The Lost Boys: 2-Disc Special Edition (DVD)

I am not sure if it is possible to say enough about The Lost Boys. You have a film with teen Bop cover stars in the Corey's, young Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric and Oscar winner Dianne Wiest, all starring in a vampire horror/comedy for a young Joel Schumacher in one of his early directorial bouts. There is no doubt that The Lost Boys is a product of the 80s, but it is just as good now as it was then, and with one hell of a special edition, this is a DVD that any fan of the movie will love to own.

The Lost Boys tells the story of a recent divorcee as she moves her and her two sons to the town of Santa Clara, California to live with her father. As the boys, Mike (Patric) and Sam (Haim), get comfortable with the area, they find themselves on two different paths destined to come together in the future.

Sam stumbles upon the Frog brothers (Feldman and Newlander) who start talking crazy about local vampires, while Mike is out becoming one with David (Sutherland) and his blood-sucking band of miscreants. What is left is a wild ride of blood and laughs in a movie for the ages.

I am not really sure what prompted Warner Bros. to do this other than the fact that there has been some moderate vampire success recently with Kate Beckinsale's Underworld, which itself got an Unrated DVD released, and Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing, but I can say that this is one kick ass DVD.

What makes it so great is that instead of just putting together a bunch of old featurettes and 80s documentaries on the movie, Warner's put together all new features talking with the cast and crew of the film. So often when studios put together special editions of older films they dig up a bunch of old documentaries that we have already seen or are just so out of date that you don't care, but here you get recent opinions of those that made the film, and what the movie meant to them.

Starting with the first disc you get the feature film along with a feature length commentary by director Joel Schumacher, which is really great as he goes over all the details that went into the making of the film. He points out several of his favorite moments and even a few of his own mistakes as this movie was still early in his career.

Disc two, however, carries the bulk of the goodies, and every single bit of it is new, with Schumacher dominating the bulk of the features, but there is still a good amount of the Corey's, including one cool video-commentary in which you choose which Corey you want to listen to discuss specific scenes from the movie, and if you get tired of them they also throw in the other Frog brother, Jamison Newlander, to mix things up.

There are several featurettes that tackle the making of the film from a 22 minute feature to the "Vampire's Cave," which contains four mini featurettes that go over the decision Richard Donner made to bring Schumacher on, how far the movie would go in relation to horror vs. comedy, how to make the world of the vampires scary as well as sexy and was there, or is there, a thought for a sequel? Schumacher jokes at the sequel idea and says he would go see a Lost Girls...

Also along the lines of the making of the film there is a cool look at the special effects and makeup used to bring the world of the vampires to life, from prosthetics to set design.

Then you go into the mad creation of the "Haimster & Feldog," nicknames Corey Haim and Corey Feldman bestowed on one another, and the rivalry the two had before coming together on The Lost Boys.

As if that wasn't enough there are about 18 minutes of deleted scenes, some of which you will be reminded of as you listen to Schumacher's commentary, which also gives you a better understanding of just where they would have fit into the movie.

Aside from all the new featurettes the one thing I really appreciated was the feature "A World of Vampires," which is not only interesting to those intrigued by vampires, just as was the massive amount of bonus material on the Underworld Unrated DVD, but it shows that Warner Bros. was going about this special edition seriously.

"A World of Vampires" is an interactive map which you use your remote to navigate to certain parts of the world guiding you on a tour of vampire lore from each area. I love vampire stories and this is one cool feature that is quick, to the point, and will not have you surfing back to the main menu before it is done.

Overall, this is a great special edition and well worth the money, even if you already own the original release, as this is an all new digital transfer that looks great. Plus it comes equipped with all the new and up-to-date bonus material bring The Lost Boys to life, once again, 17 years after the film was released in theaters.