The Top 12 DVDs of 2008

Everything gleams like sin on the Dark Knight BD (that's what they call a Blu-ray disc, get used to it). From the man in the Bat suit (Christian Bale) to the Joker in cracked clown makeup (Heath Ledger), the movie is a potent provocation decked out as a comic book. And oh, boy, is it a looker. If BD is the future of home-theater viewing, then The Dark Knight shows you why. Images pop, the sound surrounds, and the result is total immersion. Factor in BD-Live, which connects your Blu-ray player to the Internet, and countless hours of BD extras, and you'll never need to go out again. Director Christopher Nolan builds on his 2005 Batman Begins by dodging computer effects and shooting this one for real on location in Chicago. Get a load of that chase sequence with the Joker in a truck and the Caped Crusader on his Bat-pod. The hot precision of these visuals will singe your eyeballs. In this age of technical miracles, The Dark Knight earns the number-one spot by raising the bar.

HOT BONUS: Two discs' worth, with standard audio commentary replaced by focus points, which really get the job done. Thanks to BD technology, you can watch, say, the Joker's entrance and then get a picture-in-picture special feature that shows instead of tells how it was handled. One quibble: The disc cries out for but fails to deliver a tribute to the brilliant performance of the late Ledger. Bad form if that's being saved for a later edition of the BD.

KILLER SCENE: Tons of exciting action sequences to choose from, but the opening bank robbery, with baddies in Joker masks sweeping down on wires, guns blazing, is a classic of its kind. And the bonus material on how the FX team used huge IMAX cameras to shoot it will spin your head around.

Clip courtesy of Warner Bros.