Golden newbies golden oldies: will some of 2002's smash hits receive the same long-lasting acclaim as a number of Hollywood classics being reissued in DVD format?

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.
• Position: Entertainment - Short reviews of new movie recordings

MOVIE BUFFS find themselves enjoying the best of all possible worlds ever since DVDs have rocketed to the forefront of the home entertainment market. Blockbuster films are reaching video stores much faster than they did in the past, in many cases running up nine-digit grosses in the summertime, then reeling off huge home sales for the holiday season that same year. On the other side of the equation, a wide assortment of older pictures--some classics, others worthy, but somewhat forgotten--are showing up in sparkling refurbished editions with enhanced digital images and sound plus special features that put them into perspective for an entirely new audience.

Spider-Man (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, 121 minutes, $28.96), just a few months after hauling in about $750,000,000 worldwide in theaters, exploded into stores (selling more than 11,000,000 copies within the first three days and, with approximately $200,000,000 in revenue, actually outgrossing the theatrical release's opening weekend box office take). The two-disc Special Edition is so loaded with DVD add-ons, the film almost seems an afterthought. Nevertheless, fans of the comic book superhero will be pleased by the fidelity to the basic premise, with Tobey Maguire properly burdened with teenage angst as Peter Parker, hesitant in exploiting his newfound powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider, and darkly vengeful as he crusades against the criminal world after the murder of his beloved Uncle Ben. Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst is spirited as Mary Jane Watson, who Parker has long been in love with, but who (in true comic book tradition) finds his costumed alter ego far more alluring, and Willem Dafoe's over-the-top acting style works ideally as Spider-Man's nemesis, the Green Goblin. With both demonstrating an assortment of emotional and psychological hang-ups, the characters go beyond the two-dimensional personas such roles usually generate in movies of this genre.

In addition to the expected commentaries (in this case by Dunst, director Sam Ralmi, a couple of the producers, and special effects whiz John Dykstra), there's a "Making of ..." documentary and another on "Spider-Mania"; screen tests of Maguire and J.K. Simmons as the irascible newspaper editor Jonah Jameson, plus a test of Spider-Man's computer-generated image; outtakes; profiles of Raimi and composer Danny Elfman; comic book archives of Spidey, Peter Parker's loves, and a rogues gallery of the strip's villains; a historical documentary, "Spider-Man: The Mythology of the 21st Century"; music videos; and an abundance of DVD-ROM interactive games. Whew!

Men in Black II (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, 88 minutes, $28.96), while not quite up to the standards of "Men in Black" nevertheless is highly entertaining in its own right. One problem is that many of the surprising aspects of the original now lack the novelty viewers first encountered, and a second is that the relatively short length--especially for a blockbuster--hints at a paucity of ideas for a follow-up. Nevertheless, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as alien-hunters Jay and Kay continue to play well against each other; Rip Tom remains borderline maniacal as their boss; Lara Flynn Boyle makes a wonderfully scary villain; and the special effects crew has an absolute ball playing can you top this in creating the various aliens that seem to be sharing the planet with us. The picture has already soared into the 50 highest domestic grosses of all time, so our reservations were obviously not shared by ticket-buyers, meaning there probably is a "Men in Black IN" in the planning stage.

Panic Room (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, 112 minutes, $27.96) casts Jodie Foster as a divorced woman moving into a brownstone with her teenaged daughter, only to find themselves menaced by a trio of villains. The title room is an electronically operated strong room designed so that a home's occupants can seal themselves in, safe from danger, while waiting for outside help from the police and firefighters. The panic room becomes a trap as much as a haven, since one of the intruders was among the workers who installed it, and is thus able to cut off communications with the outside world, though they are still foiled in their attempts to get into it and at the safe full of loot they are after. The subsequent efforts of Foster to summon help or escape from the building are counterpointed by the nasties' attempts to break into the sanctuary, the added complication...