PopSyndicate.com

Thousands of DVDs are released every year.  How do you pick the best and worst titles?  It’s not easy but the Pop Syndicate reviewers make their choices.  Do you agree?  What was left off?

John Geysen

Best of 2008

1. Bigger Stronger Faster* Directed by Chris Bell:
An odd choice. But this doc. is so well done and levelheaded that I had to put it on my list.

2. Batman - The Complete Animated Series:
I’ve only lusted after this. It’s got it all and then some. A great show gets the first class treatment. (See Madison Carter’s review)

3 & 4. Iron Man and The Dark Knight:
Normally I look for DVD’s that aren’t simply digital copies of big budget releases. But these two comic book films are awesome.

5. Touch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition):
Orson Welles at his best. A classic of film noir. Charlton Heston without the apes or the bible. 3 versions of the film! A must for movie buffs.

6.  No Country for Old Men:
An instant Coen brothers classic. One of the best literary adaptations I’ve ever seen.

7. The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration:
Redone again but this time it’s worth it. These films look amazing.

8. Battlestar Galactica - Season Three
I had to include the best show on TV.

9. Kung Fu Panda:
An original kid’s film. Not just a rehash. Despite Jack Black it’s funny.

10. The Clone Wars:
But for a few weird choices (Truman Capote as Jabba’s Uncle?) Clone Wars beats the prequels. It brings the fun back to Star Wars.

Worst

1. Juno:
Ugh. Give it a rest already.

2. Knocked Up:
So built up by coworkers and friends, I couldn’t help but be let down when I saw it on DVD.

3. Entourage: The Complete Fourth Season
People want to own this? This says something awful about America.

4. Saw IV:
Are people still watching these?

5. Rambo:
I loved the last Rocky. It brought the series back to its roots. It was a FILM that told a story with characters and a subdued (mostly) style. I was hoping for the same thing here. Nope. A gory mess. Why not bring back Brian Dennehy?

Bill Bryant

The Top Ten DVD releases:

In no particular order

Teeth - I’m loathe to call it a ‘coming of age’ story, but I suppose that it does apply, and the performances are great in this little film about a girl with teeth in her vagina.  If you only rent one film about a girl with teeth in her vagina, make it this one.

The Signal (Blu-ray) - A well constructed tale in three acts, each building upon the other to tell a larger story as a strange signal broadcast over television and radio drives everyone insane. A cheating wife and her husband play out their personal drama against this apocalypse, and it’s very intriguing.

Blood Car - In the near future, a vegan teacher accidentally creates a car that runs on human blood while perfecting his wheat grass engine.  Lots of amusing one liners and ridiculous situations make for a fun viewing experience.

Iron Man (Blu-ray) - Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark, smart ass and suave, and a time bomb with a cocktail in his hand.  The Blu-ray release comes pretty loaded with features and looks amazing, who knew I’d enjoy a film about a comic character I never read this much?

There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) - A film I never caught in theaters, but watched on Blu for the first time this year.  Then watched a second time the next night to show a relative, then watched again a few weeks later with others.  An amazing film, beautifully shot and well worth owning.

Blade Runner 5 Disc Edition (Blu-ray) - One of the first things I bought on Blu-ray, and this set is simply stunning in the thoroughness to which they’ve gone to touch up the film as well as archive all the various versions that’ve floated around all these years.

Inside - Creepy and disturbing, the soundtrack to the French horror film really got under my skin, amazingly effective use of music and environment.

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer - A splattery love letter to some 80’s classics, filled with practical effects and a new horror hero willing to get his hands dirty when the demons come a callin’, this is well worth grabbing for the collection, so keep your eyes peeled for the 2 disc edition ( a Best Buy exclusive, I believe) that has some bonus content not found on the single disc.

