So Ron, how's this years dvd of the year lookin so far? :-) (1 Viewer)

[Joshua Moran]

FOTR: EE Hands down. Episode 2 sports a better transfer by a hair but the extras just aren't great. I know alot of people think that Episode 1 DVD had reference sound but I don't its just to damn quite. Episode 2 has a superior soundtrack compared to Episode 1. But that is my opinion. Anyway back on Subject I think that FOTR:EE has an excellent soundtrack excellent video, and ungodly amount of extras in fact it's over 5 hours worth.

 

[Ted Lee]

i dunno...he really liked monsters inc too...

 

[Chad Gregory]

Lew,

Notorious and Rebecca came out last year, so they could not be candidates.

My vote would be for FOTR, hands down. Rounding out the top five in no paticular order, AOTC, Pearl Harbor: DC, Monsters, Inc., and Band of Brothers. There is a chance that Back to the Future could sneek in, but that remains to be seen.

-Chad

 

[Chris Tedesco]

In this order:

1st-LOTR:EE
2nd-Star Wars II:AOTC
3rd-Blade II

 

[Patrick McCart]

While it's obvious FOTR: EE will be DVD of the Year at pretty much every website (As it has been said before, Pearl Harbor lacks a decent movie while FOTR: EE has a fantastic movie with supplements to match)...
There really is a lot of competition this year.
We have Singin' In The Rain: Special Edition, A Hard Day's Night: Collector's Edition, and Beauty and the Beast: Platinum Edition. All of these feature excellent video/audio presentation (BatB looks bad when you view it at 100x zoom, though. ) along with lots of supplemental material.
Next year will be tough, though.
Here are my picks for best of 2003 (and I still need to pick up a few more titles...I'll add a few which I thing will be great when I purchase them):
1. Singin' In The Rain: Special Edition
2. Amadeus: Director's Cut - Special Edition
3. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: Special Edition
4. A Hard Day's Night: Special Edition
5. The Elephant Man
SITR, Amadeus: DC, and OFOWCN have flawless video/audio along with excellent supplements. Some have complained that the supplements for Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus are kind of slim. While there isn't a huge amount, the QUALITY of the making-of documentaries is excellent. A lot better than a bunch of publicity junk. SITR has a terrific set of extras and of great quality. The commentary and inspiration clips were the highlights. A Hard Day's Night has endless interviews. Is that a bad thing? Not at all! I can see perfectly why Miramax decided not to edit all these interviews into some small 1 hour documentary. Each interviewee is extremely interesting to listen to. My only complaint that The Running, Jumping Standing Still Film wasn't included. I have it on the Help! DVD, but it's from a digusting Super-8 print with every flaw possible. This CAN'T be the only source of the movie...the clips on AHDN: SE are B&W, but look fantastic. I pray the film isn't lost...
Why The Elephant Man? No chapter stops, just a few extras, and no commentary? First, the image is simply beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen a B&W film look so stunning. Even better, the audio is perfectly clear and faithful to the original style. Sure...it's mostly 3.1, but why use that leftover 2.0 if it's not needed? The making-of featurette was great, too.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Band of Brothers: excellent, but probably wouldn't be considered for DVD of the year because it's a miniseries.

A DVD is a DVD, no matter what the source material.
ST:TNG S1 & BoB should be contenders; TV series, miniseries, or whatever.
Both are championing the DVD format.
Would you exclude Monterey Pop because it's a documentary?

This question of features/presentation over content, is a tough one. PH Vista, except for some small packaging issues [and the movie] rocks. BoB content is overwhelming in it's scope & historical significance [w/ great packaging].
But would I pass on any of these, to "watch" Pulp Fiction, in a heartbeat.
I believe B&tB, would be a top contender, if it 'truly' gave us three [audio] versions of the movie.

My vote goes to the unbundled Trilogy; Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, & Jackie Brown.

