The Best 25 DVDs of the Year

#6: BRAZIL
Criterion, the acknowledged class act in DVD production, surpasses itself with this three-disc box set. It's the restored, anamorphic transfer of director Terry Gilliam's ardent and audacious 1985 masterpiece. Jonathan Pryce stars as a bureaucrat who fantasizes about himself as a winged savior in a techn0centric world that won't allow for dreams.
HOT BONUS Gilliam's commentary about his battle to make the film his way is time-capsule-worthy, as is the ninety-four-minute version of the film with all the ridiculous cuts and changes that the studio made on its own.
KILLER SCENE Terrorists swing across art-deco towers like high-tech Tarzans while bombs reduce one part of an elegant restaurant to rubble and the unscathed diners merrily continue to munch.

#7: MIAMI VICE
Added sex and ass-kicking may be the lure to buy this unrated director's cut of Michael Mann's maligned and misunderstood cinematic spin on the TV show he made famous in the 1980s, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx taking over for Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. But the real attraction is getting to watch a director of Mann's stature show us exactly what he wanted to do with no restrictions. As always, Mann is concerned with the seductively dangerous environments in which complex men do corrupting jobs.
HOT BONUS Digging deeper into Mann's intentions, and how his use of the high-definition Viper camera gives us more to see.
KILLER SCENE The trailer-park shootout is nearly as explosive as the robbery in Mann's Heat.

#8: CARS
Director John Lasseter is subtle about his visual miracles. But look close at the disc of Pixar's animated Cars, and his gift shines. He creates a world of cars (catch those bugs with headlights) and draws rich voice work from Owen Wilson as rookie Lightning McQueen and a terrific Paul Newman as a 1951 Hudson Hornet.
HOT BONUS The single disc is short on extras, but there's a nifty feature on what influenced Lasseter. He's the son of a car-parts manager and an avid buff of the myths surrounding Route 66.
KILLER SCENE It's a classic moment when Mater, a tow truck, hilariously voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, takes Lightning out for a night of cow-tipping, except that the cows are now tractors, and the next morning they ride into town like outlaws out for revenge.

#9: JACKASS NUMBER TWO
Call it twice as disgusting as the original, and any Jackass fan knows that's high praise. The DVD looks and sounds like crap, which is another compliment. No one wants to watch Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Steve-O and the gang abuse their bodies in widescreen clarity, especially when they're busy chugging down horse jizz.
HOT BONUS The behind-the-scenes stuff is a revelation, as the guys get serious setting up their stunts. Pontius doesn't just wrap his dick in gauze and let a snake bite it. It takes preparation, man.
KILLER SCENE Knoxville strapping his ass to a firing rocket has to be the Citizen Kane of self-abuse.

#10: THE PROPOSITION
If you don't know this movie, this expertly produced DVD is your chance to stop being a loser. Directed by John Hillcoat, with a take-no-prisoners script by Nick Cave, who also co-wrote the score, this Aussie revenge western burns up the screen. Guy Pearce and Danny Huston lead the cast of outback outlaws, while Ray Winstone and Emily Watson try to hold the fort of civilization.
HOT BONUS The extras fill in the historical gaps relating to time and place. And the actors actually discuss the themes of the piece instead of inflating their own egos.
KILLER SCENE The Christmas-dinner massacre. Bloody, yes, and staggeringly, poetically beautiful.