<i> Video News</i> : New Releases

Movies

The bad news for video renters: It’s another week of the videocassette-release post-holidays slump, with little of interest--in fact, little at all--new at the store.

The good news: It’s the last one. Next weekend things pick up dramatically, with the video release of “Bull Durham,” “Die Hard,” “The Dead Pool” and a Michael Jordan sports tape.

Just about the only people who might be delighted at this weekend’s meager offerings are fans of Ken Russell, Matt Dillon and talking horses.

Director Russell’s penchant for the sensual and bizarre gets another perfume-laden airing in “Salome’s Last Dance” (Vestron, $89.98, R). Loosely based on an Oscar Wilde play, the erotic drama stars Glenda Jackson (also in a much better Russell-made work, “Women in Love”), Stratford Johns and Imogen Millais-Scott. In “Kansas” (Media, $89.95, R), Dillon and Andrew McCarthy are on the run from the law in the Midwest. The talking horse is not Mr. Ed but a nag who gives tips to a stockbroker played by comedian Bob Goldthwait in “Hot to Trot” (Warner, $89.95, PG), a comedy that pulled up lame at the box office.

Other Videos

The “Dirty Dancing” sound track was the surprise hit album of 1988, and some of its (and the Patrick Swayze movie’s) success may rub off on “Dirty Dancing: Live in Concert” (Vestron, $24.98), a video version of a pay-per-view cable concert shown last November. Bill Medley, Eric Carmen, the Contours, Merry Clayton and “the original Dirty Dancing Dancers” strut their stuff for 90 minutes.

Also from Vestron: “California Condor,” “The Mysterious Black-Footed Ferret” and “On the Edge of Extinction: Panthers and Cheetahs,” the first three in a “National Audubon Video” series. Each 60-minute tape is $24.98.