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"   Best DVDs of the Year   Inglourious Basterds Special Edition (2009)      It&amp;#039;s only been out for a week, but Quentin Tarantino&amp;#039;s World War II epic Inglourious Basterds still tops our list as the best DVD of the year. Drawing inspiration from Italy&amp;#039;s popular Spaghetti Westerns and the lesser known Macaroni Combat pictures of the &amp;#039;60s and &amp;#039;70s, Tarantino has crafted an ambitious, audacious American war film in the vein of The Dirty Dozen, but with his signature post-modern bent. Brad Pitt stars as the leader of the Basterds, a group of Jewish-American soldiers waging a guerilla campaign of terror against the Nazis, but it&amp;#039;s Christoph Waltz&amp;#039;s portrayal of SS Colonel Hans Landa that steals the show, creating a new classic villain that you love to hate. The DVD is chock-ful of extras including the film within the film, &amp;quot;Nation&amp;#039;s Pride.&amp;quot; Runners-Up: UP (2009) UP is Pixar&amp;#039;s 10th straight critical and commercial triumph, a feat not seen since the golden age of Walt Disney animation. Inspired by such disparate films as the technicolor marvel The Wizard of Oz and Werner Herzog&amp;#039;s mesmerizing Fitzcarraldo, UP is about Carl (Ed Asner), an old man who realizes a dream and uses thousands of balloons to fly his house to South America. Star Trek Special Edition (2009) J.J. Abrams, the man behind shows like Fringe and Lost, reimagined one of TV&amp;#039;s biggest franchises for the silver screen. Abrams effectively used the now all-too-familiar Star Trek plot device, time travel, to deposit both Spock (Leonard Nimoy), hereafter known as Spock Prime, and the new Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana) into the past establishing an alternate timeline for the film.  Best TV on DVD   Eastbound &amp;amp;amp; Down: The Complete First Season (2009)      Danny McBride is a comedian&amp;#039;s comedian and, along with writing/directing partner Jody Hill, is one of the hottest talents in Hollywood. After being &amp;quot;discovered&amp;quot; by Will Ferrell in his independent feature debut, 2006&amp;#039;s The Foot Fist Way, McBride has appeared in several films including Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder and, most recently, Jason Reitman&amp;#039;s Up in the Air. In Eastbound and Down, McBride plays washed-up major league pitcher, Kenny Powers (McBride), who lives with his brother and works as a coach at his old Junior High School. Runners-Up: It&amp;#039;s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Season 4 (2008) The Gang from Paddy&amp;#039;s Pub may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Mac (Rob McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day) and &amp;quot;Sweet&amp;quot; Dee&amp;#039;s (Kaitlin Olson) all-for-none, and everyone-for-himself attitude is a welcome respite from recycled sitcom clich\u00E9s. The show moved from cult status to a legitimate phenomenon with the Season 4 finale &amp;quot;The Nightman Cometh.&amp;quot; Andy Barker, P.I.: The Complete Series (2009) Andy Richter is a national treasure and possibly one of the funniest men on the planet (if you don&amp;#039;t believe us, just ask Conan O&amp;#039;Brien). His short-lived NBC sitcom, Andy Barker, P.I., was a smart detective spoof written by O&amp;#039;Brien and show creator Jonathan Groff. Andy Barker (Richter) is a strip mall CPA who, when he&amp;#039;s accidentally mistaken for a private eye, finds he&amp;#039;s got a knack for sleuthing.  Best Documentary DVD   Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2007)      Director Sasha Gervasi&amp;#039;s hilarious and heartbreaking doc about forgotten &amp;#039;80s metal band Anvil plays like a real life Spinal Tap.Anvil! The Story of Anvil follows these working-class heroes including guitarist &amp;quot;Lips&amp;quot; Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner on their ill-conceived European comeback tour and the subsequent recording of their thirteenth album called, what else, This is Thirteen. With kudos from some of the biggest names in rock including Slash, Lemmy and Lars Ulrich, Anvil are touring North America this winter. Runners-Up: Nerdcore Rising (2008) As our world has gone online and become more Hi-Def with the dawn of the new millennium, nerds and geeks have become its rightful rulers. But what do these tech-savvy titans listen to when they unwind (besides John Williams and They Might Be Giants, that is)? Nerdcore hip-hop. Filmmaker Negin Farsad chronicled MC Frontalot&amp;#039;s 2006 U.S. tour and interviewed artists such as Prince Paul, mc chris and Optimus Rhyme. Food, Inc. (2008) With yet another E. coli outbreak and the U.N.&amp;#039;s study on meat production and climate change, food, and its safety, is on everyone&amp;#039;s mind. Robert Kenner&amp;#039;s Food, Inc. doesn&amp;#039;t break new ground, but it clearly and concisely illustrates our complex relationship with food. Food, Inc. even offers up practical suggestions to help everyday consumers change their ingrained buying and eating habits.  Best Vampire DVD   Let the Right One In (2009)      With the runaway success of the Twilight books and films and True Blood on TV, 2009 was the year of the vampire in Hollywood. Even with the seeming ease for a vampire movie to become a blockbuster movie this year, perhaps the best blood-sucking film of the year stayed well off-the-radar for most. Sweden&amp;#039;s Let the Right One In, is, in our minds, far and away the best vampire DVD of the year. Let the Right One In, based on the best-selling book L\u00E5t Den R\u00E4tte Komma In (Let Me In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, gone on to win numerous awards. In the movie, Oskar (K\u00E5re Hedebrant) is regularly bullied by his classmates, until he befriends Eli (Lina Leandersson), a 200-year-old vampire girl. Runners-Up: True Blood: The Complete First Season (2008) Japanese scientists have invented an artificial blood that has allowed vampires to come out of the shadows and integrate into society. Based on Charlaine Harris&amp;#039; series of novels, Academy Award winner Alan Ball creates a world where science and the supernatural collide. