'X-Men United' a super show; Carrey and 'Chitty Chitty' back

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

I gave a friend and far bigger fan my advance review copy of "X2: X-Men United" (20th-Century Fox) to test drive, and he added his two cents to the growing consensus: Leaving aside graphic novel-inspired movies like "Road to Perdition" and "Ghost World," Bryan Singer's sequel to "X-Men" may be the best comic-book adaptation ever.

While I'm hardly an authority, I can say this was a vast improvement over the first film, with a far more complex and less contrived plot and richer characterizations, not to mention some amazing action sequences.

The first "X-Men" DVD was superceded by a vastly improved "X-Men 1.5" edition, but there would seem little reason to expand on this beautifully produced 2-DVD set.

It boasts one of the best DTS sound mixes I've ever heard (in addition, of course, to Dolby Digital Surround mix), and includes commentary tracks by Singer, the writers and producers, which will be fonts of info for the fans. There is also a long comic-book-to-concept-to-completion documentary and 11 deleted and extended scenes, most of which are sans the completed visual effects, but still fun to see.

'Bruce Almighty'

Battling "X2" for consumer dollars is no less than God himself, or at least God-for-a-while Jim Carrey, in the spring hit "Bruce Almighty" (Universal). Carrey plays an ambitious TV reporter whose very bad day has him taking it out on the deity, who (as played by a suave Morgan Freeman) gives him the opportunity to see if he can do better job of running things.

The inevitable comic complications and messages about humility and faith ensue, but Carrey and director Tom Shadyac keep it all humming nicely, and occasionally hilariously. The minimal extras include a director's commentary and nearly a half-hour of deleted scenes and flubs, but there's really no reason to belabor this minor but satisfying slapstick comedy.

'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'

Lawson's Believe It Or Not: Being one of the few people who will admit that he fled the original Woodstock festival after one day in fear it would be a disaster (as opposed to the historical event it became), I ended up stuck for the night in a small burg in upstate New York, where the girlfriend and I, for lack of anything else to do, ended up in a local bijou with a bunch of kids watching "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

I couldn't believe how enjoyable it was and that it wasn't a large hit at the time. But the family musical comedy, based on a novel by Ian Fleming no less and starring Dick Van Dyke as the eccentric widower who invents a flying car, became a cult favorite over the next couple of decades.

It now receives a much-deserved deluxe DVD treatment (MGM) in a two-DVD set that includes a wide-screen and rather pointless pan-and-scan transfer of the film, which has been impeccably restored, remastered and outfitted with a 5.1 Surround remix that was used on the previous single-disc DVD this replaces.

It's gorgeously packaged, with a nicely illustrated storybook affixed to the front cover and a nice selection of extras, including a new interview with Van Dyke. There is a sing-along feature that allows you to view the film without the dialogue; a featurette about the fellow who bought the car created for the movie and who still drives it, and a demo tape by songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman, performing the songs — some of which were substantially altered by the time they made it into the finished film. Just delightful.

TV from the '70s

I once channel-surfed to CBC and found myself watching a TV series I had never heard of, which co-starred Roger Moore as a British lord and Tony Curtis as self-made millionaire-playboy who had been teamed up, by a fed-up judge, to teach lessons to criminals who had escaped the justice system.

It was like "The Equalizer" with walking sticks and Bentleys.

Turns out it was a 1970s British show called "The Persuaders" and its first 13 episodes are now collected in a box of the same title (A&E) with Moore, along with the producers, offering up an amusing commentary on the entertaining pilot episode.