24

Jack Bauer is well-known for his bad ass tendencies.  He has bitten off a man's neck, broken countless necks, and he tortures terrorists as a morning workout.  One underrated quality of Jack Bauer, one that does not get nearly enough attention, is his expert marksmanship.  While watching 24: Redemption for the second time over Thanksgiving, I noticed that it only take two shots for Jack to kill any enemy, no matter how far away they are, or how aggressively Jack is being shot at, or which direction Jack is moving.  In addition, Jack's ability to avoid gunfire is incredible.  He must have a natural zig-zag while sprinting.  Anyway, the 24: Redemption DVD was released over a week ago, but given the sheer amount of goodies on the two-disc DVD, it took a little while to formulate a worthy review. 

You can watch 24: Redemption in two versions: The Broadcast Version and The Extended Edition.  The Extended Edition has over ten minutes of new footage.  The difference between versions isn't terribly noticeable.  Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle) gets some more time early in the episode, and there are some extended Carl-Jack scenes.  You can understand why they were cut – they slow the story down early in the film. 

There is an over-twenty minute behind the scenes feature on the making of 24: Redemption.  This is for film buffs, mostly, as it gets into the nitty gritty of filming outside of the country.  A lot of time is spent on the challenges the production crew faced (working with children, the crappy weather) and how the joint American-South African crew met those challenges.  I thoroughly enjoyed the mini-doc, but I tend to get very excited about the technical aspects of filmmaking, so it's probably not for everyone.  In addition, there is an informative and slightly heart-breaking documentary on child soldiers in Africa, entitled “Blood Never Dry.” 

The disc comes with a full-length audio commentary with director/producer Jon Cassar, executive producer Howard Gordon and star Kiefer Sutherland.  At this point, you know if you're an audio commentary person or not.  I live for audio commentaries, so I loved it, but I suspect most of the population will find it boring.  There is also a clever little 24: Season 6 in 6 Minutes feature.  The entire season of Day 6 is whittled down into a six-minute highlight package.  This is a cool little reminder for fans who don't remember the generalities of season 6, and a nice refresher as we approach season 7.

The gem of the DVD, however, is the sneak peek at season 7.  The DVD comes with the first 17 minutes of 24 season 7.   It's an exciting opening, and one that will surely whet the appetite of any 24 fan who has patiently waited nearly two years for Jack Bauer to return.  Overall, it's a good DVD package, full of extras, in what could have been a bare bones, quickie release.  For any 24 mega-fan, the 24: Redemption DVD would make a quality stocking-stuffer.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)