“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”

Paramount, single-disc DVD $29.98, two-disc DVD $34.98

Stephen Sommers’ film, based on the line of Hasbro action figures, is loud, flashy, silly and too long. As far as plot goes, the crack commando G.I. Joes encounter an evil weapons dealer, a mad scientist, nanobots with a taste for 19th-century Parisian landmarks, a funny black guy, a couple of unconvincing romances, and a girl who’s been brainwashed into becoming a lethal killing machine. Mixed in with such hard bodies as Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller are terrific actors such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Christopher Eccleston.

“Aliens in the Attic”

20th Century Fox, DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $39.99

An extended family gathers in a big Victorian rental home in the country. There’s Tom, the “Math-lete” (Carter Jenkins), Jake the alpha male (Austin Butler), Tom’s dating-a-college-guy sister (Ashley Tisdale), baby sister Hannah (Ashley Boettcher) and the Twins (Henri and Regan Young). They stumble across four diminutive aliens (animated) who have landed in the attic at the vanguard of a Zirconian invasion force. The adults (Doris Roberts, Kevin Nealon and Andy Richter among them) are out of the loop. So is the sheriff (Tim Meadows). It’s up to the kids, who can resist the alien mind-and-body control ray that turns adults into zombie puppets, to save the Earth. Stupid movie, right? But kid-friendly, as the children work out ways to fend off the beasties.

“The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3”

Sony, DVD $28.96, Blu-ray $39.95

Director Tony Scott’s remake of the gritty and darkly comic 1974 film starring Walter Matthau, is about the controlled chaos of a city that barely works. As the lead hijacker of a subway train that left the Pelham station at 1:23 p.m., John Travolta is in high manic mode, seething and unpredictable, violent and charismatic. The best moments of the film are his conversations with Denzel Washington, who plays the Matthau role, as disgraced subway official Walter Garber, who is accidentally thrust into a leading role. If the film stayed there and focused on the psychology of an ordinary guy with a blot on his record and a crazy man who sees his own darkness in everyone, it might have been a good film. But this is a Scott film, animated by an absurd need for excess, and manic, dizzying camera work.