City of Films

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The City of Films Council [learn of us here] recently got the idea to share some of their fondest entries of our DVD collections.  At first we were just throwing out titles and showing off, and then we got serious; pick your top 3.  So the homework was assigned, and we all had a week to come up with 3 DVD’s that we own that we consider to be our favourite.

It’s not the movie that necessarily guided our choices, but more so that DVD itself.  A great DVD will do that, even with a bad movie behind it.  You can find some really great bonus material out there; packaging and art are also really great add-ons.  Take a look at your own collection, I bet you have something that stands out.  Here are ours:

Firstly the Citizen Kane Two-Disc Special Edition DVD holds the 1995 Oscar nominated documentary The Battle over Citizen Kane, a two-hour film on how this masterpiece was almost destroyed by Welles’s adversary, William Randolph Hearst.  If that isn’t enough to understand the importance of this film, Roger Ebert delivers the best commentary I have ever heard, you can just listen to his 10-minute talk over the gallery of photographs from the movie (which you can flip through with your remote), and you’ll know what I mean.

Sin City was a landmark movie in my opinion; and the DVD can’t ask for anything more and that’s because with Robert Rodriguez, he has always loved DVDs, so the bonus features are extensive. Commentary by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller & Quentin Tarantino make for an afternoon of discussion I would actually listen to.  You get the re-cut and extended theatrical releases, and a crazy amount of bonus features from the cars of Sin City to the props.  If you like filmmaking, this DVD is a classroom just for that.

And finally, Back to the Future.  What more can be said about my favourite movie and trilogy of all time?  Well, an even better edition in the form of Blu-Ray makes its way to stores October 26th of this year – so I figured it would be nice to have a send off for this spectacular DVD set.  This was my first DVD purchase (seriously, I don’t like change) and I have watched it too many times to count.  My favourite feature is the pop-up-video style facts that you can turn on while you watch the movies, now that is just awesome.  There are both new and original materials included in the plethora of extras, starting with two sets of making-of documentaries. Each disc has material on that particular film as well; the original ideas and deleted scenes.  Michael J Fox chimes in with a video commentary presented in a picture-in-picture format and the highlight audio commentary is a free-flowing Q&A with Gale and director Robert Zemeckis in front of a USC film-school audience.  Oh this DVD makes me happy.

James Bond 007 Ultimate Edition (Volume 1) – If I had to pick one volume it would be this one. It includes Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, and The World Is Not Enough. Obviously TWINE is not the best one. But Goldfinger is my favourite, and it the set contains a Connery, Moore, Dalton, and Brosnan movie. Living Daylights is very underrated.  MGM has certainly delivered the goods on their James Bond DVD collection. The films have been wonderfully restored and are presented in widescreen format.Each film is loaded with DVD extras such as trailers and deleted scenes.

The Dark Knight (Widescreen Edition) - This isn’t really a special edition of any kind, but it is one of the best movies made in recent years. It seems to get better everytime I watch it. Dark Knight on DVD is completely in 2.40:1 aspect ratio. You can watch the six IMAX scenes separately. Also on disc 2 are “Gotham Uncovered: The Creation of a Scene,” which is behind-the-scenes footage about the Bat suit, the Bat pod, and the music; eight-minute segments of Gotham Central, a faux-news program that gives some background to events in the movie; plus a variety of trailers, poster art, and more.  Holy awesome DVD Batman!  Eh, I tried.

 

Rescue Me (The Complete First Season) – A must see show. Especially the first two seasons. And this one had it all. Great drama, excellent dialogue, and fantastic storylines.  This is a special DVD to me, not really for the bonus material, sure it has that, but because this is a landmark show and it’s still going strong.  I can re-visit these DVD’s endlessly, something can be said for that.

I had a hard time with this assignment, not going to lie. Out of all the movies I own so many of them are fantastic in the way they’re set up. In the end I came up with these three. First I’d have to say that the Batman Blu-ray is one of the best examples of content and quality. Seeing as Batman came out in 1989 it’s amazing how it still holds up fairly well being ported over to High definition. Along with the obvious special features that all blu-ray’s have the case for this movie is also just as interesting. Inside the hardcover esq case is a small book that holds everything from a comic adaptation of the movie, cast overviews, and of course a little history on the comics themselves. So this was an obvious choice for a comic book lover like myself.

Blade Runner Collector’s Edition (on both DVD and blu-ray to make the point, Mayor said I could cheat this once). Yet another movie to hold up through the test of time. The set design for this movie was amazing especially for being released in 1982 and I’m almost positive this was the movie that inspired my favourite table top adventure game Shadowrun.  This disc set offers not only every version of the movie that was ever released but a definitive documentary that incorporates outtakes, deleted scenes, and interviews. I must say I’m a huge sucker for behind the scenes stuff. When I submitted this photo the Mayor had to ask how I managed to score the Blu-ray so cheap. Truth is I lucked out. I found it at the Movie Gallery in town that was closing down. (like so many are).

 

And last but not least is my DVD copy of the deluxe collectors edition of the Boondock Saints. Along with the cult classic movie it features a pretty awesome second disk which contains an assortment  of deleted scenes, outtakes, and even a printable script. The movie disk is one of the few rare examples left of dual sided versions featuring wide and full screen. I’m not sure about the rest of you but I really hate letter boxing.

I’m fortunate that the first DVD I ever received was not a terrible one, it was a great one. It was Christmas of 2002 and I had not yet jumped aboard the DVD bandwagon. Waiting beneath the tree was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Extended Edition. The amount of bonus features they packed in this set is truly astounding and the fun begins with four fantastic commentary tracks (Cast, Director/Writers, Production/Post-Production Team, and Design Team) that offer a wealth of behind the scenes knowledge from all aspects of the production. The remaining two discs, known as The Appendices, give you everything you’d ever need to know about the entire experience from beginning to end. One snag, I didn’t own a DVD player at the time so Christmas Day was spent staring longingly at the lovely stylish packaging and you know…doing family crap. I went out and got a DVD player on Boxing Day. Happiness.

I’ve always been a fan of the Alien series (yes, even Alien Resurrection) and when The Alien Quadrilogy was released I was very excited. Much like the LOTR-Extended Edition’s one of the main draws of The Alien Quadrilogy was the incredible amount of bonus features . Each Film has an entire disc of special features devoted to it that delve deeply into the stories behind all four films (including a fascinating Alien³ ‘what-if’ which dealt with Riply crashing onto a wooden planet populated by monks who saw the alien as the devil). With news of Ridley Scott‘s currently in development Alien prequel films I’m ready to break out this wonderful release and explore the xeno-morph world once again…I just wish I’d gotten the extremely cool Alien head packaging of the Quadrilogy [see here and here].

 

The Masters of Horror was a intriguing anthology project which enabled masters of horror (and some not so quite) to have total freedom to write and direct an hour of bloody mayhem. It aired for two seasons on Showtime and while the second season wasn’t quite as good as the first, there are still a handful of solid episodes. Plus each episode is packed with bonus features and commentary and…and…what am I saying…the packaging is a skull! The DVD’s are inside a skull! A SKULL!!

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