Ray (2005)

Taylor Hackford's biopic of Ray Charles has won both the director and its star Oscar nominations, as well as a Best Picture nod. (Jamie Foxx also won a Golden Globe.) And while some of the film's grandeur is lost on DVD — Charles' music should be heard in surround sound, and Foxx's brilliant performance witnessed on a larger-than-life screen — it's impossible not to become swept up in the odyssey of the musician's life in Ray. The EXTRAS are a mixed bag: It's wonderful to see Foxx, who trained in college as a classical musician, jamming with Charles, but the inclusion of 14 deleted scenes — mostly just extended versions of what's in the movie — is overkill for a film that runs too long as it is. Still, the chance to hear about Charles from the filmmakers and colleagues like Quincy Jones is the gift a DVD can offer and a theater experience can't.

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