Glastonbury Limited Edition
Thirty years of music and idealism condensed into tidy double package that comes with CDs and a book, but no danger of losing your tent. Heavyweights like Bowie and The Clash are balanced with newer acts, and Julian Temple oversees.
Of course, there’s a lot more than 50 greats from the last 10 years - the Noughties has been an outstanding decade for movies and TV. DVD & Blu-ray Review’s
special brings together the very best of the silver and the small screen, the sharpest presentations and the most insightful extras. It’s the ultimate guide to home entertainment.
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300 Special Edition
Zack Synder leads the way on the special edition of his rousing slasher fantasy, powering the commentary with revealing techy tidbits (a sled-mounted camera was used for shuddering battle-clashes) and popping up all over the in-depth featurettes.
Zodiac Directors Cut
An absorbing commentary from David Fincher is at the centre of this stacked two-discer, the engaging helmer full of tech details and plot insight, and it’s backed up with chunky docs on the film’s production and the real Zodiac case.
Bonnie And Clyde Special Edition
The machinegun romance comes bundled with a fistful of features and deleted scenes.
Docs on the historical prototypes tell a disappointing story – more brutal and less beautiful than the Beatty/Dunaway version – but making-of content does justice to the fine movie.
Dr Strangelove Special Edition
Kubrick’s dark and delicious Cold War satire packs a rack of unseen pics, featurettes and docs.
Best is the 45-minute making-of, featuring the director gaining George C Scott’s actorly compliance by caning him at chess.
Ferris Buellers Day Off: Bueller... Bueller Edition
A breezy, feature-filled set for John Hughes’ brilliant upbeat teen dash, featuring a cast reunion (minus leading lady Mia Sara), making-of, on-set footage and, best of the lot, a ten-minute special on Ferris’ economics teacher and ex-presidential speechwriter Ben Stein, who thanks Dick Nixon for his success.
The Red Shoes
The new transfer makes Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece sing in delirious scarlet, and the extras are bang-on – an intro from mega-fan Martin Scorsese, and a full-length stage performance of the titular ballet.
Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary Edition
Supple animation and a seam of thrilling darkness make this one of Disney's best, and the disc is stacked with production background and unusually welcome gallery features for sustain art ogling.
Shaun Of The Dead
The film’s emerging as an authentic time-tested classic, and it got its DVD release right first time with deleted and alternate scenes, tons of featurettes, and four lively commentaries full of banter (star Simon Pegg jumping on director Edgar Wright’s mention of the Isle Of Mann – “You love men?”).
The Battle Of Algiers Special Edition
The incendiary faux-doc shocker comes with streamlined but on-target extras – two lengthy interviews (one with director Gillo Pontecorvo, the other with source book author Saadi Yacef) and a gallery featuring snaps of the real National Liberation Front.
The Indiana Jones Trilogy
The matinee triumph of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s romping trilogy, before the afterthought that was the Crystal Skull.
A fourth extras-only disc is laden with featurettes, and each film has an in-depth making of packed with on-set footage and behind the scenes glimpses (watch out for the Tom Selleck Sean young screen test).
Of course, there’s a lot more than 50 greats from the last 10 years - the Noughties has been an outstanding decade for movies and TV. DVD & Blu-ray Review’s Discs Of The Decade special brings together the very best of the silver and the small screen, the sharpest presentations and the most insightful extras. It’s the ultimate guide to home entertainment. On sale now, exclusive to WH Smith. Click here to buy .
The Silence Of The Lambs Ultimate Edition
Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-snatching psycho-chiller comes with deleted scenes and a new transfer, but the mainstay of the set are two documentaries – one tracking the film’s path from best-selling to blockbuster, the other going deep on the film’s design, citing painter Francis Bacon’s influence on Demme’s visuals.
The Alien Quadrilogy
An utterly meticulous bundling of the untouchable sci-fi series.
Only the first two films are outright classics, but the set treats them all the same – digging up screenplays, concept art, interviews, alternate cuts (including David Fincher’s workprint edit of the ill-fated Alien 3) and commentaries. Utterly definitive.
