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

“Max Headroom.” Karl-Lorimar. $39.95. Though he acts like it, Max isn’t the biggest star of the ‘80s--but he (it?) may be the strangest . An English-eye summary of all that’s smarmy about American show-biz types, Max is a hilariously self-adoring TV image. Portrayed by Matt Frewer with makeup and trickery, he’s supposedly computer-generated--a conceit born in this British TV/Cinemax production. Even if Max only shows up toward the end, the hour is an engrossing, fast-moving science-fiction film about a future where Frewer, as an investigative reporter/cameraman, finds out something horrifying about Network 23 and. . . . Information: (714) 474-0355. 1/2