MOVIE GUIDE

If additional coverage of a film has appeared in the Monitor, the date of the article is given in italics after the summary. Inclusion of a movie does not imply Monitor endorsement.

GHOSTBUSTERS - Bill Murray sets up a spook-chasing business with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, and it's as if the Three Stooges met ''The Exorcist.'' Broad but often funny, and director Ivan Reitman ups the reward by treating the fantasy as energetically as the comedy. (Rated PG; contains a number of risque jokes.) June 14.

GREMLINS - There's only one, but he has babies that shift from mischievous to malicious. There's fun here, but director Joe Dante has trouble balancing the humor and horror. (Rated PG; contains a little vulgar language and a lot of strong though cartoonlike violence.)

THE KARATE KID - John G. Avildsen, the director who gave us ''Rocky,'' does it again in this good-natured yarn about an East Coast wimp who moves to California and learns the art of self-defense from a wise old Asian man, who spouts the same sort of wisdom Yoda gave Luke in the ''The Empire Strikes Back.'' The filmmalking is primitive, but there's energy galore, and the finale will coax cheers from every teenager in the civilized world. (Rated PG; contains a little vulgar language and some fighting scenes.) June 21.

LE DERNIER COMBAT - ''The Last Battle'' is the English-language title of Luc Besson's surrealistic, futuristic science-fiction yarn about a man struggling to survive in a blasted-out world where nobody speaks. Often crude, though it gathers a grim momentum as it goes along, and there's a bleak elegance to its black-and-white images. (Rated R; contains much violence and a little kinky sex.) June 28.

THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE - Some energetic performances are the only notable virtues of this melodrama about two small-timers who pull off a heist and find themselves in trouble with the mob. Raggedly directed by Stuart Rosenberg. (Rated R; contains much vulgar language and some very harrowing violence.)

RHINESTONE - A country singer wagers that she can teach her trade to a New York cabbie, with predictable results. Directed by Bob Clark, who mostly exploits the presold personalities of stars Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone. (Rated PG; contains sexual innuendo and some ribald humor.)

STREETS OF FIRE - Billed as ''A Rock & Roll Fable,'' and directed by Walter Hill as an elaborate, very violent joke. His visual approach, so stylized it's almost abstract, completely dominates the slim story about a young man saving a rock singer from the villain who has kidnapped her. (Rated PG; contains a great deal of violence.) June 14.

TOP SECRET! - There's less of Karl Marx than the Marx Brothers in East Germany, according to this crazy comedy about an American rock star who finds intrigue, romance, and silliness during a goodwill visit. Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, whose sight gags were much funnier and more varied in their earlier ''Airplane.'' (Rated PG; contains some surprisingly coarse and kinky humor.)