FLICKS FILM AND VIDEO FILE : Season’s Rentals : ‘City Slickers’ and ‘Terminator 2’ are due in video stores in time for the holidays.

December is usually a big month for holiday movie releases. This season, it’s also a pretty fair time for new videos. We called a few of the local video outlets to hear what was coming next month and were told . . . (drum roll, please):

Things will kick off with Billy Crystal’s “City Slickers,” due Wednesday. It will be followed Dec. 11 by a slightly less tame production, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Or Mr. Schwarzenegger to us.)

Also scheduled for Dec. 11: “Straight Out of Brooklyn,” the feature film debut for director Matty Rich, and “Critters 3” (which you’re probably dying to see, unless you somehow missed Critters 1 and 2).

Other movies due out in December include “Problem Child 2,” “Doc Hollywood,” “The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear” and “Vanilla Ice: As Cool as Ice.”

Cameras may be rolling soon in Simi Valley. Representatives of Universal Studios contacted city officials a couple of weeks ago about using the old Gibraltar Savings building on Madera Street for part of a feature film.

Bob Heitzman, Simi Valley’s deputy city manager, said that Universal applied for a two-week permit and that a decision on whether to approve it was expected by the end of this week. The movie company would like to begin action Dec. 4.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, the review process does bring up a question: What exactly IS the review process?

Here’s what Heitzman had to say about his city’s procedures: “In general, we send the applications out to various departments for comments, concerns and any restrictions they may want to put on the permit. The most critical is normally the Police Department for any crowd control regulations. And if there’s any use of public streets or right of way, we need traffic control.”

Seven other branches get to put their 2 cents in too. They include the county’s health and fire departments, as well as the city’s departments of public works, environmental services, building and safety, and general services. The city attorney’s office also has to review the process.

Heitzman said a simple permit takes less than five working days on the average. For a bigger production, it’s usually about 15 working days.

Other filming notes: A film crew took over the Piru bridge to film a segment of MGM’s “Of Mice and Men” last week. The scene depicted two migrant workers jumping a train. “Of Mice and Men,” based on the John Steinbeck novel, is a remake of the 1939 movie directed by Lewis Milestone.

And finally, a crew from “Chaplin” will be back in Santa Paula on Monday for a scheduled one-day shoot near Teague Drive and La Vuelta Place. The scene reportedly will depict Charlie Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) conversing with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (Kevin Kline).