Titanic Deluxe Collectors Edition
A boxset to rival the lavishness of James Cameron’s no-expense-spared epic, this four disc monster includes a wealth of material: four commentaries (the pick with Cameron himself), deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and a seas of featurettes (the time-lapse footage of the film’s Titanic replica being built).
Dirty Dancing 25th Anniversary Collectors Edition
Johnny and Baby fans get a packed set of commentaries, interviews, deleted, alternate and extended scenes, along with the main cast’s endearingly unpolished and astonishingly athletic original screentests.
Raging Bull Ultimate Edition
Martin Scorsese’ purgatorial pugilist biopic packs the walloping Bronx Bull documentary along with a top chat-track from the director joined by editor Thelma Schoonmaker and a crowd of featurettes.
NASA Greatest Missions: When We Left The Earth
Apollo 13’s Gary Sinise narrates this staggering nine-hour series showcasing four decades worth of man’s finest achievements. The extras consist of addition interview and raw footage – rare and fasinating, but the biggest draw remains the incredible snippets of film shot in orbit.
Reservoir Dogs Collectors Edition
Tarantino’s raw heist debut is swimming in extras, with a cut-and-paste chat-track (featuring QT along with producer Lawrence Bender), cast and crew interviews and, most interest of all, a doc on Tarantino his fellow Sundance lab graduates, with a peek at a rough earlier version of Reservoir Dogs starring QT as Mr White.
Princess Bride Special Edition
The special edition of this near-perfect comedy romance is a tale of two commentary tracks (and an ace half-hour making of). The first has director Rob Reiner discussing the film’s fine balance of celebration and satire, and the second features author and screenwriter William Goldman, who admits immediately that he hasn’t seen the film since it’s initial release.
Casino Royale Deluxe Edition
007’s three-discer includes two commentaries, the best from director Martin Campbell (also behind the ace GoldenEye) and producer Michael Wilson, and a new doc on the source book and satirical first film.
Rocky The Undisputed Collection
All six of Sly Stallone’s big ring blockbusters are brought together in this blowout pack, with a feature-length making of, tons of featurettes and – the hightlight – a reflective half-hour retrospective with Stallone, who talks touchingly about what the character means to him.
Of course, there’s a lot more than 50 greats from the last 10 years - the Noughties has been an outstanding decade for movies and TV. DVD & Blu-ray Review’s Discs Of The Decade special brings together the very best of the silver and the small screen, the sharpest presentations and the most insightful extras. It’s the ultimate guide to home entertainment. On sale now, exclusive to WH Smith. Click here to buy .
The Searchers 50th Anniversary Edition
John Ford’s bitter epic gets a new anamorphic transfer clear enough to pick out the red dust of Monument Valley, along with a commentary from Peter Bogdanovich and a second disc of three lengthy featurettes. The best is An Appreciation, with directors John Milius, Curtis Hanson and Martin Scorsese discussing the western’s influence.
Apocalypse Now The Complete Dossier
Both the original and heavier Redux versions of Francis Ford Coppola’s howling, existential Vietnam masterpiece are included here via seamless branching, supported by a thoughtful and engaging director commentary and stacks of documentary material.
Saving Private Ryan D-Day Anniversary Edition
Spielberg’s bloodied and sentimental last word on Second World War aesthetics comes in a two-disc set packed with dense and revealing making-ofs – in interview, production designer Tom Sanders explains how Spielberg didn’t visit the Omaha Beach location in Ireland until he arrived to shoot.
Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Collection
Comprehensive commentaries and documentaries treatment for Clint Eastwood’s imperfect but irresistible cop classic. Every film has a chat-track – the best, on Dirty Harry and Sudden Impact, by Eastwood author Richard Schickel – and the set of overloaded with features and info.
Fight Club Definitive Edition
A hail of featurettes and behind the scenes peaks accompany David Fincher’s dark, daring end-of-century satire to DVD. The highlight, though, are the four commentary tracks, key among them the fluid, funny back-and-forth between principals Fincher, Brad Pitt and Ed Norton (“You’re looking tanned here, Brad” “All for you, big boy”).
