Christmas, 1998. Begging my parents for high technology no college student could afford, I received my first DVD player. Suddenly, I was among the elite of the film buffs (one step shy of actually owning a personal movie theater). For some people, just having the sharp picture and fantastic sound is reward enough. But I fell in love with all the extras that previously took a movie critic like myself months to dig up from various internet sources. For example, I had to order a dubbed copy of Army of Darkness from this little-known video company, just so I could view the original ending! Not needed any more, as the latest mega-DVDs practically bombard us with material over three times the length of the film that it comes from. As new innovations develop in movie DVDs, such as interactive games, easter eggs, and angle views to switch between, the movie fanatic has a comfy new home.

The DiGiTaL Mutant is the first annual installment of my favorite DVDs and best features contained within. As of Sept 17, 2000, I have amassed 63 DVDs. My general rule of thumb for purchasing is to strictly go for special editions, that have (at bare minimum) a theater trailer and director's commentary. The following is a list of pseudo-awards that I thought I'd make mention of, if it helps you find the type of DVD you like better.

The Biggest, Baddest, Mega-DVDs

The new trend of "special editions" is to collect a mind-boggling 6+ hours of movie and extras on one or two DVDs. In fact, unless you love these movies to death, there's no one (myself included) who is going to watch ALL of the info contained within. The largest mega-DVDs I've bought include T2: Special Edition (a behemoth, literally), Fight Club (with has a lot of features *with their own commentaries as well*), and The Abyss: Special Edition (which is also riddled with hidden menu easter eggs).

Sweetest Animated Menus

I think The Matrix is among one of my favorite menu DVDs for its terrific opening. It plays a cool mini-trailer, then throws the menus up against the animated backdrops (which features scenes from the movie) with some cool film music. I'm a fan of Dark City's morphing menus (creepy and cool). The Galaxy Quest DVD is classic, taking us around the bridge of the Protector, complete with goofy Therbians cleaning up in the background (and an alien analyzer even makes the Cast & Crew menu worth checking out). I was even kind of charmed by the Mac-inspired menus of American Pie. Men In Black would be all spanky with its 3D tour of the MIB office and sound clips, except that the text gets pretty blurry. For Sci-Fi fans, Alien and Aliens both received great work-ups (Alien has better a better interior tour of the Nostromo than you see in the movie, and Aliens uses those "head cams" that the marines used to go around the deserted complex). But above all these stands out the already stellar Ghostbusters DVD, as the animated menus fly around the buildings of NYC (with Slimer making an appearance). As strange as the film, Being John Malkovich sports some eerie menus, with one boasting a feature "Don't click here, there's nothing". Guess what happens?

Strange Quirky Features Found Little Where Else

The Matrix tried an interesting experiment tying together the many mini-documentaries with the movie. As you viewed the movie, you could have an option selected where a rabbit icon would appear, and by pressing a button you could be taken out of the movie to see the documentary on that scene, and then seamlessly reintegrated back into the film. The Wedding Singer has a karaoke feature where you can sing along to five 80s songs (with or without lyrics). L.A. Confidential has a neat-o map of the L.A. of the movie, where you can select various locations and are treated to short blurbs about where the real location is in Las Angeles. Fight Club has yet another subversive tactic by Tyler, this time a mock of the FBI warning before the disc loads. The Free Enterprise DVD (in addition to being very comprehensive, down to screen tests) has a terrific option that subtitles all the in-jokes and references to Star Trek and other sci-fi films so that even the most clueless of us have a chance to understand this movie. A lot of DVDs have "jump to..." menus, but the American Pie offers a couple of pretty useful ones: one to find a classic quote, and another to listen to a snippet of the sountrack used in a specific scene. Silence of the Lambs (Criterion Collection) has a feature that lets you flip through statements from actual serial killers, something that may be more creepy than anything else on the disc.

Best Deleted Scenes

Lethal Weapon 4 gets props simply for having great deleted scenes from all four Lethal Weapon flicks. I was very pleased to see some of the deleted scenes from Alien that showed the eventual fate of Captain Dallas... it should have been in the film, darn it! Aliens goes one better by re-integrating 17 minutes of footage (including fight scenes) straight into the film, making it near-Braveheart length.

Best DVD Film Studio

New Line Cinema DVDs have gained a reputation (at least in my book) of being some of the most comprehensive and coolest special edition DVDs. And the great part is, no matter how sucky any of their films are, nearly all of the ones released on DVD are the "platinum editions".

Coolest Trailers

Bad movie, but great trailer - Lost In Space. Dark City's no-narrative trailer is downright spine-chilling (and the music is awesome). Austin Powers 2 has a very lame trailer, but the Star Wars teaser is a downright classic ("If you see two movies this summer..."). The Run Lola Run trailer always gets me all choked up (although I'm not sure why... I just love this chick!). The Abyss sports most of the trailers of James Cameron's films, although they're hidden within the menus.

Music-Only Tracks

It's a feature I don't think many people would ever choose to use: watching a film with only the background music on audio. But the terrific old-style L.A. Confidential is a good choice to play during a dinner party.

Grooviest Commentaries

Let's face it: a heckuva lot of the commentary tracks on DVDs are as dull as dull dirt. But there have been a few to stand out as enjoyable (even more so than the film, sometimes!). Mike Myers is in hilarious role dissecting Austin Powers (and to a lesser extent, the sequel). If you want to learn a lot about film theory, check out Roger Ebert (yes, I know, I'm recommending the enemy) commentary on Dark City. Kevin Smith and his typically large ensemble cast make the commentaries of Mallrats and Chasing Amy a fun, trippy experience. By far and away, all three commentaries by Bruce Campbell (and crew) of the Evil Dead flicks are chock full of laughter. It's like importing some really funny friends into your home and onto the couch next to you. That good. I swear. By far, the longest commentary is to be found on the DVD edition of the miniseries The Stand, spanning all six hours (although, there are some rather lengthy gaps where no one had anything to say). Hit mute whenever the actress who played Mother Abigail starts talking, 'cause she just rambles on about nothing for endless minutes at a time. The Ghostbusters disc had not only a smashingly riotous good time of a commentary, but also introduced the MST3K-style silhouettes of the speakers (which I found to be comforting, to sort of see who is talking).

Favorite Easter Eggs

Austin Powers 2 has one of the best "hidden" easter eggs: if you just don't touch anything on the main menu for a minute, Dr. Evil's spaceship shows up and you have a whole new secret menu to select from. Watch the entire movie of Galaxy Quest, then return to the movie and select the "Omega 13" option to get a 13-second trip back in time.

Best Packaging

The unconventional cardboard box-within-a-box design of Fight Club certainly makes it stand out on a shelf. The T2: Special Edition hosts a metal slip jacket (very in keeping with the film's T-1000). But my favorite is the tin box of Evil Dead 2, with great cartoon artwork.

Most Annoying Feature

Some DVDs (including a slew put out by Universal) have "forced" trailers at the beginning of the DVD loading or movie that are impossible to skip, only to fast-forward through. The Sixth Sense is guilty of this. My personal feeling is that forced trailers/commercials are supposed to be what DVD is NOT about. The Wall disc has nearly incomprehensible menus, so it's difficult to find whatever feature you're looking for.