Ultimate Fights From the Movies [DVD] [2002]

As an exercise in the power of the DVD medium, you'd expect the disc of Ultimate Fights to be exemplary in its look, sound, and options. You'd be right. The menus are eye-popping and get the adrenaline flowing. The aspect ratios vary, since not all the movies were shot in the same format, but this is hardly a distraction. The audio is clear and plays well loud, which is what was intended. As for the visuals, the newer movies boast picture perfect transfers, but the older movies -- Sylvester Stallone's Rambo-fights-the-cops debut in First Blood, for instance -- are victims of the film stock used to shoot the movie way back when. The colors are not as saturated, but it's only a distraction to the purist who thinks everything that's digitized should look contemporary. There are a couple of Easter eggs, the most interesting one that takes you to the DVD-ROM website; if you win the Skullcrusher trivia game (it's not hard), the ROM takes you back to the disc (amazing) and gives you access to a bonus fight feature with James Lew. Now that's pretty cool, and definitely worth fighting about. A quibble: 1982's First Blood is the oldest film represented -- couldn't the John Wayne-Victor McLaglen brawl from 1952's The Quiet Man make the cut?