I do not intend to discuss these in detail, except to say that it seems almost like a rarity if there aren't many. For the most part, I've found the features, especially the commentaries from those involved in the film, memorably unhelpful (e.g., Wes Craven's ramblings on A Nightmare on Elm Street). At the other end of the spectrum, we have the recent The Wizard of Oz, which even in its expensive edition, contains enough features to start you on a career as a film historian. I do find it perplexing that movies that cry for commentary, such as Tora, Tora, Tora, with its often frightening recreation of Pearl Harbor (the extras looked as scared as jumping Jehosophats during the bombing of the Hawaiian airfields), have no commentary at all about how the effects were then achieved. By contrast, it is historically fascinating to learn that all of the effects in The Exorcist were achieved by mechanical means, not digital ones. Made me wonder if there is any correlation between this and the current-day digital effects that scare no one (The Haunting and The House on Haunted Hill and, lest we forget, The Mummy).

Sometimes, though I like the idea of restoring material cut because of censorship concerns or deleted because of a film's length, I wonder at their wholesale inclusion in lesser works (e.g., Phantasm, one of my favorite horror movies, includes some deleted scenes that make a convincing case for its success being the result of an editing miracle rather than any particular intent on the part of its director).

In the following lists, I have included movies regardless of their intrinsic merits that could form the basis of a collection that will show off the potential of the medium. I have adopted a series of initials when I want to underline some of a given disc's stronger points. C stands for content and denotes a movie of unusual merit. V stands for the visual, as S stands for unusually good sound. DQ indicates a disc of demonstration quality - and that list comes first.

Aliens (DQ) (C ) Fox BUY DVD

Alien Resurrection (DQ) Fox BUY DVD

Austin Powers (DQ) New Line BUY DVD

Babe: Pig in the City (DQ) Universal BUY DVD

Blade (DQ) New Line BUY DVD

Bram Stoker's Dracula (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Elizabeth (DQ) Polygram BUY DVD

Fifth Element, The (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Ghostbusters (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Legends of the Fall (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Lost in Space (DQ) New Line BUY DVD

Ronin (DQ) MGM/UA BUY DVD

Rush Hour (DQ) New Line BUY DVD

Star Trek: Insurrection (DQ) Paramount BUY DVD

Starship Troopers (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Tango (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Thin Red Line, The (DQ) (C) Fox BUY DVD

Thirteenth Floor, The (DQ) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

The Rest of the Best

American History X (V) New Line BUY DVD

Arlington Road Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Bye, Bye, Birdie (V) (S) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Central Station (V) (C) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Conspiracy Theory Warners BUY DVD

Crash (V) Fine Line BUY DVD

Dark City (C) New Line BUY DVD

Das Boot (S) (C) Columbia/Tristar BUY DVD

Days of Heaven (C) (S) Paramount BUY DVD

EXistenZ Dimension/Buena Vista BUY DVD

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (C) (V) Paramount BUY DVD

Gods and Monsters (C) (V) Universal BUY DVD

Golden Eye MGM/UA BUY DVD

Hamburger Hill (C) Artisan BUY DVD

Heat (V) (S) Warners BUY DVD

LA Confidential (C) Warners BUY DVD

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Warners BUY DVD

Nightmare on Elm Street (V) New Line BUY DVD

Pleasantville (C) (V) New Line BUY DVD

Road Warrior, The Warners BUY DVD

Saving Private Ryan (S) Dreamworks BUY DVD

Shakespeare in Love (C) Miramax/Universal BUY DVD

Terminator II Live BUY DVD

They Live Image BUY DVD

Tora, Tora, Tora (V) (C) Fox BUY DVD

Tomorrow Never Dies MGM/UA BUY DVD

Unbearable Lightness of Being (C) (V) Criterion BUY DVD

Wag the Dog New Line BUY DVD

What Dreams May Come (V) Polygram BUY DVD