Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Excellent image transfer. The print is dead on, prefect, and spotless. Color details are very good, nice fleshtones, with the bulk of the films set design favoring a cool modernism (grays, blues, and whites). Contrast levels show good shadow detail and deep blacks. There was some minor compression in the final chapters, however it was the only slight in this otherwise great transfer.

Sound: Cantonese or Mandarin 5.1 Surround or Cantonese DTS, with optional Chinese or English subtitles. Being an action film, I expected a very aggressive mix, and the disc delivered. Gunfire, explosions, and general action fx get a lot of workout in the surround channels. The score is almost too loud , though that was probably just because I wasn't buying the dramatics. The subtitles are fair, though there were some discrepancies. For instance, the line (spoken in English) “We are the shit!” is subtitled, “We are the bomb!”

Extras: A second disc contains— The Story (text)— The Characters (text)— “Making of” Featurette (1:00). No English subtitles.— Trailers— Music Video— Cast & Crew Bios— Photo Gallery.

Conclusion: ...The disc is pretty good. The main feature on the extras disc isn't English friendly. However, for the main film, you get an excellent transfer.

Video:
The DVD video transfer starts off so fantastically that I was almost tempted to call it reference quality. The 2.35:1 anamorphically enhanced image is razor sharp and extremely detailed, with only the most minor appearance of edge enhancement artifacts. Opening scenes have great colors and inky blacks, and create a nearly three dimensional appearance.

I wouldn't say the video quality falters, exactly, but over the course of the movie it stopped wowing me. The further we get into the story, the flatter the photography looks. Detail is still fine but stops being exceptional after a certain point. Digital compression quality is OK, but many of the outdoor shots with wide open skies exhibit noisy grain patterns. The picture goes from terrific to just pretty good, and overall rates as "very good".

Sound:
The original Cantonese language soundtrack is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS-ES (matrixed) options. Both tracks are very loud. This is an aggressive action movie soundtrack with lots of rocking bass and directional surround effects. During the shootouts, bullets whiz in every direction throughout the soundstage. The DTS (encoded at the half bit-rate 754 kb/s) has an edge in smoothness and fidelity, but both are perfectly good. The mix isn't particularly innovative nor as immersive as the very best soundtracks, but for an action movie it delivers what is expected of it.

A Mandarin dub is also included in Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional English and Chinese subtitles have been provided. The English translation is mostly fine, though annoyingly it alternates between referring to Jackie's character as Inspector Wing and Inspector Chan. A Cantonese speaker tells me that the character's spoken name is Chan Kwok-wing, which might explain this discrepancy, though at no time do the subtitles ever spell out his name this way. The translator also apparently didn't stick around through the end credits, either, because Jackie's trademark flub reel is not subtitled.

Extras:
Disc 1 has no supplements on it, just the movie. The menus do not offer an English option, which makes navigation an annoyance but certainly not insurmountable. Disc 2, where all of the supplements are contained, does fortunately provide a choice of English menus and text.

All of the bonus features we're given are taken straight from the movie's Electronic Press Kit. To start, there are a few text items: The Story, a written plot synopsis; Character Bios; and Cast & Credits, which also includes a brief page of production notes. All are written in a simplistic manner with about as much depth as the movie's script.

For video features, we get a 15-minute Making Of featurette that unfortunately has no English subtitles. It's just EPK fluff anyway and I don't feel we're missing anything. Following this is approximately an hour of raw Behind the Scenes Footage, broken up into 12 unidentified chapters. No subtitles here either, but we can see some interesting shots of the stunts being set up and executed.

A Photo Gallery is broken down into several sections: posters, photos from the movie's premiere, print ads, photos & stills, lobby stills, and behind the scenes shots. The galleries can be viewed individually or in a slide show option with music from the soundtrack.

Wrapping things up are three Trailers, all in anamorphic widescreen and including English subtitles, and a lame Music Video starring Jackie Chan. No subtitles on that last one, but the song is so bad perhaps that's a small mercy.

No ROM supplements have been included.

Final Thoughts:
Although New Police Story may not be the return to form Jackie Chan fans were hoping for, it's a reasonably diverting action thriller and doesn't embarrass the star too much. It makes for a good rental or cheap purchase.