Are you ready to go back to "Titanic"?

It's hard to believe that ten years have passed since the release of "Titanic", James Cameron's mega-blockbuster that sailed to a staggering $600 million in U.S. box office receipts and 11 well-deserved Academy Awards (joining "Ben-Hur" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" on the list of films with the most Oscars). And yet, for all it's worth, "Titanic" is a simple love story set aboard the most famous luxury liner that faced disaster on its maiden voyage.

I remember seeing it over the Christmas weekend at the end of 1997. My ex-fiancee had just broken up with me, and it was a way of dealing with the catharsis of the end of the engagement. We had planned to see it together the weekend I was going to see her and her family; little did I know that it would never happen. Since that time I've only seen the film a grand total of...

...drum roll, please...

One time.

Not the VHS release, the HBO and NBC telecasts, or the DVD releases would add up to even a second time. Go figure.

In the dawning days of DVD, Paramount Home Video issued "Titanic" as a single-disc release in non-anamorphic format complete with a single theatrical trailer. For a long time it remained a top seller, but as DVD technology progressed fans clamored for a more elaborate deluxe edition. Cameron saw to it that said deluxe edition would be prepared, and in 2005 we were issued a three-disc collector's edition that was seemingly packed to the brim with tons of extras - three audio commentaries, branching pod featurettes, deleted and alternate scenes, the Celine Dion music video, the entire shooting script (I have a large trade paperback of this which I picked up in 1998), a Fox TV special, more behind-the-scenes production footage, even three hidden Easter eggs, you name it.

But for some reason the DVD release failed to carry a proposed feature-length DVD documentary produced by Ed Marsh on the making of the film. This is because Cameron had killed the Marsh documentary late in the game - go figure. That would be like Ridley Scott killing off any full-length Charles deLauzirika documentary off the "Alien" and "Gladiator" discs. Such documentaries really pull the curtain back on how films are made.

As if that weren't enough, while the U.S. market got the three-disc release, the overseas market got an even more elaborate four-disc set. On the fourth disc, it contained three short parodies (which were ultimately ported to the third disc on the U.S. set as hidden Easter eggs), a 25-minute HBO First Look special (with some additional outtakes not included in the film or the deleted scenes), and an extensive trailer gallery with U.S. and international trailers for the film. Why the fourth disc got killed off from release in the U.S. is beyond me. To this day I have yet to locate that fourth disc, particularly the trailer gallery.

Now for the film's 10th anniversary, Paramount Home Video is planning its third release of "Titanic" in a two-disc collector's edition. Apparently the two-disc set contains everything that's on the first two discs of the previous release. They're killing off the third disc! This is not the first time that something like this has happened. A few years back Warner Home Video released an awesome four-disc set of "Gone With the Wind" that had all the perks to it, then a couple of years later they re-released the DVD as a two-disc "special" edition minus the third and fourth discs. Who did this fool? Not me. Neither does this new two-disc "special" edition of "Titanic". It's just another way to milk the money machine even further. Even more so, you can still find the three-disc set at stores for a reasonable price.

My advice: stick with the three-disc set. If anyone has the trailer gallery on DVD, get in touch with me and let's talk.

On a personal note, Laura B., if you're out there reading this up north, send me an e-mail. I'd like to know how you're doing.