'Inception,' 'Twilight Eclipse': Theme is dreamy

This week's new DVD releases range from dream invasions to dreamy costars.

Inception, Grade A: A team travels into dreams to steal secrets in this film from director Christopher Nolan.

With Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Nolan showed phenomenal skill in combining rich character development with bone-crunching action.

With Memento and Insomnia, he coupled that same intriguing character development with unconventional storytelling.

Those films were prep work for Inception. In this ingenious film, Nolan combines a mind-blowing story with thrill-ride action, all while finding time to create interesting three-dimensional characters.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Grade B-plus: Bella finds herself in the middle of a vampire war and the struggle between the two men who love her. The heightened tension of the love story and some killer fight sequences make this the best film so far in the series.

What makes this movie a winner is balance.

The film, based on Stephenie Meyer's third book, works equally well as a love story and an action film because of the first-rate work by director David Slade.

The Human Comedy, Grade A-minus: This 1943 film based on the story by William Saroyan is just one of the new Warner Bros. Archives collection films that has been rereleased. Other new titles include Your Cheatin' Heart and Boys' Night Out.

Also new on DVD:

LENNONYC: Documentary looks at John Lennon's life in New York.

Dark Metropolis: An underground super race is determined to destroy mankind.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs ... and More Animal Adventures: An offbeat look at some favorite stories.

Shrek Forever After: Shrek learns what life would be like if he had never come to Far Far Away. The film is also being released in a four-DVD set that includes all of the Shrek movies.

The Year of Getting to Know Us: A New York writer (Jimmy Fallon) must deal with family issues.

Vega$, The Second Season, Volume 1: Robert Urich stars in the detective series set in the Nevada town.

SpongeBob SquarePants, Season 6, Volume 2: Includes 23 episodes of the animated series.

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel: The film takes a look at the life of the Playboy founder.

Bonanza, The Official Second Season, Volume 1: The adventures of the Cartwrights that aired in the 1960-61 TV season.

Boy Meets World, The Complete Fourth Season: The DVD set includes the 22 episodes that aired 1996-97.

Roger Corman's Cult Classics: Big Bad Mama, Big Bad Mama II, Crazy Mama, and The Lady in Red have been rereleased.

Caged Animal: A former crime kingpin (Ving Rhames) must fight for his life in prison.

Dragnet 1969: Jack Webb and Harry Morgan star in this crime drama.