New Spy DVDs Out This Week: Salt

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is squeezing one last major spy release in just in time for the holidays. And, as usual these days, it comes in a baffling assortment of configurations.  Phillip Noyce's Angelina Jolie spy thriller Salt (review here) comes in rated DVD, unrated DVD and unrated Blu-ray versions. Apparently there will be no special features on the rated DVD, but the various unrated versions offer a filmmakers' commentary, an unrated filmmakers' commentary, an unrated extended filmmakers' commentary (Huh? I'm guessing these multiple commentaries indicate that multiple cuts of the film will be included on the discs, and not just the unrated one...), the featurettes "The Ultimate Female Action Hero" and "Spy Disguise: The Looks of Evelyn Salt," and Phillip Noyce's interview from the NPR radio series "The Treatment." (I caught this when it first aired, and it was a really good interview wherein Noyce spent a lot of time discussing his fascination with spies and why he keeps returning to espionage themes in his movies.)

The Blu-ray release will also offer a "Spy Cam: Picture-in-Picture" function and several additional, spy-centric featurettes: "The Real Agents," "The Modern Master of the Political Thriller: Phillip Noyce" and "False Identity: Creating A New Reality." SRP is $28.96 for the theatrical cut and unrated cut on DVD, and $34.95 for the unrated Blu-ray; obviously all can be found for considerably less.