Both are available this Memorial Day weekend individually and in a DVD box set with an A E bonus documentary. But for the most powerful experience, get the high-def (Blu-ray and HD-DVD) discs. “I wondered who the tactician was on the other side, their mentality and feelings,” Eastwood says during one of the HD documentaries on “Letters.
” His questions led him to Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the resourceful and highly respected Japanese commander, who knew his 20,000 men would never go home.
Japanese-American screenwriter Iris Yamashita pieced the story together from Kuribayashi’s letters and the accounts of a handful of survivors. She wrote the story in English, but translators were brought in to make sure the Japanese was accurate. “You know the script backwards and forwards, but to not know what the (Japanese) actors are saying was interesting,” Eastwood recalls.
“Flags,” first released in February, has been updated with a second disc. A half-dozen HD documentaries give insight to the six men who raised the flag. Only three survived, and they were forced into a stateside bond crusade.
They never accepted the hero label. In one documentary, “Flags” author Jim Bradley says his father only talked about that moment on Mount Suribachi once, when he told his son, “The heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys that never came back.” Eastwood remembers his visit to Iwo Jima.
“You can almost hear the troops land and the mayhem. It was tough.” But Director of Photography Tom Stern says it best: “The two movies reinforce each other, giving you the totality of the event, and how they relate harmonically.
” (Both HD widescreen and enhanced widescreen, 2006, R for war violence and language) 
To say the wait has been worth it is an understatement. The picture and sound are spectacular, the best of any HD disc to date. Blu-ray owners, be patient.
Your “Matrix Collection” won’t arrive until at least this fall. Warner Bros. went ahead with the HD-DVD since its interactive pop-up technology has worked flawlessly.
With 35 hours of extras over five discs – same as the 10-disc DVD collection from 2004 – the highlight has to be the picture-in-picture commentary available on the three kinetic thrillers. Each includes video clips of interviews with stars Keanu Reeves (Neo), Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) and crew members and production footage synchronized with the action on screen. It’s a fabulous educational experience.
That’s just the beginning. The Wachowkis wanted numerous commentaries that argued the philosophical and critical points of view. Both tracks are not only informative, they’re a blast.
Two additional tracks are featured on the “The Matrix” with the cast, crew and composer Don Davis. There’s also nearly three hours of music, tons of documentaries (in standard-def), TV spots, trailers, nine Anime shorts, storyboards and concept art. And that’s for starters.
How to sum it up? How about a quote from Morpheus? “Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is.
You have to see it for yourself.” (All HD widescreen, 1999, 2003, R for violence, language and sexuality) IT’S A LOVELY, understated moment in a lovely, understated movie. Peter O’Toole, as the aging thespian Maurice, is burdened by bad news, so burdened he has to push himself just to get out of bed.
“COME – ON – OLD – MAN!” he growls, punctuating each word by slapping his face. A writer on www.
imdb.com says there is an effortless poetry to O’Toole’s Oscar-nominated performance in “Venus” (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: **½). In his commentary, as he watches the scene above, director Roger Michell says, “This is an amazing piece of acting.
” Both are correct. O’Toole’s Maurice is one of the great roles in his distinguished career. In any other year – i.
e., when Forest Whitaker wasn’t playing Idi Amin – he would’ve won the Oscar. As it turns out, Maurice finds his raison d’être in Jessie, the contemptuous, provincial great-grandniece of his friend – and she finds hers in him.
Michell describes their relationship as a “balance between ‘Lolita’ and ‘Educating Rita.’ ” In the feature “Venus, A Real Work of Art,” screenwriter Hanif Kureishi says he wanted to show how “passion sustains itself throughout life and may even return later in some odd, almost perverse way.” There is no question that he pocketed the gold ring.
(Enhanced widescreen, 2006, R for language, brief nudity) 
“Becket,” here newly restored and transferred in HD, is a classic epic, teaming the late Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, as King Henry II and Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, respectively, in a classic tale of the clash of personal loyalty versus loyalty to the church. Asked in a commentary if the movie’s opening doesn’t, in fact, telegraph “a failed love story,” O’Toole replies that the king and Becket, one-time drinking/wenching buddies, indeed, had “an astonishingly loving friendship ..
