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Movies on DVD
Being a big movie fan has had its rewards in the past 5 or 6 years with the proliferation of DVDs on the market. I am one of those people who lives for the special features that are included – deleted scenes, “making of” specials, gag reels, alternate endings – you name it, I’m watching it. Of course, with DVDs comes certain movies that can show off the type of surround sound system you have or how big your screen is. My initial standby for showing off my system was the Terminator 2 disc. There’s not many better opening scenes from a blockbuster movie to show off what your system can do besides T2. When DVDs first came out, The Fugitive was the standard movie displayed in big-screen TV stores.

There is one uber-set of DVD releases and nothing comes even close if you are comparing extended scenes and “making of” featurettes. The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition trilogy is the gold standard by which I compare all other DVD releases. Not only does Peter Jackson include 30-45 minutes of extra scenes into his 3-3.5 hour epics, none of the scenes are “throwaway” scenes where it’s obvious even to a causal moviegoer that the editor did a good job by taking those out of the theatrical release. With the Lord of the Rings movies, not only did they add legitimate scenes, but since there was some much CGI in the film, it also took them additional time to add those scenes that hadn’t even been made prior to the theatrical release. Add that to 4 audio commentaries, plus 2 bonus discs for each movie and you have what I consider to be the perfect DVD trilogy. It doesn’t hurt that the movies are great too, which is why they blow away the Star Wars trilogy not only for additional content but for the movies themselves.

Studios have realized the value of releasing DVDs and while it’s great to get extras on a movie you like, it’s frustrating when a studio will hold back extras in order to re-release the movie a few years down the line. Not only have some movies been “double-dipped”, some are “triple-dipped” and the trend will continue. I have some 20th Anniversary DVDs that are now outdated since there are extra extras on the 25th anniversary releases. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore because, while I love the extras, I notice that I tend to only see them once.

I have also cooled down in my DVD pursuit now that I have copies of the standards that I had on VHS. Certain boxed sets are a must-have for any guy – Godfather, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings. I also consider it a must to have a base Tarantino collection too - Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Kill Bill 1&2 are manly men movies that I enjoy more each time I view them.

What I’ve noticed is that even though I have all these movies, rarely do I view it again or at least with regularity. Comedies tend to get more repeat viewings by me, as I never tire of classics like the Blues Brothers or Animal House. I also have several designated “Drunk DVDs” which I tend to watch after a night of drinking. My standard movie when my blood alcohol level is elevated is The Big Lebowski. Drunk or sober, I think that movie stands the test of time. Every once in a while I’ll pop in my Criterion Collection DVD of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas which stars one of the best actors in Hollywood today (Johnny Depp) and based on my favorite writer of all time (Hunter S Thomson). There is a new drunk comedy that I think will be a cult classic. Don’t laugh, but it’s Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Before you snicker, where else will you get to see a grown up Doogie Howser snort coke off a hooker’s ass?

There is one more category which gets repeat viewings every year – Christmas movies. I’m a sucker for the classic holiday flick. The gold standard in this category for me is A Christmas Story. Now that I have it on DVD, I don’t have to watch commercials on Christmas Eve on TNT (although I think it’s great that they play it for 24 hours straight). It’s also nice to own It’s A Wonderful Life on DVD now that NBC owns it and only shows it once a year and drags it out over 3 hours with commercials and celebrity “rememberings”. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a classic too, back when Chevy Chase was actually funny. If you want to go the manly route, you can even categorize Die Hard as a Christmas movie, as the story takes place at a Christmas holiday party. There are two more Christmas movies I need to buy – Planes, Trains, & Automobiles and Home Alone. Yeah, some of the flicks on this list can be sappy but that’s what the holidays are about.