Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Walk the Line: two-disc Collector's Edition 20th Century Fox Movie •••• Picture/Sound •••• Extras ••• Extra Extras ••½

The first disc of this set is the same as that in the single-DVD release, with the same cut, commentary, and deleted scenes. Disc 2 kicks off with a terrific jukebox of extended versions of three of the film's songs, which can also be played straight through like a Johnny Cash/Joaquin Phoenix mini-concert. If only it could have lasted longer. Just when you start to get all caught up in it, it's over. Maybe what we need is a three-disc edition, with one DVD given over to just the songs.

The 11-minute featurette on Cash's comeback after he kicked the pills and did the Folsom Prison concert is a wasted opportunity, as it just serves up talking heads intercut with three-second snippets from the film. Stills and footage of Cash himself would have held a lot more power. A second 11-minute featurette on June Carter gets exactly the same treatment with the same interviewees, although there are some photos - two.

The packaging, using the woodcut-style poster image of Phoenix, and some postcards of black-and-white publicity shots take the Collector's Edition a step toward being a nice gift. But overall, the extras could have gone a lot further with such a fascinating public figure. - Josef Krebs