‘Rush Hour 2’ DVD Lacks Punch

“Rush Hour 2,” starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, took in more than $200 million at the box office this year, making it the highest grossing film New Line Cinema has ever had. The DVD (New Line, $27) of the sequel to the popular 1998 action comedy is full of extras but most of them aren’t anything special.

Take “Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong Introduction,” which offers a very brief look at Hong Kong through Chan’s eyes. It plays like a commercial for the Hong Kong tourist board than a DVD feature.

The other features on the disc are pretty standard, with “Cultural Clash: West Meets East,” a 30-minute documentary on shooting a film in Hong Kong with a crew from America, and “Kung Fu Choreography,” which shows how Chan devises his awesome martial arts fights, among the more interesting.

Other extras on the DVD include “Making Magic Out of Mire,” about director Brett Ratner’s enthusiastic directing style; “Evolution of a Scene,” which analyzes the development of three scenes; “Fashion of Rush Hour 2”; deleted scenes and outtakes, which are not as funny as the ones at the end of the film; and a visual effects demonstration of the opening bombing scene.

Director Ratner and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson supply moderately entertaining commentary. And if the opening sequence of the film resembles the 1973 Bruce Lee classic “Enter the Dragon,” it is deliberate. The chop socky hit is one of Ratner’s favorites, and the main title sequence of “Rush Hour 2” is his homage to it.

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Another hit sequel, “Jurassic Park III” (Universal, $27), makes its DVD debut this week, and it’s a cut above “Rush Hour 2,” though it lacks audio commentary from its director, Joe Johnston.

Sam Neill and Laura Dern (from the original 1993 Steven Spielberg blockbuster) star with William H. Macy, Tea Leoni and Alessandro Nivola and a few new and particularly nasty dinosaurs.

Universal is offering the DVD in wide-screen and full-frame editions, and among the 10 hours of extras on the disc is “The Making of Jurassic Park III,” a better-than-average report that features fascinating footage of the animatronic dinosaurs created by Stan Winston, who also provides audio commentary. There is also a guided tour of the Stan Winston Studios and a visit to Industrial Light and Magic, where we follow the evolution of the computer-generated effects in the film. Other extras include trailers, storyboards-to-film comparisons, production notes and talent files.

Also of interest is “The New Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III,” which includes a visit to a Montana dinosaur dig led by the film’s consultant, paleontologist Jack Horner.

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Three generations of acclaimed actors--Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton--star in the old-fashioned caper flick “The Score,” directed by Frank Oz (“In & Out,” “Little Shop of Horrors”). The DVD (Paramount, $30) is OK--perhaps one of those discs that is better to rent than to buy.

The digital edition includes the wide-screen format of the film, a typical behind-the-scenes documentary and deleted scenes. One of the deleted scenes features Brando and De Niro doing improvisations of a pivotal early scene at the bar in De Niro’s jazz club. It’s wonderful to watch Brando, even at 77, change the pacing and tone of each take.

Oz and director of photography Rob Hahn supply the commentary. Oz, who is also the voice of Miss Piggy and Yoda, gave wonderful commentary on his 1999 film, “Bowfinger,” but here he and Hahn become too technical, going into detail about each shot and the use of lighting and smoke to give scenes mood. It’s far more entertaining when Oz talks about working with De Niro and Brando. The director doesn’t pull any punches in addressing the fact that he and Brando didn’t get along.

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Cameron Crowe may be the first director to do an audio commentary with his mother. Crowe and his mom, Alice, are a delight to listen to on the two-disc “Almost Famous/Untitled: The Bootleg Cut” (DreamWorks, $27). Crowe won an Oscar this year for best original screenplay for his warm, perceptive and funny coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the 1970s rock ‘n’ roll world.

Crowe invited his mother to join him in the commentary because “Almost Famous” is semiautobiographical, dealing with a 15-year-old boy, Walter (Patrick Fugit), who is hired by Rolling Stone magazine to travel with an up-and-coming rock group, Stillwater, much to the dismay of his over-protective mother Elaine (Frances McDormand).

And Alice is quite chatty in her commentary. We find out, for example, that at the Strand Theatre in San Diego, she once stood up in the middle of the violent Sam Peckinpah film, “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,” and screamed, “Bring me the head of Sam Peckinpah!” This special DVD--a bare-bones digital edition of the film was released earlier this year--includes two versions of the film: the theatrical release and one Crowe refers to as “Untitled,” which features 35 minutes more of footage. Other extras include Crowe’s articles for Rolling Stone, his script, deleted scenes with Crowe’s commentary, production notes, a trailer, cast and crew biographies, Crowe’s 10 top album picks of 1973, a featurette on the fictitious rock band in the movie, Stillwater, and footage of the group in concert in Cleveland.