The Best Overhead DVD Players 2024

1. Darkman (DVD), Universal Studios, Action & Adventure

Creepy sci-fi melodrama about a horribly figured scientist who uses his own invention to transform him into a revenge seeking super hero. Starring Frances McDormand and Liam Neeson. Running time: 96 minutes.

DARKMAN Action & Adventure Universal Studios R

2. That Old Feeling [DVD] [1997]

Plays DVD, CD, EVD, VCD, CD-RW, DVD-R, VOB, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG3, MPEG4, DIVX, MP3, WMA, JPG and JPEG formats; up to 2.5 hours of playback; headphone jack

In this Carl Reiner-directed romantic comedy, Bette Midler stars as a movie star named Lilly, who has had a fairly successful career which is now on the downturn. Years after a terrible divorce, she meets up again with her ex-husband Dan (Dennis Farina) at the wedding of their daughter Molly (Paula Marshall). Molly is marrying a young and promising politician, Keith Marks (Jamie Denton), and the wedding is a formal affair. Lilly and Dan have each remarried, and each despise the other's new spouse. Dan has taken up with the young bombshell who ruined the marriage, Rowena (Gail O'Grady). Lilly is wedded to their former marriage counselor, Alan (David Rasche), a psychobabble-spouting shrink. Lilly and Dan engage in a huge shouting match at the reception, and they are shooed outside, where their argument leads to a passionate reunion in a sports car. Impulsively, they run away together. Keith, seeking damage control to avert a possible political scandal, enlists Molly's help, and she hires a papparazi photographer, Joey (Danny Nucci), who has spent several years stalking Lilly with his camera and selling candid photos to celebrity magazines. Molly and Joey find Molly's parents at a hotel, but Lilly locks them in a room together so that she and Dan can have one old last romantic evening. Molly and Joey find themselves uncomfortably attracted to each other, leading to more romantic trouble.

3. Clockers [DVD] [1995]

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Based on Richard Price's grim best-seller, and directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay co-written with Price, Clockers takes the structure of a police procedural to build a chilling portrait of despair, hope, and the unanswered problem of black-on-black crime in an urban housing project. The film's haunting themes are vividly visualized during the opening credits, which run over police photos of dead young black men, shot and sprawled on sidewalks, in streets, and hanging over fences. Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a 19-year-old African-American "clocker" -- the lowest link on the drug dealing chain -- who hangs around park benches and street corners selling small amounts of druges at all hours of the day. Strike drinks chocolate milk to soothe an ulcer and plays with model trains in his apartment, dreaming of a way out of his dead-end life. Drug kingpin Rodney (Delroy Lindo) asks Strike to kill another clocker, Darryl, for skimming money, saying that this will be Strike's ticket to a higher post in Rodney's organization. Darryl is indeed shot, and suspicion immediately falls on Strike, but a weary cop named Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) thinks there's more to the case.

4. High Plains Drifter [DVD] [1973]

Plays DVD, CD, EVD, VCD, CD-RW, DVD-R, VOB, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG3, MPEG4, DIVX, MP3, WMA, JPG and JPEG formats; up to 2.5 hours of playback; headphone jack

Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter -- only the second movie he ever directed -- makes its second appearance on DVD in an edition altered only slightly from its first, mostly in the form of its design, which was restructured to bring it into line with the 2003 "Universal Western Collection," of which it is now a part, alongside classics such as Winchester '73 and studio-generated filler such as The Redhead From Wyoming. (As few Eastwood fans need be told, High Plains Drifter is much closer in quality to the former than the latter.) The film-to-video transfer is a significant improvement over the old laserdisc edition, which was one of the earlier Universal letterboxed releases. It is sort of essential to see it in this format, as AMC -- where it turns up most frequently -- usually shows the movie full-frame; but even when they show the letterboxed version, they never air the R-rated cut with the uncensored language and violence. The 2.35:1 transfer offers good contrast and brings out such details as a wonderful shot eight and a half-minutes into the movie in which Eastwood's nameless stranger runs across to a trio of thugs at a saloon; his end of the shot is framed by his wide-brimmed hat, which, as he raises his head, reveals the presence of a further set of onlookers, including his soon-to-be-ally Mordecai (Billy Curtis). The detail of the transfer is exquisite, right down to the fabric of the wool blankets that Eastwood's stranger loads into the arms of a downtrodden Native American at the general store. One wishes there was an accompanying narration by Eastwood, but in its place there is a decent production history in the supplements, over a series of easy-to-access onscreen frames. 

