DVDTOWN.com Top Ten Lists for 2006

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What would the world be like without Top Ten Lists? For one thing, David Letterman might have to run Stupid Pet Tricks or Will it Float? every night just to fill air time. Even worse, you, our valued readers, would be left rudderless in a turbulent sea, drawn inexorably into the maelstrom of crappy movies like "The Omen" remake or perhaps even something directed by Uwe Boll. Pardon me, Dr. Boll, I was just joking, please don´t hit me.

That´s why DVDTown´s reviewers have spent months rummaging through their possibly tax-deductible theater ticket stubs and DVD collections to offer you their choices for the best theatrical releases and DVDs of 2006.

According to the pundits (and when are pundits ever wrong?), there is no clear lead horse in this year´s Oscar race. Likewise, you will find no clear favorite from the lists below, though both Will and John chose "United 93" as their top film of the year. "Casino Royale" looks like the popcorn favorite of the year, and "The Departed" and "Children of Men" both drew their share of genre love. On DVD, the favorites are even more widely scattered, but that´s no surprise considering well over 10,000 titles were released on DVD in 2006, and that´s not even counting the arrival of HD and Blu-Ray on the scene. But as I´ve always said: consensus only breeds mediocrity. Enjoy the variety, and enjoy the lists.


WILLIAM DAVID LEE

TOP TEN THEATRICAL RELEASES

1. United 93
2. Children of Men
3. Flag of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima
4. The Illusionist
5. Casino Royale
6. Pan's Labyrinth
7. The Good German
8. An Inconvenient Truth
9. The Departed
10. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Curse of the Golden Flower, Half Nelson, The Proposition, Thank You For Smoking, Volver

TOP TEN DVD RELEASES

1. Seven Samurai: Criterion Collection (3-Disc Edition)
2. James Bond: The Ultimate Collection (Vols. 1-4)
3. Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier
4. Kingdom of Heaven: 4-Disc Director's Cut
5. Superman: The Ultimate Collector's Edition
6. Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection
7. The Simpsons: Season 8
8. Mission Impossible III: 2-Disc Special Edition
9. King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition
10. The Searchers: 50th Anniversary Edition

Honorable Mentions: Brazil: Criterion Collection (Re-Issue), Oldboy: 3-Disc Collector's Edition, The Maltese Falcon: 3-Disc Special Edition, Transformers: The Movie - 20th Anniversary Edition, V for Vendetta: 2-Disc Special Edition

CHRISTOPHER LONG

1. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (C. Puiu)
2. Colossal Youth (P. Costa)
3. Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
4. The Queen (S. Frears)
5. This Filthy World (J. Garlin)
6. Manufactured Landscapes (J. Baichwal)
7. Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (Chuan Lu)
8. Opera Jawa (G. Nugroho)
9. Bubble (S. Soderbergh)
10. Old Joy (K. Reichardt)

Honorable Mentions:
49 Up (M. Apted), Our Brand is Crisis (R. Boynton), EMPz 4 Life (A. King), Children of Men (A. Cuaron), United 93 (P. Greengrass), Marie Antoinette (S. Coppola), Casino Royale (M. Campbell), Scoop (W. Allen), An Inconvenient Truth (D. Guggenheim), Manderlay (L. Trier)

If I hadn´t gone to the Toronto Film Festival in September, I might have thought 2006 was a pretty grim year for world cinema. Six of the ten films in my "official" top ten list screened there. Furthermore, I only included festival films which have not yet picked up an American distributor. Without that restriction, I would also have included three of the best new films I saw all year: Jafar Panahi´s brilliant "Offside," Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Syndromes and a Century," and Alain Resnais´ "Coeurs" (AKA "Private Fears in Public Places.") I hope you have the opportunity to catch all three of them in a theater in 2007.

I consider the top three films on my list to be modern masterpieces, though I need to see "Still Life" one more time just to be sure where I really want to place it. "This Filthy World" may not qualify as a masterpiece by any definition, but it´s the funniest damned movie I have seen in years. John Waters is as brilliant a stand-up comedian as he is a director.

My biggest disappointment this year is the same as in 2005. I didn´t see many great, or even good, documentaries in theatrical release. I´m sure I will discover a few that I missed when they come out on DVD, but 2004´s "Year of the Documentary" is looking more and more like a fluke. "Manufactured Landscapes," however, is truly wonderful, though I´m not sure when, or if, most people will get a chance to see it.

