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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Harrison Ford readies his bullwhip, John Carpenter celebrates Halloween a little early and The Matrix looks better than ever before.

Pick of the Week

For people who think fedoras are back in style: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Special Edition)

After a series of franchise reboots - Die Hard, Rambo, Rocky - that debuted to basically little fanfare, it was refreshing this summer to run into one that actually made a splash.

Speculation on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's actual plot ran rampant ever since news broke that a third sequel was in the cards. To keep the project under a veil of secrecy, Paramount used a number of tricks, including registering five fake titles with the MPAA - The City of Gods, The Destroyer of Worlds, The Fourth Corner of the Earth, The Lost City of Gold and The Quest for the Covenant. And you know what? It paid off. Big time. In May, Crystal Skull broke the series' 19-year hiatus from theaters, garnering more than $316 million Stateside (and another $467 million abroad).

Set during the Cold War in 1957, the franchise's fourth film finds Professor Henry Jones (Harrison Ford) called back into action, this time on a quest to Peru in search of a legendary skull made of a single piece of quartz. Should Jones be able to take the skull to its rightful place, order will be restored in the world. However, if Soviet Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) redirects the skull to its origin, she'll gain a considerable amount of power that could wreak havoc on the West.

Disc includes: The Return of a Legend featurette, Pre-Production featurette, Production Diary: Making Kingdom of the Crystal Skull featurette (12 parts), pre-visualization sequences, galleries, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures XBOX 360 Game.





For people who weren't huge fans of Halloween: Resurrection anyway: Halloween: 30th Anniversary Collection (Limited Edition

Before A Nightmare on Elm Street, before Friday the 13th even, there was Halloween, John Carpenter's 1978 independent horror film that amassed a stunning $47 million (equivalent to over $150 million today) at the domestic box office - against a budget of just $325,000. That iconic Michael Myers mask? It was actually a Captain Kirk mask with its eyes cut out that production designer Tommy Lee Wallace purchased for less than two dollars. Yet countless slasher films and other movies in the horror fold owe part of their success (and influence) to Carpenter's baby.

This month, the film that began the nine-part (and counting?) series, Halloween, celebrates its 30th anniversary with a package of goodies for franchise diehards. Here, consumers are treated to a double bill of the original (including a special extended cut), Halloween 4, Halloween 5 and a 2003 documentary about the series. Oddly missing the party, however, are Halloween 2, Halloween 3 (which doesn't include Michael Myers anyway), Halloween 6, Halloween: H2O, Halloween: Resurrection and Rob Zombie's 2007 remake. A bit incomplete, no?

Disc includes: Halloween, Halloween: Extended Cut, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: 25 Years of Terror documentary.

For people who think it's hard to make a joke about abortion: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (and in the process becoming the first Romanian film to take home the prestigious prize), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days chronicles the lives of two roommates in a university dorm who try to arrange an illegal abortion in 1987 Communist Romania under the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

The movie, budgeted at an easy €600,000, appeared in many critics' top ten lists, including ones from The New York Times' A.O. Scott, Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan and Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum. And an enthusiastic 96 percent of critics had something positive to say about the movie over at Rotten Tomatoes. In the States, 4 Months earned no Academy Award nominations, but did win Best Foreign Language Film at The Golden Globes.

Disc includes: 1 Month with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: A Documentary Film by Sorin Avram; crew interviews.

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