Critic's Choice: Best DVDs of 2007

The year 2007 was so staggeringly good for DVDs that, when contemplating making a best-of list for publication, I almost got the vapors, as they say. So, strictly in the interest of maintaining my personal sanity, I bit the bullet and imposed a few (largely arbitrary, I'll admit) volume-limiting rules: I wouldn't treat high-definition discs (although if I did, the Blu-ray of Verhoeven's Black Book would be near the top of the list). I wouldn't do imports or foreign-region material (although if I did, Gaumont's four-disc set of Godard's Histoires(s) du Cinema would be near the top of the list). I wouldn't do television (although if I did, Paramount's fantastic, all-inclusive Twin Peaks box would be near the top of the list).

And for all that, I still had a hard time limiting the list to 25 — and for all that, there was nary a doubt as to what would end up at the very top of the list.