The Machine Girl - Talking of special effects, this over the top splatterfest is a very fun watch, and does exactly what it says on the tin.  Sporting a machine gun in place of a severed arm, she wreaks bloody vengeance on the Yakuza who ruined her life.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Blu-ray) - The Judd Apatow cabal of comedic actors and writers continues to churn out these epic length comedies (I’m not sure when the average comedy went from 90 minutes to 120+), but I’ll be damned if this didn’t keep me laughing throughout.  Loaded with bonus material, it’s a great buy and highly re-watchable.

Bottom Five:

In no particular order other than the one in which they occurred to me:

The Happening (Blu-ray) - Spooky environmentalist BS that started off well enough but fell to pieces the moment they give us the mid-film reveal of the true culprit. We’re trying to outrun the wind?  Seriously?

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (Blu-ray) - I fell for the rental because I thought maybe the Jet Li/Michelle Yeoh combo could make this CGI nightmare worth my time.  Then I see CGI Yetis kicking a guy between two pillars and react as if they scored a field goal.

88 Minutes - This film involves way more suspension of disbelief than I’m capable if to make it a decent thriller.  Pacino stalked by a threat that anticipates his losing a cellphone and even tracks him down via others’ phones?  What is this, The Ring?

Lake Dead - Shame on me, because the After Dark Horrorfest has screwed me many times before, yet I still pop them on the Netflix queue like a battered wife coming back for more.

Prom Night - As a seasoned 33 yr old male horror fan, this film wasn’t directed at me at all, but rather at all the teeny-boppers who have now moved on to things like Twilight.

Stefan Halley

Best of 2008

The Complete Monty Pythons Flying Circus – Collectors Edition Megaset
Wall-E
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
The Godfather – The Coppola Restoration
Iron Man
Spaced – The Complete Series
Freakazoid: The Complete First Season
Inglorious Bastards
Persepolis
Princess

Worst:

Masters of Science Fiction
Hell Ride
Mummy 3
Pressure Cook: Season One
The Love Guru

Krysten Hager

Best:

Run, Fat Boy, Run
Michael Clayton
National Treasure 2
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Sex and the City
Enchanted
Burn Notice Season One
The Mummy 3
Spiderwick Chronicles
Pushing Daisies

Worst:

The Love Guru
What Happens in Vegas
Meet the Spartans
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
The Eye

Matt Rox

Best of 2008

1. Dark Knight – The best movie of 2008 makes the best DVD of 2008. No brainer.

2. Lost: The Complete 4th Season – Short but powerful season. Also, this set has some great original extras.

3. John Adams – This set made my lazy American patriotism jump up and cheer. Edutaiment at its best.

4. Wall-E – Pixar triumphs with very little dialogue, but plenty of heart. Even if that heart does pump motor oil.

5. Star Wars: the Clone Wars – A great companion piece to the live action sextet. Some of the most impressive CGI fight scenes ever.

6. Iron-Man – A revolution in super-hero movies. With the best post-credits epilogue we’ve seen in a long time.

7. In Bruges – The comedy/drama/gangster genre at its finest. And it has what are possibly the funniest dwarf scenes of 2008.

8. Justice League: New Frontier – The only bad thing about this cartoon movie is that it didn’t spin-off into a TV series. Maybe work on that, Warner Bros.?

9. Tropic Thunder – Possibly one of the funniest commentary tracks ever recorded. Ever.

10. Religulous – Move over Michael Moore. Bask in all that is Bill Maher.

Worst

1. Allan Quartermain and the Temple of the Skulls – Thinly veiled Indiana Jones rip-off that stole my soul and quite possibly gave my DVD player emotional issues.

2. Sex & the City: The Movie – Just when I thought I couldn’t care about this series any less.

3. Nights in Rodanthe – Anything that keeps Nicholas Sparks in the minds of the public must be burned at the stake.

4. Wanted – Awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful. Nothing but a 2 hour rape of some absolutely brilliant source material.

5. Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: best of Both Worlds 3-D Concert – You want to raise our global education rating, America? Let’s put an end to it by boycotting this ridiculous pap.

