12 Delights of Christmas

• Share

(2 of 8)

A sack of stolen money falls on 7-year-old Damian, and he thinks it's a gift from heaven. Magical realism comes to the English Midlands, where saints speak to little boys and dead mums offer tips on hair conditioners. Kids and adults will enjoy this sweet-but-not-sticky fairy tale from director Danny Boyle. Blessed by the charisma of its young star, Alex Etel, Millions is found gold, and a little bit of heaven.

CLASSIC BOX SETS

GRETA GARBO: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION

Warner $99.98

Garbo's centenary this September made lots of people remember that she was once considered a great actress. This set offers irrefutable proof: 10 features packed with enough glamour and bold genius to leave any skeptic awestruck. See her ignite the screen in Ernst Lubitsch's divine comedy Ninotchka or the Dumas melodrama Camille--made in 1939 and still the most astonishing display of star acting the movies ever recorded.

RAY HARRYHAUSEN GIFT SET

Sony $49.95

The magician of stop-motion animation brought fantasy to terrifying life. This pack of three 1950s monster films shows his no-budget brilliance: to save money, he gave the giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea just six arms. He destroyed D.C. in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and created the Ymir, a sulfurous Venusian, in 20 Million Miles to Earth. All his beasties, hand-crafted and photographed one frame at a time, had the power and grandeur of the original Kong.

THE COMPLETE MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS 16-TON MEGASET

A&E $199.95

The Broadway success of the superingratiating Spamalot proves it: in a generation, any humor can go from naughty to nostalgic. This 16-discathon is a refresher course in the Brit sextet's cleansing silliness. All 45 of the original half-hour BBC shows are here, plus the 1982 Live at the Hollywood Bowl (a greatest-hits show, but ruder) and a 1998 reunion of the five surviving members, recollecting the canon: Silly Walks, Dead Parrot, Cheese Shop, Spanish Inquisition, etc. All together, Pythonites: Wink-wink nudge-nudge, say no more.

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL COLLECTION

Sundance $149.99

Savvy viewers think they can spot a Sundance film a mall away: the liberal viewpoint, the slow pulse, the precise and subdued acting. No question that, in the 25 years since Robert Redford founded his film institute in Utah, the "Sundance film" has become its own genre. This selection of 10 films spawned at the institute or launched at its festival provides a corrective of sorts, showing that the range is wide and imposing. You can still savor the romantic desperation of sex, lies, and videotape, the working-class wit of Clerks, the community of self-aware losers in American Splendor, the devious plot pranks in The Usual Suspects, not to mention the creepy docu-glimpses of family life in Capturing the Friedmans and the creative disarray in American Movie. It makes for the best possible Sundance fest, and you won't get snubbed or snowed on.

REBEL SAMURAI: SIXTIES SWORDPLAY CLASSICS

Criterion $99.95