It’s difficult to choose presents for your loved ones. Here at CinemaBlend, we may not be experts at clothing or tech gadgets, but we still love to make the holidays as easy for our fans as possible. With that in mind, we’ve looked at a lot of the Blu-ray and DVD box sets that hit the market in 2014, and we’ve culled through some of our favorites to bring you a variety of recommendations for movie and TV superfans. Check out our 2014 Holiday Gift Guide, below, and let us know if you’ve already bought any one of these expensive beauties for someone you really, really like.
Spartacus: The Complete Series (Limited Edition)
The Spartacus: The Complete Series set has a lot of pros. It comes with a gory but collectible statuette of Spartacus on the battlefield, taking out a foe. Even more awesomely, the statuette actually serves a dual purpose, offering a secret compartment in the back that holds all of the Spartacus: The Complete Series discs. Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Gods of the Arena, Vengeance, and War of the Damned are all encased in small red book along with a bonus disc and extended episodes are available for each of the seasons of the tightly written drama. Spartacus has put out some nice sets before, but The Complete Series takes the cake. Even the extras on the disc are presented with a tone that should be appealing to audiences, including lead Liam McIntyre presenting a ranking of the top Spartacus moments from the series (not to mention other segments showing us how the show’s bloodiest scenes are created). Seriously, we can’t say enough nice things about Starz and Anchor Bay Home Entertainment’s set. It’s a highly entertaining series with plenty of brutal moments, and the Complete Series Blu-ray looks fantastic on any shelf (Seriously, we tried it out on like 7 different shelves).
Who It’s Right For: For Spartacus superfans this is a must-purchase, but it’s also a great fit for any relative with an obsession with weapons, boobs or saying "apologies" instead of "I apologize."
Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection
Another winner in the formatting department, Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece collection offers a sensible and elegant rectangular case that closes with a magnet. A print of Kubrick created by his wife, Christine, might make a fun little piece of wall or refrigerator art and a 78-page hardcover book featuring set notes, newspaper clippings and photos also fits nicely into the packaging. But what’s especially nice about Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s set are the film choices the movie studio was able to pull together, including Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and more, along with the brand new "Kubrick Remembered" feature and two new to Blu-ray documentaries, Stanley Kubrick In Focus and Once Upon a Time…A Clockwork Orange. Certainly you can find many of Kubrick’s movies on DVD for cheap, but none have the zany grace and artsy look of The Masterpiece collection discs or the careful touches Christine Kubrick’s interviews and little touches add. It’s a handsome set.
Who It’s Right For: Movie buffs, Kubrick buffs, historical buffs, those who really enjoy magnets.
How I Met Your Mother: The Complete Series DVD
The How I Met Your Mother: The Complete Series set has been on the market for a little while now, and while we do lament the fact that there’s no Blu-ray version of this wonderful box set, the packaging and extras more than make up for it. First, it’s pretty impressive that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment was able to fit nine seasons worth of DVD discs into a decent-sized rectangular package that also happens to be shaped like Barney’s Playbook. With poignant extras looking back at the series, insider stories about the pineapple and more, the How I Met Your Mother: Complete Series is a great gift set for fans of Barney, Marshall, Robin, Lily and Ted. Here’s the full review of the set.
Who It’s Right For: If you’ve ever attended your own Slapsgiving, worn a slutty pumpkin (or hanging chad costume), or said the line "legen… wait for it… dary," you need this set. Nay, you deserve this set. Go buy it, now.
True Blood: The Complete Series
HBO’s timely Blu-ray set has hit the market just a few short months after the True Blood series finale aired, totally breaking the hearts of everyone who shipped Sookie and Bill in the process. Luckily there’s nothing heartbreaking about the Complete Series set. Seasons 1-6 offer the same extras as the original releases, including HBO’s signature "Inside the Episodes" feature and a whopping 40 audio commentaries. But Season 7 is really where it’s at, featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the last few days on set. The actors celebrate making it to the final episode and wrapping up the last shots of the final season, and even look back on their favorite moments from the series. Former showrunner Alan Ball makes an appearance on the disc, as well. With small, square packaging, True Blood: The Complete Series will fit snugly next to all of your Sookie Stackhouse books and memorabilia.
Who It’s Right For: My mom, other vampire fans, HBO fans, True Blood fans, romance lovers and anyone who thinks Alexander Skarsgard is a damn fine male specimen. (A note for those who are not True Blood fans: if you don’t have a truebie in your life, HBO Home Entertainment also put out The Sopranos: The Complete Series on Blu-ray for the first time this year.)
Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection
Spielberg has released a lot of movies, often with different studios, but this year Universal Studios Home Entertainment has finally put together an eight-movie set the company is simply calling the Director’s Collection. It’s tough because Universal could only pull from the company’s own catalog, but there’s still some great stuff available with the release, including Jaws, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Additionally, the set offers the first Blu-ray releases of Duel, The Sugarland Express, 1941 and Always. It’s not an all-encompassing look at the milestone director’s body of work, but it is a very nice gift for older Spielberg fans, and won’t break the bank like some of the more expensive collections on this list. You can check out more about the set, here.
Who It’s Right For: Is this even a question? Spielberg's kind-of the man.
History Presents: The Definitive WWI & WWII Collection DVD
Light on frills and extras, History Presents: The Definitive WWI &WWII Collection nonetheless offers a slew of different types of programs looking at the rise of modern warfare in the world (with a focus on World War II). Fans who purchase the set will get a copy of History’s recent series The World Wars, which looks at warfare from the perspectives of Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill and more, along with a slew of other documentaries, including WWII in HD: The Battle For Iwo Jima, WWII From Space, The Color of War, Patton 360, WWII In HD, WWII In HD: The Air War, 75 Years of WWII and 100 Years of WWI. Each of these have been available in smaller DVD sets before, but it’s nice to have 44 hours of content available in a neat set with tidy packaging. It also makes for a heftier and more appealing set than the average History release.
Who It’s Right For: Casual war buffs and those who really enjoy any non-alien based History Channel programming should dig the set. The 2014 release is not as critically acclaimed as The History Channel’s The World at War, but History typically has pretty great production value with its documentaries and there’s a lot to like with this one.
Other 2014 Sets You Should Look Into:
Gone with the Wind: 75th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Caesar’s Warrior Collection
Star Trek: The Compendium
