I'm not going to list 25 but I would definitely take Boogie Nights, any Sopranos season set, and any Hitchcock or Kubrick on my desert island.

Band of Brothers - I just finished this last weekend, and this is definitly IMO the best TV series I have ever seen(also not a bad DVD set with a cool tin case). Amazingly acted, directed, written, etc. etc. I know it's expensive, but if you like war movies, you need to own this!!!

Not sure if these have been said, but here's some from me:

Platoon: SE
True Romance: SE
Office Space
Animal House: Collecter's Edition
T2: UE
Gladiator
Forrest Gump
Pulp Fiction: SE
All David Fincher Films(yes, even Panic Room)
at least 1 comic book movie(Crow, Blade, X-MEn, Spiderman)

2001: A Space Odyssey (remaster)
Amadeus SE
Apocalypse Now (original)
Big Lebowski, The
Clockwork Orange, A (remaster)
Citizen Kane SE
Das Boot Superbit
Doctor Zhivago SE
Exorcist, The 25th Anniversary SE
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas CC
Jaws DTS
LOTR: Fellowship Of The Ring EE
Last Temptation Of Christ, The CC
Lawrence Of Arabia LE
Magnolia Platinum Series
North By Northwest
Psycho CE
Pulp Fiction SE
Se7en Platinum Series
Singin' In The Rain SE
Spartacus CC
Sunset Blvd CE
Unforgiven SE
Usual Suspects, The SE
12 Monkeys CE

Predictable lists as usual...

FYI - Bug's Life: CE was just repackaged and rereleased today. It's not on my list below, but it's as good as any of the Pixar flicks, in my opinion.

Topic: These aren't necessarily the "best" movies or packages in my collection, but they're discs that I have a proven capacity to watch over and over again. I don't know if I'll reach 25, but let's see...

In no particular order:
1. Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus
2-4. Buffy S1-S3
5. Band of Brothers
6. Office Space
7. An Evening with Kevin Smith
8. Dr. Strangelove
9. Hudsucker Proxy
10. Princess Bride SE
11. A Few Good Men SE
12. Shawshank Redemption
13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail SE
14. Sports Night - Complete Series
15. Eddie Izzard - Dress to Kill
16. Dogma SE
17. Swingers SE
18. Ghost World
19. Mr. Show S1/S2
20. Ocean's Eleven
21. Rounders
22. Run Lola Run
23. Starship Troopers SE
24. Brazil CC
25. Fletch

Honorable mentions: Armageddon CC, Die Hard Collection, My Cousin Vinny, Clerks, Clerks - The Animated Series, Ultimate Toy Box

Well, I guess coming up with 25 was pretty easy after all!

Care to step up to the plate, then?

Ah right - I just BET you knew that I was going to include Santo,
Doctor Who, Transformers and porn on my list. Good going, mr psychic.

So, care to put up YOUR list, if you dare.

Man Band of Brothers is essential! Even if your not the biggest war fan in the family, you still need to get it, some of the stuff put me in tears (end of pt 7 to be exact.)

1-3. The Godfather Collection
4. The Princess Bride: Special Edition
5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
6. Braveheart
7. Evil Dead 2
8. Army of Darkness
9. The Matrix
10. Saving Private Ryan
11. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring EE
12. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
13. Gladiator
14. Lawrence of Arabia
15. The Road Warrior
16. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest SE
17. Se7en PE
18. Shaolin Soccer SE
19. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
20. This is Spinal Tap SE
21. Akira
22. Conan the Barbarian CE
23. Citizen Kane SE
24. Drunken Master
25. Fight Club

That's my idea of a nice basic starter set of DVDs.

1.Band of Brothers
2-4.Sopranos season 1-3
5.Pulp Fiction se
6.Jackie Brown se
7.Reservoir Dogs se
8.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas criterion
9.Leon:The Professional international version
10.Stargate Ultimate Edition
11.American History X
12.Friday
13.Bonndock Saints
14.Young Guns se
15.Lord of the Rings Fotr ee
16.Clerks
17.Mallrats
18.Four Rooms
19.Predator dts version
20.Legend se
21.Record of Lodoss War
22.The Beastmaster
23.Memento se
24.Family Guy season 1&2 set
25.T2 Ultimate Edition

Here is my list in no particular order:



Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
City Lights
Lawrence of Arabia
O Brother Where Art Thou
The Third Man
Three Colors Trilogy
2001 Space Odyssey
Trainspotting
Citizen Kane
Goodfellas
True Romance
The Deer Hunter
The General
Run Lola Run
8 1/2
Grave of the Fireflies
Leon the Professional (international version)
The Apartment
Strangers On A Train
American Beauty
Dracula (1931)
The Godfather (Part 2)
Breaking The Waves
The Red Violin
Brazil

Variety is the spice of life..