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) never met a vampire until Bill (Stephen Moyer) came to town, and the two begin to fall for one another. Thirst (2009) Thirst is a unique vampire film written and directed by the acclaimed Korean director Chan-wook Park (Oldboy). Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a priest who volunteers to test a new vaccine, only to succumb to the disease and then miraculously recover. Hearing the news, parishioners flock to Sang-hyun&amp;#039;s church in droves, including an old friend and his lovely wife Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin). However, Sang-hyun relapses and dies, only to rise again as an amoral vampire who kills his friend and takes up with Tae-ju in their home.  Best DVD Upgrade   The Mighty Boosh: Special Edition (2009)      It&amp;#039;s sneaky, and sometimes unwanted, but every now and again a studio will re-release an existing title with a new transfer, extras or more. The Mighty Boosh just came stateside on DVD for the first time earlier this year... and a couple months later they dropped a box set. The Boosh is a British comedy troupe comprised of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding whose acclaimed live sets spilled over to BBC radio and TV. This special edition contains all three seasons, complete with original bonus material, plus stickers, postcards and a new disc of extras. Runners-Up: Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Limited Edition (2009) 1986&amp;#039;s Watchmen ushered in an era of dark and brooding antiheroes and earned a spot on Time&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;All-Time 100 Greatest Novels&amp;quot; list. After his slavishly devoted adaptation of Frank Miller&amp;#039;s 300, director Zack Snyder was tasked with bringing the comic to life. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut integrates the Tales Of The Black Freighter animated feature, which was a story-within-a-story in Alan Moore&amp;#039;s original Watchmen comic book series, into Snyder&amp;#039;s Director&amp;#039;s Cut making this the definitive version to own. The Prisoner: The Complete Series (1968) &amp;quot;I am not a number, I am a free man!&amp;quot; shouts Number Six, the titular character played by Patrick McGoohan in the UK&amp;#039;s cult series. At the time, McGoohan was famous for portraying TV spy Danger Man (or Secret Agent Man, as he was known in the states). As a lasting testament to the popularity of the show, A&amp;amp;amp;E released the remastered Blu-ray edition to coincide with their new mini-series.  Most Overdue DVD Debut   Phantasm II (1988)      Director Don Coscarelli, like many of his fellow horror filmmakers, has often had to work under grueling conditions with very little money. Coscarelli is known for his low-budget and wildly imaginative Phantasm series, consisting of four films between 1977 and 1998. Phantasm II is the best of the bunch, with Coscarelli&amp;#039;s largest budget to date ($3 million) and the series most classic moments. Phantasm II picks up during the last five minutes of the first film with Mike (James LeGros) and Reggie (Reggie Bannister) following the trail of the enigmatic Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) who turns corpses into zombie dwarves to use as slaves on his home planet.  Runners-Up: The State: The Complete Series (2009) In the 1990&amp;#039;s, when MTV still played music videos, they also took a chance on the groundbreaking sketch comedy series, The State. The State remains one of their most acclaimed series ever, and the entire 11-person cast continue to be a driving force in comedy. While this set includes all 24 episodes of The State, due to licensing costs most of the original music used had to be replaced. Night of the Creeps (1986) After almost 25 years, Fred Dekker&amp;#039;s beloved 1980&amp;#039;s cult favorite Night of the Creeps finally got its much anticipated DVD debut. Night of the Creeps even served as inspiration for James Gunn&amp;#039;s Slither even if the director didn&amp;#039;t want to admit it. After a black and white prologue in which an alien experiment infects an Earth college student circa 1959, the film picks up some 25-years-later, when said college student is accidentally thawed out of suspended animation and attacks the girls of the Kappa Delta sorority house.  Best DVD Box Set   Lost: The Complete Fifth Season - Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit (2009) Regular readers of PM&amp;#039;s Lost Watch know that the cult show of the decade has held a special place in our hearts since season one. It&amp;#039;s a testament to the strong writing and talented ensemble that, even after dissecting every one of these episodes, they hold up nicely. For the Lost fan who has everything, pick up the visually impressive and highly collectible Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit which includes a VHS video for new recruits, guides, embroidered Dharma patches and an exclusive CD of Geronimo Jackson&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Dharma Lady.&amp;quot; Runners-Up: Transformers: The Complete Series - 25th Anniversary Matrix Of Leadership Edition (2009) To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Shout! Factory released the Transformers: The Complete Series - Matrix Of Leadership Edition. The Transformers first appeared on U.S. television in 1984 and is ingrained in the memories of thirty-something men everywhere. This 16-Disc Box Set contains all 98 episodes, complete with a new 2.0-channel Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack, as well as a ton of new extras. G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: The Complete Series Collector&amp;#039;s Set (2009) 2009 was a banner year for toymaker Hasbro and Shout! Factory are giving their other classic &amp;#039;80s property the deluxe treatment. This massive 17 disc Collector&amp;#039;s Set contains all 95 episodes of the original series, including the second half of Season Two which has never been available before on DVD, as well as a ton of brand new extra features all carefully housed in a sturdy, collectible replica footlocker.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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