China MATCHSTICK MEN (WIDESCREEN) / DVD

 con artist with phobias and his partner are in the middle of a big swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter shows up uninvited.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13

Actor: NICOLAS CAGE / ALISON LOHMAN

Studio:WARNER HOME VIDEO

Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Future filmmakers (and probably some current ones) could learn a lot from the 72-minute "Tricks of the Trade," which follows director Ridley Scott from pre-production through test screenings. The viewer is a fly on the wall as Scott partakes in location meetings, costume fittings, music-scoring sessions, and the like; everyone is as at ease as the director with a camera crew follows their every move. "Tricks" has all the usual DVD extras--interview segments, deleted scenes, ego-massaging--but documentary filmmaker Charles de Lauzirika is so smart in incorporating these elements, his final result is one of most deft--and most entertaining--DVD extras in the format's young history. --Doug Thomas