 

[Chazz_S]

My votes:

1. LOTR EE (gift set)
2. Band of Brothers
3. AOTC

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Guys and Gals,
Last year I took on the bold responsibility of
naming what I felt was the DVD of the year. My
choice was Moulin Rouge. Some of you
supported my choice, others threw assorted vegetables
in my direction for my choice.
I don't know if I am going to do another end-of-year
writeup. I say this for several reasons. First, I
am just too busy writing DVD reviews. In fact, I have
piles of discs sitting on my desk that I have to
pick and choose from. Second, I often wonder if I
should really take it upon myself and make a choice
for the entire forum. Some of you were upset last
year that I did not ask your opinions first.
Truth is, it would have been an awful lengthy process
to round up nominations and then do a final vote.
My top choices for Best DVD would be:
Attack Of The Clones, Lord Of The Rings Extended
and Pearl Harbor. I'll think about whether
I want to make a final choice on behalf of the forum.
As far as the Best Studio of this year?
That's an easy pick. Right now, in a very unofficial
statement, I pick Disney. They have had an
absolutely incredible year with their DVD releases.
Even more impressive is the total turnabout they have
shown to this format.

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Some of the better DVDs of the year (IMO):
Pearl Harbor - Director's Cut: Vista Series. The video and audio quality are amazing and the extras are not only informative, but there are a ton of them. It's too bad the film was one of the worst films of 2001 (I only own it for the attack scene on Pearl Harbor... that and I only paid $9.99) as this would easily be the DVD of the Year.
Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Widescreen) has fantastic video and audio quality, but the extras are not as interesting (IMO) compared to those of TPM last year. Then again, it is a superior movie to TPM.
Blade II: New Line Platinum Series had good video quality, but excellent audio quality. The DVD was jam packed with extras and it was a better movie than the original Blade (IMO).
Monsters' Inc: 2 Disc Collector's Edition DVD is another DVD that had great video and audio quality and tons of informative extras.
ET: The Ultimate Gift Set includes one of the greatest movies ever made with great audio and video quality with some superb extras. It also doesn't hurt that the packaging is extremely nice.
The Fast and the Furious: Collector's Edition has good video quality, but one of the best Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks I have ever heard on a DVD. There are quite a bit of extras, but most of them aren't that interesting. Also, the film is a total piece of shit, but it was one of the most entertaining films of last year.
UHF has good video and audio quality for a low budget 1989 film, but the extras are top notch. Who can't get enough of a Weird Al commentary or deleted scenes hosted by Weird Al?
AI - Artificial Intelligence: 2 Disc Collector's Edition is an amazing film with great video and audio quality, plus an interesting array of extras.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: Collector's Series. It's Jay and Silent Bob.
Brotherhood of the Wolf: 3 Disc Collector's Edition. While the video isn't on par with the Universal one disc edition, it does have an amazing DTS soundtrack and two good feature-length documentaries. It's a shame that the audio commentaries are not subtitled.
Pulp Fiction: Collector's Edition. It's Pulp Fiction. Too bad most of the extras are rehashes from previous releases of the film.
And we still have a month and a half to go before the year ends. And I still need to watch FOTR: EE.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I suggest we turn this into a poll in January once all the 2002 DVDs are out.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Well, as Ron stated, this is his decision, and he can pick what he will. That said, I agreed with his choice last year in spades, but the bar gets raised every year.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), film quality, while subjective, must be considered. Barring a great-to-classic film, the set would have to so loaded that it's film school in a box to compete (see PH: Vista ).
We can all choose our DVD of the year, as much as we want It's quite clear what the majority chooses (as it's easily my pick as well), but the other potentials are also incredible. Nice that it's such a broad race...
Nothing like an embarassment of riches!
Chuck

 

[Daryl Stovall]

My List So Far:
FOTR EE w/Bookends
Brotherhood of the Wolf (Three Disc Coll.)
Blade II
AOTC
Monsters, Inc.
Pearl Harbor Vista Ed.

