Top Ten(ish) DVDs of The Year...
This was a great year for the film geeks out there. Blue Underground continued to crank out great special editions, the flood of Asian product continued(some great and some not so great), and even the major studios ran out some good vault material. Of course, the best part of the year for me was getting a DVD burner, but that's beside the point. So here we are, the Top Ten(or so) DVDs of the year. (Also in no particular order.)
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WWE's successful raiding of their vaults paid off threefold this year with Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story, Hard Knocks - The Chris Benoit Story, and especially The Rise and Fall Of ECW. They've wisely chosen to highlight the people their smart fan base loves, and hopefully this trend will continue in '05 with the RVD DVD scheduled.
Zombie - There were two versions of this released this year, on the same day no less. I bought both. Blue Underground's disc has slightly better video, and the Media Blasters 2-disc is packed with special features, giving this hunk of Italian cheese more of a polish than this movie ever deserved.
Clerks X - Kevin Smith goes back to the well to remind us all why we liked him in the first place after the abject failure of Jersey Girl. Basically, this disc has everything you could possibly want to know about Clerks, and theoretically, there'll never be a need for another version.(We mean it, Kevin. Make better movies.)
Dawn of The Dead(1978)- Ultimate 4-Disc Edition - As with Clerks X, this should be the last edition of this movie we'll ever need to see. Featuring all three variant cuts of the movie, plus a packed disc of special features, three seperate commentaries, and even a cheesy commercial for the mall that they filmed in. If you love the movie, buy this and you'll never need another copy. Ever~!
Videodrome Criterion Collection Edition and Fast Company - One is David Cronenberg's wackiest flick as well as surprisingly prescient, and the other is his most obscure film, a straight B-actioner about drag racing. Criterion's DVD is loaded with features and has a great transfer and commentary tracks, and the Blue Underground DVD of Fast Company has a great commentary also along with a good documentary about Cronenberg's cinematographer, along with a bonus disc featuring Cronenberg's two student films, both of which show touches of things to come.
Kinji Fukasaku's The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity - Possibly the greatest Japanese mob movies ever made, collected in one awesome box. Fukasaku is arguably the spiritual forebear of Takashi Miike, and these films are probably his greatest achievement outside of Battle Royale. Home Vision has collected the five Battles films into one amazing box set. Fully restored and remastered, the box also has a bonus disc that's a great introduction to Fukasaku.
The Star Wars Trilogy - Duh. Like this wasn't going to be on the list.
The Final Countdown - Until this year, represented by a terrible public domain transfer, Blue Underground cleaned this up beautifully, and issued it in a nice 2-Disc edition. This 1980 sleeper was a staple of cable television in the 80's, and it's a great little sci-fi picture. The DVD has a great interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Films, who was production manager on the film and even managed to get himself a cameo in the film.
Baby Snakes - Not too much Zappa exists on DVD, so it was nice to see this finally escape from the Barking Pumpkin vaults. Nice 5.1 mix, even though there aren't any real special features to speak of. But a must have for Zappa fans.
THX-1138: The Director's Cut - George Lucas' other big DVD release of the year. Another nice restore job here, not nearly as annoying or obvious as the Star Wars Special Editions. Some nice special features here, particularly the vintage footage of the actors getting their heads shaved for the movie.
The Apple - No special features, no big ad campaign, just the greatest terrible movie ever made, and a movie I'd always wanted on DVD. Thanks, MGM~!
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Obviously, the Return Of The King SE isn't on this list, because it only streeted yesterday, and I'm not getting it until Christmas, but I'm sure it'll be a top tenner.
Next list - Ten Best Albums I Heard This Year(not necessarily of 2004).
----------
WWE's successful raiding of their vaults paid off threefold this year with Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story, Hard Knocks - The Chris Benoit Story, and especially The Rise and Fall Of ECW. They've wisely chosen to highlight the people their smart fan base loves, and hopefully this trend will continue in '05 with the RVD DVD scheduled.
Zombie - There were two versions of this released this year, on the same day no less. I bought both. Blue Underground's disc has slightly better video, and the Media Blasters 2-disc is packed with special features, giving this hunk of Italian cheese more of a polish than this movie ever deserved.
Clerks X - Kevin Smith goes back to the well to remind us all why we liked him in the first place after the abject failure of Jersey Girl. Basically, this disc has everything you could possibly want to know about Clerks, and theoretically, there'll never be a need for another version.(We mean it, Kevin. Make better movies.)
Dawn of The Dead(1978)- Ultimate 4-Disc Edition - As with Clerks X, this should be the last edition of this movie we'll ever need to see. Featuring all three variant cuts of the movie, plus a packed disc of special features, three seperate commentaries, and even a cheesy commercial for the mall that they filmed in. If you love the movie, buy this and you'll never need another copy. Ever~!
Videodrome Criterion Collection Edition and Fast Company - One is David Cronenberg's wackiest flick as well as surprisingly prescient, and the other is his most obscure film, a straight B-actioner about drag racing. Criterion's DVD is loaded with features and has a great transfer and commentary tracks, and the Blue Underground DVD of Fast Company has a great commentary also along with a good documentary about Cronenberg's cinematographer, along with a bonus disc featuring Cronenberg's two student films, both of which show touches of things to come.
Kinji Fukasaku's The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity - Possibly the greatest Japanese mob movies ever made, collected in one awesome box. Fukasaku is arguably the spiritual forebear of Takashi Miike, and these films are probably his greatest achievement outside of Battle Royale. Home Vision has collected the five Battles films into one amazing box set. Fully restored and remastered, the box also has a bonus disc that's a great introduction to Fukasaku.
The Star Wars Trilogy - Duh. Like this wasn't going to be on the list.
The Final Countdown - Until this year, represented by a terrible public domain transfer, Blue Underground cleaned this up beautifully, and issued it in a nice 2-Disc edition. This 1980 sleeper was a staple of cable television in the 80's, and it's a great little sci-fi picture. The DVD has a great interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Films, who was production manager on the film and even managed to get himself a cameo in the film.
Baby Snakes - Not too much Zappa exists on DVD, so it was nice to see this finally escape from the Barking Pumpkin vaults. Nice 5.1 mix, even though there aren't any real special features to speak of. But a must have for Zappa fans.
THX-1138: The Director's Cut - George Lucas' other big DVD release of the year. Another nice restore job here, not nearly as annoying or obvious as the Star Wars Special Editions. Some nice special features here, particularly the vintage footage of the actors getting their heads shaved for the movie.
The Apple - No special features, no big ad campaign, just the greatest terrible movie ever made, and a movie I'd always wanted on DVD. Thanks, MGM~!
-----------------
Obviously, the Return Of The King SE isn't on this list, because it only streeted yesterday, and I'm not getting it until Christmas, but I'm sure it'll be a top tenner.
Next list - Ten Best Albums I Heard This Year(not necessarily of 2004).
posted by Jon M. at
9:58 PM
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