Twin Peaks: The First Season - Special Edition
As the DVD medium takes an ever greater hold on the home video market, some of our favorite TV shows are finally beginning to surface in DVD box sets. Several great TV series made their DVD début last year in 'first season' box sets, including The Simpsons. But the meticulous transfer, awesome audio mixes (in Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS) and mind-blowing extras on Artisan's four-disc Region 1 release of David Lynch's seminal 'soap noir'. The series' pilot is sadly missing from this collection, but fans of the series will have no trouble getting back into it as soon as they pop in the first disc from this fantastic four-disc collection.

Notorious - Criterion Collection
One of Hithcock's most elegantly subtle thrillers combines the narrative economy of his British films with the glamor and production values a Hollywood producer like David O. Selznick guarantees. Previously available as a bare-bones disc, this Criterion edition piles on the extras, with two excellent commentary tracks from noted film scholars, and generous, immaculately presented other extras.

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Special Edition
Offering This is Spinal Tap some stiff competition for the much-coveted, hotly debated title Funniest Movie Ever Made, the first movie from the Monty Python gang remains one of their funniest, most enduring moments. It has received some welcome double-dipping last year in the form of an irreverently feature-laden two-disc set, complete with audio commentary tracks from all five surviving Pythons and a Follow the Killer Rabbit feature. Ni.

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Spartacus - Criterion Collection
The clash of egoes that made this epic production the stuff of legends is richly documented in one of the finest audio commentary tracks ever put together, featuring (often contradictory) reminiscing and general bitching from key contributors including Kirk Douglas (recorded pre-stroke), Peter Ustinov and Saul Bass. Add to that a second commentary track in which the hilariously nitpicky comments from screenwriter Dalton Trumbo are read aloud and a second platter full of deleted scenes, storyboards and other assorted goodies from the Laserdisc box set, and we are left with one of last year's most essential DVD releases.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Platinum Edition
Now belying its age not only in the freshness of animation and storytelling but also in the splendor of this breathtakingly restored visuals and soundtrack, the first animated feature ever produced remains an enduring masterpiece that is hard to resist for any age group. Going all the way in the production of extra material, Disney has brought this cornerstone work to DVD spearheading their new Platinum Collection, which will have limited availability once every ten years and will then disappear back into the Disney vaults. Grab it before it goes on extended moratorium!

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The French Connection - Five-Star Collection
William Friedkin's brilliant thriller has lost little of its punch over the years in spite of the countless imitations that have been produced since. Fox brought it to DVD as a long-delayed addition to their Five-Star Collection series, sporting a near-pristine transfer, an astonishingly lively Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix, two commentary track, two hour-long documentaries and many other great extras.

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Destined to be a one-off breakthrough success for a genre usually inaccessible to Western audiences, Ang Lee's gorgeous wuxia martial arts epic has a mythical quality that manages to resonate across international borders, giving it a magical quality all too rare in contemporary cinema. While the DVD transfer might not quite be up to reference-level standards, this was still one of last year's most essential DVD releases, though many are still hoping for a two-disc Special Edition sometime this year.

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Citizen Kane
With a restored transfer that ended up running a close second to the state-of-the-art digitally created Shrek in our Best of 2001 DVD Awards, this great two-disc release of what most critics and movie lovers still call the Best Movie Ever Made boasts many other delights as well. Roger Ebert's commentary track is essential listening in and of itself, while the second disc houses the award-winning feature-length documentary The Battle of Citizen Kane.

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Cape Fear (1991)
Scorsese's single attempt to direct an old-fashioned Hollywood studio picture is certainly not a flawless film, but still has more style, punch and wit than most other run-of-the-mill thrillers combined. Brought to DVD by Universal only just in time for its tenth anniversary (along with the DVD release of J. Lee Thompson's equally good original), Cape Fear boasts an exquisite transfer and a feature-length documentary produced by DVD legend Laurent Bouzereau.

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The Godfather DVD Collection
It may not have the best imaginable audio or video quality, and one could conceivably have some quibbles with a few of the many great extras (a newly produced documentary would have been nice...). Even so, this might still be the most essential release of the past year, finally bringing to DVD two of the greatest American films in history (and the third part is there too). Lovingly presented in a handsome box, this five-disc set had a huge international street date last October, and now graces the shelves of all true movie lovers worldwide. Thank you Paramount.

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