Feel the rush - 12:01am

This summer's chicks with surfboards hit Blue Crush makes its way to DVD on January 14th, complete with a "Tidal wave of features!" courtesy of Universal Studios Home Video. Available in separate anamorphic widescreen and pan & scan versions, each includes Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, an audio commentary with director John Stockwell, deleted scenes with commentary, "The Making of Blue Crush," "The Female Surfing Revolution" and "Wipeout! The World Of Surfing" featurettes, more behind-the-scenes footage, the "If I Could Fall In Love" music video by Lenny Kravitz, the trailer, and exclusive ROM extras including an interactive game, stills, production notes and downloadables. Retail is $26.95.

Also arriving on January 14th is the 70's blaxploitation parody Undercover Brother, available in separate pan & scan and anamorphic widescreen versions with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks. Extras include an audio commentary by director Malcolm Lee with star Eddie Griffin, deleted scenes and an alternate ending with commentary, a making-of featurette, outtakes, "Beat the Man" trivia, "Classic Quotes," a series of animated shorts, the "Undercova Funk" music video by Snoop Dogg, the trailer, and ROM extras including additional exclusives such as downloadables, stills and production notes. Retail is $26.95.

In other Universal news, the oft-postponed About a Boy special edition - already given two street dates - has been bumped yet again. No longer set for a 12/17 release, no new date has been announced, but watch this space for further details...

E.T.'s Shanghai surprise? - 12:01am

Wait, don't open the box! Fans looking forward to that big 3-disc limited edition release next week of E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial might want to hold off a bit. Despite a press release (http://www.dvdfile.com/news/web_wire/press_release/titles/et.html) and endless marketing hype trumpeting otherwise, the original and much sought-after original 1982 cut of Steven Spielberg's magnum opus isn't reserved for wealthy collectors only. Despite Universal Studios Home Video cutting off all Internet media outlets for this release and not providing any copies of screeners for review, some have already begun to surface, and it turns out that both the $26.95 2-disc and $69.95 3-disc sets contain the the unaltered 1982 theatrical cut of the classic sci-fi tale. Even better, both versions also include Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, neither of which which were indicated on any release materials provided to us by Universal.

We will be attempting to get some sort of official word from the studio on all this confusion today, and despite their lack of cooperation in providing screeners for review, we have obtained our own copies of both the 2-disc and 3-disc sets. Watch for a complete and in-depth look at each this week, and in the meantime, you may want to reconsider your preorders. Stay tuned...