CAPSULES

*Best of the Best (1989, SVS, $89.95) Eric Roberts and Christopher Penn go for the gold as part of a karate team coached by James Earl Jones. *Beyond the Stars (1989, IVE, $89.95) Friendship between wastrel ex-astronaut Martin Sheen and space-obsessed dolescent Christian Slater.

*Cookie (1989, Warner, $89.95) Susan Seidelman's mild gangster comedy has many larky moments, even though gum- snapping Emily Lloyd and wiseguy daddy Peter Falk have no real chemistry. The artful visuals are candy for the eyes. B

*Chocolat (1989, Orion, $79.98) Set in the Cameroon in the '50s, Chocolat focuses on the relationship between a French woman and her African servant. Though richly drawn, Claire Denis' first feature is more novelistic than cinematic and understated to the point of suffocation. C+

*The Day That Shook the World (1978, VidAmerica, $59.98) Christopher Plummer plays the archduke and Maximilian Schell the assassin in a tale of the murder that set off World War I.

*The Music Teacher (1989, Orion, $79.98) ( An old rivalry between a music teacher and an opera impresario comes to bear upon two young artists. French with subtitles.

*Night Ambush (1957, VidAmerica, $39.98) British agents kidnap a Nazi general on the German-occupied isle of Crete. Dirk Bogarde stars.

*Paint It Black (1989, Vestron, $89.98) A young sculptor (Rick Rossovich) is accused of killing a gallery owner (Sally Kirkland) who wanted more than his art.

*Picnic (1956, RCA/Columbia, $19.95) In Joshua Logan's drama, handsome drifter William Holddn wanders into a Kansas town and intrigues everyone -especially Kim Novak.

*Riverbend (1990, Prism) Black fugitives wage war on a white supremacist sheriff in Georgia.

*Slaughter (1972, CBS/Fox, $59.98) Campy '70s action feature starring ex- football layer Jim Brown as an ex-Green Beret out to avenge his parents' murders by a South American crime syndicate.

*Slaughter's Big Ripoff (1973, CBS/Fox, $59.98) Jim Brown keeps avenging his parents' murders by a South American crime syndicate.

*Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1988, Orion, $19.98) Louis Malle's World War II memoir. A Jewish boy hidden in a Catholic boarding school befriends a shy classmate. French with subtitles.

*Babette's Feast (1987, Orion, $19.98) A French woman, long exiled in Denmark, cooks a lavish meal for her hosts. French and Danish with subtitles.

*Far North (1988, Nelson, $19.98) Small-town girl Jessica Lange comes home to Minnesota in an absurdist comedy written and directed by Sam Shepard.

*Jean de Florette (1986, Orion, $19.98) Greed over a patch of land in rural France ends in the death of its rightful owner, played by Gerard Depardieu. French with subtitles.

*Love at Stake (1988, Nelson, $19.98) Satire of the Salem witch trials starring Barbara Carrera.

*Manon of the Spring (1986, Orion, $19.98) Sequel to Jean de Florette, with Emmanuelle Beart as the landowner's beautiful daughter.