Over the next month GreenCine will be making lists (and checking them twice), with the best and the worst of 2006, and other wacky trends from the year in film. We kick the whole thing off with Craig Phillips' list "Giving Thanks: Top 10 Formerly MIA DVDs," a collection of some favorite films that had previously been unavailable on DVD - including Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (pictured above) - but finally graced us with their presence this year.

Clerks II  Rent | Buy 

Kevin Smith returned to favorite terrain with this higher-budgeted follow-up ($21.95) to his very indie hit. "Smith's most enjoyable film since, well, Clerks, lacks much of its predecessor's outsider edge, but you'll probably be laughing too hard to care." (Empire) Sean Axmaker interviewed the film's co-stars, Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, this year, too. Also check out An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Even Harder; the evenings are usually funnier than most of his films.

Azumi  Rent | Buy 

Super news this week, as we not only get Bryan Singer's new Superman Returns: SE (2 discs; $24.58, or widescreen), but - what a coinkydink! - Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut ($19.95), or the S2 Special Edition ($20.95); and the whole Christopher Reeve Superman Collection ($48.95).

Otomo ($21.45), shattering German film; Speed Grapher vol. 4 ($21.45); Robin Hood: Most Wanted Edition ($25.45); Planetes: Complete Collection (6 discs; $35.45); François Ozon's weepie Time to Leave ($17.95); The Ant Bully was undeservedly forgotten after all the other CGI ant movies; Night Train ($21.45).

GreenCine's review blog: Guru | A complete list of this week's new releases and all titles coming soon is available here | Your Queue | Discuss!

Monster in a Box  Rent | Buy 

($12.45), After Spalding Gray's tragic death earlier two years ago, it was especially frustrating that one of his most enjoyably looney filmed monologues was not available on DVD. Here's Monster in a Box, at last. The title refers to the manuscript of an autobiographical novel he was struggling to complete. Not as visually dynamic as the previous Swimming to Cambodia (also MIA on DVD), but Gray is "a performer possessed," wrote Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. "It's pure comic bliss."

More like this True Stories | Gray's Anatomy

Pandora's Box  Rent | Buy 

From Criterion itself: "One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst had an innate talent for discovering actresses (including Greta Garbo). And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst's lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora's Box." "The film that put Brooks on the map," wrote David Hudson in our German Expressionism primer. The Criterion disc is, of course, loaded with fantastic extras.

More like this More Treasures...Am Film Archive | Love of Jeanne Ney

150 Cartoon Classics  Rent | Watch 

Now available to watch for only $4.99 exclusively via GreenCine's Video-on-Demand service: This delightful compilation of cartoons from the 1930s and 40s includes several Betty Boop favorites, as well as Popeye, Casper and more. For kids of all ages!

More like this Vol 2 | Vol 3 | Vol 4

"Emmanuelle Bercot has crafted one of the most self-assured debut features that I've seen in years," declared Jonathan Marlow in May. "The cast is remarkable. Emmanuelle Seigner is quite exceptional as the troubled singer and Isild Le Besco's performance as an adoring fan is believably overwrought." His chat with Le Besco about Backstage is up now on GreenCine.

Sara Schieron maps a few possible entryways into the radically independent director Darren Aronofsky's most challenging film yet, The Fountain. Also: Nic Krasnick talks about his documentary CoSM: Alex Grey & the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, out today on DVD.