Artisan gives Reservoir Dogs the treatment it richly deserves on this tenth anniversary Special Edition. The film is offered in both a widescreen transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and an inferior full-frame image. English soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, and DTS Surround. Supplemental materials include a variety of scene specific commentaries from people involved in the production as well as major film critics, featurettes about the actors, the original theatrical trailer, and a variety of quirky small extras like a reenactment of the famous torture scene using only the Reservoir Dogs action figures.

The first installment of Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino's hyper-violent revenge epic makes its DVD debut courtesy of Miramax Home Entertainment. Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the image sports even skin tones and bright, vivid colors, offset by deep, solid blacks. Some unfortunate evidence of moderate edge-enhancement seems to be the only drawback to an otherwise near-flawless visual treatment. Sound is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS, and an alternate French-language track, with optional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish subtitles. It is in regards to sound that this disc truly excels, with Tarantino's exhausting, eclectic soundtrack offering an ideal auditory backdrop to the onscreen mayhem. Limbs are detached and swords clash with resounding fury and clarity, while the roar of motorcycle engines and airplanes push the low-frequency capabilities of one's home-theater system. As The Bride makes her final decent into the House of Blue Leaves, it's hard for viewers not to be seduced by the slick sound editing and driving score that accompanies the eye-popping battle. If there's one aspect of the disc that disappoints, it has to be the lack of extra features. Though the promise of a massive special edition DVD release when Kill Bill Vol. 2 hits the home-video market looms on the horizon before the concluding chapter has even hit theaters, it's hard not to feel slighted with the sparse offerings here. Despite the offering of the occasional interesting tidbit, "The Making of Kill Bill Vol. 1," when all is said and done, is little more than a cog in the ever-present hype machine -- an extended, 20-minute commercial for the film that is similar to the brief previews shown in-between movies on pay cable. A pair of bonus songs by infectious House of Blue Leaves rockers the 5.6.7.8's at least entertains, though it's all-too-brief, and aside from the intriguing "Bootleg Trailer" for the film (also included on the soundtrack CD), the trailers offered here are nothing that Tarantino fans haven't already seen a million times before.

This second film version of the Victor Hugo novel Notre Dame de Paris (the first was a Theda Bara vehicle, The Dancer of Paris) was a super-duper-spectacular as only Hollywood of the 1920s could make them, but it is never so large that it dwarfs the contribution of its star, Lon Chaney. As the hunchbacked bellringer Quasimodo, Chaney adorned himself with a special device that made his cheeks jut out grotesquely; a contact lens that blanked out one of his eyes; and, most painfully, a huge rubber hump covered with coarse animal fur and weighing anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds. While Quasimodo is but one of many interconnecting characters in the original Hugo novel, he dominates the narrative of this expensive Universal production. Set in the walled city of Paris in the 16th century, the story is set in motion when the evil Jehan (Brandon Hurst), brother of saintly Notre Dame archdeacon Dom Claude (Nigel De Brulier), orders the dog-like Quasimodo to attempt to kidnap gypsy girl Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller). Quasimodo is captured and flogged for his crime, whereupon Esmeralda shows him kindness by offering him water. He reciprocates when Esmeralda, framed on a murder charge by the obsessed Jehan (if he can't have her, no one can), is sentenced to be hanged. Quasimodo grabs a rope and swings down from the towers of Notre Dame, rescues Esmeralda from the gallows, and carries her into the church, shouting "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" Through a series of convoluted plot twists, Clopin (Ernest Torrence), the king of beggars, leads an army of the Parisian poor to storm the gates of the cathedral and reclaim Esmeralda. Quasimodo defends both the girl and his church by tossing heavy objects and pouring molten lead upon the invaders. This climactic scene was filmed at night, requiring the services of literally every arc light in Hollywood. The Notre Dame set (which wasn't quite as large in real life as it seems on screen) remained standing on the Universal back lot for years after this film was completed, doing background service in the 1925 Lon Chaney starrer The Phantom of the Opera. With Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lon Chaney rose from mere leading player to major star, which led him to even greater success at MGM, where his reputation as "the man of a thousand faces" really got a workout. The story would be remade by in 1939 with Charles Laughton, in 1955 with Anthony Quinn, in 1982 with Anthony Hopkins, and again in 1996 as a sanitized Disney animated musical.