Feel the fury and smell the burn... of cash from the wallets of irate DVD punters who fall victim to this very limited edition of "The Fast and the Furious".
The 'all new' extra features don't excite much. At least with this DVD out, though, the price of the far-better old special edition has fallen quite considerably, and you'd be better off with that. Additionally there's also a features-free Superbit edition with optimum picture and sound quality that will decimate your sound system to thrilling effect!
Back to this new 'swizz edition' and here's what we have:
TECHNICAL FEATURES
The transfer and sound mixes on this disc are exactly the same as on the old edition, so prepare for a sense of déjá vu:
Picture Pristine sharp, even during the fast-moving racing sequences, this is an admirably trouble-free picture transfer.
Sound You want bass? This disc just frightens with a muscular bass track that ripples through the room. The accompanying music is mixed to sensational effect, with the rear speakers chewing and swapping around the tunes with exciting verve. There's a choice of either a Dolby 5.1 or a DTS 5.1 mix, with arguably the DTS version a little tighter in bass control, but the Dolby mix is no slouch either.
SPECIAL FEATURES
It turns out that the audio commentary is the same too. Just as well it was a good one:
Audio Commentary Plenty of great directors provide lousy commentaries. Rob Cohen is one of the few exceptions, chatting with ease about the film. Listening to him, it's easy to suspect that Cohen always knew he had a hit on his hands, as he explains the movie's choice of bravura styling that makes it so exciting. He relates an entertaining aside about trading Roger Corman stock footage so he could use the title of Corman's 1958 pic.
Enhanced Viewing Option Oh look, something new! While watching the movie, you can now select multiple angle shots, deleted scenes, and watch various behind-the-scenes mini featurettes, all presented with poor picture and sound. Plus, a good chunk of this material was available on the old special edition. Not so new then.
Tricking Out a Hot Import Car Playmate of the year, Dalene Curtis, hosts a look at how Craig Lieberman transforms stock cars into mean racing machines. As the first all-new feature for this DVD, it's actually quite interesting, and Craig know how to make a car look stunning. But it's not worth buying this disc to see it. Perhaps a feature on souping up Darlene Curtis' chassis would have been worth considering?
The Road 2 Fast 2 Furious Embark on a thrilling five-minute adventure that links the first movie to the second as Paul Walker... bores us senseless with this distinctly non-turbo adventure with him relocating to Miami.
Behind the Scenes of "2 Fast 2 Furious" Hopefully they'll miss this typically promotional fluffy featurette from the "2 Fast 2 Furious" DVD, as it's just plain dull.
Additional Extra Features Also on the DVD are trailers for the two films.
DVD ROM Features As well as production notes, popping this disc into your DVD ROM drive will give you access to a six-song jukebox, a rather naff racing game, plus screensaver, photos and wallpapers.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Chapters: 20
Ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
Audio Tracks: Multiple languages
Subtitles: English and multiple languages
Captions: English
Menus: Animated, with music
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.
