- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
- Spend $25, Get FREE SHIPPING
Home Best of 2009 DVDs
Best of 2009 - DVDs
Best Movies
Academy Award voters feted the feel-good import Slumdog Millionaire as this year's Best Picture, to which we add our own affectionate "Jai Ho!" If you haven't seen this vibrant masterpiece, what are you waiting for? Mickey Rourke's Oscar bid for Best Actor fell shy, but the veteran actor's heart-wrenching, understated work in The Wrestler makes him a worthy contender here. Doubt, too, walked away empty handed on Oscar night, but the nominated turns from the ever brilliant Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Philip Seymour Hoffman made this DVD a sure thing. As for literary adaptations, Revolutionary Road, reuniting Titanic lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on another sinking ship (their marriage) was a powerful adaptation of the Richard Yates novel; Julie & Julia reteamed Doubt duo Amy Adams and Meryl Streep in a delicious take on Julie Powell's book; and the film version of Sue Monk Kidd's book The Secret Life of Bees ranks as one of the year's most moving DVD experiences. Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino also proved a riveting watch, thanks to Eastwood's remarkably gnarly turn. And Liam Neeson portrays a quietly, viciously adept hero in Taken, the year's best DVD thriller. Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen wear the white hats, at least figuratively, in Appaloosa, a western sure to withstand the test of time. And finally, we tip our party hats to one of the year's unexpected hits, the riotously funny Las Vegas bachelor-bacchanal farce The Hangover, which makes the keen observation that, well, some things just won't stay in Vegas.
Best Blu-rays
The high-definition format triggers entirely different receptors in our brains. It's the "Wow" factor, and no disc delivered it this year with quite the gusto of J. J. Abrams's exhilarating Star Trek revival. We tip our Blu beanies to Paramount, too, for remastering Star Trek - The Original Series for a Blu-ray release that puts the "fan" in fantastic. Magic and mayhem make deeper impressions on Blu-ray, too; so we nod approvingly to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for more than satisfying our high expectations, and District 9 for coming out of nowhere to thoroughly surprise us. It's no shock that the contemporary action classics Gladiator, Braveheart, and Fight Club play better in high def, but we single them out for including worthy new bonus materials on their definitive new Blu-ray editions. The impeccably transferred Monsters, Inc. affords us a chance to cheer the trend of including DVD and Digital Copies in some top-of-the-line Blu releases -- a boon to families on the go. And let us praise 2009's most exquisitely animated film, Coraline, a treat for kids who can handle "creepy." Finally, we acknowledge Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on purely technical merits. Come Oscar time, this blockbuster will likely compete for various sound and special effects awards. And if you've seen it on Blu-ray, you'll pick it to win, giant mechanical hands down.
Best TV-on-DVD Collections
When it comes to our 10 Best TV Collections, we like to start with the shows that grab us in the very first disc and don't let go until we've watched the whole season through. That's why True Blood -- with camp, horror, and drama all combined into one bloodthirsty package -- is what we've chosen to sink our fangs into as 2009's best TV collection. Breaking Bad hooked us with Bryan Cranston as meth-cooking cancer patient Walter White. And TV vets Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal make welcome returns as the stepfather and mother to a motorcycle gangster in Sons of Anarchy. Dr. Horrible's foil Captain Hammer (A.K.A. Nathan Fillion) also made an auspicious return as the crime novelist who likes to help solve murders in Castle. The clever, candy-coated singing-and-dancing high school drama Glee makes our list for its nonstop energy and great emerging characters. The year's top TV miniseries nods go to the dazzling BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit and HBO's dramatic, semi-fictional prequel Grey Gardens. Returning favorites made our list as well: Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) crashes the all-boys' club in Mad Men - Season 2; and it's an apocalyptic showdown that can't be beat on Supernatural - Season 4 -- complete with demons and angels. Finally, our hat tip for the year's outstanding full-series box set goes to Ally McBeal - The Complete Series, which may well launch a whole new era of '90s nostalgia.
Best DVDs for Kids
The animators at Pixar once again take the cake, as 2009's Up succeeds 2008's WALL-E, as our top kids' pick. It's as close to a perfect movie as we saw this year. Henry Selick's splendidly spooky Coraline awed us too. This animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book, though, casts its plucky heroine into eye-plucking peril, though, so parents of nightmare-prone tykes under 10 might take note. The right voice talent can make all the difference in an animated blockbuster, and that's why Monsters vs. Aliens -- with Reese Witherspoon and Hugh Laurie leading a wonderful cast -- and the John Travolta-speaks-dog adventure Bolt both earned lines on our list. Our final animated pick reunites Nick Park's animated duo, Wallace and Gromit; in A Matter of Loaf and Death, wherein the dysfunctional duo investigates a plague of missing bread bakers. Moving to live-action flicks, an orphaned brother and sister adopt dozens of stray pets in Hotel for Dogs, an inventive adaptation of Lois Duncan's novel. Cornelia Funke's beloved children's novel Inkheart comes energetically to the screen with kid-favorite Brendan Fraser. And rainbow-colored rock with magical wish-granting properties causes all sorts of problems in Shorts, another frenetic tween boy's dream from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. And rounding out our list are two sequels that arrived with new companion discs loaded with fun bonus features: Night at the Museum - Battle for the Smithsonian and Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa.
