CAPSULES

*Cherry 2000 (Orion, $19.98) Melanie Griffith made this overlooked Mad Max swipe in between her acclaimed performances in Something Wild and Working Girl. Despite its icky premise (she's a bounty hunter who helps a nerd find his rare sex robot), the movie's wry, low-key execution has the spirit of an old Howard Hawks adventure. B

* Coming Home (MGM/UA, $29.95) In 1978 this movie seemed like a breakthrough in Hollywood's willingness to look truthfully at Vietnam. Now it looks like a necessary reconnaissance of the emotional landscape before Oliver Stone's frontal assaults in Platoon. It's impeccably acted by Jane Fonda and Jon Voight. B+

* Eight Men Out (Orion, $19.98) John Sayles' rueful, sepia-toned drama is pretty much the straight poop on baseball's 1919 Black Sox scandal. A hard- nosed elegy to an ugly mess. A-

* Elmer Gantry (MGM/UA, $29.) As the bogus but charismatic evangelist of Sinclair Lewis' novel, Burt Lancaster won a well-deserved Oscar and made the profession look pretty good until dweebs like Jim Bakker came along. A-

* Get Crazy (Nelson, $9.98) is one of the great lost comedies of the '80s: goofy, wonderful, and altogether hilarious. It's New Year's Eve at a Fillmore- style concert hall. Malcolm McDowell plays a hammy, imitation Mick Jagger, while Lou Reed is an out-to-lunch Dylan, and Fabian and Bobby Sherman play yes-men to villain Ed Begley Jr. A

* The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (MGM/UA, $29.95) This is the funniest, most mythic of the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns-a cool mix of the immense and the eccentric. It's also one of the finest wide-screen films ever ) made, so this video version is not the best way to see it. C+

* Mildred Pierce (MGM/UA, $29.95) Here's hoping that Midler, Lange, or Fonda won't remake Mildred Pierce-it should stand untouched in all its nasty, venal glory. Joan Crawford captured an Oscar for suffering, zombie-like, through unfaithful suitors, sleazy business partners, and a daughter from hell. A low- down American classic. A

* Sergeant York (MGM/UA, $29.95) will eventually make a fascinating double bill with Born on the Fourth of July: Both are true stories that examine what the words ''war hero'' mean. They arrive at vastly different conclusions, of course, but that's not to knock the earlier movie, which is a thoughtful biopic featuring Gary Cooper. B+

* Women In Love (MGM/UA, $29.95) Ken Russell's excellent adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's classic novel is highlighted by sharp performances from leads Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates, and Oliver Reed. It's better than Cliff Notes. A-