Your Top 20 DVDs of All Time

juniper

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I've been having a trawl to see if anyone has done this before and I can't find one. If they have, or no-one has the appetite, say so, and we can close the thread now :).

Having just had a go at my own top 20 however, and finding it hugely difficult/annoying/embarrassing :blush: , but fun nonetheless, I thought I'd put them up here. The hardest thing I found was the order, and the next hardest was after I'd done it, thinking of another movie and thinking "How on earth can I not put it in the top 20 ....etc."

My primary criteria was the movie itself, but that doesn't have to be yours (this is the DVD forum after all, so it doesn't have to be a movie at all:) ). You may put something in there even if you only ever play 5 minutes of it for reference purposes, for example. I suppose I could redefine it as "if you could only keep 20 DVDs (a box set can count as one) and had to lose the rest, which ones would you keep?"

I should also say that after posting, I reserve the right to delete/modify any entry, and change my mind a million times about what is in or out of the list :D .

OK, here goes:

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Band of Brothers
3. Dances With Wolves
4. Toy Story boxset
5. The Great Escape
6. Jaws
7. Finding Nemo
8. The Shawshank Redemption
9. Star Wars Trilogy
10. LOTR: Trilogy
11. Indiana Jones Trilogy
12. The Lion King
13. Moulin Rouge
14. The Shining
15. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
16. Goodfellas
17. Seabiscuit
18. Forrest Gump
19. Jurassic Park
20. Die Hard Trilogy

Edit 31/01/05 - Need to add "A Beautiful Mind" somewhere - but cannot decide where!

Looking up at this, the psychologists (or even psychiatrists :rotfl: ) may have a field day with me, but so be it. Anyway, it wasn't put here to be shot at, just a bit of fun........what's in yours???
 
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Star Wars Trilogy
3. Indiana Jones Trilogy
4. Toy Story Toybox
5. The Matrix
6. Blackadder the complete boxset R1
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (S1-7)
8. Fight Club
9. The Simpsons (S1-5)
10. Futurama (S1-4)
11. Ghostbusters
12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
13. Hero R3
14. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
15. Oasis: Definitely Maybe
16. Portishead: Roseland New York
17. X-Men 2 Ltd Edition tin R3
18. Angel (S1-4)
19. Curb Your Enthusiasm (S1-3)
20. Disney Treasures dvds - R1 Ltd Edition tin releases

These are in no particular order and are all the ones I would choose to keep over the others I have, should that horrible, horrible event come to pass :eek:

:)
 
impossible to comment on, i could do a top 50 but 20 no way at all far to limiting. and to put them in order :eek: no way josie could i do that. :laugh:




Gary
 
Garyd said:
impossible to comment on, i could do a top 50 but 20 no way at all far to limiting. and to put them in order :eek: no way josie could i do that. :laugh:

Likewise, the usual suspects would be up there though (Ultimate Matrix; Alien Quad; Band of Brothers; LotR: EE Trilogy; Star Wars; Fight Club; Gladiator; Toy Story Boxset etc...)
 
here goes (in no particular order)

House of Flying Daggers (6.1 DTS R3)
The Godfather (1 & 2)
LOTR (Extended Versions 1,2 &3)
Kill Bill (Vol 1 & 2)
Pulp Fiction
Central Station
Musa the Warrior (R3)
Traffic
Lawrence of Arabia (remastered)
True Romance
Once Upon A Time in America
City of God
Zatouchi (R3)
Trainspotting
Raiders of the Lost Arc
The Empire Strikes Back
Malena

:clap:
 
In no particular Order..........some for the film and some for the DVD (as well as the film)

Star Wars IV,V,VI

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Alien Quadrilogy

Brazil Criterion Collection

Once Upon a Time in the West SE

The Good the Bad and the Ugly SE

The Unforgiven SE

The Cooler

Se7en (2 disc Platinum Edition)

twenty four hour party people

Band of Brothers

Das Boot (superbit)

Usual Suspects SE

Shawshank Redemption SE

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Criterion Collection

Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Glengarry GlennRoss

Escape From New York SE

Memento

The Right Stuff SE

Nothing earth-shattering there then..........
 