Cheers

I've never felt so loved in my entire life!


I'll cherish this thread. It will definitely build my collection for me.

Now, it's time to start figuring out how to get every single one on the list for FREE. 5 finger discounting does not count, you HAVE to buy them online. If you have a gift certificate, you can use it, but ONLY ONLINE. If the website doesn't support it. SORRY, doesn't count.

Everyone in the world should be able to buy the DVDTALK NEWBIE 25 DVD COLLECTOR'S START-UP SET absolutely free online using coupons and other online offers. BMG, Columbia DVD and other clubs should help us to cut into a fair chunk of the 25.

Now, obviously there may be a LITTLE cost involved, so let's go ahead and CAP IT AT $11 to cover shipping.

And we may need to be a LITTLE flexible on the exact titles.... I know there are some free give aways out there of not the best films, but hey, they're free, so we can complain that much.......

Well, I'm going to get to work myself and return here with a list of titles that I can get for free online. I know some of you DVD buyers out there are serious bargain hunters as well, so let's put your skills to the ULTIMATE TEST.

Let's build the DVDTALK.COM FREE 25 DVD COLLECTOR STARTUP SET FOR NEWBIES.

Talk to you later.

Nobody said "Dances With Wolves."

I thought it was Kevin Costner's absolute best work.

Then...

Well, after your earlier wisecrack, I expected something truly inspirational. Guess I was wrong. And since I can't just leave my own snarky comment, here's my list:

12 Monkeys
The Abyss
Amadeus
Amélie
Babylon 5: Season 1 & 2
Band of Brothers
Das Boot
Brazil: Criterion Collection
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Citizen Kane
Die Hard
A Few Good Men
The Godfather trilogy
Lawrence of Arabia
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Ref
Snatch
Sunset Boulevard
Vertigo

Eh...huh?

Maybe funstan was right. If you're thinking that you're going to get any 25 DVD for $11, much less the good ones, you may want to consider crack smoking as a cheaper alternative addiction. Or this

1. Jurassic Park
2. ID4
3. Spiderman
4. Lord of the Rings
5. Star Wars Episode II
6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Set
7. Lost World Jurassic Park 2
8. Die Hard
9. Pitch Black
10. Doctor Who - Tomb of the Cybermen (ranked #2 best DVD of 2002 in the UK behind Lord of the Rings and ahead of Star Wars Episode II... plus you get to see where Star Trek ripped off the idea for the Borg)
11. Farscape Season 1 Volume 1
12. Lawrence of Arabia
13. Abominable Snowman (Peter Cushing 1967)
14. American Pie
15. American Pie 2
16. Mummy Returns
17. Horror of Dracula
18. Dracula (original 30's)
19. End of the Affair
20. Last Action Hero (yeap, thats right)
21. Magnolia
22. Jaws
23. Dude Where's My Car
24. Evolution
25. Doctor Who - The Aztecs (you can't get enough of the greatest sci fi TV series of all time)

MEJ Harrison, well another predictable list...

With all due respect..isn't that the whole point of this thread...if everyone seems to be listing the same or what's expected then surely they are the 25 'essential' ones to get...believe me there are plenty of forum members here who could list 25 titles of which you may not be aware of any one of them......and by that i'm not referring to myself.

Simple ideas are often lost on the ignorant.

teenage mutant ninja turtles

cowabunga.

I can't say specific titles because I don't know what you'd like. However, I think you should get at least 5 of your fave comedies, 5 fave action, a few horror titles & sci-fi, a few romance titles, a TV show, a nice foriegn film or two and a really emabrrassing cheesy movie that would get you teased but you secretly love

Duplicate . . .

Duplicate . . .

Duplicate . . .

Duplicate . . .


Frankly, your list ain't that much better. But thank you for playing.

Ok, you all win..

Come on!

Where's your sense of duty? Commitment to a cause?

There's got to be a way to drum up 25 quality DVDs for free using online coupons and other offers. Plus, I'm giving you a extra $11 to play with to cover incidental shipping charges, I may even consider stretching it out to the almost unreasonable cap of $15.

-NLJ

No win or lose about it. However, if you're going to talk big, you'd better expect to be called on it.

Well there's the "Your Free DVDs" route - but the amount of work that you'd have to put in to get the 'free deals' would probably negate any savings you might enjoy. I don't know about you, but my time is worth more to me than what I would save.

The Columbia House route might be the way to go for some of the more older and mainstream titles, but even that will cost you about 7 bucks a disc, if you play your cards right. And obscure and hard to find discs? Forget about it.

No, the best you're probably going to do is stick with the online deals - 30 and 40 percent off from some stores (DDD comes to mind). The era of 5 bucks off a 5 dollar order are long gone, my friend.