John Carpenter action comedy Big Trouble in Little China comes to DVD with a pair of transfers. The widescreen anamorphic transfer is preferable to the standard full-frame image. A closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital 4.0, a French soundtrack has been recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo, and a Spanish soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital Mono. English and Spanish subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a commentary track recorded by Carpenter and the lead actor Kurt Russell, and the original theatrical trailer. This is a solid disc from 20th Century Fox, but hardcore fans may want to consider the double disc set that contains even more extras.

One would think that a film as popular as Better Off Dead would receive decent treatment on the DVD. Sadly, that is not the case. The highlight (if it can be called that) of this disc is the image, which is anamorphic and framed at the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The picture, for the most part, is quite good, and unquestionably the best this film has seen since its days at the theaters. Still, there are times when detail is an issue. Grain is also evident sporadically throughout the presentation. It's not enough to ruin the effect of the digital transfer, but could have used a little more clean-up. The sound has not been significantly altered from when it was released in 1985. All that is included is an English two-channel stereo soundtrack. Though dialogue is clear and distortion free, it's also rather unimaginative. There is little question though in what's truly the main disappointment with this disc, and that's the supplemental features. A disappointment because they are non-existent. There is nothing on this disc, including the obligatory trailer. It's a shame since the film has gathered such a cult following over the years that something couldn't have been put together to please the fans that have stuck by this small, but very funny, film.

The "Complete Trilogy" is right. All three movies are here, and that would be a pretty full meal in itself, but along with the 339 minutes of movie on three discs -- all transferred about as well as anyone ever imagined they could be for the home screen, with bright, solid colors and resolution that reveals picture details that might have previously escaped viewers, plus ear-popping sound -- we also get ten hours of extra features. Each disc leads off its bonus section with a 14-minute making-of featurette, done at the time of each respective movie's release, about the evolution of ideas for the plots, the design of the sets and props, the way in which the score was conceived, and the makeup, casting, etc. None is revelatory, but it also would have been silly not to have included each in this package. Much more interesting is "The Making of the Trilogy," three new 15-minute featurettes in which the creators explain themselves better in all of the areas covered by the older featurettes, especially where the special effects and makeup are concerned, though each also reveals some superficiality in the thinking of the producers, such as Bob Gale's statement that no Hollywood movie had ever been built on the notion that every adult was once a kid (there's a movie called It's a Wonderful Life that spends a good bit of time on that very subject). Not that this matters -- the makers came up with two eminently enjoyable and one genuinely funny, touching movie, and it's fascinating to see how they did it, to learn that the movie was nearly sunk by its PG-rated orientation (with R-rated comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High making a fortune, every studio thought Back to the Future was too "soft," except for Disney, where they felt the script was too "dirty" because of the implication of defacto incestuous attraction between two of the characters), and to see how Michael J. Fox managed to get the lead role after shooting had already commenced with Eric Stoltz in the part. And then there are the sets of commentary tracks on each disc, one a live question-and-answer session by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale before an audience of film students; another an "enhanced" interview with Michael J. Fox (who appears in a window in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) discussing the movie and his role in it; and a commentary track by Gale and Neil Canton, which is deliberately keyed to carry the viewer past the boundaries of the other two commentaries. Disc two contains a similar range of material, but without Fox's enhanced reminiscences; instead, we get a selection of some substantial outtakes from the movie, with the optional accompaniment of Bob Gale's commentary explaining why they were deleted, and an array of outtakes, including flubbed lines and cues. Disc three, in addition to two commentaries, contains one violent scene that was cut out of the third movie, with Gale's explanation of why. The commentary is a little bit thin by this time, as though the participants lost some of their own continuity, even engaging in some strained and limp humor that doesn't quite work. They do admit to an error in the script during the first ten minutes of the movie, but otherwise the remarks here are less focused, and seem to suffer from some of the same weariness that overtook the makers in shooting the third movie. Each disc is dual-layered and offers a seamless, invisible transition, even on older players. Each one opens to a three-tiered menu that is very easy to use, with bonus features that advance automatically on the selection list as they play out. There are also production stills, storyboards, conceptual art, and promotional and marketing materials presented in an interactive format, and each disc offers a DVD-ROM function (for those playing these discs on their computers) that includes the original script for each movie. These extras all may be a little bit more than the trilogy deserves in the total scheme of cinema -- none of the Back to the Future movies is remotely as significant as, say, The Birth of a Nation, Citizen Kane, etc. -- but it is all interesting to take in, one movie at a time, one day at a time, and enlightening about how important luck is, along with talent and bold intentions, in making a successful film (or two or three).