HOME VIDEO : Digital Media : ‘Go,’ ‘Sense and Sensibility’ New on DVD

Director Doug Liman followed up his 1997 indie comedy hit “Swingers” earlier this year with the equally clever, funny and hip ensemble comedy “Go.”

Set during a 24-hour period in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, this “Rashomon”-style comedy is told from the point-of-view of three people involved in a series of outrageous events that surround a busted drug deal.

Columbia TriStar’s special digital edition of “Go” ($25), which stars Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs, Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf, is almost as much fun as the movie.

The DVD includes a “making of” featurette--which has interviews with the stars and the director--talent biographies and three music videos. Also included are 14 deleted scenes and outtakes and the trailer. The movie is offered in both full screen and wide screen.

The audio commentary features director Liman and editor Stephen Mirrione. The two offer nothing earth shattering, but they are relaxed and funny guides through this film.

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Jane Austen would be veddy happy with the delicious special edition of the 1995 Oscar-winning adaptation of her classic “Sense and Sensibility” (Columbia TriStar, $28). All that’s missing are the scones and heavy cream.

Star Emma Thompson won an Oscar for her literate screenplay of the period drama about two sisters, one pragmatic (Thompson) and the other passionate and willful (Kate Winslet). Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman also star in this handsome film directed by Chinese director Ang Lee.

This digital version includes two deleted scenes--including a very sweet moment between Thompson and Grant--Thompson’s very funny Golden Globe acceptance speech and the trailer.

Offered in wide screen, the DVD includes two audio commentaries--one featuring director Lee and co-producer James Schamus, the other with Thompson and producer Lindsay Doran.

The four are witty and intelligent. When Thompson, for example, sees the Columbia logo of a woman standing with a torch, she exclaims that it was very difficult for her to do that scene, especially keeping her arm in that position for so long. When Schamus sees the logo, he shouts, “It’s Annette Bening.”

Thompson talks about the difficulties in adapting Austen’s work for the screen and how she hoped not to alienate any of Austen’s fans. The book, which was one of Austen’s earliest, is replete with long sentences and scenes, so Thompson had to pare down and modernize the dialogue. Only four or five lines from the novel actually made it to the screen.

Director Lee points out that Thompson, at 35, was older than her character in the book, so he refrained from any close-ups of the actress for the first 10 or 15 minutes, enabling audiences to get used to and accept her in that part. But Thompson says that a teenage preview audience actually thought that she looked old enough to be Hugh Grant’s mother, not his lover!

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Back in 1964, Richard Burton took Broadway by storm in John Gielgud’s inventive production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Gielgud’s unique vision presented the classic tragedy with the actors in rehearsal clothes, stripped of all but the basic scenery, so the language of the Bard’s tale could be fully realized.

“Hamlet” was filmed during an actual performance of the play in a short-lived process called Electronvision, which was sort of a hybrid of video and film. The movie was then shown in movie theaters for two days only. The prints were contractually ordered to be destroyed. But Burton sent one to the British Film Institute and kept one at his home. His widow, Sally, located it in 1988.

Image has released the restored “Hamlet” on DVD ($30) and it’s a definite keeper for Shakespeare fans. Dressed in black pants and a sweater, Burton is not only pretty glorious to look at, he’s also at the height of his craft. Also featured in the excellent cast are Hume Cronyn, John Cullum, George Rose, William Redfield and Alfred Drake.

The disc includes a brief interview with Burton.