Stars: Bill Bixby, Jack Colvin, Lou Ferrigno, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Tony Burton, Ernie Hudson

Director: John McPherson

Summary: Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. The Marvel Comics character comes to life on the small screen in this surprisingly melancholy late-1970s series. After being exposed to high-intensity gamma rays, scientist David Banner (Bill Bixby) is transformed into the Hulk (Lou Ferrigno), a powerful green-skinned creature, whenever he is angered. Banner's wandering search for a cure to his strange malady is frequently thwarted by Jack McGee (Jack Colvin), a persistent investigative reporter. This collection presents three episodes: A Solitary Place, Like a Brother, and Haunted.

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Amazingly, Ang Lee's Hulkmakes a fair fist of pleasing everybody. The latest in a run of Marvel Comic-to-film transfers, it acknowledges the history of a character who dates back to 1962 while recreating him in contemporary terms. Though this, Hulk's origin still draws on the 1960s iconography of bomb tests and desert bases, this new take mixes gene-tampering with gamma radiation and never forgets that poor Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) has been psychologically primed by a mad father (Nick Nolte) and a disappointed girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) to transform from repressed wimp to big green powerhouse even before the mad science kicks in.

The long first act is enlivened by comic book-style split-screen effects and multiple foreshadowings--Lee keeps finding excuses to light Bana's face green--but is also absorbing personal drama from the man who gave you The Ice Stormbefore flexing his action muscles on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. When Banner begins his Jekyll-and-Hyde seizures, the ILM CGI boys step in and use Bana as a template for the most fully-realised digital characterisation yet seen in the movies. Comics fans will thrill as a credibly bulky, superswift, super-green behemoth tangles with mutated killer dogs (including a very vicious poodle) in a night time forest, bursts out of confinement in an underground secret base, takes on America's military might while bouncing around a Road Runner and Coyote-like South Western desert and then invades San Francisco for some major "Hulk... smash" action. Artful and entertaining, engaging and explosive, this is among the most satisfying superhero movies.

On the DVD: Hulktwo-disc set doesn't quite hulk-out as well comparative Marvel movie releases for the X-Menfilms, Spider-Manand Daredevil. Disc 2 assembles a pile of those infotainment documentaries prepared to drum up pre-publicity but which feel a bit redundant once the movie is out, especially since there's so much repetition between the featurettes. It's all very well, and some of the technical stuff is fascinating, but this particular film could do with a more in-depth thematic approach: there's a lot about how the CGI Hulk was realised but little on the development of the story, the performances or the general tone, though Ang Lee's slightly sparse commentary makes interesting stabs in that direction. The biggest revelation in the background material is that Lee, known for his delicacy of touch, himself wore the motion capture suit and smashed up plywood tanks as a guide for the CGI animators. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	Full Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Subtitles:	None
Year:	1979
Release Date:	April 9, 2001
Runtime:	138 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	078 176 2
Keywords:	Action, Incredible, Hulk, General, Tv, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure