For Paramount Pictures and director Stephen Sommers, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is all about the launch of a new action franchise, following what he did for Universal with his Mummy movies.

For toy manufacturer Hasbro, this live-action version of G.I. Joe is about re-branding an icon and reviving sales of military-action figures for boys.

For the fanboys (and fanmen) who grew up with the original Joe dolls or who jumped in when Joe was re-launched in the 1980s through a comic-book series and an animated show on TV, G.I. Joe is mythology.

It is something fragile and valuable that needs to be protected.

"Fans are always in abject fear that their precious thing will be trampled in the mud," Larry Hama says on this week's new DVD and Blu-ray editions of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Hama is the writer of the revival comic book. He had a stake in the new project, serving as a consultant.

"What struck me about the story or the script," Hama says of the 2009 movie, "was that, you know, I like these characters."

That was the big surprise -- the Sommers touch -- for the characters played by Channing Tatum (the all-American hero), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the mad scientist), Christopher Eccleston (the arch villain), Dennis Quaid (the gruff head of the special-forces unit known as G.I. Joe), Sienna Miller (the femme fatale) and a diverse international ensemble (the soldiers).

"My job was to bring it forward and make it real," Sommers says in the extras about his handling of Joe lore.

Sommers successfully turned a routine 'blow-it-up-big' movie into a summer hit, even though Paramount did not seem to believe in it (stupidly, critics were not allowed to see it in advance).

The Rise of Cobra cost an estimated $175 million because of the CGI action scenes that careen from the destruction of the Eiffel Tower to a submarine bursting through Arctic ice.

The movie generated $301 million at the worldwide box office, according to Box Office Mojo. That may be just enough to generate the skein of sequels Hasbro and many fans want.

The two-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions share identical bonus materials, including digital copy. Sommers leads a commentary. There are 50 minutes of making-of material, including a close look at the gonzo special effects.

Nothing here is self-critical, but it is informative, including insights from Hama and Sommers.

The Taking of Pelham 123

Movie buffs often resent when good movies are re-made. What's the point?

Now we have Tony Scott's version of the New York subway thriller, The Taking of Pelham 123.

The original was a terrific flick with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw as protagonists in a hostage-taking plot. But Scott and screenwriter Brian Helgeland do a decent job of re-inventing the novel, this time with Denzel Washington and John Travolta as hero/villain. The ending is deflating, and psychologically questionable, but the rest of the movie works as a taut dramatic vehicle.

This week's new single-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray with digital copy share the same extras, primarily making-of docs that take us below ground with cast & crew into the real New York subway system.

You get a strong sense of the grit, grind and danger of shooting in real locations.

And you learn about Scott's obsession with layering reality into his fiction. It is an excellent presentation.

Forrest Gump is like a box of chocolates

As Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump reminded us so memorably 15 years ago, while sitting on a park bench and quoting mom, "Life is like a box of chocolates -- you never know what you're going to get."

The simple-minded yet big-hearted character returns to sweeten your day. The 1994 Oscar-winner is back this week in a variety of DVD and Blu-ray options, with improved bonus materials and a new high-definition transfer for Blu-ray (the DVD transfer is noticeably inferior).

Best among the options are the chocolate-box gift sets, one each in standard DVD and Blu-ray. These contain two-disc sets housed in what does look like a box of chocolates.

But there is no mystery inside. There is a white feather -- the visual icon of Robert Zemeckis' movie -- tucked into a scratch-n-sniff cardboard display of chocolates. And there is a handsome souvenir picture book with photographs and quotes from the film.

For DVD, there are two commentaries on disc one. On disc two, extras are recycled but interesting. They include a 30-minute overview plus screen tests and four featurettes on production techniques, including visual effects that placed Forrest into historical footage. Among these scenes is the insertion of Hanks on horseback (as one of Forrest's ancestors) into a chilling Ku Klux Klan sequence from Birth of a Nation.

The Blu-ray version, part of Paramount's new Sapphire Series, has even more material on it. It is a significant incentive to upgrade -- for picture, sound and for extras.

The return of Forrest Gump revives the original debate when it beat the superior Pulp Fiction as best picture to win one of its six Oscars. For cinephiles, that stung then and still does. Yet I love the Gump.

This is a great emotional, mainstream movie that easily stands the test of time, even if you do know what you're going to get.