Whereas our top three unintentionally mirrored the three most successful DVD titles of the year in terms of revenue accrued, we go off the board quite a bit with our fourth and fifth place selections. No Country For Old Men, our runner-up for Best Picture last year, maintained its popularity with the staff with its video release. The three-disc collector's edition has a few wonderful inclusions such as a Writer's Guild Q & A, a Variety screening Q & A, and several other online interviews that allow the viewer to gain a fuller appreciation of the world the Coen Brothers create for this film. With our fifth place entry, the film buffs at BOP move away from all of the biggest successes of the past two years, relishing the 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci classic, The Last Emperor. The Academy Award winner for Best Picture went an astonishing nine for nine on its nominations that year, and it finally received a long overdue Criterion Collection edition. Several of our staff were captivated by its reverential treatment, including an all new high-definition transfer accredited by the director himself. The loving care shown by the good people at Criterion is remarkable, even by their lofty standards. All cinema buffs need to add this title to their collection.

In a serendipitous bit of voting, BOP went with something old and something new in selecting our sixth and seventh favorite discs of the year. The Godfather Trilogy features a new high-definition transfer of the first two films that was directly overseen by the Coppola family. It also contains all of the extra features previously included with the 2001 release of the trilogy in a box set along with another two full discs of extras, a grand total of four discs worth. Fittingly, one of these enhancements is Godfather World, a feature that examines the influence of The Godfather on pop culture. This leads us directly to our choice for seventh best DVD of the year, which is The Sopranos The Complete Series. This uber-expensive (roughly $300) set is mainly for completionists, but if you are a fan of the modern day successor to The Godfather, it's a must-own box set. In addition to the entire run of the series, there are over 200 minutes of unaired features, a pair of CD soundtracks, innumerable never-before-aired deleted scenes and, my personal favorite feature of any disc over the past year, video of fan outrage over the ambiguous ending of the series. The fact that such a lavish and comprehensive compilation is willing to show that not everyone felt the series was perfect demonstrates the appropriate amount of confidence in their work and the passion it induced from viewers.

Rounding out the top ten are a pair of movies that are staff favorites plus a project that almost defies description, despite BOP's repeated attempts. Eighth place belongs to the Alex Proyas masterpiece, Dark City, and this director's cut does everything it can to allow the viewer to inhabit the surreal world he created. Three different commentary tracks explore all of the themes and ideas of the movie while making the viewer long for a sequel. Skipping ahead, tenth place is another wonderful movie, Charlie Wilson's War, written by BOP fave Aaron Sorkin. Chief among the special features on this disc is an enlightening interview with Charlie Wilson, the man himself. His guileless, almost too honest description of his character flaws as well as the actions he undertook during the process of ending the Cold War is mesmerizing. His matter-of-fact description of our interference in a silent war being fought in the Middle East is like watching a history book unfold and speak for itself. Who says heroes can't be horny?

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