By Sean Axmaker
Special to MSN Movies

What do you look for in a DVD gift? The movie, sure -- that's what it's all about. But when it comes to special editions and box sets, it's the excess, the extras, the obsessive detail of supplements that turn a simple release into a masterpiece of extravagance. Steering clear of the obvious -- big new releases such as "Transformers," "Spider-Man 3" and the latest "Die Hard" film and hit comedies such as "Borat" and "Knocked Up" will do just fine without further shilling -- this guide is an intersection where the best films, greatest supplements and funkiest packaging meet to create the coolest DVD releases of 2007.

INSTANT COLLECTIONS
"Ford at Fox"
Fox
Buy It
For the die-hard cinephile on your list, there is no more impressive 2007 release than this sprawling 24-film collection. Collected in an album-sized case of trays holding four discs per page, the 21-disc set includes five silent films (including two versions of director John Ford's first epic "The Iron Horse"), all three of Ford's Will Rogers collaborations, the debuts of the classic "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936) and "Tobacco Road" (1941), rarities such as the lively prison-break comedy "Up the River" (1930, with Spencer Tracy and a very young Humphrey Bogart), and the exclusive 2007 documentary "Becoming John Ford." With 18 Ford classics debuting on DVD plus an accompanying hardcover tome, this is the gold standard for DVD director tributes.

"Warner Home Video Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick"
Warner
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Warner takes its third pass at a definitive Stanley Kubrick collection. Previously available only in bare-bones editions, the five films remastered for this set -- "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), "The Shining" (1980), "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) and "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999) -- are supplemented with new commentary and documentaries. The set also features the comprehensive and incisive documentary "A Life in Pictures" (2001). Available in Blu-ray and HD-DVD  formats.

"James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set"
MGM
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Last year, MGM created new, expanded, lavish special editions of every official 007 mission predating the 2006 revamp and boxed them in four separate sets. This year, they box up those box sets and toss in "Casino Royale" for this 21-film, 42-disc collection. There's nothing else new here, but it's a bargain for collectors still waiting to finally add every big-screen mission of the Western world's favorite cold warrior to their shelf.

In Brief
"Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Collection" features eight films from Pedro Almodovar, Spain's dynamic director of screwball melodramas, hot-blooded thrillers and tender dramas. "The Sergio Leone Anthology" revels in the mercenary morality of Sergio Leone's sunbaked spaghetti Westerns with four classic films and plenty of supplements. "The Coen Brothers Gift Set" collects five of the best from the idiosyncratic filmmaking team of Joel and Ethan Coen. The 10 films on "The Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume 4" span the great, the gritty and the wonderfully tawdry of Hollywood's dark side. For something more wholesome, "The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection: Ultimate Collector's Edition" puts on quite a show.

ESSENTIALS WITH CREDENTIALS
"The Third Man: Criterion Collection 2-Disc Edition"
Criterion
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The ultimate edition of the most vibrant and entertaining of the three collaborations between director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene stars Joseph Cotten as a cynical American pulp novelist in the rubble of post-World War II Austria, but Orson Welles steals the movie as the casually cruel yet unsettlingly charming Harry Lime in just 10 minutes of screen time. This edition features a stunning transfer, three documentaries, two commentary tracks and two "Harry Lime" radio shows with Welles among its supplements.

"Chinatown: Special Collector's Edition"
Paramount
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Thought not as lavish, this new edition of the classic starring Jack Nicholson as a private eye caught in a labyrinth of corruption, greed and moral monstrosity in 1930s Los Angeles offers a rich, crisply remastered transfer and three retrospective documentaries with new interviews with Nicholson, director Roman Polanski, screenwriter Robert Towne and producer Robert Evans.

"Flags of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima: Five-Disc Commemorative Edition"
Warner
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Clint Eastwood chronicles both sides of the war in the Pacific in this exquisite matched set of portraits of men in war. This collection includes historical documentaries on the battle and featurettes on the films.

