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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. "
Is it really fair to rate Trilogy/Quadrilogy box-sets against single DVD's?
According to UGO, Men In Black is better than all three Star Wars movies combined? Really?
Okay, it's call UnderGroundOnline, and they gave ghostbusters a slot at #10. Somethings wrong? Who you gonna call?
Anyone seen my jagged little pill?
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?
Top 50? Top 50 DVD's? What was the criteria? Movies you can watch without having to think all that much?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
31. Daredevil
22. Pearl Harbor
Q.E.D.
I get jokes
It did not make the top 50? Not even one video?
Sales, I imagine.
Which makes me wonder, who really cares? What purpose do articles like this serve?
It's like lists like these exist so that people with nothing rewarding in their lives can read it and go "oh! I've seen, or own, most of those movies! Phew, I can relax! I'm normal like everyone else!"
Meh
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I wasn't going to say anything when I saw Beauty and the Beast AHEAD of the Godfather...but when I saw DAREDEVIL ahead of the royal Tannenbaums (and with a #31) I have to cast my vote for this guy getting the lobotomy of the year award. What a dumbass.
From my understanding they rate THE DVDS not THE MOVIES. So they based it on stuff like picture and sound quality, commentary value, menus, features, and packaging. The suckiest movie in the world (Pearl Harbor) can still make an impressive DVD for audio/video buffs and those interested in filmmaking (features)
"HellBoy - eh, why not?"
I can't believe that the film about how bad pirates are didn't make it into the list. I see trailers for it on almost every DVD I've ever seen!
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
Ok, I guess I'm a fan coming out of the woodwork, but really... I know it is fashionable to be anti-Star Wars these days, but the original trilogy still kicks all kinds of ass, and the transfer, sound and extras on the original trilogy collection are all top notch.
I'm not saying it should be #1, but seriously, it should NOT be behind Dawn of the Dead, Men in Black or Ghostbusters. Some of the others are debatable, but I don't think those are. I like all of those movies, and own 2 of the 3 on DVD, but cmon.
It's obvious the list has a bias... it's a list! It's the site's editorial call. The thing about the list is it's obviously not based on the movie, but on the quality of the extras, transfer, packaging, etc. Sure, there are some discs I disagree with, but for the most part, this seems like a collector's wet dream to me... even if it means owning Pearl Harbor.
(Says a man who own the Matrix, LOTR, and complete Farscape boxed sets....)
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
The Top 5 DVDs in my collection are:
1. Ritek
2. Memorex
3. Imation
4. Taiyo Yuden
5. Verbatim
Of course, you'll need a good Sharpie or equivelent and a copy of DVD Shrink
BTW: Special 100 pack of DVD-R's at newegg... See, both funny and informative.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Sorry, but the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sets don't deserve to be on that list. Don't get me wrong, I love both trilogies, but the DVDs are completely underwhelming. Apart from Irving Kershner on Empire, the commentaries are complete snooze-fests, and the docus in those sets were edited by people who think Bill Moyer specials are the epitome of entertaining documentaries. I'd actually rate the THX-1138 DVD above the Star Wars set -- at least there, Lucas offered an honest appraisal of his career, and actually seemed to enjoy talking about his work.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
Our Top 50 DVDs of All Time. Remember, these aren't the Top 50 Greatest movies of all time - we are judging how worthwhile the actual DVD is in terms of quality and extras.
What is wrong with the IMDB Top 250 movies?
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.
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Maybe because sci-fi/fantasy geeks want to own the films and watch them over and over, and watch the extras. Other people (read: normal) most likely just rent movies now and then such as comedies and dramas. I can't imagine someone getting passionately excited about buying "The Terminal;" I'm sure many people just rent it, watch it, and don't want to see it again. But geeks will BUY freakin' Lord of the Rings, damn you.
#50. Monsters, Inc.
#49. The Godfather Collection
#48. Beauty and the Beast
#47. The Shawshank Redemption
#46. The Fifth Element
#45. Saving Private Ryan
#44. Field Of Dreams
#43. Jackie Brown
#42. 12 Monkeys
#41. The Killer
#40. Dark City
#39. Hellboy
#38. THX 1138
#37. Black Hawk Down
#36. Gladiator
#35. The Sixth Sense
#34. Superman: The Movie
#33. The Royal Tenenbaums
#32. Memento
#31. Daredevil
#30. X2: X-Men United
#29. Rushmore
#28. Boogie Nights
#27. Blade II
#26. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
#25. Almost Famous
#24. Back to the Future
#23. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
#22. Pearl Harbor
#21. Tron
#20. The Goonies
#19. Indiana Jones
#18. The Mummy
#17. Se7en
#16. Stargate
#15. Clerks X
#14. Akira
#13. Escape from New York
#12. Star Trek Movies
#11. Star Wars Trilogy
#10. Ghostbusters
#9. Dawn of the Dead
#8. Men In Black
#7. Fight Club
#6. Terminator 2
#5. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
#4. The Evil Dead
#3. Ultimate Matrix
#2. Alien Quadrilogy
#1. The Lord of the Rings
Best Music DVDs
#5. Saturday Night Live
#4. The Who - The Kids Are Alright
#3. The Last Waltz
#2. Led Zeppelin
#1. The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
Best TV DVDs
#5. The Office
#4. Mr. Show
#3. Band of Brothers
#2. The Simpsons & Futurama
#1. Freaks & Geeks
-Ignore attempt to keep Slashdot from bitching about formatting- Garbage follows.