One reason the movie has always looked as strange as it does is that Eastwood specifically chose to shoot it at the other end of California from Hollywood -- at Lake Mono in the California Sierras. He had the entire town, including interiors for all of the buildings, constructed to order from scratch, and shot everything there, adjacent to the lake, which had the helpful quality of changing its appearance and hue with virtually each new shot, adding to the unearthly feel of the action. The movie would probably have been better received by critics if it had not appeared in the wake of Dirty Harry, which had left most middle-of-the-road and liberal journalists and writers aghast, and also despising Eastwood. High Plains Drifter was a success despite mixed reviews, and has since come to be regarded as one of the most influential Westerns of the '70s. The other major supplement on the disc is the original trailer, which emphasizes the movie's violence more than its gallows humor and which has been modified into a mixture of full-screen and letterboxed shots. The menu must be accessed manually -- the disc goes automatically to the movie and startup mode -- and is easy to manipulate, going to a third layer in language selection (French, Spanish), with Spanish subtitles and English captions available. The 16 chapters fit the movie perfectly, covering every major scene.

5. The Chamber (DVD), Universal Studios, Mystery & Suspense

Chris O'Donnell stars as a young lawyer who tries to save the life of his racist grandfather played by Gene Hackamn, who is imprisoned for murdering a Jewish lawyer's sons. Based on the John Grisham's dramatic novel. Also starring Faye Dunaway. Featues production notes, talent bios and film highlights. Anamorphic widescreen version. (1996) Running time: 111 minutes.

CHAMBER Mystery & Suspense Universal Studios R

6. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story [DVD] [1993]

Plays DVD, CD, EVD, VCD, CD-RW, DVD-R, VOB, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG3, MPEG4, DIVX, MP3, WMA, JPG and JPEG formats; up to 2.5 hours of playback; headphone jack

The brief but eventful life of actor and martial arts trailblazer Bruce Lee is portrayed in this drama, based on a biography written by his widow Linda Lee Caldwell. Lee is introduced to the study of martial arts as a child living in Hong Kong by his father (Ric Young); the father dreamed that a demonic armored dragon would take his son from him, and wanted young Bruce to be able to protect himself. Bruce continues his training as he grows to adulthood, and after the cocky teenaged Lee (Jason Scott Lee, no relation to Bruce) seriously injures a prominent British citizen while fighting a gang of troublemakers at a dance, he's sent to San Francisco. While working as a dishwasher, Bruce begins to study philosophy, and in time develops a personal martial arts discipline, Jeet Kune-Do, which blends Kung Fu fighting techniques with lessons gained from his philosophical research. Bruce decides to open a martial arts academy on the advice of his fiancée Linda (Lauren Holly); Linda and Bruce encounter resistance as a mixed-race couple, especially from Linda's mother Vivian (Michael Learned), and Bruce earns the enmity of traditional Chinese martial arts experts for his new style. But after a strong showing in several public tournaments, Bruce's fighting skill and charisma attracts the attention of TV producer Bill Krieger (Robert Wagner). Bruce is cast as Kato, the karate-trained sidekick on the series The Green Hornet, and while the show is short-lived in America, it's a huge success in Asia, leading to a series of films based around Bruce's remarkable fighting skills. Sadly, shortly before the release of the film that would make him a major screen star in the United States, Enter The Dragon, a mysterious brain disorder sends Lee into a coma that soon kills him. In a tragedy with eerie timing, Bruce Lee's real-life son Brandon Lee died shortly before this film was released, the result of an accidental shooting while completing the picture The Crow.

