Easter Eggs

On the supplemental disc, go to the second page of special features. Select Trailers and TV Spots, and press your remote's left arrow key to highlight the amulet around Richard Harris' neck. Hit Enter to see a hilarious Chicken Run trailer that's a takeoff on Gladiator. For another egg, go to the Storyboards menu and choose Rhino Fight (a scene not in the film). When the first storyboard appears, press the up arrow to highlight the rhino in the center frame. Hit Enter to read the proposed scene's script.

There are two great Easter Eggs hidden on this sci-fi brain-bender. First, go to the "Special Features" menu. In the cast and crew biographies, the page on the writing-directing Wachowski brothers contains a small red pill; highlight it and press "Enter" to see "What Is the Concept?", a 12-minute montage of concept artwork and special-effects test footage. Also in the "Special Features" section, go to "The Dream World" menu and look for another red pill; pressing "Enter" now will show another mini-documentary, "What Is Bullet Time?", explaining the film's miraculous 360-degree slow-motion effects.

Director M. Night Shyamalan's spooky ghost tale teems with surprises -- and the DVD has a nice hidden treat, too. In the Bonus Materials section, go to the second page and highlight the jewelry box on the screen; then press Enter. You'll see an excerpt from a horror movie Shyamalan shot at age 11!

On the Special Features disc of the darkly comedic Fight Club, go to the Advertising menu and press your remote's "down" arrow three times; a smiley face will appear. Press Enter to witness a gallery of bizarre Fight Club merchandise, along with some hilarious text commentary.

Talk about comic-book blockbusters! This DVD has a few hidden powers of its own. In the Art Gallery, highlight the dog tags on-screen to reveal early visual designs and special-effects tests for two grotesque mutants cut from the film's shooting script. In the Trailers and TV Spots menu, use your remote to highlight a rose in the screen's upper-left corner: You'll see a clip of an on-set joke that left the cast and crew in stitches.

The hidden feature takes some work to find (and is the subject of controversy among Easter Egg aficionados). You can access short sound clips from the original Pink Floyd album by selecting the buttons beside each menu item. But here's the rub: Some insist that the buttons can only be selected using a DVD-ROM and mouse pointer; others swear that pressing your remote's 9 key will do the trick. You decide.

Operate on the MASH movie disc and you'll discover an entertaining Easter Egg. From the main menu, select "Special Features" and then highlight the "THX Optimode" menu entry. Press the right-arrow key on to highlight the helicopter. Press "Enter" to play a foreign language trailer of the movie. Looking for more? Select the signs on the right side of the main menu screen to play audio clips from the movie.

It'll be the catch of the day with the screen saver that's accessible via a standard DVD player instead of a DVD-ROM. Go to the main menu and select the treasure chest on the right-hand side. If you press Enter, you'll activate an aquarium screen saver. To clear your screen, press Enter again.

It's time for Easter Egg hunters to get a life, according to the Mallrats DVD. Go to the Special Features menu and select Deleted Scenes; press the right arrow key to highlight the robot's eyes. If you hit Enter, director Kevin Smith will admonish you to stop looking for Easter Eggs on DVDs and go do something!

Baseball fanatics will want to step up to the "On the Mound" trivia game. Correctly answer 10 or more of the 12 questions and you've hit a grand slam, entitling you to view a hidden, black-and-white short called "Slide, Babe, Slide" starring the Bronx bomber. If you need help with the quiz, here are the correct answers: 1. c; 2. b; 3. c; 4. a; 5. b; 6. a; 7. c; 8. c; 9. b; 10. c; 11. a; 12. a.