Four Weddings And A Funeral

The commentary features Mike Newell, Richard Curtis and producer Duncan Kenworthy, who spend a fair amount of time laughing at the funny moments, as if they have not seen them for 10 years. Kenworthy dominates, with Newell chipping in occasionally, while Curtis becomes progressively more silent. Memories are foggy, due to the age of the film, but this is compensated for by the annunciation of the talkers. All too often commentaries are both inarticulate and not very arresting. Fortunately, this is neither.

In The Making has an abundance of film footage, accompanying snippets of archive interviews. The story is retold and an oppressive soundtrack gropes at the emotion of the film. Things improve when cast members tell their own embarrassing wedding stories - boring Andie MacDowell excluded - but it drifts into a montage of film clips. This is short and far from sweet.

Such a pathetic featurette is useful for analysing what cast and crew used to look like, compared to their appearance 10 years later in The Wedding Planners, which involves less film footage and more interview segments, including interesting stories from the making of the film. Hugh Grant amuses and all interviewees are engaging, offering refreshing honesty.

Two Actors And A Director could have been included in The Wedding Planners. It goes into details about the casting process and character development of Grant and MacDowell. A lot of information on a mildly interesting subject creates an unnecessary, but bearable extra.

The deleted scenes are short, but worth watching, especially the two Wedding Line scenes. The optional commentary by Kenworthy is only worth a listen after viewing the scenes first.

The menu screens are quite lavish although thankfully simple, the only downside to the presentation being the relentless MGM lion logo that roars every time you watch an extra.

The promotional spots are a pleasantly surprising addition, featuring the stars in costume, selling the film to the audience. Only 30 seconds each, but very entertaining, with Grant stealing the show every time. Again, Kenworthy offers an unwanted, but undeniably informative, commentary.

The quality of film in the original featurette and the deleted scenes is poor, but this is to be expected. The rest is of a high definition, as is the print, and the sound is as good as it needs to be, although listening to the wedding speeches in Surround Sound conjures up its atmosphere with a greater intensity than stereo. A neat little booklet comes inside the DVD case, also, and if you are lucky enough to get the cardboard sleeve edition, the packaging is icing on a tasty cake.

Overall a mixed bunch of extras, spread thin over this special edition DVD. The original featurette is poor and the Two Actors And A Director unnecessary. The promotional spots is the shortest extra on the disc, but probably the best, alongside the deleted scenes. A lot of writing on the sleeve amounts to little viewing time, but there is more good than bad.