Catch Me If You Can (DVD)

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Audio:
The "CMIYC" DVD set offers four primary audio tracks. The Dolby Digital 5.1 English track mostly has music cues to handle, and it handles them well. You can tell that a deep bass presence is possible, but it has been controlled since it would not be esthetically appropriate to "boom" this movie constantly. The soundtrack feels very natural and wide, and it does a good job of making sure that we can hear the actors´ voices all the time.

Those of you without Dolby Digital home theatre speaker systems should experience the movie with the DD 2.0 surround English track. There are also DD 5.1 French and DTS 5.1 English tracks. English, Spanish, and French subtitles as well as English closed captions support the audio.

Extras:
While DreamWorks hasn´t gone the Sony SuperBit route when it comes to DVDs, it has resorted to presenting its marquee titles as two-disc special editions. "CMIYC" was the moneybags for the studio in 2002, so we get the movie on one platter and the extras on another.

--Disc 1--
There aren´t really any extras on Disc 1, but you do get three main menu options (comparable to the "Star Wars: Episode 1" DVD set). When the disc loads, you are presented with three silhouettes--one of a pilot, one of a doctor, and one of an office worker--each representing a different stage in Abagnale´s life. Depending on which silhouette you choose, different sets of menus will present themselves on the screen in front of you.

--Disc 2--
Those of you familiar with the DVD releases of Spielberg´s "A.I." and "Minority Report" will recognize the same kind of skeletal layout on Disc 2 that was used for the second discs of the aforementioned predecessor sets. Basically, with Spielberg´s DVDs released by DreamWorks, you get a bunch of featurettes (that could´ve been combined into one long documentary) culminating in a "In Closing" summation. There´s also a separate "Archives" section for miscellaneous extras.

"´Catch Me If You Can´: Behind the Camera", being the introductory featurette, feels like most other "making of" pieces. The basics of the story are introduced here, as are most of the principal filmmakers and the approach to depicting Abagnale´s colorful life. We actually see footage of the first and last days of principal photography--a sure sign that filmmakers really do have DVDs in mind when they´re making their movies.

"Cast Me If You Can: The Casting of the Film" is actually a collection of five featurettes that looks at the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Garner. (Again, I must reiterate that any focus on Jennifer Garner is entirely misguided as her appearance in the movie doesn´t do much for the final project as a whole.) "Scoring ´Catch Me If You Can´" features interviews with composer John Williams and Spielberg about their longtime collaboration and the uniqueness of this project compared to their other works. "Frank Abagnale: Between Reality and Fiction" gives some background concerning the differences between events in Abagnale´s life and events portrayed in the film. "The FBI Perspective" shows how the filmmakers relied on technical advice from retired FBI agents in order to bring a level of authenticity to the proceedings. Of course, "´Catch Me If You Can´: In Closing" is a capper to the video-based bonus materials.

Finally, in the "Archives", you will find Photo Galleries, Cast Bios, Filmmakers Bios, Production Notes: Colorful Characters (text pages), and Production Notes: A Colorful Time (text pages).

Alas, for some reason, DreamWorks has taken to following Mala Vista´s lead in neglecting to include trailers on the DVDs for the movies that they advertise. The "Road to Perdition" DVD didn´t have any trailers at all, and if you want the trailer for "CMIYC", you either have to download it from the Internet or buy another DreamWorks DVD (such as "The Ring" (2002) or "Ringu"). Booooo!

--Miscellaneous--
In yet another step back for DreamWorks, the glossy insert provides nothing except for the cover artwork of other DreamWorks DVDs.

Film Value:
My review of "CMIYC" probably seems rather critical of the movie despite my "7 out of 10" rating. The thing is, it´s easy to spot changes that would´ve noticeably improved the film. No one´s going to say "No" to Spielberg in today´s world, though, so we have to be content with motion pictures that are longer than they need to be. To be sure, "CMIYC" effortlessly breezes over you as you settle in for an evening´s entertainment. However, if you think about it, the film doesn´t know if it wants to be a lighthearted dramedy or a somber morality play. The script shares Abagnale´s delight in scamming people, so we viewers are seduced by that easy charm, too. However, the movie also reminds us that there were very real victims of the protagonist´s scams and that he probably ruined some lives with his shenanigans. The film´s indecision when it comes to judging Abagnale keeps it from being as accomplished as "Saving Private Ryan" or "Minority Report". Even though I had fun watching it, I have to agree with Roger Ebert´s assessment of "Catch Me If You Can"--it´s not a major Spielberg work.