Best Classic Movie Releases
It's a good year to be 70. Septuagenarian classics Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz both underwent digital facelifts and emerged on Blu-ray and DVD editions that wowed fans from Tara to Munchkinland. Disney, too, returned gems from its vaults with fresh luster for the digital age, including Walt's original animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the beloved Pinocchio. Alfred Hitchcock made his Blu-ray debut this year with North by Northwest, a disc that sets the bar high for future Hitch Blu-rays. The final high-def pick on our list -- the gorgeous 40th Anniversary director's cut of Woodstock -- reminded us again just how astounding an event the festival was and how fortunate we were that several of the generation's finest young filmmakers were there to record it. Four DVD-only releases complete our list, the first three of them disc debuts: Director David Lean's rare and splendidly black-and-white comedy Hobson's Choice (1953); Fritz Lang's Man Hunt, a compelling 1941 thriller about an almost-assassination of Adolf Hitler; and the kvellegant delight that is Barbra Streisand's Yentl. Our final pick, Ulysses, is here because Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn's heroic performances cannot be denied. But here's hoping it gets a digital dusting and widescreen transfer for the inevitable Blu-ray.
Best Movie Collections
AK 100 - 25 Films by Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa (DVD)
- $399.99 List Price
- $319.99 Online Price
- (You Save 20%)
Every year brings at least one box set before which we bow deeply, and the gesture has never before been so fitting: AK 100 - 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa celebrates the master Japanese filmmaker's centennial by collecting his landmark works, including four U.S. DVD debuts. Sony delivered some dazzling collections this year, too, delving into the Columbia Pictures vaults in anticipation of the studio's 85th Anniversary (in 2010). Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1 is a must for the genre's fans, and the Samuel Fuller Film Collection. if a little less focused, is a welcome gathering of seven rarely seen films on which the groundbreaking filmmaker toiled. Thrills of an earlier vintage are on display in the Pre-Code Hollywood Collection, for which Universal dug into its vaults for seven Paramount films from the era before 1934, when the studios' self-censoring Hays Code went into full effect. Warner Bros., too, returned to the pre-Code well for the six-film Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 3. Both sets are filled with fascination. We also tip our fedoras to Paul Newman - The Tribute Collection, an elegant 13-film survey of the late, great actor's work for Fox. Alexander Korda's Private Lives boxes four of the Hungarian producer and director's historical dramas, including 1933's superb The Private Life of Henry VIII. We also salute Ken Burns's latest documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea -- yet another masterpiece. Two very different musical collections complete our list of the Top 10 boxes: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Live and Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1.&Both deliver time-capsule moments, little of it witnessed by fans prior to these releases, and most of it classic.
- AK 100 - 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa
- Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1
- The Samuel Fuller Collection
- Paul Newman - The Tribute Collection
- Pre-Code Hollywood Collection
- Forbidden Hollywood Collection - Volume Three
- Alexander Korda's Private Lives
- The National Parks - America's Best Idea
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum: Live
- Neil Young Archives Vol. 1
Best DVD Finds
Our favorite 2009 discoveries begin with Katyn, a 2007 Foreign-Language Oscar runner-up from Polish director Andrzej Wajda. Emotionally epic yet economically structured, it depicts events related to the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. Another World War II-era film making our list is the deeply affecting adaptation of John Boyne's international bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Five interwoven stories come together in Italian director Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah, a fittingly brutal adaptation of Roberto Saviano's epic crime novel. And Twilight fans looking for something less operatic are advised to grab the Swedish horror film Let the Right One In, one of the decade's best vampire films. Closer to home, The State - The Complete Series unearths a sketch-comedy treasure that MTV buried way too soon, built around the talents who went on to craft Reno 911. With its creative retelling of King David's tale from the Bible and Ian McShane's spectacular performance, NBC's short-lived Kings proves a marathon-worthy blast on DVD. The brilliant original British version of the time-warp detective series Life on Mars shows why ABC was so eager to attempt its own (failed) adaptation. Lost in Austen is a clever British miniseries that transports a modern Londoner into the fictional world of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. Two documentaries round out our list: We Shall Remain, a richly nuanced five-part exploration of Native American history from PBS hand Ric Burns; and Food, Inc., a sobering look at where the meat we purchase at the grocery store actually comes from.
Best DVD Deals
American Musicals - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection (DVD)
- $27.99 List Price
- $21.83 Online Price
- (You Save 22%)
We love the TCM Greatest Classic Movies series: You get four movies per set, and that's under $7 per movie But the real deals are the movies themselves. The American Musicals set offers Band Wagon, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain, and The Easter Parade. Greatest Comedies serves up Adam's Rib, Woman of the Year, The Philadelphia Story, and Bringing Up Baby. We could go on, too, about the Murder Mysteries, Broadway Musicals, and Science Fiction collections cited here. These fit the bill as the all-time greatest classic films. What the films in Icons of Screwball Comedy Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 lack in status compared to the TCM entries, they make up for in discovery. Culled from Columbia's vaults and transferred with obvious care to DVD for the first time, these gems from the 1930s and '40s feature four of the age's great comediennes -- Jean Arthur, Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne, and Loretta Young. Our last four-film deal, the Clint Eastwood - American Icon Collection, rings in at under $5 per film and presents the artist as a young auteur, including two films with Eastwood the actor, his debut as a director-star, and his debut as director-star-executive producer. The lone double-feature deal on our list pairs Michael Powell's A Matter of Life and Death and Age of Consent -- the former, a landmark of British cinema from 1946; the latter, a sensual, low-key delight from 1969, featuring all of young Helen Mirren. And finally, a single-disc offering: the long-unavailable animated feature Little Nemo - Adventures in Slumberland, a charming cult curiosity for kids that, while it deserves a better edition than this one, is still welcome and wonderful at just $7.99.
- American Musicals - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection
- Romantic Comedies - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection
- Murder Mysteries - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection
- Broadway Musicals - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection
- Sci-Fi - TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection
- Icons of Screwball Comedy, Vol. 1
- Icons of Screwball Comedy, Vol. 2
- Clint Eastwood: American Icon Collection
- Michael Powell Double Feature
- Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
© 2013 All Media Guide, LLC