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  The 10 Best Movie DVDs
An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore It is an unlikely film that leads our list for the year's best DVDs, and it is an inevitable choice as well. An Inconvenient Truth didn't slash its way through the box office records (Pirates of the Caribbean 2) or serve as an unofficial referendum on couch jumping (Mission: Impossible III). But the film did force the debate over human impact on the environment to the forefront, effectively making the case in its scant 100 minutes that we share the ominous task of rescuing the planet from the cumulative ravages of industrialization. Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim's provocative documentary delivers former vice president Al Gore's lecture -- one he has been delivering to college campuses for years -- in a straightforward manner, spicing up the graphics to compelling effect. The DVD isn't exactly an extras-fest: There's an update by Gore, and two commentary tracks by the director and producers. Yet it is the most vital disc to come across our desks all year. 
The Devil Wears Prada Meryl Streep Great literature often loses a lot in translation to the screen. Fortunately, there are books that actually gain something on their journey to the multiplex. The Devil Wears Prada will endure as a shining example of this, thanks mainly to Meryl Streep, who will likely add to her record for individual Academy Award nominations with this performance. As Miranda Priestly, a fashion magazine potentate modeled after Vogue chief Anna Wintour (Prada author Lauren Weissberger's onetime boss), Streep makes the movie her own, and director David Frankel wisely lets her. This movie fits DVD to a tee, inviting frequent rewinds for bits of business by Streep and costars Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt. And, of course, there's freeze-frame for the fashions themselves.
Brokeback Mountain Heath Ledger We couldn’t compose a list of the year’s best DVD movies without Brokeback Mountain, the so-called "gay cowboy movie" that, in reality, was perhaps the year’s most compelling -- and popular -- love story. There are good reasons, all on the screen, why Ang Lee earned the Academy Award for Best Director, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana took home Oscars for adapting Annie Proulx’s short story, and costars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger earned nominations for their work as the forbidden lovers. Released initially on DVD with just a handful of featurettes (a two-disc Collector’s Edition arrives January 23), it was nonetheless an essential disc for fans of contemporary drama.
Crash Director's Cut (2-Disc Set) Sandra Bullock The 2006 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Crash is among the handful of films to reach DVD that we could recommend without reservation. That's not to say that everyone liked it. In fact, movie fans championing Brokeback Mountain's Oscar run through February and March came to regard the film with disdain. But Crash is a movie that needs to be seen, even if its provocative examination of racial tensions feels a trifle too tidy for some. Plentiful bonus features make this two-disc Director's Cut the choice for us. The new cut itself runs only two minutes longer than the theatrical version, but the wealth of material on Disc 2 put it over the top.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Georgie Henley Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came away from the Academy Awards with a single token -- for Make-Up. But this spectacular fantasy, based on C. S. Lewis's beloved stories, earned a place of honor on our shelf. Unlike the recent epic treatments of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Narnia is suitable for children, say, seven and up. (White Witch Tilda Swinton and her lot are just way too scary for some five-year-olds.) Still, it's truly a family-friendly film, as opposed to a kids' film that adults can tolerate, and a very promising start for the franchise. It's also one that will have to tide us over for a while: The next installment, Prince Caspian, won't arrive in theaters until May 2008.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Daniel Radcliffe Given our loose criteria, which weigh both the movie itself and the DVD supplements in considering discs for this list, the movies based on author J. K. Rowling's phenomenal book series have often failed to make the cut. They’ve all been great DVDs in their way; but, for us, the superb Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with its Hogwarts-on-hormones re-jiggering of the social order and sundry PG-13 complexities, is a distinct cut above its predecessors. Goblet of Fire would make this list even if its supplements weren’t spectacular -- which they are. Commentary tracks often carry the behind-the-scenes weight on a DVD. Not here. Rather than a commentary track, we get hours of on-the-set production information and interviews, all very thoughtfully organized and often quite eye-opening. We are finally just wild about Harry.
A Prairie Home Companion Garrison Keillor The great American filmmaker Robert Altman died in November, shortly after A Prairie Home Companion reached DVD, ensuring greater attention to this genial little film. For those just discovering Altman, Prairie Home's a splendid introduction to the stylistic flourishes that defined his films, such as the overlapping dialogue and lyrical storytelling. It's closing night for a legendary radio variety show hosted by Garrison Keillor (who collaborated on the screenplay), as an angel of death (Virginia Madsen) wanders about backstage as the show unfolds and the various participants prepare, or don't, for…whatever. It's a fitting and bittersweet swan song for the legendary maverick.
United 93 David Alan Basche Two very different films considered the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -- Paul Greengrass's United 93 and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center -- and both represent remarkable achievements. For us, though, United 93 leaps a little higher over the bar, depicting the titular doomed Newark-to-San Francisco flight that crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Writer-director Greengrass balances the Bush administration's version of the story -- that an organized passenger revolt foiled the hijackers and caused the crash -- and the 9/11 Commission's more ambiguous report, and unfolds in real time. It has the visceral punch of a horror film. Stone's survival tale hits you in the gut, too, only not as hard. Were it simply a matter of extras, the 2-Disc World Trade Center would be the choice. It truly lives up the "Commemorative Edition" label.
Little Miss Sunshine Greg Kinnear One of the year's best acting ensembles -- including Steve Carrell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Alan Arkin -- highlight a quirky little indie crowd-pleaser that gets warm and fuzzy without going soft and mushy. DVD extras include four alternate endings! .
The Matador Pierce Brosnan A film seen by few during its theatrical run, The Matador makes our list of the year's best thanks to the winning performances of stars Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, as well as the clever story and the stylish direction of Richard Shepard (who also wrote the screenplay). Playing a high-caliber hit man with a taste for booze and women, Brosnan shakes and stirs the suave image he cultivated in his seven-year run as 007. James Bond would never unleash the bawdy one-liners Brosnan spouts here, but you can tell he's having the time of his life letting it all hang out, including his beer gut. Kinnear is perfect, too, as the uptight marketing executive who meets Brosnan in a Mexico City bar and becomes, against all odds, his best friend. The Matador never aspires to be more than a well-made buddy comedy, and it succeeds with near-perfect execution. Also near perfect it the DVD's funny, spirited commentary track, which reunites Shepard, Brosnan, and Kinnear.
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