V

"Warner Bros. has reversed a trend with this disc: Where a number of DVDs have had films reformatted to 1.33:1 from other aspect ratios, the disc for V sees the original material being matted to 1.85:1 and given an anamorphic transfer for the DVD release. Curiously enough, this reformatting actually seems to work quite well, indicating that director Kenneth Johnson was framing for widescreen in the first place. Warner Bros.' transfer engineers have done a very good job of creating the DVD master, using excellent source materials. The image is generally sharp and clean throughout, with good color balance and fairly good blacks. The transfer does suffer from being fairly low contrast, however, which lends it a certain flatness, which is common for television, but belied by the kind of movie-look Johnson was aiming for. Audio is presented in Dolby 2.0 Surround, and is more than adequate, though lacking a little on the bass end. The stereo mix opens the soundstage somewhat, but does not actually turn it into a Surround show, alas. There is also a French-language track, with a fairly good cast and dubbing. Subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish. The chief extra on the disc is the commentary from writer/director Kenneth Johnson, who talks rapid-fire throughout, not only providing amazing amounts of detail about the production itself, but also practically gives a three-hour class on filmmaking. This commentary is well worth repeated listening, though. The ""Behind the Scenes"" documentary piece is, for a change, really a behind-the-scenes production, consisting of footage shot during the production, presented raw, a good way to see Johnson at work on the set."