"Top DVDs of 2002 | HdBluDVD.Com - More HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, DVD Information"

Retrospectively, this year was probably the moment when our medium has truly achieved critical mass – despite the evident drawbacks (such as the worrying increase in fullscreen releases stateside), the available titles has been increasing exponentially. I am finding myself more and more submerged by the amount of extras included on DVDs and getting to the point that I"m giving most of them a miss (unless I"m reviewing them!) and I can"t help feeling that DVDs are becoming the last bastion resisting the rule of editors with relatively poor releases (Pearl Harbour, Rollerball) getting tons of extras. Still I suppose excess is better than bare-bones - I"d take an excessively filled Woody Allen DVD any day! I"ll have to place Wim Wenders at the top of the podium – both Paris, Texas and The Wings of Desire are undeniably some of the most beautiful films from his opus and AB thankfully went the second mile with their releases (apart from checking the audio of WoD though!). The films are meditations on spirituality, love, God and what makes us human: not your usual film experience but definitely worth investigating. Hopefully the rest of WW"s work will get a similar release and given that he"s signed up to the US arm of Anchor Bay for a DVD release of almost all his work (including his shorts), we can hope for an excellent string of releases of his work… François Ozon"s 8 femmes was quite a departure from his usual style but was an excellent excuse to unite the cream of French actresses – despite on paper seeming like a theatrical kitsch feast, 8 femmes was an all-round success with Huppert, Béart, Deneuve and Ardant exchanging lines and slaps at a dizzying speed. The French triple DVD extravaganza was more than one could expect from a DVD with deleted scenes, a commentary, the original theatre piece and original recordings of the songs used in the film… It"s hard to avoid the Lord of the Rings: EE and the DVD was as expected another benchmark performance. OK - Tom Bombabil still wasn"t in the film and it probably set a bad precedent for money hungry studios but it had a sufficient amount of interesting extras (as well as lots of padding) to make it worthwhile purchase… Not sure what I"m going to do with those bookends though! Doriane Films" release of Peter Watkins" Punishment Park was a timely reminder that films should be more than mere entertainment. They even managed to pluck two of Watkins" first short films out of obscurity and added them as extras. Also a special mention is deserved for M3M"s release of Tilai and Le Franc - the first DVD releases I can remember of African cinema and excellent films they are too. The latter three DVDs may not be up to the usual standard of DVD sonically or visually but they are proof that independent producers can produce some pretty good DVDs of obscure or non-commercial material. Hopefully this area will continue to blossom in the year to come. Yet again, the past year has been one of size over substance in the mainstream DVD market. Big, dumb films have received big, dumb DVD releases which groan under the weight of the multi-disc filler which tends to grow in inverse proportion to the quality of the movie within. You might well ask, what"s new about that, and you would be right. But, examining the shelves of the local DVD retailers has become increasingly depressing as important, classic films are released with poor transfers and little, if any, bonus content. There are, thankfully, exceptions, but as the market grows it seems acceptable for the studios to flood the market with mediocre discs, in much the same way as they did on sell-through VHS ten years ago. Thankfully, shining out as good deeds in a bad world, the releases of Anchor Bay, Criterion and Hong Kong Legends managed to maintain a certain standard - although some of the R2 Anchor Bay titles were in dire need of a remastering and the covers were occasionally missing important information; for example, a superb commentary on Herzog"s Nosferatu The Vampyre goes unmentioned on the cover. On the other hand, how many other companies would dredge up an amusingly awful slasher flick such as Madman and go to the trouble of remastering the film in widescreen and recording a highly entertaining commentary track from the stars and the filmmakers ? Although their discs are somewhat outside my personal sphere of interest, Hong Kong Legends continue to impress with the sheer love that goes into their discs, even persuading me to take a chance on Fist Of Fury which I enjoyed much more than I expected. Criterion remain, generally speaking, marvellous, although some of their featureless discs are workaday at best, and somewhat overpriced. Choosing five favourite DVDs of the year wasn"t exactly difficult, although the following discs deserve a mention as worthy also-rans: Paris Texas, From Hell, The Office Series 1, Dirty Harry, Conan The Barbarian SE and Y Tu Mama Tambien. I"d also like to mention the Tartan Bergman Collection, which is somewhat lacking in extra material but which continually produces beautiful transfers of the some of the finest movies of the 20th century. I will be reviewing most of the titles from this series in the next few weeks on DVD Times. Michael Haneke"s The Piano Teacher impressed and shocked many people and scooped the main awards in Cannes in 2001. Isabelle Huppert is remarkable - powerful repressed emotions expressed in subtle yet horrifying