A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Sound ***½ Picture **** Film ****
(DreamWorks Home Entertainment)
Points off the transfer for being very grainy. Was this the intended look? The print I saw in the theater—admittedly, a pristine (probably premier-quality) print in a first-run Los Angeles theater—didn't look that way at all. But the striking photography of the film may have been more difficult than most to put on video. Otherwise, no complaints. This is one of Steven Spielberg's best—though possibly most controversial—films.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Collector's Edition
Sound **** Picture **** Film **½
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
A not very effective attempt by Disney to break out of the formula into which their conventional animation efforts have fallen, Atlantis has its moments but never quite catches fire. Perhaps they abandoned too much of that formula: What's missing is any real sense of the hero's character development, a key ingredient in the most successful Disney animated features.

But nothing is missing in terms of picture and sound quality, which are hard to fault in any respect. Moreover, even most of the extra features on this collector's edition are anamorphic—almost unheard-of from any studio.

Bandits: Special Edition
Sound **½ Picture **½ Film ***
(MGM Home Entertainment)
Neither the picture nor the sound is remarkable. There's a little too much edge enhancement, but it isn't a disaster, and the audio is pleasant. You won't pop this in your player to demonstrate your system, but you might give it a spin for the film itself. It's a story about two escaped convicts who team up with a frustrated housewife. Think of it as Bonnie and Clyde and George, but without violence. It's hilarious, and the plot is never predictable.

Baraka
Sound ***½ Picture **** Film ***½
(MPI Home Video)
Making its point (nature good, civilization bad) strictly through astonishing images and sound, Baraka is a reminder of the power of film to sell a filmmaker's vision, even within the documentary form. And what amazing sights and sounds they are. The transfer captures it beautifully. My only reservation about the picture quality is that, having recently seen this film in a 70mm presentation, I can't shake the feeling that, good as the DVD is, it could have been better, even within the format's standard-definition limits. I have no such reservations about the sound, which is of reference quality and absolutely spectacular.

Behind Enemy Lines
Sound ***½ Picture ***½ Film **
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
Set in Bosnia, Behind Enemy Lines depicts the misadventures of a shot-down American pilot and his convoluted rescue. It's hard to believe this movie was made, as claimed, with military advisors—it's about as realistic as a James Bond flick. Still, it's not a bad popcorn movie. You might even find it unintentionally hilarious. I had fun screaming "You idiot!" at each wrongheaded move by the pilot, whose escape and evasion tactics violate every rule in the book. (Rule 1: Stay away from roads, trails, and population centers.)

Fortunately, the transfer is slick. The sound is explosive, and won't disappoint if rousing action soundtracks are your thing. A bit of visible edge enhancement mars the video just a little, primarily on longer shots. Close-ups are sharp.

Bubble Boy
Sound **** Picture ***½ Film ***
(Touchstone Home Video)
This film is decidedly not PC—it practices equal-opportunity offensiveness. A teenager with immune deficiency sets out in a portable bubble to keep his girl from marrying someone else. It's extremely funny in an off-kilter way, and depending on your tolerance for the bizarre, you'll either howl or sit stone-faced. But let me reassure those who may have read otherwise: Bubble Boy does not make fun of the title character. On the contrary, it shows him as brave and persistent, though more than a little naïve in the ways of the world.

This is a gorgeous video transfer, bright and colorful with no distracting edge enhancement. The sound, too, is excellent—rarely spectacular, but with a crisp dimensionality and a nicely recorded music track. It's always a pleasant surprise to find such excellent technical quality in a film that fizzled badly at the box office.

Cast Away: Special Edition
Sound ***½ Picture **** Film ****
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
The video transfer is almost perfectly balanced and consistently good throughout. The sound is generally subtle (except for one sequence), but all the better for it. All sorts of quiet details turn up, and the restrained (and limited) music track is sweet and airy. The film itself—a modern variation on Robinson Crusoe—is superb.

Conspiracy
Sound **½ Picture **½ Film ****
(HBO Home Video)
This made-for-TV film has a look not quite film, not quite video. The exposures are a little uneven, but the images are, overall, reasonably crisp and free of artifacts and edge enhancement. The dialogue is clean, though there are few directional effects and very little music. But the 2.0-channel sound does what it needs to do.

The film is a chilling re-enactment of the Wannsee Conference, the January 1942 meeting in which the Nazis plotted "the final solution." It's little more than a discussion held around a large conference table, but nevertheless a gripping and ultimately terrifying depiction of the warped minds that perpetrated the Holocaust. Some viewers may find it too unsettling to watch, though there's not a blow struck or a drop of blood spilled onscreen.

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
Sound *** Picture **½ Film **
(DreamWorks Home Entertainment)
Woody Allen's recent comedy about an insurance investigator who, under a post-hypnotic suggestion, does the bidding of the larcenous hypnotist, has a few chuckles. It's more often amusing than truly funny, lacks crisp comic timing, and, in the end, doesn't amount to much. Even Allen's fans will probably agree that this is far from the director-comedian's best work.

Close-ups in this decent but otherwise unremarkable video transfer often look superb, but the film is marred in other places by excessive edge enhancement. The sound, in Woody Allen fashion, is very clean mono, but earns a bonus half star for its crisp, natural, and intelligible dialogue.

Die Hard: Five Star Collection
Sound ***½ Picture ***½ Film ***½
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
This original "Bruce Willis in a bloody T-shirt" movie and the first of three (so far) Die Hard entries is still the best. It's also one of the quintessential action films of all time. You'll see echoes of it in dozens of other action flicks made since its 1988 release, but seldom done as well as this. Structurally, it's hard to fault, though viewers should be aware that it's extremely violent.

The strength of this video transfer is its consistency. It's not the sharpest DVD ever made, but it's not soft-looking, either. As in the theater, medium and long shots are less crisp-looking than close-ups, but there are no obvious (and always futile) attempts to goose them up with edge enhancement. The sound is excellent, both clean and punchy. The bass may have been upgraded for this DVD; if so, the results are impressive and don't sound tacked-on.