DVD: Gamera is Bradley Cooper is Jayne Mansfield — In Praise of the Also-Ran

Shout! Factory finished off its series of DVD debuts for original Japanese Gamera movies this week with the release of Gamera vs. Zigra and Gamera: The Super Monster, and it's a long-overdue recognition of these entertaining Japanese giant monster (or kaiju) flicks. You've gotta feel for the fire-breathing, flying giant turtle -- no matter what he accomplished on the big screen, he spent his entire career in the shadow of the more popular Godzilla. Ahead, four other Hollywood also-rans who quietly toil in the shadows.

Bradley Cooper: That toothy smile, the blonde hair, the Vegas buddy comedy, even the first name -- Cooper feels like he was created in a lab somewhere to be the more reasonably-priced, easier-to-get Brad Pitt. Nonetheless, Cooper seems to be coming into his own as a screen performer, from his flashy performance in The A-Team to his latest turn as the amoral beneficiary of a new wonder drug in this week's Limitless. And if Pitt could survive Cool World, so too can Cooper get beyond All About Steve.

Jayne Mansfield: After striking gold with Marilyn Monroe, 20th Century Fox clearly hoped that another pneumatic blonde would do similar wonders for the studio's coffers. And while critics at the time tended to dismiss Mansfield (whose daughter, Mariska Hargitay, stayed in the family business) as a mere MM wanna-be, Mansfield proved herself to be a shrewd and talented comedienne who was clearly in on the joke as the camera moved up and down her curvaceous va-va-voom body. If you've never seen her hilarious work in The Girl Can't Help It and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, go rent these classics right now.

Jason Statham: In the way that spaghetti western star Terence Hill seemed like Europe's answer to Clint Eastwood, bald British bad-ass Statham looked like someone meant to inherit the mantle of his follicularly-challenged predecessor Bruce Willis. But Statham has carved out his own niche in action movies, from the outrageously over-the-top antics of the Crank franchise to the comfortably ambiguous sexuality of the first two Transporter movies. He's a 21st century original.

Monica Potter: Oh, this gal -- to be born a dead ringer for Julia Roberts has to be, at best, a mixed blessing for an actress whose screen career began in the 1990s. Nonetheless, she's carried on successfully, from her starring role in the guilty-pleasure comedy-mystery Head Over Heels to successful stints on TV's Boston Legal, Trust Me, and Parenthood. Like Mansfield -- and Gamera -- before her, she went in with the odds against her and came out a winner anyway.