At long last, here's the second installment of my 2009 summary write-ups. In this list, I've tried to point out some of the special high points of the 2009 DVD and Blu-ray release slates. The key with this list is not really to point out excellent movies and TV series (that's what my previous TV list, and my forthcoming movie list, are for). Rather, this is intended to highlight some of the cool things that are happening on home video, in terms of audio/video quality and special features. With that in mind, here are ten of my picks, in absolute no order whatsoever. Enjoy!
Pixar on Blu-ray
The home video releases of Pixar movies have always delivered the highest quality, in terms of video, audio, and supplements. After only one Blu-ray release in 2008 (for Wall-E), Pixar opened the floodgates in 2009, delivering stunning Blu-rays of three of their titles. May brought us a jaw-droppingly beautiful Blu-ray of A Bug's Life, while November gave us the stellar releases of Up and Monsters, Inc... which, thanks to Disney's various offers, were incredibly affordable (I paid a total of $1.12 on release day for both!). Next year should be awesome, with the first two Toy Story movies due on Blu-ray March 23, and the theatrical and Blu-ray releases of Toy Story 3 in June and the fourth quarter of 2010, respectively... and who knows, could they give us Finding Nemo and The Incredibles as well? :-)
Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Blu-ray
It's getting harder and harder for a home video release to truly astonish me, especially for older movie titles. But if I had to pick one classic release that blew me away this year, it would have to be this mega-release for the 1994 director's cut of the classic documentary on the 1969 concert. Remastered on home video for the first time since 1997, the picture quality is a revelation, and the soundtrack is up to snuff, too. But, the supplements are where this disc really shines, with over 90 minutes of brand-new making-of featurettes including director Michael Wadleigh and editor Martin Scorsese (yes, that guy), and a whopping two hours of never-before-seen concert performances restored especially for this DVD/Blu-ray release. It's a testament to how excellent Warner Home Video treats their classic films (see this year's Blu-ray releases of The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, or North by Northwest for other examples).
The Funny People Blu-ray Extras
Among modern filmmakers, Judd Apatow has developed a reputation for incredibly stacked DVDs of his movies; the movies he's directed (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and produced (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Walk Hard, and Superbad, among others) have been chock-full of extended cuts, deleted footage, documentaries, and comedy featurettes. For his most personal film to date, Apatow has loaded the 2-disc Blu-ray of Funny People with almost NINE HOURS of video material, as well as an audio commentary and an extended cut of the already-length movie. Here's just some of what the Blu-ray contains: Almost TWO HOURS of deleted scenes; an hour of assorted stand-up footage from the filming of the movie; a hilarious half-hour mockumentary on Aziz Ansari's RAAAAAAAANDY; a half-hour of James Taylor performing at the MySpace party; an entire hour-long episode of Charlie Rose with Apatow and Adam Sandler; early 1990s stand-up performances from Adam Sandler, Apatow, and Seth Rogen; and all the Internet clips of Jason Schwartzman's character's sitcom Yo Teach! Whew! Although I only really liked the movie's first 90 minutes, the Blu-ray package as a whole is probably the most stupendous one I've seen for a 2009 theatrical release.
David Fincher on Blu-ray
The director's first three movies to be released on Blu-ray were all high-caliber releases that lived up to Fincher's perfectionist standards. In January 2009, the Director's Cut of Zodiac was finally ported over to Blu-ray from DVD and HD-DVD, preserving the 1970s-styled high-def photography in stunning fashion. In May, the Criterion Collection gave us The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as well as a wealth of documentaries which delve into the movie's complex special effects. (There's much more VFX work in this movie than you can ever imagine, so take a look.) Finally, in November, Fox gave us the 10th Anniversary Edition of Fight Club, with one of the loudest and most impressive audio mixes I've heard in quite some time, and with video so perfect that you'll doubt that Fight Club came out in 1999! Unfortunately, the only Fincher movie on tap for Blu-ray so far in 2010 is Alien 3, which he has famously disowned; hopefully we can get Se7en, too.
