This collector's edition DVD boasts a thunderously impressive DTS Dolby Surround 5.1 audio mix, and the anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 picture's panoramic scope and smoothness of detail almost (but not quite) capture the excitement and state-of-the-art special effects of the theatrical version. The DVD also comes with a cartload of bonus features: a featurette called "The Making of Jurassic Park," narrated by Spielberg, who mentions the film's roots in the work of author Michael Crichton (who also appears in this featurette); a few scenes deleted from the film's final cut; pre-production illustrations and drawings, which are advanced with the fast forward buttons; six of the artist's storyboards (same access); and nine shots of movie models, most of them cities and villages. The subtitles are in English, French, and Spanish. The audio track is English (DTS) only.

One would expect Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful dinosaur adventure, to be an almost flawless DVD, and this Universal edition is generally very satisfying. The picture quality is certainly outstanding, bringing out Spielberg's use of color and detail perfectly, while the widescreen format ensures that the dinosaurs are no less terrifying at home than in the cinema. The Dolby 5.1 sound (a DTS edition is also available) is better still, with every roar and rumble bellowing out in crystal clarity. This DVD has clearly been designed with love and attention; even the menu screen is an amazing work of CGI art. Amongst the huge range of features are standard fare such as production notes, biographies, and trailers for Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Jurassic Park III (the latter is totally unrevealing). Footage of early pre-production meetings illustrate Spielberg's desire to make the dinosaurs as frightening as possible, while "Raptors In the Kitchen" shows how Phil Tippett's animatics technique helped to shape the look of the film before CGI was introduced into the equation. A messy but interesting storyboards section includes an omitted scene and the original ending for the film, and the "Foley Artists" feature provides fascinating insight into how the film got some of its Oscar-winning sound. Obviously this DVD will be popular with kids, and it is at kids that the fun and quite thorough "Dinosaur Encyclopaedia" is aimed. The location scouting footage, DVD-ROM features, and production photographs are all moderately interesting, but the best of the extra features is probably "The Making of Jurassic Park." Fifty minutes long and narrated by James Earl Jones, this is a detailed and authoritative documentary, although it does concentrate almost solely on the special effects side of the film, even incorporating footage of the original puppet dinosaurs before Spielberg opted for full-blown CGI creations. The glaring absence from this disc is a commentary by Spielberg himself, which would surely have been revealing, and would have made it an exceptional rather than very good DVD. Nevertheless, Jurassic Park fans will probably be delighted to have this edition in their home libraries.

The U.S. Army faces its greatest challenge to date -- new recruit Pauly Shore -- in this comedy, which gets a simple presentation for its DVD release. In the Army Now has been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and the audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo. The dialogue is in English, with no multiple-language options of bonus materials included.