Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid's status as one of the least-known Steve Martin comedies makes this bare-bones, yet impressively transferred DVD curious in light of the fact that The Jerk still languishes on the format as a full-frame-only edition. Dead Men was an experiment in editing old movie footage with newly shot footage in order to create a new story. The non-anamorphic 1.85:1 digital transfer is another example of quality mastering by Universal (no matter how obscure the film) that proves it is fully committed to the format. Shot in black-and-white, the clearer, sharper picture looks great and blends well with the old footage. The transitions aren't entirely seamless, which is part of the comic effect. The two-channel mono soundtrack isn't exactly impressive, but for a film meant to invoke the old detective films of the 1940s, it suffices. Some production notes and a trailer are the only supplements. While Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid may not seem like a likely release for DVD above some other films, this edition is good enough to preserve the film for a while longer.

Though it makes up for some of the previous edition's mishaps, the Jaws: 30th Anniversary Edition is an almost-perfect DVD that suffers only from a bit of laziness on the part of Universal. Released in 2000 as one of director Steven Spielberg's first blockbusters unveiled on DVD, the Jaws: Collector's Edition was a big seller in the stores, yet still managed to fall short thanks to the studio's unwillingness to include the full two-hour documentary from the laserdisc, long thought of as the definitive look back on the troubled production. So now here comes this two-disc set celebrating the crowd-pleaser's pearl anniversary and the good news is that the documentary has indeed been reinstated to its full glory. Those who have only seen the previous hour-long cut are in for a big treat here, thanks to the incredible detail that was culled from the various sources in the production, including John Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, Peter Benchley, production designer Joe Alves, and, of course, Spielberg himself. Another bit of good news involves the inclusion of a never-before-available nine-minute interview on-set with the director from 1974 that gives the audience a rare glimpse of the young director on just his second day of shooting, no doubt already feeling the constraints of the sea-bound production. For aficionados, it's the kind of engaging footage that is endlessly interesting, given the kind of Vietnam hell that followed Spielberg on the rest of the shoot. Other new bits of goodness involve the inclusion of both 5.1 DTS and Dolby tracks (previous versions included either one or the other) along with the infamous original theatrical mono audio track, which will please the hardcore fans out there to no end (many were not happy with the enhanced 5.1 tracks). What isn't pleasing about this edition is the exclusion of the famed theatrical trailers that figured prominently into the success of the film. This lone exclusion will prevent most customers from getting rid of their previous version, which makes little sense in the grand scheme of things given that the rest of the still archives were carried over, including other marketing pieces such as posters, books, T-shirts, and much more. This, along with the fact that no new menus were designed for this edition, just makes Universal look bad. It's like they listened to the gripes about the documentary on the last one, but didn't feel the need to dedicate more money into an anniversary edition of one of the biggest films of all time. The result is yet another DVD that gives the same "play all" feature to the deleted scenes, with the added annoyance of outtakes being thrown into the same feature as well. Though no one will miss the trivia game or the shark facts from the previous version, there will be those who will resent the silliness involved with the loss of the very integral trailers. Still, with the full documentary and the reinstated original mono mix, many will pony up for this release, which comes with a nice commemorative booklet and the same fine 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer carried over from the Widescreen Collector's Edition.

Batman Returns, Tim Burton's even darker and more complex sequel to Batman, has an equally disappointing presentation on DVD: besides the widescreen anamorphic transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio, the disc offers some production notes as its only extra feature. Though Burton devotees and Batgeeks will definitely want to own this disc out of sheer obligation, Batman Returns needs a much more substantial presentation. However, the recent deluxe editions of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and even The Nightmare Before Christmas suggest that a more lavish version of Batman Returns is on its way.