Frank Darabont's critically acclaimed, quietly popular 1994 debut The Shawshank Redemption comes to DVD in a simple presentation that features a widescreen, anamorphic transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio, a stills gallery, and the theatrical trailer. With an understated, well-crafted film like this one, the focus should be on the finished work, but a Darabont commentary, filmography, "making of" featurette, and other extra features would make a nice counterpart to the film's restraint. Hopefully, Warner Home Video will see fit to release a deluxe version of The Shawshank Redemption that gives the film the treatment it deserves.

Tony Scott's kidnapping thriller Man on Fire gets a fully loaded initial release to DVD. The image is presented in a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1. The English soundtrack is rendered in DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1. Spanish and French soundtracks have been recorded in Dolby Digital Surround. Supplemental materials include a pair of commentary tracks. Tony Scott's commentary will please fans, but critics who find his films to be socially irresponsible trash will be able to point to it for evidence of their distaste. A second commentary track with producer Lucas Foster, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, and co-star Dakota Fanning is a more light-hearted track and offers insight into how the film came together. A making-of featurette rounds out this release from 20th Century Fox.

The second time's the charm when Aussie actor Paul Hogan returns in this hit sequel Crocodile Dundee II. Paramount has put forth well-placed effort into making this transfer look decent, if a bit dated. While there are some instances of imperfections during the film (including grain and dirt), overall the picture quality is very good with colors bright and black levels looking solid. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and sounds much better than the first film's DVD soundtrack. Certainly the directional effects are not huge or lavish, but they do provide a nice range for the listener. All aspects of the soundtrack are clear and concise without any heavy distortion. Also included on this track is a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track in English and French, as well as English captions. Oddly enough, Crocodile Dundee II includes more extra features than its predecessor. Sporting an anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer, Crocodile Dundee II also includes a "behind-the-scenes" featurette that is about six minutes long. Though the featurette is nothing spectacular, it's well worth having on this disc, which is a passable edition in the Crocodile Dundee series.