Review of the DVD - rating: * * * *

Review of the film - rating: * *

The sound too is fine. with plenty of use of the stereo frontstage, if rather less from the surrounds. The one exception to this is the falling and wake-up sequence, with a terrific unsettling soundscape flying around the room.

The docco is above average, and goes into some depth. One particularly nice sequence examines the filming of Cage on top of a 60 storey building - on scaffolding. Here, our favourite tough guy reveals a secret terror of heights, refusing to do the scene until director Silberling and producer Charles Roven go through the ordeal first...

The deleted scenes - with or without explanations - are very welcome, especially for fans of the film. It does raise the question as to what has happened to the commentary for the film itself, however, especially since one was evidently recorded. The interviews, meanwhile, are stolen from music cable channel VH-1, are brief, and inconsequential.

Overall though, this is an excellent disc, just losing the fifth star for dropping off the commentary.

At least, that's the conclusion disgruntled Cage seems to come to in City of Angels. Ostensibly touched by the good heart of heart surgeon Ryan, he gets all unnecessary when he discovers he has the option to "fall", and become one of us. The catch - he loses his immortality.

Part of the problem with all this is that the ground rules are never explained. "So what happens when a fallen angel eventually dies?", you may be asking. The answer - "who knows?" You never know just what he is giving up, so this makes it difficult to care. Further, the film makers seem to be making things up as they go along - he can't touch, he can touch; he can't walk into a lift but can appear and disappear at will. And so on.

Even more disastrous, Cage (and Ryan) seem horribly miscast. Rather than appearing as an ever-protective guardian angel, he looks more like a dirty old man in a raincoat, especially in the aforementioned scenes in Ryan's apartment. When he finally appears to her in a hospital corridor, it's a complete mystery as to why she doesn't whip out the pepper spray and scream for security, as opposed to baring her soul and telling him her life story.

It all looks jolly nice and there are some memorable images, but this is film (stolen from Wim Wender's 1988 film "Wings of Desire", by the way) unable to see through any of its half-hearted convictions. And at the risk of taking it all a bit seriously - is having a good shag really the only true expression of eternal love? Only in Hollywood.