Scarface

The "ultimate" gangster movies of our time? Debatable, but the set does make an impressive collection of modern crime epics in meaty special editions. "American Gangster: Collector's Edition," the deluxe edition of the Ridley Scott-directed drama of the rise and fall of notorious 1970s Harlem crime boss Frank Lucas, anchors this nine-disc box set. Scott tries to evoke the crime cinema of the '70s with his mix of gritty police thriller and sprawling crime epic (with a sprinkling of blaxploitation excess), but its roots are equally in the rise-and-fall gangster thrillers of the '80s and '90s.

Brian De Palma's operatic "Scarface: Platinum Edition" (1983), a remake of the Howard Hawks gangster classic transplanted to the Cuban immigrant street culture and cocaine-fueled crime scene of 1980s Miami, drew almost universally negative reviews when it was released, but it has become a cult film in the years since, as much for its excess as its bravura style. And maybe just a bit for Al Pacino's overwrought Cuban accent. The set features 20 minutes of deleted scenes and a collection of making-of featurettes among its supplements. Pacino and De Palma reunite (and tone it down) for "Carlito's Way: Ultimate Edition" (1993), a more reflective drama of a veteran Puerto Rican drug dealer in New York trying to get out of a business that doesn't want to let him go. Features deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and an interview with De Palma. "Casino: Anniversary Edition" (1995), Martin Scorsese's mob epic of organized crime in 1970s Las Vegas, reunites the director with his "GoodFellas" writer Nicholas Pileggi and stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Scorsese spends the first half of the sprawling three-hour drama meticulously laying out the business of gambling in fascinating detail and the last half watching it all unravel through greed, arrogance and hubris. His camera never stops moving through the ambiguities and the contradictions. Scorsese hosts a commentary track that includes Pileggi, film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, co-star Sharon Stone and others, and the set includes deleted scenes, a collection of making-of featurettes, and bonus documentaries on crime culture. These two-disc special editions have been previously released but are repacked in handsome digipaks, and all four easy-open sets are collected in a sturdy oversize box with mock red-velvet lining.