Angela Wilson

Best:

1.  Damages Season 1 (I worship this DVD set)
2.  LOST Season 4
3.  Sabrina Season 4
4.  Meet the Browns
5.  Noble House Anniversary Edition
6.  Cheers Season 9
7.  What Would Jesus Buy?
8.  The Golden Compass
9.  We Own the Night
10.  Hawaii Five-0 Season 3

Worst:
1.  Watching the Detectives
2.  Stargate Infinity: The Cartoon Complete Series
3.  Room 205
4.  Mad Money
5.  Blackout

Madison Carter

Best of 2008

10./9. Three Stooges Volumes 3 (1940-1942) and 4 (1943-1945) – Though they lack any special features, two back-to-back releases of Curly, Larry & Moe are great stuff, with some wonderful restorations.

8. Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition – The Bots’ first release under Shout Factory proved to be just as fun, even more fun, than the Rhino editions. With the Best Brains crew fully involved, future releases should be just as cool.

7. Cultoons volume 3: Monkeys, Monsters & More – One of the awesome things about DVD is the number of guerrilla distributors who are releasing the most obscure things imaginable. Leave it to Thunderbean to come out with another edition in their series of the most bizarre and head-scratchingly weird classic animation out there.

6. The Dark Knight – the 2-disc edition has such added extras as mock Gotham news shows, complete with Bale and friends working in character. Plus it had an entire extra explaining how they came up with that freaky deaky buzzing sound that permeates the soundtrack.

4./5. Popeye volumes 2 (1938-1940) & 3 (1941-1943) – Warner Brothers split this four-disc set into two smaller separate releases so that they could give them the care and attention needed. It worked.

3. Complete Little Rascals – All 80 or so of the Hal Roach-era Rascals makes for fun nostalgia. That it was done with a tremendous amount of restoration makes it even better. Now if someone could just round up the post-Roach Our Gang shorts for a similar release…

2.Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald volume 4 – Disney toyed with discontinuing the Treasures line last year, but the outcry over them not releasing one final batch of Donald Duck cartoons was so great they changed their minds. That’s how awesome people knew this fourth and final collection of Donald ‘toons would be.

1. Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume 6 – While the Disney Treasures line staved off oblivion, the LTGC may not escape that fate. If this is indeed the final release in the series, they went out with a bang. Throwing casual marketing out the window, this set was geared towards the hardcore Looney Tunes fan, leaving it packed not with Bugs Bunny cartoons but with long-buried WWII-era propaganda, archaic pre-Porky shorts and even some of the studio’s last-ditch experimental shorts near the end. Worth every penny and then some.

Amanda Rush
Best of 2008

Dark Knight. Big duh there.
Welcome to the NHK (yeah, I know it’s anime. it’s still freaking genius).
Deadwood Complete Series
Hellboy II
Wall.E (even though the case was a little gotarded)
Doctor Who series four
John Adams
Across the Universe
Stars Wars Box Set (freaking *finally*)
Nightmare Before Christmas collector set
Metalocalypse (easter eggs galore!)
A Colbert Christmas
Muse: H.A.A.R.P.
Upright Citizens Brigade: Asssscat! (we bust out this dvd to help in socially awkward situations. it never fails us)

Worst

Love and Honor (so, so very boring)
Anything remotely involved with Miley Cyrus (may something large fall on her head and crush her)
Incredible Hulk
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
Jumper
Made of Honor (it seems like I spent all year waiting for those annoying commercials to GO AWAY)
The Hills

Bella Phen

Best of 2008

1. Aria The Animation boxed set
2. Darker Than Black part 1
3. Gurren Lagann part 1
4. Hancock
5. Dexter season two box set
6. Wall-E
7. Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion part 1
8. Duchess
9. Negima spring and summer OVA
10. Air Gear
The worst of the year.

1. Legend of God’s Gun

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