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December 9, 2005
25 Perfect DVDs
kay, Christmas shoppers (and those of you struggling with birthdays in September). Here's a list of DVDs that I think are PERFECT. What do I mean? I mean DVDs that I would not change a moment. DVDs that I can watch over and over again and they just keep getter better. The kind of movies and shows that if I happen to see one on TV, it just might capture me and trap me in its snare! Here are 25 just off the top of my head. There are many more!
If there are DVDs on here you haven't seen, check them out!
- The Abyss (Director's Cut): James Cameron's underwater masterpiece makes sense in the extended edition that actually explains WHY the aliens are present. If you haven't figured it out yet, this is a movie about marriage and relationships, and the two kinds of abysses the two main characters have to go into to transform. The 10-minute "one of us has to die" scene in the middle of the movie is an intense classic.
- Amelie: French films are either great or idiotic. This one is great. Originally pooh-poohed by the cheese eating surrender monkeys critics, but embraced by the public. Weird, original, hilarious, and touching. It has everything a perfect movie should have, including a large-eyed heroine.
- American Pie: I avoided seeing this one in the theaters, thinking it was just another trashy teen pic. How wrong I was! This is a classic teen comedy where four boys on the verge of graduating from high school aim to lose their virginity. They have four quite different, and funny, and occasionally touching, experiences. Not to be missed!
- Babylon 5: Simply the finest sci-fi story ever told! A five-year novel that must be watched from beginning to end, even the rocky episodes in the first season. Major characters die! Almost every possible theme of self-sacrifice is explored in this series. And the karmic interaction and transformations of Londo Mollari and G'kar are classic.
- Bridget Jones's Diary: A Christmas classic. By the writer/director of Four Wedddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. A update on Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, the classic Darcy from the 1999 BBC edition, in the Darcy role. Funny and touching.
- Bringing Up Baby: Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in a classic comedy not to be missed!
- Buffy, The Vampire Slayer: Not the movie, but the series. I like seasons 2-6 the best, but it's worth watching from the beginning. The way monsters are used to metaphorically reflect adolescent experiences is wonderful. The humor and the characters grow on you. You will be shocked at the season 2 finale, and moved to tears during the season 5 finale. Buffy is perfect!
- Casablanca: Why does this movie work? Destiny, perhaps. I never get tired of it. Every character is perfect. Every line is perfect. Every scene is perfect.
- Cold Comfort Farm: A British 1920s comedy that starts our weird and gets funnier by the minute. Starring Kate Beckinsale in a prudish role that fails to foreshadow her later transformation to Hollywood sci-fi vamp. Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, and Ian McKellan make fun appearances.
- Gladiator (Extended Edition): The new edition adds to an already perfect film. The commentary with Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott is fascinating. I didn't realize that Oliver Reed had died before filming had finished and that they had to use CGI to finish some of his scenes.
- The Godfather: The original with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and James Caan is the classic mafia tale.
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Perfect Clint Eastwood. Shares top billing with Once Upon a Time in the West as the best western of all time.
- Horatio Hornblower: These eight films from A&E with Iohn Gufford as Horatio Hornblower are faithful to the novels and a testament to honor and military heriocs. Just plain FUN!
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: It begins where most adventures end and gets better. What could be more perfect than that?
- Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring: This pair of French films explores a wonderful tragedy of poetic justice. The first is a comedy that ends tragically. The second is a tragedy where the humanized bad guys find that the universe is watching and is exacting perfect poetic justice. Exquisite!
- The NeverEnding Story: The first time I saw it, I had a hard time getting past the awkward special effects. The second time I somehow completely plugged into the message of the story and it swept me away. Now when the opening music starts, I'm immediately swept into its wonderful universe every time, and I cry at the end. A story about how imagination is real.
- Lord of the Rings (Extended Edition): PeterJackson's epic fantasy-fest is fine in the theatrical release, but only achieves perfection in the extended editions, each of which adds at least 30 minutes of footage. The editing is different from the theatrical versions. MMuch more smooth and in keeping with the tempo of the story. If you haven't sat through the wonderful DVDs (6, plus 6 of how the movies were made) you haven't seen the whole movie.
- Love Actually: Another classic British Christmas story telling 7 tales of love, by the filmaker of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, and Notting Hill. It you're looking for a Christmas DVD, this is it (although it has the classic British comfort with bad language and nudity.)
- Once Upon a Time in the West: Jason Robards as a funny bad guy. Henry Fonda at his most evil. Charles Bronson in a role made for him. Perfect. Just perfect.
- Persuasion: One of the subtlest of Jane Austen films that may be only for Austen fans. But this one has so much wonderful subtext and builds almost excrutiatingly to the final kiss that you never knew how much a single kiss can mean. Notice how in Bath after the kiss the carnival goes down one street and they go alone down another. Perfect!
- The Philadelphia Story: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and James Stewart in another great comedy classic! "C.K. Dexter Haven, yure a man of unexthpected depth."
- Pride and Prejudice (1999 BBC): This 6-part, 5-hour edition of Jane Austen's classic is perfectly realized and perfectly cast. The one with Keira Knightly in the theaters now is nice, but has several miscastings. This one will never be topped.
- The Silence of the Lambs: Another film that I avoided at the theaters thinking it was horror trash. Au contraire! A perfect thriller every step of the way. As compelling a film as has ever been made. It deserves its 5 major oscars. The perfect thriller!
- The Terminator: All right, I admit it. I think James Cameron is one of our greatest filmakers. He knows how to write a story with nice interconnected elements, and he also knows how to combine romance and action. This is one of the great romances of all time! Kyle comes through time to save Sarah, the woman who's photo he fell in love with. He's a virgin who sleeps once with his love and conceive's the child who will save the planet by sending his father back to save his mother. It doesn't get any better than this!
- True Lies: James Cameron knows how to make a spy thriller! Action, surprises, twists. Cameron is a master at showing us what we've never seen before.
- Stargate SG1: I'm currently watching the 6th season on DVD. My wife and I started from the beginning. We are hooked. The movie was ho-hum, but Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver fame, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, and Michael Shanks create four of the most interesting characters doing the most fascinating things. Not as tight as Babylon 5, but great stories and humor. Buy Season 1 and then buy the following as you wish. My wife and I are watching 2 each night. It's been replacing many other shows.
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Posted by witnit at December 9, 2005 8:33 AM
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