Top Ten DVD's of 2004
By Chris Hyde
January 6, 2005
Now that the First has come and gone, it's time for a look back at the best DVD's of 2004.
Assessing the best DVD's of the year is an utterly subjective and somewhat arbitrary endeavor, especially given that you'd need nearly unlimited funds and an endless supply of time to actually survey the territory properly. The absurd number of disks released all over the world every week often makes it quite a challenge to decide which ones to buy, so of necessity many worthwhile offerings escape the view of even the most devoted fan. Still, it wouldn't be a lot of fun to just throw our hands in the air and lament for a thousand words about everything we've missed out on; so instead, let's proceed to choosing a slice of ten out of what has passed through our player in the last twelve months.
One note of caution: since BOP takes a leisurely view of the year end best-of roundup, we won't vote on our patented Calvin Awards for a couple weeks now; so it may be that by the time we get there a waiting disk or two may have been watched that forces a change to this list. But at this point, let's not worry about anything getting bumped—for even if that should happen, all the DVD's listed here will remain among the year's best.
The following top ten is listed in no particular hierarchical order.
Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition
Anchor Bay's loving restoration of George Romero's seminal classic is a powerful four-disc tribute to one of the great movies of the 1970's, bar none. Three versions of the film are presented with commentaries from the principals involved, and a pair of nice documentaries also makes the cut here. There's a veritable mountain of bonus material included as well, making this box set a completely irresistible purchase for any real horror fan. And, with the sort of kismet that often makes the universe an interesting place I was halfway thru watching all this stuff when Shaun of the Dead appeared locally—that week I felt like I was shambling on air.
The Noir Collection
When it comes to old-time studios releasing their library holdings to DVD, there's little doubt that Warner Brothers leads the pack. This year alone they released classic collections for the likes of Tarzan, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Cary Grant and the Marx Brothers, not to mention a cartoon box set that you'll see later in this list. But perhaps my favorite was this brilliant collection of five noir gems with beautiful transfers and feature length commentaries; the whole box was so nicely put together that it's easy to overlook the somewhat pedestrian nature of a couple of those audio tracks. Seeing Out of the Past or Gun Crazy alone finally come to DVD would have been enough for this viewer; that they came bundled up with other crime pics in a nicely priced set was a true gift from the gods.
One Armed Swordsman Box Set (R3 only)
Anyone who has followed the annual lists in this space for the last two years should find it unsurprising that a slot is taken up by a release from Celestial Pictures, as it's no secret that I find the company's re-release of the Shaw Brothers library to be one of the greatest boons of the DVD age. This year there was certainly no shortage of disks from the company vying for the top slot: winners like Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, Shaolin Mantis, Spiritual Boxer and Legendary Weapons of China could all easily compete here. But having the great trio of One Armed Swordsman films packaged together into a box sets this release apart, as they're all excellent martial arts outings. Toss in a bonus or two more than you generally get with these reissues, and you've got yourself a winner.
Videodrome Special Edition
If there's one company out there that seems most destined to make film fans go broke, then it's Criterion; their top notch releases of classic films come out relentlessly month after month. (And if you want to include Home Vision Entertainment as under their rubric then things get even worse). This year they released sparkling versions of masterworks such as Renoir's Rules of the Game (which might get this top ten slot on a different day), Clouzot's Le Corbeau, Godard's Woman is a Woman, Lang's The Testament of Dr Mabuse, Visconti's The Leopard, Franju's Eyes Without a Face and others too numerous to mention. To these eyes, however, the pick of the litter was their generous two-disc look at David Cronenberg's seminal Videodrome; jam packed to the top with extras, this voluminous breakdown of the offbeat director's best movie provides more insight into the eighties classic then you ever thought possible.