. It was love.” He and Burton, both of whom snared Best Actor nominations for the film, “knew each other quite well,” having been neighbors in England, O’Toole relates.
Also, “we were both theater boys,” says O’Toole, referring to their stage experience. The two studied and practiced privately, then showed up and acted, he said. “The vibes coming off each other was so good,” says editor Anne V.
Coates in a DVD extra. Burton and O’Toole, notorious two-fisted drinkers, were sometimes hung-over, Coates said, although O’Toole swears he and Burton were on their best behavior because their mentors were on the set. Burton, featured in archival interviews in two extras, addresses his drinking.
While he was not sure he was an alcoholic, he was, he says, “within striking distance” of being one. At one point in life, Burton says, he was into his “third bottle a day,’’ Still, he says in an 1977 interview, “I wouldn’t have missed my life for anything.” (Enhanced widescreen, 1964, PG-13 with some sexual content and violence) 
Imagine what would might happen if the Discovery Channel merged with the History Channel to make a movie?
Nature and a native culture combine for an incredible tale of beauty, excitement and, yes, brutality in Mel Gibson’s brilliant “Apocalypto” (audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ***). If you were one of the many who missed it in the theater, pick up the standard-def or – better – high-def Blu-ray DVD to watch at home. This is a visual storytelling treat, an experiment that works.
Filmed in Mexico and Central America with a cast whose members included people who had never seen a movie before, much less acted in one, “Apocalypto” throws off the standard Hollywood formulas. You have never seen anything like it. Ever.
“Apocalypto” looks great in standard-def, but in Blu-ray, it is fantastic. The rain forest setting shimmers with color under a barrage of natural light – sunlight, torchlight, moonlight, rain. Look out over the jungle and see a wealth of greens blending together.
Skyscapes and waterfalls, mud pools and quarries have depth, texture, dimension and, above all, color. The characters are amazing – rich and real from the youngest child to the deadliest Mayan death bringer. Gibson reminds us, in a highly entertaining and informative commentary, that when a character shows up with armor made of human jawbones, no one has to tell you that man is one of the bad guys.
During the “Becoming Mayan” feature, an actor says, “Mel told me I didn’t have to act scary. I was scary.” This is true.
In the same “making-of” feature, you can watch Gibson himself, running around, directing his actors. There’s a lot of contagious energy there. There’s no escaping Gibson’s press.
Viewers can put whatever slant they want on the story, but it is big enough to cover a variety of interpretations. Bottom-line, “Apocalypto” is a good adventure story about people you are going to care about. Set at the fall of the Mayan civilization, a village is captured by “big city” natives.
These brutes believe sacrifice will put dying crops and plague-ridden people to rights. One of the captured men tries to make it back home and save his wife and children. Think of this as a massive car chase on foot – as Gibson puts it – and you’ve got the action level.
It is as grand as “Braveheart” and as compelling. (HD widescreen, 2006, R for scenes of graphic violence and disturbing images. Note: no animals were harmed) As a stylistic exercise, "The Good German" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: 0) makes for a fascinating watch.
Director Steven Soderbergh shows his love for classic Hollywood movies like "Casablanca" and "The Third Man" by shooting the film exactly like they did back in the day. The film was shot in black and white and only fixed focal-length lenses available back in the 40s were used. Radio microphones were traded for boom mikes and actors were asked to perform in a more theatrical stage style more common in older films.
George Clooney has the Bogart role as Jake Geismer, a journalist who uncovers a plot involving Nazi rocket scientists while in Berlin. Cate Blanchett has the Bergman role, as the woman from Jake's past who is somehow involved in the conspiracy. Tobey Maguire is terrific in a supporting role as Jake's violent driver.
