Cut scenes are a treat, actually

Love Actually

Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson

Universal, $27

The first cut of writer-director Richard Curtis’ delectable romantic roundelay was a heady 3 1/2 hours. As he explains on the DVD, he set out to excise 80 minutes from the movie before its release. Most of the scenes were painful for him to cut because discarding them also meant in many instances the elimination of subplots and even characters. Curtis, the scribe of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” introduces several of these deleted scenes. And there are some wonderful moments to be found: There’s a nine-minute sequence between a recent widower (Liam Neeson) and his young son (Thomas Sangster) that is just a joy.

Curtis provides pithy comments in a feature about the film’s eclectic soundtrack. The filmmaker and costars Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy and young Sangster (who is Grant’s cousin) are all charm and good humor in their commentary.

*

Big Fish

Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor

Columbia TriStar, $29

Though Tim Burton’s latest film isn’t as magical or delightfully demented as “Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands” or “Ed Wood,” the drama includes some fanciful scenes and endearing performances from Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney, who play Edward Bloom -- McGregor in flashbacks as the young Bloom and Finney as the older Bloom. However, the main plot about the prickly relationship between Bloom and his son (Billy Crudrup) often drifts into sentimentality.

“Big Fish” has been given the guppy treatment on DVD. The production featurettes are slick and slight. The only mini-documentary that comes to life revolves around Daniel Wallace, who wrote the book “Big Fish” is based on. Rounding out the disc is a Burton trivia quiz and commentary from the director.

*

The Cooler

William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin

Lions Gate, $27

Though this shaggy dog romance set in Las Vegas smacks too often of David Mamet-isms, the performances are the real thing. William H. Macy is perfectly cast as one of life’s losers -- a sad sack with such a streak of bad luck he works as a “cooler” in acasino. His mere presence at a table or at slot machine can ice any gambler with a hot hand. Alec Baldwin received an Oscar nomination for his turn as the booze-guzzling, chain-smoking casino manager. No less effective is Maria Bello as a down-on-her-luck cocktail waitress who falls for Macy.

The DVD includes “Anatomy of a Scene,” storyboard comparison, a music-only track and two commentary tracks.

*

Ghost of the Abyss

James Cameron,

Bill Paxton

Disney, $30

The Oscar-winning director of the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” can’t seem to escape the infamous 1912 luxury liner that sank on its maiden voyage. Back in 2001, James Cameron returned to the North Atlantic location of the disaster equipped with state-of-the-art technology, his “Titanic” star Bill Paxton, a team of historians and marine experts, and MIR submarines for an unscripted voyage to the bottom of the sea. Cameron’s brother, Mike, created special remotely operated vehicles that were attached to the MIR subs by a 2,000-foot fiber optic cable. These robots fly through the remains of the Titanic, carrying video images of its decaying majesty back to the sub.

Just as with most Imax films on DVD, “Ghosts” loses a lot of its power on the small screen. But the two-disc DVD set is still a must for any “Titanic” buff. The first disc features the 60-minute theatrical version and a 90-minute extended edition. The set also includes a making-of documentary and a feature that allows viewers to see the wreckage from every angle.