The Abyss: Special Edition (PG)

Also known as James Cameron's less successful tech-heavy sci-fi adventure movie, The Abyss still stands as a great achievement. If, that is, you can get past the fact that it's a wildly mixed movie in terms of tone, as the tense, exciting search-and-rescue mission never quite gels with the mystical alien mumbo-jumbo. However, despite the hell they went through to make the film, the cast (especially Ed Harris) is solid and the pioneering CG effects still look incredible.

DVD Extras:

Theatrical and Special Editions of the film, special effects tests, screenplay, storyboards, Under Pressure: Making The Abyss documentary, behind-the-scenes footage, text commentary, cast and crew biogs, trailers, 12-page collector's booklet. This being a flick from Mr '"I love all things mechanical'" Cameron himself, you'd expect plenty of scope for extras on the effects. And, while an audio commentary is lacking (what you get instead is an impersonal but fact-packed "text commentary"), the second disc of this double set more than delivers on that point. Storyboards, animation tests (the multi-angle button gets a look in during the water tentacle sequences), time lapse construction shots... It's an SFX lovers dream. Plus you get the absorbingly candid Under Pressure documentary, which gives you the facts on the nightmarish shoot, and the full script (on-screen). In-depth stuff.

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