7. McHale's Navy [DVD] [1997]

Plays DVD, CD, EVD, VCD, CD-RW, DVD-R, VOB, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG3, MPEG4, DIVX, MP3, WMA, JPG and JPEG formats; up to 2.5 hours of playback; headphone jack

The most disorganized crew in the Navy returns in this updated adaptation of the once-popular TV sitcom. Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale (Tom Arnold) has retired from the U.S. Navy and is living on the old PT boat he used to command. He spends his days making the rounds of the Caribbean Island of San Moreno, where he was stationed at the end of his career and now peddles pin-up calendars and booze to sailors. However, McHale's idyllic surroundings are soon spoiled when Vladikov (Tim Curry), tired of being known as the "second-best terrorist in the world," decides to stage a bid for world domination and targets San Moreno first. Desperate to fend off Vladikov, Capt. Binghampton (Dean Stockwell) calls McHale back to active duty. McHale is once again saddled with a crew of misfits and losers, including the easily frightened Ensign Parker (David Alan Grier), straight-laced Lt. Carpenter (Debra Messing), good-natured Happy (French Stewart), and Virgil (Bruce Campbell). Ernest Borgnine, star of the original TV series, appears in a small role as a high-ranking Pentagon official who turns out to be McHale's father.

8. Out of Africa [DVD] [1985]

Plays DVD, CD, EVD, VCD, CD-RW, DVD-R, VOB, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG3, MPEG4, DIVX, MP3, WMA, JPG and JPEG formats; up to 2.5 hours of playback; headphone jack

The DVD for the big Oscar winner of 1985, Out of Africa, is a nice package from Universal, though maybe a bit short of their "Collector's Edition" label. The image, which is framed at 1.85:1 and anamorphic, is very nice. Colors range from muted to strikingly vivid and are reproduced exceptionally well on the disc. Detail, for the most part, is strong, without a significant amount of distracting elements. The sound, which utilizes a 4.1 English track, is basically centered upfront, only using any surround material sparingly. Still, John Barry's wonderful, Oscar-winning score comes across with strength. As for extras, they might be considered a little light for a special edition. The disc does have a commentary track from director Sydney Pollack, which is detailed about the production and its challenges. In addition, there is a nice 50-minute documentary entitled "Song of Africa" with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Beyond that there are the standard production notes, cast and crew information, and theatrical trailer. A missed opportunity would have to be the exclusion of Barry's music on an isolated track. Fans of this film shouldn't be disappointed, though, in what is offered. Overall, the quality is there to see.

9. The Boxer (DVD)

Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) is released from prison in Belfast after 14 years for his part in IRA activities. He is determined to avoid the bloodshed that was inherent in his political past and to build a new life in his old home. Buy his relationship to the past refuses to let him live in peace. Features: "Fighting for Peace: Inside the Boxer" featurette, audio commentary by director Jim Sheridan and producer Arthur Lappin. Plus, deleted scenes, alternate ending, interviews w/ cast & filmmakers and more! (1997) Running time: 110 minutes. Languages: English: 5.1 Surround; French: Dolby Surround / SUB: French, Spanish.

The Boxer (DVD) Universal Studios MPAA Rating: R

10. Daylight [DVD] [1996]

Stream mediaTRILUMINOS colourDolby TrueHD and DTS-HDBlu-ray Disc, DVD, CD and USB

Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, Daylight looks about as good as DVD pictures are going to get. All the colors are even and bright with black levels solid. No imperfections of any kind are present during the film. This transfer looks beautiful and will please fans looking for the best possible way to watch Daylight. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is also as well done as the transfer. This 5.1 audio track packs a very nice punch and sounds excellent. Speakers are utilized on all sides, with the bass low and rumbling. All effects, music, and dialogue sound perfectly even with no distortion present. Also included on this disc is a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track in Spanish, as well as English captions and Spanish subtitles. 
Although Daylight may not be packed to the brim with extra features, it does include a good batch of supplemental materials. Featured on this disc is an audio commentary by director Rob Cohen that tends to be a bit dry but informative; an hour-long documentary ("The Making of Daylight"), featuring interviews with the cast and crew; a music video for the song "Wherever There Is Love" by Donna Summer and Bruce Roberts; a still gallery; and some theatrical trailers and teasers. While opinions may vary about the quality of the film itself, Daylight nonetheless proves to be a worthy DVD edition for action film fans.