Well, at least the marketing campaign was pretty successful – the 06/06/06 release date scooping, as director John Moore observes wryly in his commentary, “The biggest fucking Tuesday opening, like, ever!” Woohoo.

The film itself? Turgid. Moore following up his flaccid remake of Flight Of The Phoenix with a dreary, pointless rehash of Richard Donner’s iconic 1976 shocker that somehow manages to simultaneously photocopy the original and yet suck nearly every last iota of life, tension and terror out of it. Quite an achievement. Even from the man responsible for Behind Enemy Lines.

On the plus side, there’s plenty of fun to be had with the extras. There are alternate versions of ‘The Lightning Rod’, ‘The Beheading’ and ‘The End’ that are gorier than those in the final cut. There’s the acerbic chat-track from Moore, who at least seems half-aware of his movie’s inadequacies. But most fun is the documentary that can’t even be bothered to disguise what a miserable shoot the whole mess clearly was. Julia Stiles mooches about with a face like a slapped arse, Moore continuously bemoans being forced to work towards a “completely ludicrous” release window and Liev Schreiber – when he isn’t being attacked (hilariously) by stunt dogs – comes across as a broken man, his distant eyes seemingly plotting a particularly bloody revenge against the agent that landed the self-appointed “snowflake” such a bum gig in the first place.

DVD Extras:

Director and writer commentary
Making Of documentary
Extended scenes
Alternate ending