Video News : New Releases

Movies

If you’re planning a New Year’s Eve party around watching videos, don’t hope to find anything new at the store. This is probably the slowest release week of the year, with only a few notable new movies out and no non-movie tapes of interest. The movies:

“Red Heat” (IVE, $89.95, R) features Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi, Peter Boyle and Ed O’Ross in a violent Walter Hill-directed film about a mismatched pair of policemen--one a disciplined Russian detective, the other a rowdy Chicago cop--who go after the Soviet Union’s rottenest drug dealer.

“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (Orion, $89.98, R) is Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel, set in politically turbulent ‘60s Czechoslovakia. The erotic, 172-minute film received ecstatic reviews from some quarters.

“Monkey Shines” (Orion, $89.98, R), directed by George Romero (“Night of the Living Dead”), is a definitely offbeat horror film about a quadriplegic who forms a strange attachment to the ape who performs basic tasks for him.

Looking forward, though, there’s plenty to come in the new year, including these videocassette releases: “Young Guns” (Jan. 4), “Vibes” and “The Blob” (Jan. 5), Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker” (Jan. 10), “The Dead Pool” (Jan. 25), “Bull Durham” and “Die Hard” (Jan. 26), “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” (Feb. 7), “Broadway Melody” (Feb. 21), “Married to the Mob,” “The Decline of Western Civilization Part II” and “A Fish Called Wanda” (Feb. 23), “Punchline” (March 16) and “Big” (March 23).