Judex
Atop all of the silent movies that moved from nitrate to digital this year stands this Feuillade serial put out by the unheralded Flicker Alley. To be sure, there were other pre-sound classics worth a long look inside the past twelve months: Warners' Buster Keaton collection, Kino's Slapstick Symposium disks (especially the Stan Laurel stuff) and Image's Charley Bowers DVD could all easily be noted as the apex of 2004 digital silents. (We'll just ignore here that I have yet to see Kino's Woman in the Moon or Spies releases, and that I haven't yet purchased the R2 disk that packages Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou and L' Age d'Or together). But hell, anything with Musidora was likely to come out on top anyhow, and having all the segments of a running story by one of France's greatest early directors in one place is just too good a deal to pass up here.
Looney Tunes Golden Collection 2
I had originally thought that I'd limit the choices for this top ten to one release per studio so as to give more recognition to more of the great DVD operations out there, but in the final assessment it was impossible for me to skip doubling up on Warner Brothers. As previously mentioned, this studio has a far better idea of how to handle their archives than most and treats their library collections with the respect that they deserve. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way they are approaching the reissuing of their classic cartoons—with gorgeous transfers, salient commentaries, wonderful music tracks and cool extras the norm. Essentially, there's absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to these cartoon box sets—all I can say is, bring on #3.
Lady Terminator
Given my love of all things globally fantastic, I'd sure be remiss in doing a top ten that left off something from the folks at Mondo Macabro, who continue to impress with their notoriously outré eye. Though they have still failed to deliver to me the version of Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid that I've been asking about for years now, nonetheless they have continued to successfully mine the "wild side of world cinema" with aplomb. I've lost track by now of exactly how many great low profile bits of weirdness they've dusted off overall, but I think the year's choicest offering from them came via this Indonesian ripoff of Arnie's most famous role. Filled with hilarious dialogue, bad music, over the top special effects and some very capable action direction from Jalil Jackson makes Lady Terminator a must-see for genre movie buffs.
Seduction of Inga
A simple straight re-issue of Marie Liledahl's sequel to her famous sexploitation classic would alone have been a great find for skinflick archaeologists, but Retro-Seduction went so much further here that this one easily slides into the top ten. This two-disk release collects not only a fullscreen version of the title film but also includes a grindhouse version in the proper 1:66 to 1 ratio. There's also a brief documentary on the Inga films, some various interviews with people associated with the movie and a host of other little extras included that help flesh out the main event. But the giant bonus included for this Special Edition is an entire, nearly lost Joe Sarno film (The Indelicate Balance) that comes with a full-length audio commentary by the director's wife. A landmark sex film laden with extras that include an archivally important neglected film by a pioneer of the genre? Yep, that's top ten material.
Three…Extremes: Dumplings (R3 only)
While most of the movies include on this list are older releases that have tons of extras that help put them over the top, this contemporary choice is here in the main because the movie itself is so fascinating. A sleek and quiet horror movie by the usually independent Hong Kong director Fruit Chan that stars Bai Ling and Miriam Yeung, this disk represents a longer version of a tale the filmmaker created for the theatrical sequel to the popular Asian anthology Three. Asia has of late become a primary source of terrifying films in the global marketplace, though this film's headier aspects (not to mention its fetally oriented subject matter) make this interesting story an unlikely candidate for the Hollywood remake parade. So perhaps you'll just have to avail yourself of the excellent original, which really isn't a big drawback—because this is one of the more intelligently made films of terror to come out of Hong Kong in many years.
Lady Snowblood
Now that I've reached the tenth slot in this year end countdown, it seems just about impossible to make the final choice. There are so many releases that might go here—Robinson Crusoe, All the Colors of the Dark, Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural, In A Year With Thirteen Moons, Blue Spring et cetera et cetera. But for the time being we'll give this spot to Animeigo's beautiful 2:35 to 1 transfer of this legendary Japanese revenge 'n swordplay fest. It wasn't the only excellent Meiko Kaji release of the year (also notable is HVE's ubercool Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter disk), but it's the best—from the pristine print to the remarkably arresting glare of the film's star, this one is a true classic. If you've seen Kill Bill and you haven't yet seen this antecedent, then you're really missing out. (Let's just say that O-Ren Ishii would last about a second and a half against Lady Snowblood).
