As the Weekend Herald reported, the cheaper players and the added extras mean that DVD is about to take over from video as New Zealand's preferred method of home movie viewing.
To mark that, and the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on DVD, e.g.'s experts, friends, flatmates and a couple of people we met on the bus have chosen 10 must-have DVDs.
You'll notice we are quite specific about certain titles, and you may need to log on to your home shopping network to source them, because the locally available versions may not be quite the same, and you will need to make sure your machine is set up to play them.
But you don't need to know what those four-syllable words mean to enjoy ...
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Apparently it's done quite well at the cinema. It's impressed a few folks overseas, too. But contrary to popular belief, not everybody in New Zealand has seen Peter Jackson's epic at the flicks, even if for a while there it felt like our patriotic duty to do just that.
We have spent $14.5 million on tickets to see it, though a couple of million of that will have come from those for whom once was not enough.
And now this first part of the movie trilogy is getting a two-stage release to DVD.
Yes, there are a fair few VHS video copies among the 150,000 units that started hitting store shelves around the country two days ago. But it's the DVD release, which is being pitched as one to purchase rather than just rent, that's more significant.
The movie production and its global marketing campaign has also had DVD in mind from the beginning, not just as an extra but as a complementary format. Says LOTR producer Rick Porras, who has been the point man on the first film's DVD release: "We are quite blessed that Peter Jackson loves DVDs and he is very passionate about the whole film-making process.
"And it has just enabled us to have these resources. I've worked on so many pictures before where it is sort of an afterthought. Now it's not just something that is in back of our minds."
The version released this week contains the theatrical version of the movie and a second disc with two hours of extras — including three making-of docos and 15 featurettes which appeared on official website lordoftherings.net. That means other Kiwis, such as designer Grant Major and costumer Ngila Dickson, can be seen and heard talking about their part of the movies' creation among the now-familiar soundbites of the cast and Jackson.
The most interesting extras — unless you really want your very own copy of Enya's May It Be video — are the Jackson-presented preview of the next film, The Two Towers, and a first look at what the LOTR PlayStation2 game will look like.
However, the real fruit of the production's DVD-mindedness will come in November. A month before The Two Towers hits cinemas comes the release of a special edition DVD which, along with many more extras, has 30 minutes' extra footage than in the
movie.
It's not a director's cut, says another producer, Barrie Osborne, but a version that Jackson has tailored to an extended DVD.
Which means, says Osborne, a film that offers more backstory, character development, and material which foretells the events of films two and three.
Has it allowed former splatter-meister Jackson to put in scenes that might have been too nasty for a film which its backers wanted to play to a family audience?
"That's not exactly true, there were things you always play a little bit of a game in determining what should be in the film or what's too violent. There were one or two pieces of action we took out of the film before we sent it in for a rating that are in the extended cut DVD, but in fact the extended DVD is rated PG as well.
"With the theatrical version we wanted it toned down just a little bit to make it play for a slightly younger audience, so we did take out a few things."
The extended edition will also come in a collector's gift set with five discs in special packaging and bookends based on the giant river statues of the first film, designed by Weta workshop.
That means that deep-pocketed, ardent fans will be able to put their Lord of the Rings DVDs — which by mid-2004 will be quite a few — on a shelf right next to Tolkien's books.
2. The Godfather DVD Collection
If you don't believe this is one of the greatest movie series of all time, you should be sleeping with the fishes. Francis Ford Coppola's three-film epic stars Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as successive heads of the Corleone crime clan.
Why you should have this version: The extraordinary three-hour bonus disc that includes Coppola's commentary on the films, his notebooks from the shoot, documentaries showing makeup and screen tests for Brando and the very young De Niro, Pacino and Martin Sheen; "biographies" and "family tree" of the Corleone clan; Coppola and Mario Puzo discussing screenwriting; 34 additional scenes; storyboards; Oscar acceptance speeches; and an introduction from its original screening on US TV in 1974.
