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Top DVD Releases of 2004 in U.S.
2004-12-22
One fan's picks for best 2004 DVD releases:New movies: 1. ``American Splendor'' - The strange journey of cult comic writer Harvey Pekar grows more splendorous with commentary from him and the filmmakers, plus Pekar's comic book chronicling the movie's history. 2. ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' - This has to rank high, for sheer scope of background materials in its two-disc theatrical and four-disc extended cuts. 3. ``In America'' - Jim Sheridan's exquisite semi-autobiographical account of an Irish family transplanted to New York is augmented by a lovely collection of deleted footage. 4. ``Mystic River'' - Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Academy Awards for Clint Eastwood's portrait of childhood pals reunited by a murder. The three-disc set with commentary and the soundtrack is the one to own. 5. ``The Barbarian Invasions'' - Come for the bawdy banter of intellectual snobs, stay for the charming DVD dinner chat among cast members. 6. ``The Station Agent'' - Chummy commentary with stars Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale and filmmaker Tom McCarthy is like an evening with old friends. 7. ``Super Size Me'' - Morgan Spurlock stuffs in Big Macs. His DVD stuffs in funny extras. The recipes from Spurlock's vegan-chef girlfriend are an especially nice touch. 8. ``City of God'' - A searing portrait of boys with guns in Rio De Janeiro's narcotics gangs, accompanied by a compelling documentary on the city's murderous drug wars. 9. ``The Triplets of Belleville'' - One of the best advertisements for DVD over VHS: Videotape would never survive the repeated viewings Sylvain Chomet's intoxicating animated flick command. 10. ``Love Actually'' - Richard Curtis' big, sloppy ensemble affair in praise of romance has one of the most polished batch of deleted scenes ever issued on a DVD. Reissued films: 1. ``Schindler's List'' - Steven Spielberg's Holocaust masterpiece is cinema's greatest testament to survival. 2. ``Ikiru'' - With sublime compassion, Akira Kurosawa traces the story of a common man looking for meaning in his meager life as death nears. 3. ``The Rules of the Game'' - Jean Renoir's comic drama remains the ultimate satire of master-and-servant relations. 4. ``La Dolce Vita'' - Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece of show-business decadence, beautifully restored. 5. ``The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' - The quintessential spaghetti Western from Sergio Leone is even better with 18 minutes of restored footage. 6. ``Ed Wood'' - Tim Burton spins one of the great flicks about an artistic nobody. 7. ``My Fair Lady'' - For its 40th birthday, George Cukor's grand musical gets a sumptuous DVD makeover. 8. ``The Commitments'' - Alan Parker's raucous soul-music saga finally gets proper DVD treatment. 9. ``Short Cuts'' - Nice touch, packaging Robert Altman's ensemble tale with a paperback of Raymond Carver stories that inspired it. 10. ``THX 1138'' - The documentaries accompanying George Lucas' dystopian satire are a must for all serious film buffs. Boxed sets: 1. ``Fanny and Alexander'' - A great year for Ingmar Bergman releases was capped by this glorious five-disc package with both the theatrical release and miniseries versions of his autobiographical family saga. 2. ``The Chaplin Collection, Volume 2'' - Twelve discs devoted to Charles Chaplin at his lightest and darkest, from the sweetly-sad ``City Lights'' to the scathing ``Monsieur Verdoux.'' 3. ``Alfred Hitchcock: The Signature Collection'' - Nine of the suspense master's finest '40s and '50s flicks are gathered in a 10-disc set, including ``Strangers on a Train'' and ``Foreign Correspondent.'' 4. ``Star Wars Trilogy'' - George Lucas gives a few final visual tweaks to ``Star Wars,'' ``The Empire Strikes Back'' and ``Return of the Jedi'' in a comprehensive four-disc package. 5. ``Gone With the Wind'' - Rhett and Scarlett and Melanie and Ashley live on in grand style with this four-disc set chronicling the legacy of Hollywood's epic of epics. 6. ``Saving Private Ryan'' - Steven Spielberg's World War II saga returned in a four-disc set accompanied by two full-length war documentaries, ``Price for Peace'' and ``Shooting War.'' 7. ``The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection'' - It was a big year for the zany siblings with this six-disc set packing ``Duck Soup'' and four other classics (a second Marx Brothers set highlighted by ``A Night at the Opera'' was a 2004 runnerup). 