Find out as we examine the extras on this week's best movie DVDs...
"NATIONAL TREASURE: COLLECTOR'S EDITION" and "NATIONAL TREASURE 2: BOOK OF SECRETS"
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Jon Voight
Director: Jon Turteltaub (“Cool Runnings”)
Formats: “National Treasure” makes its Blu-ray debut; “National Treasure 2”: single-disc DVD, two-disc DVD, Blu-Ray.
What we said: "National Treasure 2": "If someone read this script out loud on a street corner, they'd be arrested immediately. Not for being a conspiracy theorist, just for the improper distribution of garbage."
Extras: “National Treasure”: Commentary by Turteltaub and Bartha; deleted scenes and an alternate ending, all with optional commentary; “Mission History,” a look inside the Declaration of Independence; seven featurettes including “Ciphers, Codes, and Codebreakers” about the history of secret codes; a trivia track.
“National Treasure 2” single-disc: Audio commentary.
“National Treasure 2” two-disc: Commentary; deleted scenes; outtakes and bloopers; featurettes on the stunts, locations, the chase scene, the Knights of the Golden Circle, and even how they made the President's Book; easter eggs.
“National Treasure 2” Blu-ray: Everything from the two-disc DVD edition plus two more deleted scenes; “Book Of History: The Fact and Fiction of National Treasure 2,” a pop quiz on which of the facts in the movie are actually factual.
Worth watching: “Ciphers, Codes, and Codebreakers,” so you can send secret messages to your friends.
Worth skipping: The easter egg on “Secrets” in which Cage and Turteltaub talk about high school.
Worth adding: The additional deleted scenes on the Blu-ray to the two-disc edition. That's just mean, leaving them out like that.
Buy, rent, or ignore: Rent the Blu-rays of both or the two-disc DVD of “Secrets”; Ignore the single-disc.
"FACE/OFF"
Stars: Nicolas Cage, John Travolta
Director: John Woo (“Hard Boiled”)
Format: Blu-ray
What we say: Not only does this rank alongside Woo's best Hong Kong action classics, but the intense story featuring crook Cage and FBI man Travolta trading faces also places it among the actors' best work.
Extras: Commentaries by Woo and writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary; deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, all with optional commentary; “The Light and the Dark: Making Face/Off” featurette; “John Woo: A Life in Pictures” featurette; the original trailer.
Worth watching: The deleted scenes since this release takes the extra steps to actually present them (and all the other extras) in HD.
Worth skipping: The writers' commentary, but only because Woo's track reveals all you need to know.
Worth adding: A proper soundtrack CD, since the version that was released included only the film's score and none of the songs used in key sequences.
Buy, rent, or ignore: Buy
Other DVDs out this week:
- Sarah Michelle Gellar, Brendan Fraser, Forest Whitaker and Kevin Bacon cross paths for "The Air I Breathe" (also Blu-ray)
- A mockumentary tracking the search for the next Bruce Lee: "Finishing the Game"
- Zombies and politics collide in "George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead"
- Jonah Hill goes au nature-al in the stoner comedy “Strange Wilderness”
- Johnny Five is still alive on the Blu-ray debut of "Short Circuit"
Also released:
"Dirty Carnival"
"The Flock"
"Hamburger Hill, 20th Anniversary Edition"
"The Night They Raided Minsky's"
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