Call it the Return of the USM: under-performing summer movies.

But as Hollywood has long known, many a big-budget underachiever has been bailed out by DVD.

Paramount may have famously fired Tom Cruise, but it is making a big reinvestment in "Mission: Impossible III."

"M:I III" sees Cruise's Ethan Hunt making the mistake of trying to be a superspy and a newly married man. He becomes vulnerable to brilliant and conscienceless villain Philip Seymour Hoffman, who has in his possession a box that can — and I never got this part really clear — cause mass destruction if somebody doesn't pay up.

Directed with more energy than exposition by "Lost" and "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams (who gave Jennifer Garner a small role), the movie grossed $134 million in theaters — about $16 million less than its production budget. "M:I III" is being released in the usual retail-friendly full-screen and wide-screen, single-disc versions (Paramount), a two-disc "Special Collector's Version" in wide-screen and in the HDTV and Blu-ray formats.

The two-disc set contains commentary by Cruise and Abrams, a making-of feature and a few minutes of deleted scenes.

Though "Monster House" (Sony-TriStar) was, after "Cars," the most entertaining animated movie of the summer, it also failed to scare up the expected box office. Perhaps that was because it was actually scary — with a PG rating that frightened parents of younger kids. The Motion Picture Association of America originally threatened it with a PG-13 until the filmmakers acquiesced by resurrecting some characters who were eaten by the hungry house.

I'm of the view that most kids in grade school, especially when watching movies with parents, are not usually permanently traumatized by being frightened. But that may be because I so thoroughly enjoyed "Monster House," made using the motion-capture technology of "The Polar Express," that I almost wished I was 8 again. No notable special features on the DVD, but it is also being released on Blu-ray, which means it will look better on disc than it did in theaters not equipped with digital projection.

Maybe the truest disappointment, commercially and critically, of the summer was "Nacho Libre" (Fox), which sure sounded good on paper: Jack Black as a Mexican monk moonlighting as a masked wrestler. Unfortunately, the joke was in the concept, and one now fears Black's upcoming and long-gestating "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" could mark the end of his brief tenure as a name above the title. Extras include deleted scenes, production footage and a comic book.