ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY RECOMMENDS: VIDEO & DVD

DVD reviews: 'Pearl Harbor: Director's Cut'

The "Pearl Harbor: Director's Cut Vista Series" is a four-disc set.

(ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY) -- For a director with a near-fetishistic love of sleek, macho gadgetry -- and whose films rarely flirt with notions of brevity or subtlety -- it's fitting that Michael Bay's World War II drama be given such an ostentatious DVD berth: On the four feature-packed platters of "Pearl Harbor: The Director's Cut Vista Series," "Pearl Harbor" the film is treated with nearly as much reverence as Pearl Harbor the event.

There's plenty of material on both -- historical documentaries, three commentary tracks (one of which features Bay and his college film professor, who seemingly loves just about every shot in the movie), and making-of specials, including a look at a pre-shoot training camp where a camouflage-covered, panting Alec Baldwin gets to play Army.

MORE STORIES • Paul Clinton: 'Pearl Harbor' hits some, misses much  • Paul Tatara: 'Harbor' a 'Titanic' ride, a movie Zero    RESOURCES EW.COM: All about 'Pearl Harbor'

But Bay must know that the heart of "Pearl Harbor" is its awe-inspiring half-hour attack scene, with planes that zip and zoom with birdlike grace and where everything blows up beautifully (the new, R-rated cut unnecessarily restores some scenes of gore and violence). The effects-laden sequence is dissected from numerous vantage points -- the film, behind-the-scenes footage, and storyboards -- and for anyone wishing to skip the movie's time-filling romantic triangle, it will no doubt be the go-to goodie.

Of course, one wishes such loving treatment could be lavished upon a slightly better movie (that plodding first hour just gets longer on the small screen), but at least the true Pearl Harbor is analyzed in depth, never letting viewers forget about the real-life heroics that the movie version mined for box office gold. It's a lot like watching E! and the History Channel simultaneously -- albeit for a very, very long time.

Grade: B+

-- Brian M. Raftery

'Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'

All those Oscar pundits who were shocked when Nickelodeon's CGI 'toon "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" was nominated for Best Animated Feature over Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" overlooked one important fact: "Jimmy" rocks.

The flick's lightning-quick script and bouncy visuals are every bit as ingenious as its hero, a prepubescent inventor who saves the adults of Retroville from the evil egglike aliens known as the Yolkians. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that "Jimmy" belongs in the same league as "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc."

Grade: A-

-- Bruce Fretts