$15 for ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ ‘Star Trek’ Videos the Lowest Yet

How low can you go?

The big video news this week isn’t about movies that are coming to cassette for the first time, but films that have been renting for months.

The reason: Reduced prices have reached their lowest levels yet.

Starting Saturday, you can buy these pictures for a mere $15:

Paramount’s “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Witness,” the first four “Star Trek” movies, “Airplane,” “48 Hrs.” and “Trading Places.”

Vestron’s “Hoosiers,” “Mad Max,” “Mr. Mom,” “Meatballs” and “The Flamingo Kid.”

And for $20: “RoboCop,” “Throw Mama From the Train,” “The Couch Trip,” “Malone” (the first price reduction ever from Orion), as well as “Dirty Dancing,” “The Running Man” and “Hamburger Hill” (from Vestron).

And on Oct. 5, Paramount--which has always led the reduced-price parade--will also bring “The Red Shoes,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “ ‘Crocodile’ Dundee,” “Grease,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “True Grit” down to $15.

In addition, Paramount will release two films that have never been on video before at the same price: the 1950 Fred Astaire musical “Let’s Dance” and the 1953 Charlton Heston Western “Arrowhead.”

THIS WEEK’S MOVIES

“Tequila Sunrise” (Warner, $89.95, R) was written and directed by noted screenwriter Robert Towne. As you might expect from the man who wrote “Chinatown,” this romantic thriller has a tense and gritty edge. Mel Gibson is a drug dealer trying to quit the racket, Kurt Russell a narcotics cop, and Michelle Pfeiffer the woman they both love.

“The Fly II” (CBS/Fox, $89.98, R) is the sequel to the remake. If that’s not confusing enough, it doesn’t star Jeff Goldblum, who was in the first film--the remake, that is. This time around Eric Stoltz (the man behind the mask in “Mask”) stars as the guy with insectuous tendencies.

From 1949, “Mighty Joe Young” (Turner, $19.98), the best big-monkey movie since the original “King Kong,” is available in colorized and black-and-white versions.

OTHER NEW VIDEOS

If you’d like to study some of the influences on Roger and Jessica Rabbit, “Cartoons for Big Kids” (Turner, $19.98, 44 minutes) is the most informative--and hilarious--way. The packaging disguises the fact that there are only four cartoons here, but three are classics (Tex Avery’s “Red-Hot Riding Hood,” his “King-Size Canary” and Bob Clampett’s “The Great Piggy Bank Robbery”) and the rest of the tape is filled out by Leonard Maltin’s incisive and delightfully illustrated comments on how the MGM and Warner Bros. cartoons of the ‘40s were made more for adults than for children.

Sports: “Motor City Madness” (CBS/Fox, $19.98, 50 minutes) is a time capsule of the 1988 NBA season and champs, the Detroit Pistons. “1988 NFL Team Highlights” (Media, $14.95 and 22 minutes each) does the same for each pro-football team.

Music: “Night of the Guitar--Live!” (A&M;, $19.98 and 60 minutes each) features several rock guitarists in two 60-minute volumes. “Lita Ford: Lita” and “Love and Rockets: The Haunted Fishtank” (BMG, $16.98) focus on a rock guitarist and a British band.