Other Assorted Odds and Ends From 2004:
Still in the to-be-watched pile:
Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Koma, Freaks SE, Bowanga Bowanga/Wild Women of Wongo/Virgin Sacrifice.
Notable 2004 releases that I really should have bought but haven't yet:
La Bete Three disc Special Edition, Strangers on a Train SE, Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Man of the West (the R2 French DVD of Anthony Mann's metawestern), The Creature From the Black Lagoon Legacy Collection, and…..well about ten thousand more.
Worst Trend of the Year
The continued collapse of the dollar against the yen and the euro has led to a steady increase in import DVD prices, just when you thought Japanese DVD's couldn't possibly be any more expensive than they already were. From a purely selfish standpoint, I'm beginning to warm more and more to that damned dollar-remnibi peg.
Holiday Release of the Year:
Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. The two commentary tracks included aren't great listening all the way through, but they are informative and make for a great bonus extra.
Music Release of the Year:
Dead Boys Live at CBGB's 1977. Stiv and co. kick out the jams at New York's legendary punk hotspot and the whole thing gets recorded by multiple videocameras. Essential.
Best DVD Package for a Movie That Didn't Really Deserve It:
Wonderland Limited Edition. A brilliant bunch of extras piled on top of a fairly mediocre movie, but worth the purchase price for the inclusion of the John Holmes docu Wadd and the other bonus material. This DVD is also the winner of the grimmest extra of the year category for the disk's inclusion of the actual (and grisly) LAPD video footage from the scene of the Wonderland killings.
Runner-up: Francis Ford Coppola's musical One From the Heart ultimately disappoints as a movie, but the insanely good production design comes through on Fantoma's great SE for the film. The bonus extras additionally go a good long way towards making clear the history behind the picture—which really isn't all that pretty (going backstage at the sausage factory rarely is), but is extremely interesting overall.
Most Anticipated Release That Was Ultimately Proved a Letdown:
I certainly have nothing bad to say about the actual DVD that Fantoma released of Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone--but this movie really annoyed the living crap out of me, Herve Villechaize or no Herve Villechaize.
Best Re-Release of a Somewhat Overlooked Movie by a Great Director:
Warner's wonderful disk of Martin Scorsese's eighties urban black comedy After Hours returns one of the filmmaker's most neglected works to its proper place in his personal pantheon.
Non-Shaw's Martial Arts Release of the Year
Tokyo Shock happily got their hands on a decent print of Joseph Kuo's 7 Grandmasters and issued it to disk in 2004. They also smartly gave us brand new English subtitles and included the original audio track, resulting in perhaps the best digital version of this kung fu gem that we're ever gonna see.
Most Improved DVD Company of the Year:
Media Blasters/Shriek Show/etc. While I'm still not convinced that everything is as it should be over there at this outfit, but there's no denying that their 2004 slate showed a marked improvement with a slew of great DVD's that ultimately had few flaws.
Best New DVD Company of the Year:
Thunderbean Animation, whose great collections of classic cartoons are both professionally done and historically invaluable.
Favorite TV to DVD release of the Year:
Rhino's issuing of the first two seasons of the Land of the Lost Saturday morning live action show with piles of extras made me nostalgic for the 1970's. I remain dismayed that they didn't interview Bill Laimbeer for some Sleestak on the set stories, but I guess I'll get over it.
Runner-up: Green Acres Season One. The sometimes surreal antics of Oliver Wendell Douglas and the residents of Hooterville have always been a particular favorite of mine, and though there's no bonus stuff here this disk's bargain price makes that omission easily overlooked.
Favorite TV to DVD release of the Year with the Biggest Caveat:
Universal's Columbo Season 1 set is a wonder to behold from the standpoint of the show—it's brilliantly acted, has great 70's guest stars, many of the early episodes were shot by cinematographic genius Russell Metty, one of the pilots was directed by Stephen Spielberg and Stephen Bochco was the script consultant. But hell, Universal—could you at least have given us a paltry one extra somewhere amongst the five discs??? You didn't even include a synopsis of the shows or anything. That's just plain pitiful.
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