since 1993 but has never been more timely. The answer to the question is: They had it much worse 60 years ago. Still we have three news helicopters to show us that, yes, there's still floodwater. The Story of the Worst Natural Disaster in American History," a locally Documentaries Floods may be the great neglected documentary subject.

There are oodles of documentaries on video about earthquakes and volcanoes and even sharks. But I can find only two that even touch on the subject of floods. "Nature's Fury: A Decade of Disasters" is an hourlong compilation of ABC news footage of earthquakes, forest fires and floods from the 1980s. "The River" is a 1937 documentary look at the Mississippi River. Produced for the Farm Security Administration, the film examines abuses of the river that resulted in erosion, pollution and, yes, flooding.

The worst flood to ever hit this country, the 1889 Johnstown, flood, killed 2,200 people. But it arrived too early for competing news helicopters. There is no documentary about this monster flood. Hollywood fictionalized the story in the 1926 silent "The Johnstown Flood," with Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien. It's not yet on video.

Disney direct This week launches what could be a flood of direct-to-video Disney movies. "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves," the third in the "Honey-Shrunk" series, arrives in stores Tuesday. Due in August is the direct-to-video animated feature "Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin." And slated for October is what could be the biggest direct Disney ever, the made-for-video animated feature "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas." And the studio has announced that it's joining with Pixar Animation Studios to make a direct-to-video sequel to the 1995 blockbuster "Toy Story." Tim Allen and Tom Hanks have signed on to reprise their roles as the voices of Buzz Lightyear and Woody. In today's column "Airport" (Universal, $14.98) "Earthquake" (Universal, $14.98) "Flood!" (Warner $19.95) "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" (Buena Vista, $22.98) "Country" (Touchstone, $79.95) "Nature's Fury: A Decade of Disasters" (ABC News, $24.99) "Places in the Heart" (FoxVideo, $19.98) "The Poseidon Adventure" (FoxVideo, $19.98) "The Rains Came" (FoxVideo, $19.99) "The River" (Universal, $14.98, 1984) "The River" (Movies Unlimited, $19.99, 1937) "1937 The Flood" (Tim Young Productions, $19.98) "Tidal Wave" (New World, $19.98) "The Towering Inferno" (FoxVideo, $19.98) March 15, 1997 SCENE Page.