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Lavish DVD and Blu-Ray sets feature classic
Hollywood, all-star action and tons of television
for the film and TV addict on your list

by MARK SLUTSKY

It’s holiday time, which means it’s gift-givin’ time for most of you. Luckily for those whose loved ones have cinephilic tendencies, movie lovers are never short on giftable merchandise, especially in this era of DVD box sets and Blu-Ray spectaculars. To up the appeal of their sets, many studios have taken to throwing goofy novelty items like coasters, hats and replica props in as well, making them even more festive.

Take the Gone With the Wind 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition. The release of the classic epic on beautiful Blu-Ray was already an event unto itself, and in the box set (“limited” to 150,000 numbered copies), you get not only the movie and three discs of special features, but a reproduction of the 1939 program, correspondence from producer David O. Selznick and a handful of reproduction art prints. Or, more to the goofy point, check out the festive red tin containing National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in dubiously necessary high-definition Blu-Ray. The holiday classic (and it is a classic!) comes bundled with humorous coasters, a Santa hat, instant snow powder and a miniature plastic moose mug.

You don’t need props to make a set lavish, though. If you’ve got the change and you really want to make the film fan in your life happy, why not drop three bills on the AK 100 collection from Criterion? Celebrating the centenary of great director Akira Kurosawa, the box features a whoppin’ 25 of the master’s films, including Rashomon, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress and many lesser-known works. (No commemorative plastic Yojimbo sword, though.)

CLASSIC CHRISTMAS

Film lovers should appreciate the newest Greatest Classic Films sets from the folks at the excellent old movie channel TCM. The Holiday set features 1945’s Barbara Stanwyck-starring Christmas in Connecticut, It Happened on 5th Avenue, Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner and the 1938 A Christmas Carol. The Hitchcock Thrillers box contains Strangers on a Train, Suspicion, I Confess and The Wrong Man. Finally, the Comedy set features Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace, the Marx Bros. classic A Night at the Opera and Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride. All great sets.

For the work of a different American icon, though, Rocky: The Undisputed Collection collects all six Stallone vehicles, everything from Rocky through to the recent Rocky Balboa on Blu-Ray. From Alliance, the Quentin Tarantino Collection collects all of the director’s films except Inglourious Basterds, which will be available as a stand-alone DVD or Blu-Ray this season as well. And two out of three ain’t bad with Warner Brothers’ Blu-Ray Action set, which features Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, True Romance and Rocknrolla (your guess which is the bum pick there).

HAB-TASTIC!
Home for the Habs Hockey history

There’s a few options if you want your entertainment Quebec-made. 100 Years of the Montreal Canadiens is a four (or five, depending on the set you buy)-disc set featuring doc 100 Years of Glory and other docs focusing on the Stanley Cup, famous rivalries and the game’s greatest players. The Special Edition features that extra disc (with a couple more featurettes), a Centennial pin, a framed “game-used piece” from the 100th season (a chunk of a stick, jersey or net), trading cards and more. Hab-tastic! On an artier note, legendary Québécois documentarian Pierre Perrault is honoured by the NFB in a new series of box sets, L’Ouevre de Pierre Perrault: La Trilogie de L’Île-aux-Coudres, The Quest for Collective Identity and The Abitibi Cycle.

TV on DVD has been wildly popular since the format first hit it big—it’s just way too easy to watch a dozen episodes in a row, and TV sets make great gifts. More recently, studios have put out entire series in mega-box sets, and some of this season’s new offerings include the critically acclaimed cop show The Shield and the ’90s teen hit Dawson’s Creek. Not new to DVD, but new to Blu-Ray (where these beautifully filmed series should really pop) are Rome, the entire series of which is now out on BD, and the best show on TV, The Sopranos, which is putting its first season out on the format. While The Sopranos has been rightfully lauded, I never felt Rome got quite the acclaim it deserved—the second season in particular was marvellous.

From across the pond, the U.K. cult series Life on Mars get a follow-up to the recent release of its first season, with the second installment of the series out on DVD this season. Other TV sets to look forward to include the third season of Big Love, the fifth (1979–1980) season of Saturday Night Live and the third season of the original Star Trek. Come on—there’s gotta be something your loved one will love in there!