David Fincher granted precious few interviews to promote the release of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in December, but he makes up for his silence on the two-disc Special Edition release of the film (Criterion Collection, $39.99 DVD and Blu-ray; single-disc edition $30).

The film, about a man (Brad Pitt) who is born as an 80-year-old and ages backward, isn't the sort that cries out for a lot of expounding, but Fincher never runs out of things to say on the commentary track accompanying the two-hour and 40-minute drama.

He delves into everything from technical details (there are a lot more special effects than you realize) to casting to creative decisions that shaped the finished film for better or worse. (He insisted on keeping the bookend sequences about the giant clock that runs backward against the advice of everyone else who worked on the movie.)

Fincher also appears throughout the three-hour, making-of documentary that takes up the second disc in the set. Pitt and co-stars Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond and Ed Metzger also show up, discussing how they came to be cast in the movie and what it's like to work with Fincher, who is fond of shooting more takes than even Stanley Kubrick.

A lot of time is devoted to the film's Oscar-winning effects work, but knowing too much about how the filmmakers accomplished their trickery robs the movie of some of its magic.

Benjamin Button was shot on digital cameras, and the transfer to Blu-ray disc actually looks better than the version shown in cinemas. It's a demo-worthy presentation of a movie that seems destined to stand the test of time.

`GALAXY QUEST'

Timed to coincide with the release of the new Star Trek movie, the endlessly amusing 1999 comedy Galaxy Quest has been given the Deluxe Edition treatment (DreamWorks Home Video, $15). The movie, about a group of actors from a Trek-like TV show who are drafted by aliens to help fight an intergalactic bully, manages to astutely spoof sci-fi action formulas while serving up a rousing story of its own.

The movie was not a box office hit in its original release, but it has earned a devoted following via cable and DVD. New features on the disc include a retrospective documentary with the cast (including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell and Alan Rickman) and director Dean Parisot reminiscing about the making of the film, a look at some of the (intentionally) rickety special effects and a handful of worthwhile deleted scenes.

`WISE BLOOD'

It seems odd that a 1979 film adaptation of a Flannery O'Connor novel directed by the great John Huston (The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon) would not find its way onto DVD for 30 years, but the obscure cult favorite Wise Blood is finally here (Criterion Collection, $40). Made on a $1 million budget (and financed by German investors after Hollywood studios passed), the movie was a box office flop and isn't for all tastes.

Brad Dourif stars as a war veteran who returns home to the South and decides to become a preacher, founding a Church Without Christ. Ned Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton and William Hickey play some of the colorful oddballs he encounters on his travels. The movie is exceptionally faithful to O'Connor's novel (much of the dialogue is lifted straight from the book). The ending, however, is more ambiguous than the original (Huston was a devout atheist).

The DVD presents the movie in a sparkling, restored transfer and includes recent interviews with Dourif (who lobbied for the lead role after Tommy Lee Jones passed) and screenwriting brothers Michael and Benedict Fitzgerald, whose parents were friends of O'Connor. An obscure 1970s gem, Wise Blood is worthy of rediscovery.

`JUST ANOTHER

LOVE STORY'

After trying his hand at horror (Nightwatch) and science fiction (The Substitute), Danish filmmaker Ole Bornedal ventures into film noir territory with this clunkily titled but otherwise terrific film (Koch Lorber Films, $27) about a man who becomes obsessed with a beautiful young woman he meets at the scene of a car accident.

Simultaneously toying with noir conventions and cheerfully embracing them, Just Another Love Story often borders on the utterly predictable, then takes a series of surprising turns. The plot is reminiscent of Vertigo in reverse: This time, it's the obsessed man who is trying to remold himself into a woman's supposedly ideal mate.

Bornedal has a wicked sense of humor, a flair for irony and a fondness for bits of ultra-violence. The ingredients make for a supremely satisfying melodrama that is far more memorable than its title suggests.

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