TOP TEN DVD RELEASES

1. Edvard Munch (New Yorker)
2. Culloden/The War Game (New Yorker)
3. Playtime: 2-Disc SE (Criterion)
4. Electric Edwardians (Milestone)
5. Pandora´s Box (Criterion)
6. The Complete Mr. Arkadin (Criterion)
7. Winter Soldier (Milestone/New Yorker)
8. Parallel Lines (Docurama)
9. Hail Mary (New Yorker)
10. Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Fantoma)

I´ve put the two Peter Watkins releases from New Yorker on top of my list because they epitomize the single best quality of the DVD revolution: the ability to make essential films that were previously marginalized available to a wider audience than ever before. They´re also two of the best transfers New Yorker has ever released (thanks to Project X). Milestone also deserves a tip of the hat: they don´t release a lot of titles, but their product is top notch quality in every way.

Fantoma´s transfer of "Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?" is mediocre at best, but I simply had to include Fassbinder´s acidic comedy of middle-class tedium because it´s so damned funny. I mean, sick. I mean, so boring it´s unwatchable. I mean… see it already! But if you do, don´t blame me.

ERIK MARTINEZ

TOP TEN THEATRICAL RELEASES

1. Children of Men
2. The Departed
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. Volver
5. Casino Royale
6. Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima
7. The Prestige
8. Inside Man
9. Borat
10. Stranger than Fiction

TOP TEN DVD RELEASES

1. Ultimate Superman Collection
2. James Bond: The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1-4
3. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
4. Seven Samurai: Criterion Collection 3 Disc
5. The Double Life of Veronique: Criterion Collection
6. Double Indemnity
7. A History of Violence
8. Mission: Impossible III
9. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
10. Slither

JAMES PLATH

I hate doing these end-of-year top-ten lists because I always forget something. That disclaimer aside, here are my picks:

TOP TEN THEATRICAL RELEASES

1. Babel
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Casino Royale
4. Notes on a Scandal
5. The Queen
6. The Departed
7. The Last King of Scotland
8. Water
9. Cars
10. United 93

TOP TEN DVD RELEASES

1. Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection
2. The Maltese Falcon SE
3. Monty Python & the Holy Grail Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition
4. The Little Mermaid SE
5. Ice Age: The Meltdown
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
7. Yankee Doodle Dandy
8. Monster House
9. Rent
10. The Wild Bunch Special Edition

TOP TEN BLU-RAY RELEASES

1. Kingdom of Heaven
2. The Searchers
3. The Devil Wears Prada
4. Kung Fu Hustle
5. Black Hawk Down
6. Unforgiven
7. Monster House
8. The Fifth Element
9. A Knight's Tale
10. Blazing Saddles


JOHN PUCCIO

As I've said before, I wouldn't know a "best" film of 2006 if it jumped up and bit me on the nose. Besides, I haven't seen every film released this year. But of the many films I did see, these were among my favorites because they entertained me or moved me in some way. "United 93," for example, could hardly be called an "entertaining" film in the usual sense of one giving pleasure or amusement it wasn't even a film I much wanted to see, having gone through the pain of watching the real-life experience. But "United 93" moved me greatly, even if I would not want to watch it again anytime soon. "Casino Royale," on the other hand, entertained me greatly, so much so that I went back to the theater and saw it a second time. So here they are, for better or for worse, the disc releases based mostly on film content but with technical features counting, too.

TOP TEN THEATRICAL RELEASES:

1. United 93
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Casino Royale
4. Children of Men
5. Notes on a Scandal
6. Cars
7. Stranger Than Fiction
8. An Inconvenient Truth
9. The Illusionist
10. The Last King of Scotland

As of this writing, I have not yet gotten to see "Volver" or "Letters from Iwo Jima," two movies with potential, I'm sure. Also, I would give an honorable mention to "The Queen," which I enjoyed mainly for Helen Mirren's performance. I thought "Little Miss Sunshine" was cute, but it misses the cut. And "Babel" I absolutely hated for all the reasons I liked last year's "Crash." I felt good being manipulated by "Crash," but I did not like the obvious contrivances in "Babel." Indeed, it felt like "Babel's" only purpose was to show us that stupid people get what they deserve. I'm not sure that was exactly what the filmmakers had in mind.

TOP TEN DVD RELEASES:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia (Extended Edition)
2. The Constant Gardener
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
4. Good Night, and Good Luck
5. Cars
6. The Maltese Falcon (Special Edition)
7. The Wild Bunch (Special Edition)
8. The Searchers
9. The Little Mermaid (Special Edition)
10. Educating Rita

TOP TEN HD-DVD RELEASES:

1. Casablanca (OK, what did you expect me to say?)
2. Batman Begins
3. The Adventures of Robin Hood
4. Superman: The Movie
5. Unforgiven
6. Blazing Saddles
7. A Christmas Story
8. Goodfellas
9. The Searchers
10. V for Vendetta

HONORABLE MENTION HD-DVDs: Spartacus, Excalibur , The Fugitive, National Lampoon's Animal House, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Grand Prix, Troy, Constantine, King Kong, Syriana

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