Top 50 DVDs

Muftakkabe327 writes "TheForce.net points to UGO's Top 50 DVDs feature where Star Wars makes a healthy appearance at #11. Whether that's high enough to keep fans from rioting remains to be seen. Other nerd-friendly fare on the list include Evil Dead, Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters, Akira, Dawn of the Dead, Freaks & Geeks and Led Zeppelin. "

Comments

The Matrix at #3

[DoubleDownOnEleven]

I can understand the first movie being up there. But a box set? After the second two were so disappointing, I'd really rather own just the initial movie, even with all the extras available in the box set.

P.S. Did anyone else notice some pretty obvious similarities to Dune in the 3rd movie?

Goonies?

[smallfeet]

I sorry, but who put this list together? Goonies is number 20? That is just wrong. This list is obviously a joke list.

I get jokes

Re:What a joke

[soliptic]

Agreed, and worse still is Memento at 32!

I mean what are DVDs if not about films with replay value?

What is Memento if not the first well-known movie in years to literally require at least two viewings!?

i wnat tr0n!!

[Dogtanian]

Tron was an interesting selection from the 'complete DVD' point of view. The 20th Anniversary set (*not* 25th; it came out in 1982) had some interesting stuff from it; notably, it provided insight into why the film was technically brilliant for the time, but horribly lacklustre when it came to the story and characters.

Basically, the actors didn't really "get" the concept. As they said on the DVD, this was almost 20 years before 'The Matrix', computers were new and mysterious to most people, and... they just didn't get it. You can see that they tried, but the characters just never come to life in the way that they should. Some of that is down to the wooden dialogue, but the inability of the leads to place themselves in that situation, reliant on "kludge" explanations (of the nature of the characters and their origins) for technophobes, is in my opinion, probably to blame just as much.

The other problem that came to light when viewing the DVD was that the film was *so* technically demanding, they didn't have the same freedom to rework and rearrange the material that a more conventional film might have.

Enough negatives; it's when watching the documentary (which was well worthwhile, despite excessive reliance on "talking heads" and little behind-the-scenes footage), that it becomes apparent how technically brilliant Tron was. Not so much as an innovative CGI movie (which, of course, it is), but for its original and demanding use of multilayered, back-lit animation. And here's the question; are the computer scenes in Tron live-action, or animation?

I'd still say live-action, but if you watch the documentary, and see how they had to filter, matte, break down, retouch and merge these basic live-action scenes to produce the fantasy world that they ended up with, you'll understand why I asked the question.

One thing stuck with me from that documentary; they said that Tron was the first, and likely to be the last film that was produced in that manner.

As a complete film, Tron may be sorely flawed, but it's for the reasons given above that it should be in every geek's DVD collection.

Re:Bias

[frodo from middle ea]

I would put "Reservoir Dogs" right at the top. I mean it has 2 alternate angles for the "ear scene". That alone tops it.