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Another double feature, of sorts

Nicolas Cage's and Chris Cooper's films opened on the same weekend. Now their DVDs come out today.

THE EXTRAS FILE

June 12, 2007|Susan King, Times Staff Writer

Five years ago, Nicolas Cage and Chris Cooper starred in director Spike Jonze's quirky comedy "Adaptation." Last February, however, the actors found themselves in competition when their films opened the same weekend. Cage's Marvel Comics adventure, "Ghost Rider," received generally poor reviews but found box office glory, while Cooper's spy drama, "Breach," won the hearts of the critics but met with tepid audience response.


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Now Cage and Cooper are going toe-to-toe again as both films arrive today on DVD.

For those fans left wanting more of "Ghost Rider," there's a two-disc extended edition (Sony, $35), which features scenes not included in the theatrical version and several perfunctory behind-the-scenes documentaries. Rounding out the release is commentary from writer-director Mark Steven Johnson and visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack, plus an audio track with producer Gary Foster.

In "Breach" (Universal, $30), Cooper was universally praised for his performance as the complex and complicated FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who sold secrets to the Russians for nearly 25 years. Ryan Phillippe costars as Eric O'Neill, the ambitious young FBI employee who is assigned to work with Hanssen.

Extras featured on the disc are a better-than-average "making of" documentary, a 2001 episode of NBC's "Dateline" program about Hanssen, deleted and alternate scenes with commentary from director Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass") and editor Jeffrey Ford, and a compelling commentary track with Ray and O'Neill.

Also new

"Days of Glory" (Weinstein, $29): Rachid Bouchareb's Algerian film, which received an Academy Award nomination for best foreign language film, gives just due to the North African soldiers who enlisted in the French army during World War II to help liberate the mother country from the Axis forces. Extras include a solid "making of" documentary and a short animated film by Bouchareb.

"An Unreasonable Man" (IFC, $27): Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan's compelling documentary on Ralph Nader, the public interest attorney and then trend-setting consumer advocate who ended up being accused of spoiling Al Gore's chances at the presidency when he ran as a third-party candidate in 2000. Extras on the two-disc set include numerous mini-featurettes on such topics as the role of third parties in the U.S. and what kind of president Nader would have been.

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