Cinematical

Confession time: I adore Dune. The bad effects, the horrible techno music, the giant worms - it's all magic to me. I even have a Feyd action figure. No lie. Plus, since I read the book before I saw the movie I could actually follow it, which probably made the whole thing a lot more palatable than it would have been otherwise. (I have a friend who saw a preview screening way back in the day - the audience was given an explanatory booklet to read before the movie, which is never a good sign.) Needless to say, I was thrilled when the big fancy anniversary DVD was released and preordered it at the earliest possible moment. As a result, I fell right into Universal's trap - little did I know that, just a few months later, they would be releasing a THREE HOUR EXTENDED VERSION of the movie! Sigh. Here, Universal: just take my paycheck.

Due out January 31, the DVD has a lot of those vague extras that rarely live up to your expectations - things like "Designing Dune," "Production Notes," and "Special Effects" - but the whole extended version thing (Alternate ending! A fight scene we haven't seen before!) can excuse a lot of filler, if in fact that's what those features turn out to be. There are, however, a few extras that sound more interesting, like a new documentary and some behind-the-scenes stuff from personal collections. A commentary or two (in addition to not being a single-disc flipper - what the hell?!) is what this movie is really crying out for, but I guess we shouldn't be too picky if we're finally getting to see the movie in a form closer to what David Lynch originally intended.

Edit:  There are more details about the extras, as well as some information about which version of the film Lynch prefers here. Thanks, Elrond.