It's hard enough to select a handful for the best from the year. A top 20 of all time is just impossibly too difficult
 
In no particular order:

1 Twin Peaks - Series 1
2 Twin Peaks - Series 2 - whenever it gets released
3 Kill Bill
4 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
5 Memento
6 True Romance
7 Donnie Darko
8 Wild at Heart
9 Lost Highway
10 Eraserhead
11 Goodfellas
12 The Matrix
13 Blue Velvet
14 Pulp Fiction
15 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
16 Apocalypse Now
17 Mulholland Drive
18 American Beauty
19 K-Pax
20 2001 - A Space Odyssey

Chosen as best DVD rather than best film as these are DVD’s I own/would like to own and stand up to repeat viewings time after time.
 
parkender, do you have any info on when (if) TwinPeaks Series 2 is out. I watched the whole of the 1st series on Bravo (or something) and they never showed the second series. Well peed off

cheers
 
Parkender, a slight techincal note - how can you have a unreleased DVD on your top 20 DVD's list? that makes no sense at all.


gary
 
Edinburgh160 – from www.lynchnet.com

Twin Peaks Season 2 on track for March dvd release - in r2

We've received more reports from parts of Europe that seem to confirm the current plan is for most of region 2 to get Twin Peaks Season 2 on dvd in March. That's the current timetable at this point, though no listings have shown up yet at any overseas online retailers, so I wouldn't be surprised if this timeframe got pushed back a month or so. Dugpa.com is reporting that there are no plans to do new restored transfers for the discs as Artisan did. If you want to try to convince Paramount otherwise, the best way is to contact Paramount directly via snail mail:

Garyd – Strictly speaking Twin Peaks Season 2 is available as it was released on DVD Region 2 as a limited Spanish release with English and Spanish dialogue, but is only really available on Ebay now. I know it’s a bit daft to have a DVD that’s not yet been released on the list, but the release is imminent and having watched the original series I can guarantee that this will be a must have for me at least!
 
:offtopic: i'll take it you've not seen it then? i'm an avid fan. however, i thought it all went pear shaped after episode 8 (and who killed Laura Palmer is revealed) or season the next 22 episodes just get weirder and weirder.

should also point out that episode 8, season 2 is one of best things i've ever seen on tv - scaried the crap out me!!




Gary
 
Gary

Weirdly, I only started watching Twin Peaks about half way through Series 1 when it originally aired in the UK in 1991, as I had been out of the country for 18 months, and had only just arrived back. That made the series even stranger! But I did see all of the remaining episodes so I have seen Season 2 but only once on TV – I have the Season 1 boxed set DVD and have watched numerous times. I think the problem with Season 2 is that Lynch only directed a couple of episodes and the remainder were ‘guest’ directors and they were under pressure from ABC to keep the general public interest by having many sub-plots. However, it is still a landmark in groundbreaking TV and rules over 99.9% of the so called entertainment we have to put up with on TV nowadays.
 
cheers parkender, will keep my jacks peeled for TP2. Loved the 1st series.
 
parkender said:
Gary

Weirdly, I only started watching Twin Peaks about half way through Series 1 when it originally aired in the UK in 1991, as I had been out of the country for 18 months, and had only just arrived back. That made the series even stranger! But I did see all of the remaining episodes so I have seen Season 2 but only once on TV – I have the Season 1 boxed set DVD and have watched numerous times. I think the problem with Season 2 is that Lynch only directed a couple of episodes and the remainder were ‘guest’ directors and they were under pressure from ABC to keep the general public interest by having many sub-plots. However, it is still a landmark in groundbreaking TV and rules over 99.9% of the so called entertainment we have to put up with on TV nowadays.


i agree it was one of the most ground breaking TV shows ever, i just felt that they commissioned to long a run for the second season. the first 16 episodes are pure brilliance. some of the stuff inthose episodes really scaried the crap out of me esp BOB in the train car with the girls!

I've got the diary of Laura Palmer at home and a cassette tape of agent cooper's notes.

NOTE: SORRY JUNIPER I SEEM TO HAVE TURNED YOU THREAD INTO A TWIN PEAKS LOVE IN.

Gary
 
sorry dude i've been thrashed for thread hi-jacking



Gary
 
The problem with these threads is that they simply become a list of favourite films as opposed to "top DVDs" in terms of "pushing" the format, or setting a trend.

For example, I would include the following:

R1 Terminator 2 - first mass market RSDL disc
R1 X Files season 1 - first notable release of TV material in a season box set
R1 Austin Powers - for a 1997 DVD this was a superb example of what a good disc should look like and contain in terms of presentation and extras
R1 The Stand - first DVD 18

You could also include the first discs to contain both DD 5.1 and DTS (Red Violin comes to mind) or a disc like Dragons Lair (simply for being a triumph of disc authoring) .

