TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“True West.” Academy. $59.95. Perhaps one of Sam Shepard’s most unresolved and enigmatic plays, “True West” presents a mortal struggle between two brothers--here played by Gary Sinise and John Malkovich--who have nothing in common but curious family baggage. In 110 staggering minutes, they not only trade places but exchange personas, hurling epithets and flying objects at each other and wrecking their mother’s suburban house. This neo-realistic beerbath can be engrossing on stage, but it gains little from this 1983 video version, first shown on PBS’s “American Playhouse.” Directed by Allan Goldstein and based on Sinise’s staging for Chicago’s Steppenwolf, it is poorly lit and awkwardly photographed, though who knows what Malkovich fans are willing to put up with. Someone said of “True West” that it’s a play for 2 1/2 characters. That still holds. Information: (800) 972-0001.**