The Bourne Identity
Release Date: R1 Jan 21
The Main Feature: Old style spy antics, featuring Matt Damon as an amnesiac pulled from the sea who discovers that he’s a skilled CIA assassin who knows kung fu. Go director Doug Liman orchestrates the face smacking, car crashing action in various picturesque European cities, while Run Lola Run’s Franke Potente is the nice girl who gives Damon a ride.
The Extras: Anamorphic and pan & scan versions; each with star and director Commentary, Deleted Scenes, an Alternate Ending, HBO Featurette and Moby Video. 24 Hour Party People
Release Date: R1 Jan 21, R2 Jan 27
The Main Feature: Gloriously off-the-wall fake documentary, tracing the rise and fall of Factory Records, the Manchester label responsible for The Happy Mondays and New Order, plus the birth of the legendary Hacienda club. Steve Coogan plays idiosyncratic enterpreneur Tony Wilson, but the soundtrack is the real star.
The Extras: This two-disc Special Edition deserves to be a huge seller. For starters, there are three Commentaries – one by Wilson, one by Coogan and the producer and, over on Disc 2, another recorded in a Manchester boozer with the cast (the film is show in video inset). Then there’s a massive 24 deleted scenes, a Documentary by director Michael Winterbottom, three Featurettes, and a ‘who’s who’ guide to every character in the film. One Hour Photo
Release Date: R1 Jan 28
The Main Feature: A stylish and claustrophobic psychological thriller, with an Oscar-calibre Robin Williams as lonely photo lab worker Sy Parrish, obsessed with his favourite female customer. The antithesis of the usual Hollywood stalker movies, this builds and maintains an air of unsettlement through its intense camerawork, haunting score and Williams’s credibly creepy performance. Don’t watch with the curtains open.
The Extras: Williams contributes to a Commentary with the writer-director, plus a Charlie Rose Show interview, Featurette and Anatomy of a Scene. Six Feet Under: Season One
Release Date: R1 Feb 4
The Main Feature: The darkest and most intelligent American television show in years, based around the Fisher family’s funeral home. Created by American Beauty writer Alan Ball, there is absolutely nothing around like this, from the range of deaths that begin each episode (and whose corpses later dispense advice), to the multi-faceted characters, who blossom and grow in complexity over the course of the series. Grade A TV.
The Extras: Four discs house the 13 episodes, two Commentaries, a Featurette on the opening credits, Deleted Scene and Interviews. Also covered… A Fish Called Wanda: Special Edition
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
X-Men: Collector’s Edition
Die Another Day
Road to Perdition
The Tuxedo
The Osbournes: Season One
NYPD Blue: Season One
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Star Trek: Nemesis
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by Ultimate DVD's seer of all things. |