8. ``More Treasures From American Film Archives, 1894-1931'' - Three discs and a 208-page book offer a loving look at cinema's first four decades. 9. ``The Yakuza Papers'' - This sprawling five-film saga from the 1970s, presented in a six-disc set, was Japan's answer to ``The Godfather,'' chronicling a three-decade power struggle among Hiroshima mobsters. 10. ``John Cassavetes: Five Films'' - An eight-disc set bears key works of the progenitor of American independent film, including ``Faces'' and ``A Woman Under the Influence.'' TV on DVD: 1. ``Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series'' - Shame on the network suits who pulled the plug on this wonderful chronicle of high-school outsiders, whose 18 episodes live on in a six-disc set. 2. ``Northern Exposure'' - Back to Cicely, Alaska, outpost of all things quirky and crosspatch, with a pair of two-disc sets bearing the first 15 episodes. 3. ``The World at War'' - Laurence Olivier narrates this mammoth documentary series on World War II, a 20-hour saga that aired in 1973, packaged in an 11-disc set. 4. ``SCTV'' - Classic comedy featuring John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, Rick Moranis and Andrea Martin. Two five-disc sets contain the first 18 installments of the 1980s late-night show. 5. ``Dead Like Me: The Complete First Season'' - The best show ever about a teen killed by a toilet seat and pressed into service as a Grim Reaper. Year one's 14 episodes come in a four-disc set. 6. ``Pennies From Heaven'' - Dennis Potter's fanciful miniseries, starring Bob Hoskins as a luckless sheet-music salesman taking refuge in musical fantasies, is packed in a three-disc set. 7. ``Sex and the City: Season Six'' - TV's most lovable quartet of randy Manhattan gals bid farewell with two three-disc sets containing the last 20 episodes. 8. ``Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts'' - The conductor holds court on classical-music topics in a nine-disc package with 25 episodes from the educational series that aired from 1958-73. 9. ``Tanner '88'' - Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau's satiric presidential campaign is loaded on two discs with all 11 episodes (their followup, ``Tanner on Tanner,'' earns a DVD honorable mention). 10. ``Star Trek'' - The year brought more sci-fi than you can shake a phaser at: A total of 10 sets bearing the three seasons of Capt. Kirk's original adventures and the seven years of ``Star Trek: Voyager.'' Overlooked films: 1. ``The Snow Walker'' - Charles Martin Smith's riveting tale of survival and cross-cultural kinship in the Canadian wilderness was so overlooked it never got a U.S. release. You can get it from www.amazon.ca. 2. ``The Saddest Music in the World'' - Beer, melancholy music and disorienting black-and-white visuals power Guy Maddin's absurdist fantasy about a search for the planet's saddest tunes. 3. ``In This World'' - Michael Winterbottom's engrossing drama follows an Afghan boy and his cousin's perilous journey toward a new life in London. 4. ``My Flesh and Blood'' - This powerhouse documentary tells the remarkable story of a single woman who adopted 11 special-needs children, among them legless girls and a victim of horrible burns. 5. ``Pieces of April'' - Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson star in a Thanksgiving reunion tale that reminds us why we like that dysfunctional gang called family. 6. ``My Life Without Me'' - A young wife and mother (Sarah Polley) conceals her terminal illness and sets about putting her loved one's lives in order in this quietly moving drama. 7. ``Japanese Story'' - Toni Collette stars in a richly textured culture-clash tale about an Australian geologist and a visitor from Japan who surprise themselves by finding common ground. 8. ``Stone Reader'' - Filmmaker Mark Moskowitz leads viewers through a literary detective story about novelist Dow Mossman, who dropped out of sight for 30 years after a wildly acclaimed first novel. 9. ``Kitchen Stories'' - This little gem about a research study of 1950s Norwegian bachelors' cooking habits is a delightful tale of friendship and the importance of participating in life, rather than just observing. 10. ``Bubba Ho-Tep'' - Don Coscarelli's instant cult flick features the geriatric Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and JFK (Ossie Davis) battling an Egyptian mummy feeding on the souls of old folk at their nursing home.
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