In Brief
Howard Hawks' sublime cult Western "Rio Bravo: Special Edition" includes commentary by director and fan John Carpenter and documentaries old and new. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition" features all three cuts of Steven Spielberg's tale of wonder and benevolence plus an excellent documentary and a new interview. "Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection" showcases the poetic and powerful landmark of African-American filmmaking as well as Burnett's follow-up film, "My Brother's Wedding," plus four shorts. You ain't heard nothin' until you've heard the tribute to early talkies that comes with "The Jazz Singer: 80th Anniversary 3-Disc Collector's Edition." "The Valentino Collection" captures in four features the glory days of silent cinema's most seductive leading man.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
"Breathless"
Criterion
Buy It
Jean-Luc Godard's feature debut, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as the charming rogue of a street thug and Jean Seberg as his American girlfriend, play like visual jazz, rough and improvisatory and full of marvelous solos and quotes, and stands as the definitive expression of the spirit of the early Nouvelle Vague. Criterion's two-disc edition pays tribute with a terrific 1993 French documentary, new and archival interviews, provocative featurettes and an 82-page booklet.

"Berlin Alexanderplatz"
Criterion
Buy It
At more than 15 hours, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's adaptation of Alfred Döblin's novel is not for all attention spans, but this mesmerizing drama remains Fassbinder's most lavish and complex production and one of the most cinematically accomplished works ever made for television. Criterion's newly restored seven-disc set looks magnificent and features new and archival documentaries and the original 1931 film adaptation of the novel.

In Brief
Poetry meets propaganda in "I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition," Mikhail Kalatozov's delirious tribute to the Cuban revolution. Jean-Pierre Melville's French Resistance drama "Army of Shadows" gets a gorgeous two-disc edition from Criterion. Toshiro Mifune's mercenary samurai headlines "Yojimbo/Sanjuro: Two Films by Akira Kurosawa." Sergei Eisenstein's landmark "Battleship Potemkin," arguably the most influential silent film of all time, is restored to its original cut in Kino's two-disc special edition. And don't forget about 2006 Oscar-winner "The Lives of Others."

CULT OFFERINGS
"Blade Runner: The Final Cut Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition"
Warner
Buy It
Ridley Scott offers his final word on his futuristic film noir with a top-to-bottom digital restoration featuring minor adjustments, major corrections and enhanced special effects. For sheer fan-boy overkill, this is the must-have collection of the season, with four bonus cuts of the film (the original theatrical version, the extended international cut, the 1992 "Director's Cut" and the rare work print), the obsessively exhaustive, new 3.5-hour documentary "Dangerous Days: The Making of Blade Runner," a bonus disc of more supplements and silly collectible goodies such as a Spinner replica and a cast metal origami unicorn, all in a limited-edition "Deckard" plastic briefcase.

"Inland Empire"
Rhino
Buy It
Outside of the Hollywood system, David Lynch produced his dreamy drama of metamorphosis in a landscape of Hollywood movies, Polish gangsters, a surreal sitcom in rabbit suits and spontaneous dance numbers, and then he produced his own 2-Disk (his spelling) DVD release, putting his own sensibility on home video essentials such as deleted scenes and the making-of featurette.

In Brief
Bong Joon-ho's South Korean monster movie hit "The Host" is the most dynamic and entertaining creature feature in years. The Criterion edition of Jim Jarmusch's droll road movie comedy "Stranger Than Paradise" features Jarmusch's rarely seen debut feature and a 1984 German TV documentary. The eight-disc "The Roger Corman Collection" features some of the B-movie legend's greatest and wildest films. Stuart Gordon's Lovecraftian mix of metaphysics, medicine, zombies and "Frankenstein" gets the deluxe treatment in "Re-Animator: 2-Disc Limited Edition." "El Topo," the original midnight movie, headlines "The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky Box Set."

MISCELLANY
"Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934"
Image
Buy It
The four-disc box set from the National Film Preservation Foundation presents 48 films -- everything from political tracts and documentary exposés to cartoons, comic satires and bald exploitation to serious social dramas -- made between 1900 and 1934 that explore the themes of social issues and engagement. It's a cinematic treasure for devoted cinephiles. The lavish box set features newly recorded scores and commentary plus a 200-page illustrated book.

In Brief
"Cinema 16: European Short Films" showcases some of the most inventive, powerful and provocative films you'll see in the three-minute to half-hour format. "The Films of Kenneth Anger: Volume Two" collects the most notorious films from the underground avant-garde director. "Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers" features remastered versions of 13 of their nightmarishly surreal animated shorts.

Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment. He is also a contributing writer for GreenCine.com, Turner Classic Movies Online and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications.

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