'Matrix' trilogy released in a 10-disc DVD set

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

From left, actors Marcus Young, Keanu Reeves and Ousaun Elam battle the enemy in "The Matrix Reloaded." The 10-disc "The Ultimate Matrix Collection" includes all three movies plus bonus material. Warner Bros. Pictures

With 10 — that's right, 10 — discs, this set collects the expanded special editions of 1999's "The Matrix," arguably the most influential film of the 1990s, and its less admired sequels, 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," as well as the animated compendium "The Animatrix," a series of shorts that fills in the back story and character development only suggested in the films.

Beyond the discs with the films, there is much more: One disc concentrates on the philosophical stew the Brothers Wachowski cooked up to support their sci-fi story of a computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) who hooks up with revolutionary leader Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and discovers he and the rest of us are living only virtual lives — or lies — inside a computer program. Then there is an ultimate making-of archive that touches on every conceivable aspect of the live-action trilogy's production and a compendium of all the attendant material.

As for the supplementary material, the first of these discs contains two documentaries: "Return to Source: Philosophy & The Matrix" and "The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction" — featuring interviews with philosophers, spiritualists, engineers and computer scientists.

For rock fans the music DVD of the week will be "The White Stripes: Under Blackpool Lights" (3 stars, BMG). Jack and Meg White performed a blistering set in January at one of England's more famous rock palaces, and the show was filmed by director Vic Carruthers to look like a lost reel of celluloid found in a basement after the next world war. Pasty-faced Jack, looking like the Phantom of the Opera's more-demented little brother, has no shortage of screen presence, and the music is superior, drawing heavily on tunes from "Elephant" but also featuring an amazing cover of Dylan's "Outlaw Blues."

Considering the chronological games played in "24 — Season Three" (3 stars, Fox), it may be wise for newcomers planning to view the upcoming fourth season to check out the 24 episodes shown in 2003-04. Suffice it to say the invulnerable anti-terror genius Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is going to have another really stressful day and the folks back at HQ — including his foxy daughter (Elisha Cuthbert) — are going to endure some internal hassles, even if Jack doesn't get hooked on heroin and kick it in a couple of hours as he did last year.

Any attempt to synopsize the threat to our nation — which saw any number of questionable relationships threatened by the potential unleashing of a deadly virus being brokered to the highest bidder — would result in a horse laugh greater than any emitted by Mr. Ed. Still, "24" hooks you like few TV serials ever have, and I know people who have watched the DVD boxes in one or two settings. The box contains 45 deleted scenes, commentaries by cast members and others, and a special preview of the new season.

Fans of classic Disney, including this one, eagerly await the annual issue of those tin-boxed "Disney Treasures," and this holiday brings forth three two-disc collections. The most historically essential is "Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 2" (4 stars, Disney), a companion to 2002's already-hard-to-find "Volume 1" that collects 40 shorts from the late 1920s and early 1930s before Disney's animation crew switched exclusively to color. If you are not a collector or of a certain age, you probably haven't seen many of these, which means you may barely recognize this Mick: He's still a rascal, not a corporate symbol.

Kicking off with 1928's "The Barn Dance," it includes the runaway train comedy "Mickey's Choo Choo" and a lot of showcases for Mickey's musical talents, including "The Jazz Fool" and "Jungle Rhythm." It also contains the second appearance of Pluto, though in "The Picnic" he's called Rover and belongs to Minnie not Mickey. He appears under his more familiar name in 1931's "The Moose Hunt" which is distinctive for being the only time Pluto spoke. After that, he confined himself to barking and let the mice to do the talking.

Another new title in the Treasures series is "The Mickey Mouse Club" (3 stars, Disney), which contains the five episodes of week one, broadcast in October 1955, of the long-running daytime series. The extras include film of the Mouseketeers' first visit to Disneyland. Then there's "The Complete Pluto Vol. 1" (Disney). This compilation of shorts was apparently not completed in time for review copies to be supplied.

Hanna-Barbera fans can feel the holiday spirit, too, with the release of "The Flintstones — The Complete Second Season" (3 stars, Warner), a four-disc set with 32 episodes from 1961-62, including movie star Rock Quarry's secret visit to Bedrock in search of a normal life, and shows inspired by movies like "Rear Window," of all things. We also get the one and only season of Hanna-Barbera's next attempt at bringing an animated sitcom to prime time, "Top Cat: The Complete Series" (3 stars, Warner). With a gang of alley cats, it attempted to do with "The Phil Silvers Show" what "The Flintstones" did with "The Honeymooners."

Though the time period between a theatrical run and a DVD release continues to shrink ("Friday Night Lights" and "Ray" will be out early next year), it's rare to see a movie released on DVD while it's still in theaters.

That's the case, however, with the Hong Kong cop thriller "Infernal Affairs" (4 stars, Miramax), one of the year's best films.

It's an ingeniously plotted drama about an undercover cop who has infiltrated the mob and a cop who is actually a mole for the same gang trying to discover each other's identities. It's due for an American remake (allegedly with Martin Scorsese directing), but it will be hard to top this. You can find a full review on the www.freep.com Web site.

Also out are "The Bourne Supremacy" (3 stars, Universal), the hit sequel to "The Bourne Identity" with Matt Damon as an amnesiac CIA assassin framed for a murder and being chased through Europe by mysterious villains and a team of his former colleagues, headed by Joan Allen; and "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" (3 stars, Fox), the funniest dumb comedy of the year, with gym owners Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller resolving their differences on the court.

The week also produces some top-shelf items from the vault, beginning with all five volumes of "The Yakuza Papers" (Home Vision Entertainment), a mob-family saga that begins after World War II and continues until the 1960s. It is often described as the Japanese "Godfather."

From 1983, "Testament" (3 stars, Paramount), about a family in the Pacific Northwest trying to survive a nuclear blast, was overshadowed by the similarly themed TV movie "The Day After," but is equally powerful. Meanwhile, "The King of Kings" (4 stars, Criterion) couples the silent, 155-minute road-show version of Christ's life from Cecil B. DeMille in 1927 with the more widely seen, 112-minute cut, adding Dolby Digital 5.1 musical scores to both.

"I Remember Mama" (4 stars, Warner) is George Stevens' beautifully realized 1948 film version of the play about an immigrant Norwegian family as it learns to cope in 1910 San Francisco.