Changing Lanes DVD Synopsis:
Roger Michell, the director of Notting Hill, goes not for a romantic comedy this time, but a taut revenge thriller set over the course of a single day in New York, Changing Lanes.

A minor traffic accident turns two perfect strangers, a high-powered attorney (Ben Affleck) and insurance salesman and former alcoholic (Samuel L. Jackson), into vicious adversaries and so begins a daylong series of struggles between the two men determined to settle the score.

As the battle of wills escalates Michell, to his credit, never plays the race card, concentrating instead on the simmering resentments of the two men, stemming from their already dysfunctional private lives, albeit on opposite ends of the economic scale, and the cat and mouse game they play with each other.

Changing Lanes DVD Picture Quality:
The 2.35:1 anamorphic image, minus a couple of annoying flaws, is excellent. It's not a very colourful picture (a film shot in winter and set on an overcast Good Fiday doesn't make for much of a colour palette!) but what colours are there seem stunning. But it is the transfer that is not totally flawless. Whilst there's no trace of grain or digital artefacting and the colour balance is spot-on, (with solid blacks and finely detailed shadows) there is noticeable digital edge enhancement, possibly because the image was quite soft to begin with, that some may find distracting and worse, some noticeable light speckles (dropouts?) in the picture at irregular intervals. A shame as without these minor quibbles it would have been a superb transfer.

Changing Lanes DVD Sound:
Changing Lanes has a busy soundtrack but fails to really immerse you in it even with the above average 5.1 mix. Dialogue is crisp and clear and so are the sound effects, the scene in the office (Chapter 7, 46:28) when the sprinklers go off makes great use of the rear speakers, if only the rest of the movie used them to that effect rather than to just add general ambience but if I had a main criticism it would be that there's maybe not enough bass in the soundtrack to really involve the listener. Still, it's a more than satisfactory audio mix for this movie.

Changing Lanes DVD Extras:
The supplementary material for Changing Lanes is above average, what disappoints is the absence (unless an easter egg is found) of the alternate ending that was announced on promotional literature for this DVD release by Paramount. This ending, that was originally used, but cut after negative test screenings and replaced by the, arguably, weaker one we have now would have been a good bonus. We're left with 10 minutes worth of deleted and extended scenes, the 2 deleted scenes (one involving Ben Affleck's character should have been included as it offers more depth to his character, the other is one examination of Samuel L. Jackson's character's woes too far and was better taken out, the extended scene, again, does not offer much more than the existing section but at least they're there!

There's a scene-specific and very technical commentary from Roger Michell, his insights into the production add greatly to your enjoyment of the film. At the very start he explains why he took out the shots of the Twin Towers apparent in title sequence montage of New York City traffic (shot in January 2001) two days after the tragedy on September 13th but then put them back in prior to the film's release. He points out changes to the original script and how certain special effects were achieved - all in all a very enjoyable commentary.

There's also a very disappointing style over substance "making of Changing Lanes" featurette lasting 15 minutes and a moderately interesting "Writer's perspective" featurette, offering character insight and the ethical and moral directions of the film. All in all a solid set of extras that could have been better.

Changing Lanes DVD OVERALL VERDICT:
Well crafted and very cleverly done, I really enjoyed Changing Lanes, Things are not always what they seem and that is the movie's single finest quality - the ability to surprise and show unexpected depth when you least expect it; witness Ben Affleck's reaction to the consequences of his actions (Chapter 12 72:45) to see a perfect example of what I mean.

It's a shame about the slight glitches in the transfer but they don't really spoil your viewing and if you ignore the gaping plot holes and resist the temptation to shout out the completely obvious solution to their battle of wills you too will enjoy a fine, thinking man's popcorn movie.

David Hughes