The Hulk: Limited Edition DVD Box Set

Starring: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly Director: Ang Lee Original UK Premiere: 2003 Dvd Release: 17th November, 2003 Number Of Discs: 3 Format: Box set, PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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DVD Extras: Hulk two-disc set doesn't quite hulk-out as well comparative Marvel movie releases for the X-Men films, Spider-Man & Daredevil. Disc 2 assembles a pile of those infotainment documentaries prepared to drum up pre-publicity but which feel a bit redundant once the movie is out, especially since there's so much repetition between the featurettes. It's all very well, & some of the technical stuff is fascinating, but this particular film could do with a more in-depth thematic approach: there's a lot about how the CGI Hulk was realised but little on the development of the story, the performances or the general tone, though Ang Lee's slightly sparse commentary makes interesting stabs in that direction. The biggest revelation in the background material is that Lee, known for his delicacy of touch, himself wore the motion capture suit & smashed up plywood tanks as a guide for the CGI animators.

Amazingly, Ang Lees Hulk makes a fair fist of pleasing everybody. The latest in a run of Marvel Comic-to-film transfers, it acknowledges the history of a character who dates back to 1962 while recreating him in contemporary terms. Though this, Hulks origin still draws on the 1960s iconography of bomb tests & desert bases, this new take mixes gene-tampering with gamma radiation & never forgets that poor Bruce Banner has been psychologically primed by a mad father & a disappointed girlfriend to transform from repressed wimp to big green powerhouse even before the mad science kicks in.

The long first act is enlivened by comic book-style split-screen effects & multiple foreshadowings, Lee keeps finding excuses to light Banas face green, but is also absorbing personal drama from the man who gave you The Ice Storm before flexing his action muscles on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. When Banner begins his Jekyll-and-Hyde seizures, the ILM CGI boys step in & use Bana as a template for the most fully-realised digital characterisation yet seen in the movies. Comics fans will thrill as a credibly bulky, superswift, super-green behemoth tangles with mutated killer dogs in a night time forest, bursts out of confinement in an underground secret base, takes on Americas military might while bouncing around a Road Runner & Coyote-like South Western desert & then invades San Francisco for some major Hulk... smash action. Artful & entertaining, engaging & explosive, this is among the most satisfying superhero movies.

Eric Bana is an Australian actor. He was born Eric Banadinovich on to a German mother & a Croatian father. He originally dreamed of becoming a car mechanic & tried his hand in odd jobs, including tending bar, where he also did stand-up comedy. Eric Bana began his career as a comedian, first coming to national attention in the comedy sketch series Full Frontal. Later, he was the star and/or anchor for two short-running TV shows; the TV show Eric, a sketch comedy show that he wrote, coproduced & starred in & The Eric Bana Show Live, a variety show. His most enduring character from his early career is the typically aussie character of Poida. Aside from a small role in the Australian independent-hit The Castle in which he played a kickboxer, Bana disappeared from Australias entertainment screens for several years, only to make a re-appearance in the gritty black comedy Chopper in 2000, about the infamous Australian underworld figure, Mark Brandon Read. Chopper garnered world-wide attention & won three Australian Film Institute awards, including a Best Actor award for Bana. Posters Of Eric Bana

Editors Choice: Chopper, Hulk, Munich, View DVDology

Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress. Although she has been working in the film industry since she was a teenager, she has only recently received critical acclaim for her work, most notably for Requiem for a Dream & A Beautiful Mind, for which she won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Connelly is married to the British actor Paul Bettany, whom she met while working on a film; the couple has a son. She has also a five-year-old son, Kai, from a previous relationship. Connelly grew up in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Bridge, attending St. Anns School, except for four years the family spent living in Woodstock, New York. Her father was in the garment industry & one of his close friends through the trade was an advertising executive. The executive friend suggested Jennifer audition at a modelling agency. At the age of 10, her career started in newspaper & magazine ads, then moved to television commercials. Posters Of Jennifer Connelly

Editors Choice: A Beautiful Mind, Hulk, House Of Sand And Fog, Waking The Dead, Rocketeer, Labyrinth, Phenomena, Dark Water, View DVDology

Ang Lee is a Hollywood director from Taiwan. Many of his films have focused on the interactions between modernity & tradition. His films have also tended to have a light-hearted comedic tone which marks a break from the tragic historical realism which characterized Taiwanese filmmaking after the end of the martial law period in the 1990s. He holds a bachelors degree in theater from the University of Illinois & a masters degree from New York University s Tisch School of the Arts, where in 1984 he made a thesis film called Fine Line. Posters Of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Editors Choice: Brokeback Mountain, Hulk, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ride With The Devil, Sense And Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Pushing Hands, View DVDology

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