The DVD comes without a single extra. (Full-screen, 2006, R for language, violence, and some sexual content) - Josh Boone 
You want extras? No outfit pulls out the stops like Criterion, but the company raises its own bar with “The Third Man” (audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ****): – “Shadowing ‘The Third Man,’ ” a 90-minute documentary about the production of Carol Reed’s noir classic – “Graham Greene: The Hunted Man,” a 60-minute interview with the author/screenwriter conducted aboard the Orient Express – “Who Was the Third Man?
” a 30-minute Austrian documentary – “The Third Man on Radio,” dramatizations from 1950 and 1951 – “The Third Man File,” a multipart feature that includes behind-the-scenes photos, the U.S. and UK voiceover narrations, untranslated scenes, a trailer and press book – “From the Archives,” another multipart feature, this one including a Vienna travelogue, a short about the policemen who patrol the city’s sewer system and a zither performance by composer Anton Karas at a London nightclub – “The Third Man Treatment,” a reading of Greene’s first draft, written in story form – An introduction by director Peter Bogdanovich – A booklet with essays by authors Luc Sante, Charles Drazin and Philip Kerr Where to start?
The commentaries, one with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy and a second with film scholar Dana Polan. Soderbergh and Gilroy touch on every facet of the film in their affable track. You feel like you’re in the room with them.
Polan makes a compelling case for the tension in its values, identities and moralities. Great appetizers all – and what a main course. (Full-screen, 1949, unrated) America said goodbye earlier this year to a show that captured the attentions of teens and adults alike, and now you can own the final season on DVD with "The O.
C.: The Complete Fourth Season" (audio: ***1/2, video: ***1/2, extras: **1/2). After season three’s finale, in which Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) was killed in an auto accident, viewers couldn’t hang on long enough, so the show ran until mid-season when its sixteenth and final episode aired.
In this season, we see Ryan (Ben McKenzie) hook up with O.C. snob Taylor (Autumn Reeser), and Seth (Adam Brody) and Summer (Rachel Bilson) grow in their relationship.
Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) and Sandy (Peter Gallagher) get preggers, and Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke) deals with the death of daughter Marissa and the emotions of her second daughter, Kaitlin (Willa Holland). The show’s neatly and poignantly wrapped up after an earthquake forces everyone to think about priorities and the future. The DVD’s extras are abbreviated but nonetheless fun.
There are two unaired scenes (I guess not much made it on the cutting room floor) and a look at the magic behind "Chrismukkah" - Seth’s made up holiday merging his mother’s Christmas traditions with his father’s Hanukkah ones. Even rabbis get involved in this one. There’s also a look at Bilson’s character, Summer Roberts, and how this O.
C. staple started out as a bimbo and turned into an SAT-acing Ivy Leaguer. Creator Josh Schwartz also does a quick-moving commentary on the show’s final episode, "The End’s Not Near, It’s Here.
" Schwartz explains the not-so-subtle nuances in the show (Summer making fun of a couple breaking up in "real life" on her favorite show attributed to her breakup during the filming of the final season with Brody), and the feelings those on the show had as it came to a close. As with other "O.C.
" sets, this one is nicely packaged, with a nice summary of each of the discs, its episodes and bonus features. Phantom Planet’s song, "California" still plays each time on the main menu, making it one of TV’s more noticeable (and, in some instances annoying) theme songs. (Full-screen, 2006-07, not rated) It's “Big” (audio: ****, video: ***1/3, extras: ****), in an extended, double-disc edition, and for fans of this classic coming-of-age comedy (can anyone say they don't love this movie?
) it's a genuine treat. Even though the 20-minutes-longer, extended version adds little in the way of information, except for a glimpse into Josh's (Tom Hanks) best friend's unhappy family life. As with most deleted scenes (all the extended scenes appear in the deleted scenes feature), the movie is tighter and better without them.
The most unusual and entertaining feature is a commentary that includes actual audio taped brainstorming sessions between the screenplay's writers, Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg (Steven's sister). They marvel at how quickly the story came to them and it's a blast to hear the excitement in their voices as their creative juices flow. They wrote the story on spec, which gave them total freedom to let their imaginations run wild.
