Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason

The bonus material is very nicely packaged and the features are easy to navigate, being divided between three sub-menus devoted to the three main characters: Bridget, Daniel and Mark.

The featurette The Big Fight is particularly entertaining. Justifying the formula that parts of the film followed, director Beeban Kidron cites Richard Curtis's advice. During the making of Bridget Jones' Diary, he said: "Just make sure the boys fight." Kidron adds: "When it came to the sequel, he said, 'Just remember the boys have got to fight'." Admittedly, the scene is pretty funny, even the second time around, most likely because of its purposeful realism: "We all agreed that it was going to be a namby-pamby fight," Kidron smiles.

There's lots of gossip from the set, too, and the cast have plenty to say about each other's personalities and the experience of working together. Colin Firth and Hugh Grant's on-screen rivalry has a more light-hearted parallel in real life: "They absolutely diss each other," Kidron chuckles, "about their sexual prowess, their acting ability, their intelligence." Firth and Grant are only too happy to oblige with deadpan off-set remarks about each other's ageing and lamentable fitness levels.

The commentary reveals much about the logistics and editing of the film. For example, in the opening scenes, Renee Zellwegger didn't do the parachute jump herself, but did hang from a crane for hours in high winds while the close-ups were filmed, apparently all the time shouting down to her torturer/director, "What IS this film?!"

Kidron probably has more praise for Zellwegger than any other member of the cast, honouring her talent as a comic actress and the utter lack of vanity and airs that allowed her to portray such a feckless and ridiculous heroine to such great effect.

There are also deleted scenes, several more featurettes, including one on the use of CGI to create a London cityscape, and a quiz to help you find your ideal man - the choice is between Mark and Daniel, of course! Last, but absolutely not least, there's the priceless bonus of Bridget Jones interviewing Colin Firth as himself - this was part of Helen Fielding's novel, but couldn't be included in the film for obvious reasons.

The extras on this DVD really complement the film without getting too technical, or lapsing into self-indulgent praise, apart from Kidron's reference to Bridget Jones' Diary as "a piece of cultural history", which had me sniggering.

On the whole, a very good effort.