COLUMN: Video Preview

Freedom fighter Neo (Keanu Reeves) charges through a hailstorm of bullets as he battles to solve the secret of "The Matrix"

      Whether it's here and now or somewhere in the cyberfuture, it's a jungle out there.
      For proof, look no further than "The Matrix" (Warner Bros., Tuesday), the eye-popping special effects workout about a mild-mannered computer programmer (Keanu Reeves) recruited by shadowy freedom fighters (led by Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss) to join an underground revolt against a monolithic computer society. Larry and Andy Wachowski's futuristic action thriller arrives in video stores next week as a rental attraction -- and returns Dec. 7 as a low-priced, sell-through title.
      Back in the real reel world, Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn are "The Out-of-Towners" (Paramount, Tuesday), a hapless Ohio husband-and-wife who suffer multiple comic calamities during a New York visit. (Movie buffs can check out the 1970 original with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.)
      And a lonely Chicago teacher (James Caan) journeys to Ireland, hoping to discover the secrets of his ailing mother's past, in "This Is My Father" (Columbia/TriStar, Tuesday). John Cusack, Stephen Rea, Colm Meaney and Moya Farrelly co-star with Aidan Quinn -- whose brother Paul writes and directs. Rounding out the family trio: another brother, cinematographer Declan Quinn.
      On-screen brotherly ties, meanwhile, inspire "Foolish" (Artisan, Tuesday), follows a stand-up comedian (Eddie Griffin) and a streetwise hustler (played by rapper Master P, who also scripted) chasing conflicting dreams of success.
      For the kids, "My Favorite Martian" (Disney, Tuesday, $29.99) revives the '60s sitcom about a feckless TV reporter (Jeff Daniels) who thinks he's saved his career when he discovers a man from Mars (Christopher Lloyd). And "Doug's First Movie" (Buena Vista, Tuesday, $22.99) brings the animated Saturday morning favorite to the big screen.
      If you've got an appetite for the unusual, however, next week's video lineup serves up some decidedly adventurous cinematic cuisine.
      The phrase "serving humanity" takes on a new meaning in "Ravenous" (Fox, Tuesday), the tale of a disgraced 19th-century soldier ("L.A. Confidential's" Guy Pearce) whose remote new post in the icy Sierra Nevadas leads to a fateful encounter with a half-crazed cannibal ("The Full Monty's" Robert Carlyle).
      Elsewhere on the offbeat side of the street, Emma Thompson and her "Sense and Sensibility" co-star, Alan Rickman, play detectives trying to unravel a twisty New Orleans murder mystery in "Judas Kiss" (Columbia/TriStar, Tuesday). Former "Spin City" regular Carla Gugino and "Ally McBeal's" Gil Bellows complete the starring cast.
      A small stone with supernatural powers, meanwhile, links a despondent jazz musician (Harvey Keitel), an aspiring actress (Mira Sorvino) and a sinister stranger (Willem Dafoe) in "Lulu on the Bridge" (Trimark, Tuesday), "Smoke" screenwriter Paul Auster's directorial debut.
      Questions of reality and illusion haunt the hip Spanish thriller "Open Your Eyes" (Artisan, Tuesday), as a handsome, wealthy playboy (Eduardo Noriega) falls for his best friend's girlfriend (Penelope Cruz) and finds himself plunged into a nightmare that may or may not be real.
      And the documentary "Hands on a Hard Body" (Ideal, Tuesday) chronicles a Texas marathon where entrants compete to win a new pickup truck.
      Two high-profile miniseries, meanwhile, lead next week's TV-to-video contingent.
      A runaway "Atomic Train" (Trimark, Tuesday) heads for derailment in panic-stricken Denver as a valiant federal agent (Rob Lowe) desperately tries to stop the impending nuclear disaster. And rising star Leelee Sobieski ("Eyes Wide Shut," "Never Been Kissed") takes on the title role in the Emmy-nominated "Joan of Arc" (Artisan, Tuesday, $19.98). Peter O'Toole (who won an Emmy for his performance), Jacqueline Bisset, Powers Boothe, Olympia Dukakis and Peter Strauss co-star in the latest biography of the teen-age peasant who leads a crusade to unite 15th-century France.
      The Emmy-winning cable movie "A Lesson Before Dying" (HBO, Tuesday), meanwhile, focuses on a small-town teacher (Don Cheadle) who returns to the South to teach in the one-room school of his youth -- and finds his most challenging pupil (Mekhi Phifer) in prison, sentenced to die for a murder he didn't commit. Cicely Tyson and Irma P. Hall co-star in this adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines' best seller.
      Another cable drama, "The Defenders: Taking the First" (Paramount, Tuesday) embroils the father-daughter legal team of Don and Mary Jane Preston (Beau Bridges, Martha Plimpton) in a case against a racist (Philip Casnoff) whose fiery tirades lead to murder.
      And a favorite British detective comes to video in "Clouds of Witness" (Acorn, Tuesday): Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic 1920s sleuth, the witty Lord Peter Wimsey (Ian Carmichael).
      Jim Henson's 1987 "The Storyteller" (Columbia/TriStar, Tuesday) series, meanwhile, returns with two $12.95 volumes featuring tales from Russian and Celtic folklore, dramatized by Anthony Minghella -- who went on to win a best director Oscar for "The English Patient."
      Fans of the '60s spookiest soap opera, meanwhile, can relive the shadowy past with the "Dark Shadows Video Scrapbook" (MPI, Tuesday, $19.98), which includes series highlights and reminiscences by creator Dan Curtis.