 

[JohnE]

Just based on the extras alone, I'd pick FOTR EE! I'm really just blown away by how much is there and how good it is. Of course the video and audio quality are pretty damn amazing as well.

 

[ChristopherS]

I do hope Ron lets the HTF membership vote on the DVD of the Year. I think it could work well if Ron nominated five (or possibly ten) DVD's, and then let the membership make the final decision in a poll.

Chris

 

[Blu]

Lotr:EE is hard to top
AOTC is probably a tie
But I would like to recoginze the explosion of TV on DVD such as Star Trek TNG and the amazing job Paramount has done releasing it!

 

[Brian E]

That's an easy pick. Right now, in a very unofficial

They've done some great stuff this year (B&tB, the Vault titles), but they've also done a lot of MAR titles too so I don't know if personally I'd consider them the best.


A top ten vote/poll would be kind of cool.

 

[Ray Chuang]

Here are my choices for the best DVD's in 2002:
1. Atlantis: The Lost Empire Collector's Edition. The video quality was superb, the audio quality was excellent on both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS tracks, and the Supplementary Disc was a masterpiece with lots of things to see and a flat-out superb menu navigation system.
2. Monsters, Inc. The video quality and sound quality was excellent, and the Supplementary disc was quite good, too. Too bad the movie was marred by the awkward layer change on the widescreen version of the movie.
3. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The video quality was eye-poping amazing, the Dolby Digital EX audio was excellent, and it had a pretty good Supplementary disc. Too bad the story was somewhat subpar and I really hated that Yo Da Man marketing campaign!
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition. Superb picture quality, superb sound quality, extremely insightful commentaries (four of them!), and totally awesome Appendices Supplementary discs with so much information it'll take days to see it all.
I think FoTR:EE probably wins hands-down as DVD set of the year.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I would pick LOTR: EE as the all around DVD package of the year. Not only does it have incredible picture quality mixed with incredible sound but it is the entire package and how it was put together in what makes this my dvd of the year.
Maybe this would go in the authoring category, but the layout of the extras on disc 3 and 4 is the best of any DVD I have seen to date, especially considering how much there is. First we are given an introduction button by Jackson himself explaining the dvd and how you can view them. Nice touch. Then we are giving the holy grail of dvd menu buttons, the Play All. Being able to play all of the extras back to back seamlessly with a press of a button was pure genius on the LOTR DVD team. It was well thought out, and having an easily read index also impressed me. This is something that the AOTC DVD fails at miserably IMHO. I tried to find the Beneath the Dome trailer and it took almost 15 minutes. I was everywhere on the disc, and in multiple sub levels and I could not find it. After multiple tries I finally found it in Dex's kitchen which is practically hidden. Mix in the slow and cumberson CGI animation inbetween every button press and you have the second most frustrating dvd of the year. Most frustrating goes to Harry Potter.
So overall DVD of the year combining, video, audio, extras, dvd authoring and layout:
1. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition
2. Pearl Harbor Director's Cut
3. Monster's Inc.
4. Episode II: Attack of the Clones
5. Blade II

 

[oscar_merkx]

There have been so many outstanding dvds in other regions as well.

From the same guys who produced Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition come TRON 20th anniversary edition. I thought this was an exceptionally good dvd with some outstanding special features. also from Disney I might add.
AOTC is fantastic to watch.

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned The Hustler yet, great print although few special features makes this in my book another excellent dvd.

cheers

 

[CaptDS9E]

Overall DVD's of the year

1)LOTR:Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition
2)Pearl Harbor:CE
3)SW: Episode II Attack of the clones-Not as many extras as the other 2 above
4)Blade II
5)Monsters Inc.
6)Star Trek:TNG Seasons 1-7 -Paramount did a amazing thing that no other studio has dared to do.
7)Beauty and the Beast

capt