Steve Martin stars in the funny film noir dental thriller Novocaine. Artisan has put forth considerable effort on this 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Featuring bright colors and even black levels, this transfer looks very well rendered with only the slightest amount of edge enhancement marring the image. The audio is featured in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround in English. This is an excellent soundtrack sporting lots of directional effects and some funky music by Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek. Also included on this disc are subtitles in English and French. This is a very nice edition of Novocaine that includes a vast array of special features, starting with a commentary track by director David Atkins. Atkins has a working knowledge of the production and story and throws out many entertaining anecdotes about the film. Two features -- "Getting the Shot" and "Bitten" -- give the viewer a working knowledge of both the film's production and dental forensics. "Bitten" is an especially neat featurette that includes interviews with dental forensic specialists discussing how to snatch dental records off of a mutilated corpse. "Getting the Shot" is a by-the-numbers eight-miunte promo spot for the film. Finally there are five rather uninteresting deleted scenes, two theatrical trailers for the film, "The Music of Novocaine" music sampler, some thin production notes, bonus trailers for Artisan movies, and some information on the film's cast and crew.

Steven Spielberg's ambitious screen adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel about a young boy who finds himself in a Japanese prison camp during WWII gets an appropriately glossy treatment on DVD. The film has been given a letterboxed transfer of 1.85:1 aspect ratio (the transfer has also been enhanced for widescreen monitors), and viewers have a choice of the original soundtrack in Dolby Digital Stereo or a new mix in Dolby Digital 5.1 (there's also an alternate French-language soundtrack in Dolby Digital Stereo). The film has been subtitled in no fewer than eight languages -- English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai -- and the film's original theatrical trailer has been included, as well as a bonus behind-the-scenes documentary, "The China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun, A Film by Steven Spielberg."

Hudson Hawk was an infamous box-office turkey, but as is always the case with films like that, it has developed a small (very small in this case) but fervent cult. They will appreciate this disc that offers a pair of transfers. The widescreen transfer preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is preferable to the standard full-frame image. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Surround. English and French subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a commentary track recorded by director Michael Lehmann and trailers.

A vice-ridden louse must throw his bad habits to the wind in MGM/UA 's release of the classic Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money. Viewable in either 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen or 1.33:1 full frame, this release also offers a selection of closed-captioned English Dolby Digital Mono or Spanish Dolby Digital Mono soundtracks with optional Spanish and French subtitles. Extra features include a theatrical trailer.