I'm a bit wary of including any Criterions in this list as so many of their early releases were straight ports of the LD. Also whilst it was neat and tidy to have Brazil on 3 discs and Spinal Tap on one, it was very lazy not to re-edit the commentaries on ST to remove the "re-introduction of the speakers" every 30 mins which presumably co-incided with a new side of a laserdisc.

Probably include Grande Illusion though as the release was taken from the newly discovered negative as opposed to an old LD transfer.

For R2 its difficult to think of much that stands out in terms of offering something new - probably going to be the Doctor Who range, for the sheer devotion to restoration and the Vidfire process - which admittedly was first seen on VHS, but which really shone on DVD.
 
What is the "Vidfire" process?
 
Duncan, whilst I see your point, I do disagree with you. I am a film fan, whilst the dvd format has revolutionised the way films are shown domestically, it is a format to show the film. A "top" DVD, to me may be a film with a good presentation, good soundtrack, not necessarily DTS ES or DD EX and a useful collection of good commentary tracks and useful documentaries explaining how/why the film was made - allied to a film I particullaly like. Case in point for me would be 24 hour party people. Nothing technically great but well put together, the same with Shaun of the Dead. I realise there are many others who share a passion for the films but require more detailed reproduction of the film, audio and transfer wise, or who have a greater understanding of the development of the format.

Surely that is the point of the original thread, as we each have our own interpretation of what "top" means.
 
Duncan Harvey said:
The problem with these threads is that they simply become a list of favourite films as opposed to "top DVDs" in terms of "pushing" the format, or setting a trend.

And the point is exactly that - it is supposed to be a list of "your" favourite DVDs, for whatever reason you wish, not a discussion of what is groundbreaking or otherwise revolutionary about certain discs, of course that could be the subject of a new thread..... :D
 
If i was posting a list it would have to include "my little eye" which is one of the best DVD's i've ever seen (while the film only ranks as a 6 or 7) it includes footage from all the web cams in the house and you can choose to watch any of them and get a different take on the sound. its a stunning DVD that really shows what can be done with the format.

When i started the best DVD of 2004" thread i found that people seemed to vote for their fav films and not the best DVD's

Gary
 
Gary - glad you liked Band of Brothers so much - have you watched the "We Stand Together" documentary? I find it so moving every time I watch it, and it inspired me to even take a trip to "Old Jack's Woods" (as Guarnere refers to them) near to Bastogne, to stand in the place where he and Babe did during the documentary and look down over Foy. Words cannot even describe the feeling.

Also - just posted an edit to my original, but don't know where to rank it - I watched "A Beautiful Mind" for the first time this weekend (amongst others - I watched 'Man on Fire' and thought it was absolutely brilliant), and whilst I'm not a Russell Crowe fan, I thought this was probably the best acting performance I have had the privliege to see, and thought the film was brilliant in every way. It needs to be in my top 20, but need to see it again to decide where!
 
Juniper, i've seen "BOB" four times now, started my 5th viewing over the weekend - sounds like an emotional trip - the war sites of Europe on on my world travel "to do list". Its like no other program i've ever watched - it makes you want to run outside and hug an old guy!! :D

AS for a beautiful mind - i'm not really a fan - but my wife loves it.
Man on Fire - was ok for me - i thought the bit when he gets to know the girl (an excellent Dakota Fanning) was just a bit too long. i thought the film was about 20/30 mins to long. In general i love Tony Scott's work.


Gary
 
Garyd said:
Juniper, i've seen "BOB" four times now, started my 5th viewing over the weekend - sounds like an emotional trip - the war sites of Europe on on my world travel "to do list". Its like no other program i've ever watched - it makes you want to run outside and hug an old guy!! :D

Gary

hugely emotional trip - started it in St. Mere Eglise, at the 101st Museum, did 'the beaches', then went to Carentan etc. Then drove to Holland, and 'did' Hell's highway, Wilhelmina Canal etc., and an outstanding museum at Best dedicated in part to the 'wings of liberation'. Then went onto stay in Houfelize, just outside Bastogne - visited the foxholes in the woods (they're still there), the little church where they met the nuns, the various memorials there etc. Finished at the Eagles Nest.

Emotional in fact doesn't even get close. This summer we'll be in the States, and am hoping to get a detour to see Camp Toccoa and Curahee. Thankly Mrs. Juniper is as mad about it as me, so that spurs me on to be honest.

Anyway, I'm trashing my own thread :blush: , but I love talking about BoB, and nice to hear of other folks who like it too, so there.
 

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