V For Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition) DVD

• Freedom! Freedom! Making V for Vendetta
• Designing the near future
• Remember Remember: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
• England prevails: V for Vendetta and the New Wave in comics
• Cat Power Montage
• Hidden Bonus

Director: James McTeigue
Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt

Hugo Weaving stars as V, the mysterious masked avenger who carries knives, has lightning reflexes, lots of explosives, and intentions to blow up Parliament. He's also on a vendetta against the evil power mongers who made him the lonely monster he is. Natalie Portman is the innocent waif who gets saves him and winds up hiding out in his nifty secret lair, which is filled with forbidden books, art and a jukebox that plays Cat Power and Julie London's "Cry Me a River." Meanwhile there's a hangdog police inspector (Stephen Rea) picking up their trail, and a plethora of evil British government types regularly bullied into action by the intensely odious "Grand Chancellor" (John Hurt). Director James McTiegue keeps all these events unfolding at a hypnotically rhythmic pace, like the burning of a long, unstoppable fuse. Some may balk at the film's seemingly pro-explosive, pro-terrorist stance, but to look deeper is to realize the film merely provides a funhouse mirror of our actual messed up world, something that is true of all the best science fiction. V certainly fits that category, especially with Natalie Portman in the lead, as lovely and riveting an actress as a beleaguered nation could ever hope for.