The Lost Boys: Special Edition

This 1987 thriller was a predictable hit with the teen audience it worked so hard to attract (like most of director Joel Schumacher's films, it's conspicuously designed to push the right marketing and demographic buttons). Kiefer Sutherland, who in Stand by Me played a memorable bully, here goes one step further as an undead memorable bully who leads a tribe of teenage vampires on their nocturnal spree of bloodsucking havoc. Jason Patric plays the new guy in town, who quickly attracts a lovely girlfriend (Jami Gertz), only to find that she might be recruiting him into the vampire fold. The Lost Boys becomes sillier as it goes along, and resorts to a routine action-movie showdown, but it's a visual knockout (featuring great cinematography by Michael Chapman) and boasts a cast that's eminently able to sink its teeth (pardon the pun) into the best parts of an uneven screenplay. Warner's double-disc special edition boasts a new digitally remastered transfer (a definite improvement over the earlier single-disc release), and a slew of extras, including audio commentary by Schumacher, a retrospective documentary, several behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, photo gallery, and a music video. A strong optional purchase. (J. Shannon)