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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Hulk
2-Disc Special Edition
(Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
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| DVD
Release Date:
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October
28, 2003
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Length:
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137 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG
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| Format:
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Widescreen (1.85:1)
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Audio:
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English
(Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby
Digital 5.1)
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| Subtitles:
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French, Spanish, Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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The
Making of The Hulk Featurette, Enhanced Viewing Feature, Anatomy
of the Hulk Feature, Hulkification, (Artistic Conceptions of the
Hulk), Storyboards, Digital Incarnations Feature, Dog Fight
Feature, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentaries, "The Making of
THE Hulk" Interactive Game
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Ang Lee's Hulk is the much anticipated
arrival of Marvel Comics' green monster to the big screen. In the
movie, Eric Bana plays Bruce Banner, a scientist who, after an
unfortunate lab accident, is bombarded by gamma rays and unleashes a
genetic mutation that already exists inside of Banner in the form of a
giant, menacing, green creature. The movie also features Jennifer
Connelly as the beautiful Betty Ross, Sam Elliot as her serious father
General Thadeus Ross, Nick Nolte as David's mess of a father David and
Josh Lucas as the pain in the butt Talbot. Hulk is now available on a
2-Disc Special Edition DVD.
The DVD starts with four trailers that you cannot skip over - 2 Fast 2
Furious, Sinbad, Battlestar Galactica and Bruce Almighty.
Then we have "Hulk-Cam" in which you have a handful of short
(approximately 2 minutes each) snippets with some behind-the-scenes
footage and interviews. Some really fun stuff is shown here. You just
have to watch out for a specific icon to appear on the screen as you
watch the movie to catch these.
Next, the feature commentary with director Ang Lee is surprisingly
interesting. He talks passionately about his movie and you realize the
time and effort this man put into the making of Hulk. Lee himself even
performed many of the body movements for The Hulk that were used by
the special effects crew. His commentary is informative and you will
earn a newfound respect for director Ang Lee if you choose to listen
to his words. Lee even cracks himself up at various points with his
own funny jokes - at least he finds them funny.
There is a section called "Superhero Revealed: The Anatomy of The
Hulk". In this section, you are able to navigate to various body
parts on The Hulk and find out some interesting facts about the green
monster. For example, if you click on his armpit, you are told that
The Hulk's strength increases as his anger increases. If you click on
his shoulder, you are told that The Hulk's skin has the ability to
regenerate when wounded. There are ten such facts.
The first DVD also contains six deleted scenes (including one with Lou
Ferrigno) and a section that contains detailed written biographies for
much of the cast, the director, screenwriters and producers.
For the second DVD, we'll start with the section entitled "Hulkification".
In this section, four world-renowned comic book artists (Adam Kubert,
Tommy Ohtsuka, Salvador Larroca and Katsuya Terada) were asked to give
their own rendition of the scene in the movie where Talbot (Josh
Lucas) lays the boots to Bruce Banner and The Hulk appears to kick
some bad boy ass. Besides being able to view their interpretation of
this scene, we are given a detailed biography of each artist, and if
needed their inker and the person who did the colours. All four
versions are very different and quite excellent, with my personal
opinion being that Kubert's is the best one (although he might have
the advantage of having worked on The Hulk in the past).
The next featurette is called "Evolution of The Hulk". This
featurette is a 16-minute long look at the history of The Hulk, from
the days when a young Stan Lee came up with the idea as a cross
between Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein, to the Saturday morning
comic series and the television series that starred Bill Bixby and Lou
Ferrigno (there's footage!!) to the making of Ang Lee's movie.
Interviews with Stan Lee, Ang Lee and some other people involved with
the making of the movie are included. This is a very informative
featurette for those interested in the history of The Hulk.
"The Incredible Ang Lee" has a bunch of people gushing about
Mr. Lee (including Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte and Josh
Lucas) as well as words from the man himself. It is here where we see
Ang acting out the motions of The Hulk in a motion-capture suit, which
was very interesting stuff. We also get to see how Ang was very
involved in almost every detail of this movie. The featurette runs
just over 14 minutes.
"The Dog Fight Scene" is a 10-minute long documentary on the
famous dog fight scene in Hulk. It takes us from the meetings, to the
special effects, to the stunts, to the extreme cost of making such a
scene and is quite captivating. Not only do we get to see Ang Lee in
the motion-capture suit again, but we get to see a dog in one as well!
Next up, there is "The Unique Style of Editing Hulk". We are
told how the editors were given the "green" light on making
the editing, scene changes and split screens and the like. A unique
experience and more of a comic book experience.
Finally, there is "The Making of Hulk". This one is broken
down into Cast and Crew (just over six minutes), Stunts and Physical
Effects (5 1/2 minutes), ILM (6 minutes) and Music (5 1/2 minutes).
Although some of this stuff is repetitive, it was actually another
interesting chapter on the DVD. Once again, you realize how much time
and effort was put into the making of Hulk, not only by Ang Lee but in
almost everyone involved in its entire production. These people really
invested their hearts and souls into the movie and it almost makes you
wish that the movie did a bit better at the box office. ILM talks
about how they were really geared towards making Hulk a real person
and not a special effect. Unfortunately, I would think they failed in
this sense, but they sure gave it a full effort. The short feature on
the music of the movie highlights interviews with Danny Elfman and
surprisingly, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, as well as Stone
Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland.
As a final assessment, I would say that Hulk's 2-Disc Special Edition DVD
is a worthwhile investment of time and money, whether you buy or rent
it. Although the movie might not have been the best comic book-to-big
screen adaptation of all-time, and although I wasn't too crazy about
the CGI Hulk (as many people weren't), the DVD will give you a new
perspective on the movie and perhaps make you appreciate the effort
that director Ang Lee and many of the people involved in the making of
this movie put into the making of Hulk. One thing I got from the DVD
extras was that Lee tried making Hulk a much more psychological and
complicated movie than it needed to be. As a result, there are too
many points in the movie that drag, especially near the beginning of
the movie, and that, plus the seriousness of the movie, probably
turned a lot of people off. But with that being said, I really enjoyed
the movie and still think a sequel to the Hulk could be a smashing
success. The only problem is the movie's poor showing at the box
office will ensure that the studio is in no hurry to make this sequel.
But mark my words, it will be made and I am sure it will be a much
more exciting movie from beginning to end.
| The
Feature: |
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7/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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8/10 |
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Brendan Cullin - Senior
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