The first draft of the screenplay only took four months. The second, once they had sold the idea, took a year. Interviews with producer James L.
Brooks, director Penny Marshall, the now grown up actors who played the young friends, Robert Loggia and Elizabeth Perkins, illustrate how many chances were taken, all of which paid off in spades. Brooks and Marshall talk about how, when "Big" was being made, three other films with similar premises were due out, but they didn't let that rush them or dim their faith in the project. An episode of the TV show "Hollywood Backstory" reiterates much of the material in the other extras.
And a brief video news item of the wrap/publicity party at a carnival is included. All in all, the set makes a terrific document of how one of the all-time best-loved films was made and catapulted Tom Hanks into superstardom and set Penny Marshall's career zooming, which, she says in her inimitable way, "is better than a sharp stick in your eye." (Enhanced widescreen, 1988, rated PG for mild sexual themes) Think about all those explosions and gunfire found in action films.
Now, if there were a kind of weird, alternate universe movie justice in force, the characters who got blown up as a result of said-action film violence would be the losers from Mike Nichols’ “Closer” (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: *). Stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman play as slimy a bunch of self-involved, cheating, lying, whining scummites as anyone could ever imagine. There’s a lot of talk about sex and a lot of characters trying to bed one another with varying degrees of success.
This possibility of sex is designed to hold viewer’s interest since, without that promise, there’s little to compel anyone to watch this trash all the way through. That and a job to finish. The only extra is a music video.
That should tell you something, too. (HD widescreen, 2004, R for sequences of graphic sexual dialogue, nudity/sexuality and language) Call it the “Cousin Oliver effect.” A hugely successful sitcom begins to sag in the ratings, and producers invariably write a kid into the cast.
Such is the case with “Scrubs: The Complete Fifth Season” (audio: ***1/2, video ***1/2, extras ***). By season’s end, no more than three pregnancies are set to lead the gang at ol’ Sacred Heart Hospital into the future. Really, they had no other choice.
The once-witty sight gags, double entendres and slapstick comedy had quickly become repetitive and stale. The three young leads (Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison) were hardly “newbies” anymore. So, in an effort to extend the gravy train a little longer, the writers decide to make a good portion of the regulars parents.
Despite the slight loss of luster inherent in season five, the collection still boasts one of the show’s all-time best episodes: “My Way Home,” filled with homages to “The Wizard of Oz,” and also the 100th episode. Perhaps the premiere extra on this collection is an extended “director’s cut” of this episode, which also includes a minimally interesting commentary from star/episode director Braff. The remaining extras are primarily a hodgepodge of deleted scenes and alternate punchlines.
However, a featurette, “My 117 Episodes: Five Seasons of Scrubs,” is worth a look – if for no other reason, than as a quick refresher of the show’s entire run. (Full-screen, 2007, not rated) It’s hard to believe 20 years has gone by since the release of “Summer School,” with dimple-infested Mark Harmon and current Jenny-Craig spokesdieter Kirstie Alley. Regardless, the flick’s just as heartfelt and funny all these years later, so enjoy the latest DVD release, “Summer School: Life’s a Beach Edition” (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: ***).
So who wants to be in summer school? Certainly not gym teacher Freddy Shoop (Harmon) or any of the zany cast of misfits he gets stuck with in “Summer School.” Somehow, though, the class becomes a family, with Shoop as the surrogate dad.
For anyone who remembers feeling weird, stupid or left out in high school, this movie still resonates. It also has some good bonus features, including commentary with Harmon and director Carl Reiner, both with sharp memories two decades after the film’s release. Other features include “Inside the Teachers’ Lounge,” “Summer School Yearbook,” a theatrical trailer and a boring photo gallery.
Many of the actors return to reminisce about the making-of the movie in “Teachers’ Lounge” and “Yearbook,” but one face missing is probably the person who became the biggest star after the film, Courtney Thorne-Smith (“Melrose Place,” “According to Jim”). Nonetheless, Reiner and Harmon’s stroll down memory lane is insightful and honest. School’s out!
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