violence, it is impossible to imagine any other actress capable of pushing a complex character to such limits and delivering such an intense, subtle, restrained, believable and moving performance. The Artificial Eye DVD release of the film is superb with an excellent and full set of extras. For me, the DVD/film release of the year. A French only release on DVD although it is released theatrically in the UK at the end of December, watch out for Claire Denis" Trouble Every Day. I didn"t know quite what to make of it when I reviewed the DVD earlier in the year – minimal dialogue, strange characters, graphic sexual violence and cannibalism. I still don"t know if it"s a great film or not, but it looks and sounds terrific and its haunting imagery leaves a strong impression. I"ll give it another look when I can get up the nerve. Faced with an ever increasing profusion of anime releases from Japan, it is becoming more difficult to find anything new, fresh, exciting or original being done in the medium. It is therefore a real pleasure when something like My Beautiful Girl, Mari comes along – a small, independently produced, yet remarkably accomplished digital animation feature from Korea. More mature than most anime, the film seemed to tap into the subconscious of childhood memory with beautiful renditions of an amazing fantasy world inhabited by an ethereal girl called Mari. Still, if anything original and exciting is going to come out in anime it will more than likely come from Japan. Hayao Miyazaki can always be relied upon and would no doubt have featured with Spirited Away if there hadn"t been problems with the DVD transfer on the various worldwide editions. Rintaro"s Metropolis however rates for me as one of the best animated features I"ve ever seen. Tesuka"s wonderful characters are brought to life on the screen with a stunning and seamless blend of traditional cel and computer animation (mirroring the films themes of humanity versus technology), while Otomo"s script easily surpassed his weak screenplay (in comparison to the manga) for Akira. First class animators at the height of their powers pushing animation in new directions and superb quality R1 and R2 DVD releases. Where was your DVDTimes review for this, Dave? Probably the funniest film of last year came from Korea. The romantic comedy My Sassy Girl was clever, fresh and original, delivering the most laughs and the funniest catch-phrase of the year – “Wanna Die?”. If you are of a more romantic disposition than myself, you"ll probably enjoy this film even more than I did, as the film scores as well on the romantic side as on the comedy, but not as inventively to my mind. If you haven"t already succumbed to the hype surrounding Korean cinema already, this is a good place to start. There are a couple of good releases out there - the Hong Kong release might be the best for newcomers. Manga"s Release of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (R1) is the first on my lists. This is a great release from Manga serving up their most technical disc to date until they"d release End of Evangelion. To those familiar with the show at the moment on the Sci-Fi channel, this release is generally two movies. The first is a one-hour recap of the whole series looking at various characters view of the events of the show and the other film is the first twenty minutes of End of Evangelion (Released in the U.K in February 2003). For all Evangelion fans, it serves nicely as a starter to what will come. As for extras, a stand out commentary track by the English dub director Amanda Winn Lee, her husband who also is producer of the dub Jason C. Lee and voice actor/Evangelion technical buff Taslin Jaffe. Plus for all those new to Evangelion, there is a whole index of information in the MAGI archives that will help fill all those questions during the proceedings of the film. This helpfully describes the crippled state Earth is in as it faces its very destruction in this film and it"s up to the engineered life forms known as the Evangelions to help mankind. The presentation of the film is wonderfully followed by an active 5.1 Dolby digital track that fans will love. Strange as it may be, "24" is next on my favourites list. Now, I"m going to be honest. I still have my copy that has all those pesky cuts in the show. I"m not a "24" nut case and the missing 90secs is no concern to me. It maybe for some of you but it doesn"t affect me. What counts is the real story and this is why it"s on my list. The story of CTU agent, Jack Bauer absolutely got me gripped from the first episode. Putting the fraudulent "real-time" aspect aside. This was a gem on television. Plus I managed to watch all the episodes within 24 hours with this set; however sad you think that is! Looking for to the next series. Though extras are short and skimpy for this release. The forever emotionless (except for 24) and here bewildered Kiefer Sutherland announcing what to expect what happens in season 2 and a dull alternate "happy" ending. But the value of this box is incredible to add to an equally original and superb story. At least £30-£35 for a six disc box set. That"s real value unlike the £80 you have to churn out for Angel or Buffy. Speaking of Angel, Angel series two is another disc on my list. Series two gets even more darker from series one with Angel running around frantically looking for his ex "Darla" while trying to get revenge on the law firm "Wolfham and Hart". At last! WIDESCREEN!!!!! Fox finally listened to us and decided to let us have this season