Fox's quick TV-on-DVD releases
Fox has taken several steps to advance its sterling TV-on-DVD department this year, the biggest being its direct-to-video releases (the It's Always Sunny Christmas special, the Prison Break finale movie, the Family Guy parody of The Empire Strikes Back, and via MGM, the Dead Like Me movie). But they've also take the refreshing step of accelerating their TV season releases, whenever possible. Thanks to some unusual TV production schedules (a lingering effect of the writers' strike), some series have been filming many months ahead of their airdate... which can be used to great effect in the DVD world. The best example of this is 24: Season 7, which hit both DVD and Blu-ray the day after the season finale aired! Prison Break: Season Four and Dollhouse: Season One also saw unnaturally early summer releases, too. Finally, this Christmas gave us a quickie release of the first 13 episodes of Glee, less than three weeks after the Sectionals finale. Other studios are going to give it a try in 2010; for example, Lionsgate will deliver the 2009 seasons of Weeds and Mad Men in first quarter 2010, much earlier than their usual summer releases. Personally, I hope this trend continues.
Star Trek and The Prisoner on Blu-ray
Although we got a lot of modern TV series on Blu-ray this year, the most impressive TV show Blu-rays have come to us from... the 1960s?!? The new Star Trek movie allowed Paramount to put out all three seasons of Star Trek on Blu-ray, with each episode restored, remixed, and featuring brand-new special effects (think Star Wars: Special Edition, but not as annoying). Fortunately, users can toggle between the original and new versions of each episode. The supplements are also excellent, too, porting over the extras from the 2004 season sets (including the Best Buy bonus disc material), the 2007/2008 remastered DVD releases, and brand-new goodies created for these Blu-ray versions. Offered to us in time for the not-well-received AMC remake, Patrick McGoohan's classic series The Prisoner also gave us impecccable video quality for a 1960s series, as well as lots of supplementary material, including a 90-minute documentary which delves us into the show's somewhat troubled production (McGoohan had no idea where he was going, or how to even end the show). If (and this is a BIG "If") Image Entertainment is able to give us The Twilight Zone in Blu-ray on 2010, expect this trend to continue...
The Bruno Commentary Track
Learning how a movie was made has become a somewhat stagnant process; audio commentaries and documentaries can often be cliched in this manner. Fortunately, some movies are different enough in their creation that they can make DVD making-of material exciting again. With that in mind, I ate up the audio/video commentary for Bruno, in which Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles pull back the curtain for the first time and explain how their unique guerrilla filmmaking style works. Heck, they even pause the movie to fully explain several scenes! It's probably the most informative commentary of 2009, and whenever Borat hits Blu-ray in the States, I can only hope that it receives similar treatment.
Complete TV Series Releases
The TV show release pattern is quite solid: release Season 1, then Season 2, then continue to the end, then release a 'complete series' set. In 2009, some studios took the initiative to eschew the individual season releases and just put out the complete series sets right away... to the approval of myself and other DVD fans. In January, Warner wrapped up all six seasons of the cult kids' cartoon The Powerpuff Girls into one big pink, blue and green DVD box. In July, for the Blu-ray premiere of Battlestar Galactica, Universal made a very bold move and gave us all four seasons in one package... complete with Cylon action figure! In October, after numerous music clearance hurdles, Fox FINALLY released Ally McBeal in both a Season One set and a Complete Series set. Granted, there aren't many TV shows left to release on DVD... but perhaps this may become a formidable release model for Blu-ray. I guess we'll have to see.
Watchmen's Maximum Movie Mode
As I alluded to in the Bruno write-up above, DVD and Blu-ray supplements have become a bit cliched, to the extent where I look forward to seeing studios push the envelope in any manner. Fortunately, the initial Blu-ray release of Watchmen gave us a nice twist on the audio commentary with what Warner calls "Maximum Movie Mode". Here's the gist of it: with this feature enabled, director Zack Snyder actually appears on-screen in front of two screens: one showing the movie, and one showing behind-the-scenes footage. As you watch the three-hour Director's Cut of Watchmen, the video shifts between full-screen movie footage and scenes of Snyder talking in front of the movie (and actually pointing out parts of the frame in the process). In addition, when the movie's in full-screen mode, we are occasionally shown picure-in-picture video footage from the set, and even panels from the Watchmen graphic novel, which viewers can compare to the film. It's a nifty and well-executed special feature... and considering how dense and complex Watchmen is, it's a great way to dissect the movie.
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