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*mumble* I set fire to the building *mumble*
I am wondering if they had a basement full of monkeys picking this list. First of all, Star Wars being behind MIB...wow. Then, the inclusion of The Mummy and X2(X-Men II) on a list of the Top 50 that does not include either Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, or Stripes just boggles the mind.
Having done so much with so little for so long, I now can do anything with nothing at all.
The Extended Edition DVD sets of all three Lord of the Rings movies pretty much has completely redefined the new standard of excellence and completeness for DVD's.
Look at what you get in the Extended Edition LoTR releases:
1. Longer versions of the film, which often help with improving the continuity of the movie.
2. Dolby Digital 5.1 EX AND DTS-ES 6.1 soundtracks.
3. Four audio commentary tracks, something that has never been done before (to my knowledge).
4. Supplementary discs with so much useful information it would take days to view them all.
In short, the LoTR EE releases probably are the best examples of fully taking advantage of the DVD format.
For less money, you can get a DVD version of Tora! Tora! Tora!, a far superior movie, and they did a great job of restoring the film and mastering the DVD.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Stereotypes suck. Besides, who needs blondes when we already have the hottest woman in the world.
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
It's not the fact that Jackson put a bazillion features and like 40,000 hours of material on his extended versions that make the LotR extended disks the best. It's the fact that I WATCHED the bazillions of features and even listened to all that commentary and enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.
I even listened to Elijah Wood and Sean Astin's commentary which was basically the same general sentiment regurgitated in different forms: "No YOU'RE the best actor ever" "NO YOU'RE the best actor ever." or "It was such a joy to work with you!" "No, no, I loved working with YOU!" Okay that part was probably a waste of time, but Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan's commentary, that was hilarious.
OK... after seeing some the posts, I see now that this list has nothing to do with the quality of the actual films, but the quality of the package surrounding the films. And this is useful how? Sure, the extras are nice, but an educated person doesn't buy a car because it has a nice stereo or plush interior, they buy the car because it performs well in going from point A to point B. On the other hand the idiot consumer spends all their time looking that the shiny features without realizing that they are still buying a sack of old shit. So, I still don't see the point of this list. There are a few things on the list that are OK, but I'm not buying DVDs because of nice menus, extra outtakes that I may watch only once, or director's commentary. I'm buying them because I like the story line. Get a life folks.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
No, just that Alien and Aliens were so good that they make up for having to have Alien3 and Alien: Resurrection in there as well... ;-)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Why are you spreading FUD about Citizen Kane? Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese # Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) # Commentary by Orson Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich # Commentary by Roger Ebert # Disc 1: # Feature Film # 1941 Movie Premiere Newsreel # Gallery of storyboards, rare photos, alternate ad campaign, studio and personal correspondence, call sheets and other memorabilia # Disc 2: # Two-Hour Documentary: The Battle Over Citizen Kane, details the power struggle between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst # Number of discs: 2
Where are the TV series DVDs? Many of those are way better than some of the movies on that list ("Escape from New York"? Did they even watch this stuff?)
The number one all-time DVD set of any kind is, of course - utterly and indisputably: Firefly.
Obviously they wanted only good movies in their top fifty.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Stereotypes suck. Besides, who needs blondes when we already have the hottest woman in the world.
Yeah, nothing says breaking down barriers like the ability to classify women based solely on their looks.
I mean, look at what goes into them
:)
* Totally new digital transfers of all the shows
* For a whole season, tens of hours of "blooper-reel" type footage has to be found, approved,and edited in.
* A bunch of documentry films have to be shot
* Then, the big one - the commentarys. You need to bring in the cast/crew, make them sit through hours and hours of their old shows, and comment on them. Hint: Actors don't do this for free.
I mean, sure, they are taking a nice profit. So is the store selling the DVDs. But the cost is not *totally* unjustifed, nor is it completely outragous. For a huge fan, being able to get insight into the mindset of the script writers and actors for the whole series is worth a few hundred bucks. Mind you, I am not that huge of a fan though