3. The Matrix Collector's Edition
Some movies capture the moment: think back to the dark days of pre-millenial tension and all that water you stored in the bath. A computer hacker (Keanu Reeves) discovers that life on Earth may be an elaborate facade created by an evil cyber-intelligence to keep us happy while our life essence is "farmed" to fuel its campaign of domination in the "real" world. We know better now: this is the creative idea behind a series of wheelbarrow-twirling ads for beer.
Why you should have this version: Because it defines a generation, with The Matrix Revisited, a 123-minute documentary that covers every angle of the production, behind the scenes footage of how they worked out the revolutionary choreography with 122 cameras, and a tricky little feature called Follow the White Rabbit, which pops up while you're watching the movie and offers access to behind-the-scenes footage of that scene, before returning you to the flick.
4. Moulin Rouge
Because we're going to get to the boy movies soon and we had to have a chick-flick in here so guys could justify buying the toy.
Why you should have this version: It's a double-disc set that reveals so much about the movie biz of today. Apart from the sometimes tiresome detail of director Baz Luhrmann and his technical team (hear art designer Catherine Martin "work out how we could create a world of entertainment under women's dresses"), there are a number of hidden scenes, deleted scenes, rehearsal footage, interviews with the stars, music videos, a marketing section ...
5. Gladiator
Bigger than the Roman Empire, meaner than a rumble at a Coffs Harbour pub on a Saturday night ... Russell Crowe on Maximus testosterone as the noble, wronged savage who declares one-man war on a decadent empire.
Why you should have this version: Hours of material on a two-disc set. Director Ridley Scott gives a masterclass on making a movie and his technical team offer the sort of detail that will keep film buffs salivating for months. There are 12 deleted scenes (love the "fed to the lions" bit, which he cut because the "lion didn't eat the child very well." There's even some relatively factual historical information about the period in the 50-minute Gladiator Games documentary.
6. Toy Story: The Ultimate Toy Box
In 1995 Disney released the first fully computer-animated feature film, Toy Story, with Tom Hanks voicing Woody, a cowboy doll, and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger, the bumble-footed action toy who steals their young owner's affection. The sequel, even better, followed four years later.
Why you should have this version: The third disc. You can learn about every step of creation of a new form of movie-making, which might sound dry but is witty, lively and fascinating. And you can play the movies over and over. Just 'cause the kids want to see them again, of course.
7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Okay, so you've been on another planet for the past decade: the young orphan Harry Potter discovers that there are two worlds: one is the dreary world of the Muggles (us), the other is magical. If you were a 10-year-old boy which would you choose?
Why you should have this version: It really is magic, even if you're not a 10-year-old. Disc 2 takes you on an adventure where you must discover a secret at the heart of the DVD. There's a self-guided tour, then you must unlock secrets and purchase tools. At other stages you must solve clues, find your way around Harry's creepy school and learn to play the wizards' sport, Quidditch. When you've solved the puzzle, you'll be rewarded. Not telling you how.
8. Shrek
One of those kids' films that has plenty in it for older brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents. Shrek (voice: Mike Myers) is the ogre at the kind heart of a modern fairytale.
Why you should have this version: Simply superb animation and bright, bold colours to keep the little ones enthralled. They won't care too much about the commentaries, interviews with techs or deleted scenes, but you'll get them back with two trivia games, five interactive games and music videos.
9. Saving Private Ryan: Special Limited Edition
No disrespect to those who were really there, but Steven Spielberg's Normandy invasion was just another buddies-in-WWII movie — until it opened. Then those first 20 minutes — explicit, bloody, gut-wrenching scenes of battle — riveted audiences.
Why you should have this version: On DVD home-theatre the soundtrack of bullets and grenades and tanks FEELS like an invasion. The main feature is a 25-minute documentary with contributions from the cast, Spielberg and soldiers who landed on the beaches, combined with footage of the real landings.
10. The Sopranos Box Set
As The Godfather did for the movies three decades earlier, this series — part black sitcom, part Mob warfare, part family soap-opera — redefined what could be said and shown on TV and revitalised a moribund medium.
Why you should have this version: To remind you that TV doesn't have to be about brattish kids trying to stay longer in a flat than the next brattish kid.
Feature: Lord of the Rings
Special LOTR report: A long expected party
Best Lord of the Rings websites
