Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Filmed in standard widescreen (though I would have preferred the scope aspect ratio that Hughes went for in Ferris Bueller and Career Opportunities), the 1.78:1 anamorphic picture is hardly terrible, but still a long way from being perfect. Grain and black levels seem quite dodgy, although daytime scenes fare better with sharper colours and more clarity. I'd still like to see a full digital re-mastering of the film.

The sound has been upgraded from plain, old stereo to Dolby 5.1. But you'd hardly notice. The sound design is very front speaker biased with only slight surround use. Bass comes into effect occasionally but overall this mix is quite disappointing. Newborn's score is nicely blended in and seems to be the only thing that has benefited from this mediocre remix.

There are no extras, which is shocking. I would like a commentary from writer/director John Hughes. He's been known to provide them. In fact, before the DVD was released, Paramount promised us some deleted scenes. They haven't delivered even a trailer.

Hughes said he shot zillions of feet of film and actually had a three-hour version of the film, but it's not in order and would take months and months to arrange it into anything watchable. It is all currently locked in the Paramount vault. Think of all the extras this DVD could have had with material like that lying around.

A poor effort overall