The people behind "Bulletproof Monk" can't quite decide how much their movie borrows from the comic book that inspired it, as you'll find out on the DVD.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture Smooth and cool, the picture transfer is pretty damn near bullet-proof from criticism.

Sound The 5.1 sound mix is an energetic beast that easily keeps up, with Chow Yun-Fat flipping between speakers.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary Director Paul Hunter, and producers Chuck Roven and Doug Segal sit down to pretty much describe blow by blow what is happening on the screen. Given the lack of a descriptive audio track on the DVD for the visually impaired, their effort may not be in vain, but for the rest of us it's really not interesting. What they do reveal is that they borrowed the name from the Bulletproof Monk comic book and little else...

The Monk Unrobed This featurette offers an opportunity to get acquainted with the comic book creator Michael Yanover. As far as he's concerned, the plot of the film may be different to the comics but the characters are the same, which really doesn't tally with what was said in the commentary.

The Tao of Monk You'll find five short behind-the-scenes featurettes in this section, ranging from the fight choreography to the music score. It's always interesting to see the ever charming Chow Yun-Fat in action and it looks like a sense of fun was preserved throughout the production. What's surprising is that the film had a Buddhist expert on-set to get the religious details right. Seeing as Chow Yun-Fat is a spiritual man, the producers didn't apparently fancy rousing his wrath!

Deleted Scenes There are 16 minutes of deleted scenes here but most are quite dull, if rather expensive looking to chop out of the movie.

Additional Extra Features Also on the DVD is a behind-the-scenes photo gallery and a trailer.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Chapters: 20
Ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: See captions
Captions: English
Menus: Animated, with hilarious little kung fu figures
Special Features Subtitles: None of the special features come with subtitles.

The "Bulletproof Monk" DVD is out to buy on Monday 15th September 2003.

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.