Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) heads up the cast of this sci-fi action film from director Richard Donner. When his college professor mysteriously disappears, Walker and his classmates discover that the prof has been transported back in time, leaving it up to them to travel to 14th century France and rescue him. Presented on this nicely loaded DVD, the film has been transferred in full-screen with both the original English and dubbed French soundtracks available in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. English subtitles are also provided. In addition to the film itself, the disc features several bonuses. "Journey Through Timeline" is a three-part documentary that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. Other extras include "The Nights of La Roque," "Setting Time," "The Textures of Timeline," and two theatrical trailers. A widescreen version with the same features is also available.

Without question one of the most shocking and controversial features in cinema history, director Tod Browning's Freaks arrives on DVD with some revealing extras. Presented in 1.33:1 full-frame, the image is crisp and clean -- free of debris or digital artifacting. Blacks are universally solid, and whites remain vivid without becoming too bright or washed-out. One notable exception is the film's brief coda, which appears much more washed-out and overblown than the majority of the film. Audio is rendered in closed-captioned English Dolby Digital Mono with optional English subtitles (a welcome addition even to English-speaking audiences, as a few key lines of dialogue are virtually indecipherable) and is likewise bold and clean. Though fans who have been eagerly anticipating a DVD release for Freaks may lament the loss of key footage mentioned in both the commentary and featurette (the film originally ran at approximately 90 minutes before terrifying unsuspecting audiences and subsequently being trimmed down to just over 60), the generous extras as presented here may soften the blow of knowing that nearly a half-hour of Browning's masterpiece is likely lost forever. Commentary by Browning biographer David J. Skal explodes out of the gates by christening the film one of "the strangest and most controversial films ever produced by a major studio" before the title card is even displayed, and remains an informative and exciting feature before losing some steam toward the end of the film. Clocking in at just over an hour, the supplemental documentary "Freaks: Sideshow Cinema" offers an absorbing look into the lives of Browning and his unusual cast through interviews with such figures as Skal, sideshow performer/historians Todd Robbins and Johnny Meah, and actors Mark Povinelli and Jerry Maren. A special scrolling prologue will help to prepare unsuspecting viewers for the physical anomalies they are about to witness, and after giving a tantalizing look at the long-lost original ending, commentator Skal walks viewers through three alternate endings that are little more than slight variations of the ending viewers have grown accustomed to over the years. One could only hope that some day Browning's "lost" footage will emerge and pave the way for a more definitive cut of his original vision, but until then, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's fantastic release will likely stand as the definitive version of this one-of-a-kind film.