Best 2007: DVDs!!

2007 was a year of change for home video. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have themselves fully involved in a format war, much to the chagrin of fans everywhere. Television sets are finishing up. And DVD sales are finally starting to head down towards the end of their product life cycle. As pivotal as 2007 was for home video, I anticipate 2008 being a defining year and hopefully we’ll see an end to the format war and beginnings of a new frontier in home video.

Release that further proves men don’t understand women:

GREY’S ANATOMY SEASON 3

Forget for a second that this show is unbearably bad. It’s basically a juvenile, MTV version of ER. It’s even worse that the lead actress has a permanent squinty look that makes her look like she’s struggling to take a dump. While being forced to sit through this horrible season, I found myself laughing hysterically at the ridiculous plot “twists” as each character seems to only be able to sleep with someone they work with. I turn to my girl hoping to get a nod of approval or to share in a laugh and all I got were the evil eyes. She, and many women like her, actually enjoy this show and don’t find it embarrassingly bad. I don’t get it.

Release that proves when men think they know women, they really don’t:

300

I sat down to watch this with a bunch of couple-friends. On the side, the guys were sure the women would hate it and we’d have to go out to dinner or something afterwards to make up for it. We expected constant complaining throughout. Then when the movie started, we heard nothing from the ladies except whooping and hollering at the guys with their shirts off. Until, that is, when the female lead character drives a sword through a guy, then we hear the women cheering and applauding. None of us saw that one coming.

DVD release that would make a better coaster:

PUCKED, or anything from National Lampoon

It’s common knowledge now that anything with “National Lampoon” in the title is sure to be a horrible movie, but with PUCKED, they sunk even lower, and that’s saying a lot after last year’s PLEDGE THIS. I’m not sure what happened to the folks over at National Lampoon, but the name has been forever ruined and each year seems to give a worse release than the previous.

Long awaited DVD release that finally got released:

EYES WIDE SHUT SE

I think BLADE RUNNER would also fit into this category, but the release of EYES WIDE SHUT seemed to have gone unnoticed. It wasn’t Kubrick’s finest film, but audiences never got to experience it in the manner he intended. I’m pleased that the final cut has finally found a home on DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD.

Worst excuse to milk more money out of loyal fans:

SERENITY SE

I really like Joss Whedon, but this double-dip of SERENITY was completely pointless. The film was the same and all we got were some extra featurettes that we probably weren’t going to watch anyway. It’s bad enough to have a double-dip, but to not give us anything of substance is just wrong.

Worst trend in DVD releases:

SERIES SETS

I find season sets of TV shows to be a strange marketing ploy for studios. If you like a show enough to shell out $200 for a set, chances are good you already have the seasons. Shows like SEINFELD, ANGEL and X-FILES have loyal followings and most of us have been buying them all along. If studios are going to continue this, then please sell the cool packaging separately so loyal fans of the show can have it without re-buying the series. Warner Brothers did this with the FRIENDS box and that was very cool.

Best commentary:

KNOCKED UP/SUPERBAD

By now everyone knows that Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow are the new kings of comedy. There are many things that make them great, but perhaps the most important thing is the fact that they’re genuinely funny guys. For proof, listen to the commentary tracks on KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD. The whole gang shows up to provide just as many laughs as the actual movie. Good stuff.

Special Edition that was just a few years too late:

PASSION OF THE CHRIST SE

When this film first hit theaters, it was all you heard about. It didn’t matter what religion you were, everyone had an opinion on it. Now it’s just old news and not many people cared about this deluxe edition. When the bare bones release came out in 2004, everyone knew it was going to get the SE treatment at some point. We just didn’t know it was going to be three years later.

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