Lon Directors Cut
23 minutes are added to Luc Besson’s intense hitman drama in this extended helmer’s edit, most of it slowing the central third of the film and adding some dark, controversial substance to Léon’s relationship with Natalie Portman’s 12 year-old Matilda.
Terminator 2 Skynet Edition
Watching the T2 blu-ray is the closest thing you’ll ever get to being bionic – as well as archive commentaries and deleted scenes, the BR disc offers various picture overlays with trivia, technical info and running script comparison. It’s like eating a whole library with your eyes.
The Planet Of The Apes Collection
Pristine 2.35 transfers of all five Apes movies and a sharp two-hour doc hosted by monkey man Roddy McDowell give us the best-ever presentation of this cult dystopian sci-fi.
Gone With the Wind Collectors Edition
The biggest box office hit of all time gets the treatment it deserves. The star extras –the two hour-plus Making Of A Legend doc, almost as lengthy as the romantic epic it illuminates, focusing on producer David O. Selznik and taking us from pre-production to premier, and Rudy Behlmer’s commendably dense and info-packed chat-track.
X-Men Trilogy
A round-up of each of the three X-Men films’ special editions into a single, stuff six-discer. Each film has two commentaries – Bryan Singer the main draw on the first two, his replacement Brett Ratner on the third – and there’s an absolute trove of making of and behind the scenes material here.
Of course, there’s a lot more than 50 greats from the last 10 years - the Noughties has been an outstanding decade for movies and TV. DVD & Blu-ray Review’s Discs Of The Decade special brings together the very best of the silver and the small screen, the sharpest presentations and the most insightful extras. It’s the ultimate guide to home entertainment. On sale now, exclusive to WH Smith. Click here to buy .
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
The Blu-ray of Ang Lee’s crossover kung-fu smash comes with standard making-of and pictures galleries. But the stand-out extras are a lengthy interview with leading lady Michelle Yeoh, and a lively commentary with director Lee and long-time producing partner James Schamus, who entertainingly pulls no punches in criticising his director’s work.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Seriously Ultimate Edition
Surely the budget for this three-disc edition must dwarf that of the original feature? A new transfer, a pair of commentaries and documentaries on both the atmosphere during production (Nixon/Manson family hangover) and the film’s legacy give excellent support to Tobe Hooper’s still-raw ripper.
Memento Collectors Edition
Christopher Nolan’s amnesiac temporal shifter, given the definitive treatment with an ironed-out chronological re-cut, brother Jonathan’s informing short story Memento Mori, and a head-spinning commentary track which splits into four alternate paths for the film’s fragmented ending.
Goodfellas Special Edition
A second disc of solid docs and a cut-and-paste chat-track with Scorsese among others do justice to this lithe and dynamic mafia epic. But what makes this an essential purchase is the second commentary, featuring the real Henry Hill – full of observation and context – along with former FBI agent Edward MacDonald.
The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Edition
The big four-oh for Disney’s toe-tapping favourite gives a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the dream factory. A spliced commentary reveals how Walt personally instructed his team to lighten up the film’s dark story, there are seven deleted songs, and archive pics recreate lost character Rocky The Rhino.
Ben-Hur Collectors Edition
Hours of context-heavy documentaries fill out this four-disc edition of William’s Wyler’s heavyweight historical romp, which also comes packaged with the silent 1925 version of the story, and screen tests showing who might have played the major roles (such as Leslie Neilsen, as a hard-to-take Messala).
Cool Hand Luke Deluxe Edition
A commentary from Paul Newman biographer Eric Lax and a chunky doc give solid context to this inspiration prison camp drama. But the disc’s highlights are the glimpse of mischievous Donn Pearce, writer of the autobiographical source book, who enigmatically describes his hero as two-thirds truth and “one-third bullshit.”
The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection
A massive, heroically comprehensive nine-disc archive of Superman material, the centrepiece of which is the new version of Superman II as it originally intended by ditched director Richard Donner (who, the extras reveal, hasn’t forgotten the slight over time: “For the want of a nail a war was lost, for the want of a couple of bucks, a movie was destroyed.”)
