'Cloverfield' (PG-13)

What we gave it: 3 stars

New Yorkers go out of their heads (and the Statue of Liberty loses hers) as a 350-foot monster rampages through the city in this horror hit whose secretive marketing campaign was as much a part of the story as the movie itself. Using a cast of unknowns to accentuate authenticity, "Cloverfield" is told entirely from the perspective of a hand-held camera that had been recording a farewell party among friends. The DVD has four deleted scenes and a couple of alternate endings that offer slight variations to the conclusion seen in theaters. The disc also has detailed making-of segments featuring the cast and crew -- including producer J.J. Abrams, whose trip to Japan with his son made him lament that America did not have a resident movie monster such as Godzilla.

'Charlie Wilson's War' (R)

What we gave it: 3½ stars

A partying congressman, a Texas socialite and a slovenly CIA man secretly back Afghanistan against communist invaders, help bring down the Soviet empire and leave a legacy that still resounds in the war on terrorism today. Sounds like the stuff of a Hollywood laugh fest to us. Director Mike Nichols' sharp foreign-policy satire stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman (who earned a supporting-actor Academy Award nomination) as the three unlikely masterminds to the covert U.S. response over the Soviet action in the early 1980s.

'The Savages' (R)

What we gave it: 2 stars

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are an ideal match in this hilarious and heartbreaking comic drama about a couple of emotionally stunted siblings who have contentedly grown apart amid their self-absorbed lives but are forced back together to care for the ailing father (Philip Bosco) who never paid much mind to them. The film grabbed two Oscar nominations, best actress for Linney and original screenplay for writer-director Tamara Jenkins.

'The Orphanage' (R)

What we gave it: 4 stars

This creepy tale is a welcome arrival at a time when Hollywood horror mostly consists of slasher remakes and torture sequels. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, the creator of "Pan's Labyrinth," Belen Rueda stars as a woman who once lived in an orphanage and returns there 30 years later with her husband and adopted son to open a home for children with special needs. But they're not alone: Spirits of her old playmates haunt the place to reveal an old terror she had long forgotten.