DVDs

Romance and a bit of '80s nostalgia were in the air today as a pack of Lloyd Dobler lookalikes descended upon various New York City locations to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Cameron Crowe's beloved romantic comedy 'Say Anything.' The day also marked the release of the movie's 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray and DVD.

'Say Anything,' with its witty, natural dialogue and believable characters, was a refreshing departure from typical teen rom-coms back in the day, and underachieving kickboxer Dobler (a typically understated John Cusack), was a perfect anti-hero. In the movie's most celebrated scene, the lovelorn Lloyd serenades ex-girlfriend Diane (Ione Skye) by holding a boombox playing Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes' outside her bedroom window. (The scene's so classic it's been parodied on both 'South Park' and 'American Dad.')

Craving action this week? Join up with the hard-fighting boys (and girls) in 'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,' but cash in your ticket before taking a subway ride with 'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,' both arriving on DVD this week. Plus there's 'Food, Inc.,' a documentary that lifts the veil on our nation's food industry.

'The Samuel Fuller Collection' pays homage to the opus of a filmmaking legend, 'The Prisoner: The Complete Series' hits DVD and Blu-Ray in a special edition, and 'The Rise of Monty Python' celebrates 40 years of laughs.

Scrat and friends continue to evolve in the kid-friendly 'Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,' while there's something wrong -- very, very wrong -- with Esther in the not-for-kids 'Orphan.' Plus: Larry David plays Woody Allen in 'Whatever Works.' Get the scoop on this week's new DVD releases, plus recommendations from weeks' past.

Today's DVD question: Is it better to be a renter or an owner?

That's something Hollywood has struggled with since the first VHS tapes hit the market a quarter of a century ago. In those days, movies were priced sky-high because there was a small market for sales; the "sell-through" market (priced to own movies) grew ever-so-slowly until it became the norm with the rise of DVDs. But rental always was the foundation for the market: Witness the rise of Netflix.

But those days may be over.

According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, "In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale."

'Easy Rider': 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray cruises into stores, the William Castle Film Collection should make cinefiles drool, and the 'Wings of Desire' Criterion Collection soars.

'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' -- which boasted some of the summer's most divided reviews AND grossing a whopping $400+ million in the U.S. -- has arrived on DVD and Blu-Ray steeped in all as much explosive, chaotic, metal-crunching, Michael Bay-tastic glory as any fan could have hoped.

"I expected it to be like that," writer Robert Orci said last week at a promotional event in Santa Monica for 'Transformers,' referring to the movie's split reaction. "Sequels are easy targets. It was under the pressure of the writers' strike, which makes us targets. It was longer, which is a debate. It was bigger, louder and longer than the other one."

Summer's biggest, explosion-filled, Megan Fox-laden, robot-vs.-robot action-heavy hit arrives on DVD in 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.' It's like the Fourth of July all over again.

From an unrated Blu-ray director's cut of 'Natural Born Killers' to a 25th anniversary edition of 'Stop Making Sense,' we run down this week's list of the top Blu-ray and special edition DVD releases.

Summer is in mid-swing ... in the world of DVD at least. This week we've got a box office hit ('The Proposal'), a box office dud ('Land of the Lost') and a horror-comedy somewhere in between ('Drag Me to Hell'). Get the full scoop on this week's DVD releases, plus our recommendations from weeks' past.