Sin City Collectors Edition
Robert Rodriguez’s steely monochromatic noir looks pristine in HD, and this Blu-ray gives it the full re-cut-and-commentaries treatment. The comic book stories are edited to three standalone films (including a smattering of new footage) and there's a snappy chat-track appearance from cameo-ing director Quentin Tarantino (and boy can he chat).
Wizard Of Oz Ultimate Collectors Edition
An outrageously lush three disc showcase of Victor Fleming’s Technicolor marvel, complete with huge presentation box and booklet, hours of behind the scenes and archive footage (weirdly, often presented by Angela Lansbury) and the ace six-hour When The Lion Roars MGM history.
Of course, there’s a lot more than 50 greats from the last 10 years - the Noughties has been an outstanding decade for movies and TV. DVD & Blu-ray Review’s Discs Of The Decade special brings together the very best of the silver and the small screen, the sharpest presentations and the most insightful extras. It’s the ultimate guide to home entertainment. On sale now, exclusive to WH Smith. Click here to buy .
Vertigo 50th Anniversary Edition
New documentaries and audio excerpts from Hitch’s famous interview sessions with Francois Truffaut are new to the anniversary edition of the director’s most chilling thriller, but the (controversial) highlight is the remastered 5.1 soundtrack, which adds a blockbusting thump in place of the original’s steady mono.
Seven Samurai: Criterion Collection
Akira Kurosawa’s thunderous, ageless epic looks sharper than ever thanks to the Criterion’s crisp digital transfer, and the three-disc set is rammed with meaty extras, including an hour-long interview with the director, and a tag-team commentary from the world’s most prominent Kurosawa scholars.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind 30th Anniversary Edition
A new cut of Spielberg’s arms-open-to-the-universe classic props up the real star of this disc – a lengthy interview with the director himself, explaining how his views on UFOs shaped the film. “I didn’t believe it was science fiction,” he says. “I saw it as science speculation. I truly believed we had been visited…”
Taxi Driver Special Edition
Still no Scorsese commentary (cling on to those Criterion lasers), but this release of his searing New York drama has everything else – an 15-minute intro from the director talking up Jean Luc Godard as an influence, a chat tracks from writer Paul Schrader, and tons of docs and featurettes.
This Is Spinal Tap: Up To 11 Edition
25-year anniversary blow-out which bundles the best of the film’s existing extras – almost-as-good-as-the-movie deleted scenes, that in-character commentary – with catch-up footage from the group’s quarter-century Royal Albert Hall gig and a celeb-packed birthday doc.
Stanley Kubrick: Special Edition Boxset
Five films showcasing Kubrick’s masterful and varied work – 2001, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut – supported by a detailed and all-new range of extras. The pick? FMJ’s chat-track, with Vincent D’Onofrio remembering the director’s way with actors. “‘Do it again, do it better.’ He’ll say it right to you.”
The Godfather Trilogy: Remastered Collection
Meticulously remastered new prints for all three of Francis Ford Coppola’s beautifully photographed crime epics. The best of the old extras are still here – Coppola commentary on all three movies – along with new making ofs explaining the work behind the visual polish.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
An embarrassment of commentaries and the superb Dangerous Days doc cast an analytical eye over Ridley Scott’s melancholy sci-fi noir, but the star attraction is the (really, truly) final cut of the film by Scott himself – with unicorn dream, without voice-over, and showing some subtle alterations (“I want more life, father ” Batty now chillingly demands).
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
One set to rule them all. The collected annual offerings of Peter Jackson’s redefining-epic-as-we-go trilogy, packed with hours of comprehensive behind the scenes footage (including a on-set doc from fellow Kiwi helmer Costa Botes) and, crucially, extended versions of each blockbusting film. Worth it for Boromir’s tear-jerking reconciliation with Aragorn alone.
Of course, there’s a lot more than 50 greats from the last 10 years - the Noughties has been an outstanding decade for movies and TV. DVD & Blu-ray Review’s Discs Of The Decade special brings together the very best of the silver and the small screen, the sharpest presentations and the most insightful extras. It’s the ultimate guide to home entertainment. On sale now, exclusive to WH Smith. Click here to buy .
