OUT ON VIDEO

* NORTH - (PG, Columbia TriStar Home Video). North, an 11-year-old with everything going for him except the fact that he's utterly unappreciated by his own parents, travels around the world in 87 minutes in search of a better set. Bruce Willis as the provider of pearls of wisdom and Elijah Wood as North give this family comedy a feel-good, if predictable, message. Winchell, a boy who deviously exploits the North-inspired children's-empowerment movement, is played with spunk by Matthew McCurley and adds a needed extra dimension to the plot. But North's travels from Texas to Alaska to Beijing never seem to get out of the Hollywood lot. Although played by well-known actors, the potential-parent scenarios begin to feel like television channel-surfing: Mediocrity and stereotypes outweigh genuine humor. Parents, however, might be relieved to find a film with only one or two offensive words and a few bullets that never hit anything but a shipment of borscht. (July 22, 1994)