of Angel in widescreen. The series is accompanied by commentaries for several episodes, a look into the season itself, and how the show was done in the areas of staging and stunt work. This is a nice package, if you can survive the price, Season 3 is in spring 2003 and I"ll be definitely picking that one up. Disney"s Atlantis forms the next selection for my discs of the year segment. The under-rated film that Disney released was given a great treatment on 2 disc DVD. While the story of Milo and his Atlantis seeking friends weren"t well responded to at the cinemas, it got its reward on the DVD. To go along with a brilliant animated film that finally removes the bursting into songs idea that Disney kept putting in (most adults must cringe when a story is stopped to hear a song), the two disc included a feature length documentary that looked over the process of the film"s creation. Add to that an alternate beginning, commentary tracks and superb audio/visual presentation. This is my favourite Disney film since the Emperor"s New Groove came out. As long as they try to keep the singing down to a minimum, Disney might be my favourite animated company once more. If Treasure Planet doesn"t screw up. While its doing well in the U.S Anime circuit, I must give the final place on my top five to the absolutely gut busting funny Excel Saga from ADV Films. It"s due to be released over in the U.K in the course of 2003 but for those who have multi-region machines and are avid anime fans, this is a series that you really should be collecting. It has a simple premise of a secret organization known as Across (Total membership 2) attempting to take over the city of F. In charge of trying to make her beloved Lord Illpalazzo proud, the insane girl known as Excel continues to fail in many of the episodes. Partner her with a Martian princess who continues to die each episode. Throw in a couple pointless background characters such as a Spanish Immigrate called Pedro, an Afro wearing bad ass called Nabeshin and a funny looking dog and you set. It can"t be understood by anyone but the show was never going to be in its countless shifts between the genres including female only episodes. It is really really funny, anime fans should not miss out. As for the DVDs themselves, they"ve got a great ADV Pop-video feature that helpfully points out all the cultural references of the show itself. Put some extras such as "find the mint" game, a series of commercials for eating a dog, and such other great features, Excel Saga is one of ADV anime gems at the moment. Pom Poko - There was another Studio Ghibli DVD release this year that I would have chosen over Pom Poko, but given the controversy surrounding the quality of that particular films DVD, I went with one of the best examples of the year. Alongside Spirited Away then, this is the biggest gem I have come across in recent months so as I simply had to include at least one Studio Ghibli DVD release, this is it. Like Whisper of the Heart earlier in the year, Pom Poko is another non-Miyazaki anime from the renowned Studio Ghibli stable and finds its way into my top five because I had never seen it before, and like Whisper it blew me away in terms of its originality, charm and the sheer entertainment on offer. Escaflowne - The Movie (Limited Edition) - A Region 1 Anime DVD at Japanese prices - who the hell cares when you get a package like this! Escaflowne The Movie is a wonderful fantasy adventure anime that moves along at a swift pace and features some beautiful art and engulfing music to really make it a true cinematic experience, and as such it compliments the 26 episode TV series of the same name which understandably (given its length) offers more in-depth characters and storyline (that is also suitably different). For this Limited Edition DVD release (that is still easily available) Bandai offer one of the best overall R1 anime packages yet, with an Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer, DTS audio, a second disc full of bonus content and a third disc containing the OST, all of which is packaged in every anime lovers dream box. Red Dwarf Series 1 - Ever since I began my DVD collection back in 1998 I have been looking forward to the BBC releasing Red Dwarf. With November"s release of the entire first series on two discs the wait was over and the fun began as I found myself watching this classic British comedy series repeatedly, with the optional audio commentary also receiving multiple viewing sessions. Sure the other extra features are maybe a little thin on the ground, but on the whole this is up there with the very best in TV on DVD releases and counts as one of my most watched DVDs despite its short time in my collection. Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition - I have never read the books and I wasn"t all that sure on what to expect back in December 2001 when I first saw Fellowship of the Ring, but the moment I left that cinema I knew I had to own this film on DVD, and the wait for this Extended Edition release was thoroughly worth it. With extra scenes that compliment the already outstanding Theatrical Cut this 4-disc set offers what is simply put, the most comprehensive set of extra features known to man. From the packaging, to the four audio commentaries (two of which I can so far give the thumbs up too) and two whole discs of bonus material this set not only offers incredible value for money but also hours upon hours of insightful content. Brotherhood of the Wolf - Some felt that Christophe Gans film covered too many genres, was overly long and slow, had poor special effects and sloppy fight choreography. I on the other hand absolutely adored it back in September 2001 when I originally saw it, and have yet to change my mind as I find it offers the perfect blend of action, adventure, horror and yes, even period drama. Fortunately the French know how to make their DVDs, though they seem to have a distinct aversion to English subtitles so we had to wait until October 2002 when TVA brought us a Region 1 Canadian Exclusive 3-disc release that offers everything the French set did, with the added bonus of English subtitles (though sadly the commentaries will seemingly forever remain un-translated). Battle Royale: Directors Cut - Region 2 - Tartan The controversial Battle Royale has had numerous DVD releases around the world; the best of the bunch so far has to be Tartan"s release of the extended version of the film. The DVD is very well presented, and given Tartan"s continued poor reputation, this comes as a big surprise. Battle Royale is full of gore and shocks, but at the same time is very watchable. The stunning soundtrack doesn"t quite sound as good on this release when compared to the non-anamorphic Region 3 DTS release, but the anamorphic picture and extra scenes make this the choice for those that want the most complete release of the film. This two-disc release comes with a comprehensive selection of extras and to top it all features the first and only (as far as I know) progressive scan PAL picture... Spirited Away - Region 2 - Buena Vista Japan Hayao Miyazaki"s latest film gets a reasonably good DVD release from Buena Vista Japan. There has been much talk of the red tint the picture features, and this does mean that the disc certainly has its faults. However, the film is pure Miyazaki genius with superbly detailed animation and a wonderful story. Much more "Mononoke" than "Totoro", we get a great selection of weird and wonderful characters and a tale that would never be put onto the big screen by an American studio. Despite my reservations regarding the colouring of the picture, the transfer is stunning - sharp, detailed and colourful. The DTS soundtrack also draws you in and the range of extras, albeit limited for a non-Japanese speaking audience, is impressive. It"s worth checking out the recent French release of the film, as this apparently doesn"t feature the picture colouring issues of the Japanese and Chinese releases of the film. My Sassy Girl - Region 3 - Starmax The term "romantic comedy" is usually enough to convince me to steer well clear of a film. Thankfully, thanks to the positive buzz and the reviews I"ve read on the forums and this site, I decided to check out the excellent My Sassy Girl. The film once again proves that South Korea is one of the most exciting film-producing countries at the current time what with this, Il Mare and Shiri all making good impressions over the last few months. The Starmax two-disc DVD is an excellent release which unfortunately, loses some of it"s value to non-Korean speakers. However, the film and it"s presentation are what you"re buying this for and the film delivers this perfectly with a great transfer, great sound and a wonderful feel-good story that swerves between being touching, slapstick and gross-out in equal amounts far more successfully than American Pie could ever hope. Coupling - Region 2 - VCI If there"s one DVD that has been watched more times over the last few months than anything else, this is it. Coupling is being touted as the UK"s ruder answer to Friends and for that reason alone I"d avoided what is probably one of the funniest TV series of recent times. The first episode of Series Two, "The Man With Two Legs", must surely go down in history as one of the all-time UK comedy greats alongside Del falling through the bar in Only Fools and Horses or Basil beating his car with a branch in Fawlty Towers. It was a very difficult choice between this and The Office for my comedy DVD choice of the year - the reason I chose Coupling was because the DVD didn"t fail to deliver what was promised. Early reports suggested that Gervais had already recorded commentary tracks for The Office, and these failed to appear on the DVD. The DVD releases for both series of Coupling feature anamorphic transfers and a reasonable Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Extras are very limited, but the fact that series two has been given such a work out in my player means it would be wrong for me not to include it here as one of my favourite releases of the year. Futurama - Series Two - Region 1 - Twentieth Century Fox Without a doubt, if there was a choice between Futurama and The Simpsons, I"d have to go for the former. There"s little doubt that The Simpsons is a good example of how a series can suffer if it"s dragged on for too long with the quality of stories and humour really beginning to drop. However, Futurama continues to be one of the best animated series on television at the current time (although given that Fox have cancelled it in the US already, it won"t be for that much longer). The DVD release of series two is packed with more laughs than the last three series of Matt Groenings surviving series. The DVDs are fantastic with a nice sharp transfer that easily beats that offered by digital TV in the UK. The soundtrack is disappointingly only Dolby Digital 2.0, but that"s made up for by the great array of extras including commentary tracks on each episode. Comments Please login to post comments or replies.