The Criterion Collection

[Polaroid]

Try searching the codes or something?

J. 028174?

[GenPion]

It looks like it's just a film canister with film presenting 4 trailers. That's my guess at least from the label and from the size of the film.

It would be hilarious if it turned out to be something else... something more rare. "Hey, look, we discovered a rare gem of cinema in the Criterion closet today!"

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by GenPion

It looks like it's just a film canister with film presenting 4 trailers. That's my guess at least from the label and from the size of the film.

It would be hilarious if it turned out to be something else... something more rare. "Hey, look, we discovered a rare gem of cinema in the Criterion closet today!"

Kubrick made Napoleon in secret and they have just discovered it lol

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

I mean have you busy seen Midnight Meat Train rofl?

I never bothered to see The Midnight Meat Train, but I did love the Clive Barker short story when I was in high school back in the late 1980s. That was one of the stories in Clive Barker's Books of Blood anthology series, which exposed my small-town rural Georgia 10th grader teenage imagination to all sorts of insane craziness. Let's just say that I felt compelled to hide those anthologies from my parents.

Sadly, though, with the exception of the first Hellraiser film (an adaptation of Clive Barker's novella, The Hellbound Heart), no other adaptation of this author's work has even come close to capturing the vibe of his prose. The trailer for The Midnight Meat Train convinced me that it's not even close to the awesome short story.

Criterion should pick up that first Hellraiser film as a title. Why? Because it'll tear your soul apart, that's why.
None of the sequels are particularly good, but that first film is a doozy.
Maybe Criterion could release Hellraiser with a lenticular cover just like Time Bandits, and let the cover depict the "Jesus wept." scene and the ensuing splatter.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I never bothered to see The Midnight Meat Train, but I did love the Clive Barker short story when I was in high school back in the late 1980s. That was one of the stories in Clive Barker's Books of Blood anthology series, which exposed my small-town rural Georgia 10th grader teenage imagination to all sorts of insane craziness. Let's just say that I felt compelled to hide those anthologies from my parents.

Sadly, though, with the exception of the first Hellraiser film (an adaptation of Clive Barker's novella, The Hellbound Heart), no other adaptation of this author's work has even come close to capturing the vibe of his prose. The trailer for The Midnight Meat Train convinced me that it's not even close to the awesome short story.

Criterion should pick up that first Hellraiser film as a title. Why? Because it'll tear your soul apart, that's why.
None of the sequels are particularly good, but that first film is a doozy.
Maybe Criterion could release Hellraiser with a lenticular cover just like Time Bandits, and let the cover depict the "Jesus wept." scene and the ensuing splatter.

Midnight Meat train was good at times but it was filled with 3D scenes that looked out of place, tacky and very unrealistic - not sure if it was meant to come across as humourus but it did. Sadly the film ruined itself and wasn't worth it lol.

I mean who's eye pops out of socket and flies through the air when being hit on the back of the head? Lol

Never seen hell raiser but seen promotional material, is it worth checking out then? I always worried it would be corny or cheesey lol

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Never seen hell raiser but seen promotional material, is it worth checking out then? I always worried it would be corny or cheesey lol

The first Hellraiser film is good stuff.

A friend and I saw Hellraiser at a local theater back in 1987, and we were blown away. The movie was insanely gory and disturbing, even by the standards of 1980s horror, and it really prospered at VHS rental places, because it was one of those movies that everybody at my high school rented at one time or another out of curiosity, even if most did not want to admit renting it.

Hellraiser was directed by Clive Barker himself, and it echoes the spirit of his written work more than anything else that he or anybody else has handled.
(I know that Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions have their fans here, but I'm not huge on those movies.)

My guess is that you'll be taken aback somewhat by Hellraiser, because it is viscerally grotesque in a tangible way that today's computer-generated imagery and post-processing film styles can never hope to match.

My mention of Hellraiser got me thinking about it, in fact, so I just went to Amazon and ordered the out-of-print Starz/Anchor Bay Blu-ray for $10 and change. In all honesty, I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to revisit some of those scenes, but I'd like to see this film again for the first time in a couple of decades.

Pinhead is pretty awesome in the first movie. For a character that has since become iconic in lessor sequels, his appearance here is brief, but infinitely impactful.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Criterion should pick up that first Hellraiser film as a title. Why? Because it'll tear your soul apart, that's why.
None of the sequels are particularly good, but that first film is a doozy.

Oh I don't know, I quite like the sequel Hellbound. It has a terrific look that evokes the dream worlds of Lovecraft's prose. Good matte paintings never get old.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Oh I don't know, I quite like the sequel Hellbound. It has a terrific look that evokes the dream worlds of Lovecraft's prose. Good matte paintings never get old.

Hellbound: Hellraiser II is the best of the sequels, but I'd still place it on a lower tier than I would the first film. The special effects in this sequel are quite impressive, but it struck me as somewhat campy compared to the first film. It's better than the subsequent films, thankfully, although I do seem to remember a good DJ record scene in the third film.

You're right about the Lovecraftian imagery.


EDIT: I should specify that I only saw the first four Hellraiser movies, so I've only seen four out of the nine total films. I could be missing out on a latter-era masterpiece with those unseen sequels, but I somehow doubt it.

[*DrStrangelove*]

No one wants to discuss John Cassavetes huh? You all would rather talk Criterion covers and Hellraiser?

[Ausjdm]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

I hate Netflix.... UK version is crap, I have watched all the good films lol.

I wanted to watch Safe tonight but alas it is not there...

...Well we have this:

Hey Polaroid, but it's from the producers of kill bill and Inglorious Bastards I'm sold! Haha

[jw007]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

No one wants to discuss John Cassavetes huh? You all would rather talk Criterion covers and Hellraiser?

John Cassavetes is one amazing legend. I watched the box set of his earlier this year and it was fantastic. I still need to open my copy of Love Streams.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

No one wants to discuss John Cassavetes huh? You all would rather talk Criterion covers and Hellraiser?

Is there a fourth option? - None of them is doing it for me.

[oildude]

It's called Criterion Colle. I think it is a home movie about Jon Mulvaney's dog.

[Show spoiler](Colle --> Collie....get it? Thanks, thanks a lot. You're a great crowd. I'll be here all night).

Originally Posted by iScottie

Janus Films recently found this film in their storage. Any idea what it is? I can't make out the writing.

[orbital]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

No one wants to discuss John Cassavetes huh?

No.

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

You all would rather talk Criterion covers and Hellraiser?

Yes.

You'd like a tissue?

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by Ausjdm

Hey Polaroid, but it's from the producers of kill bill and Inglorious Bastards I'm sold! Haha

Rofl I hate when they use that to sell a film lmao.... >.<

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Im not sure tbh - I googled in past but when I check my Netflix those films weren't actually available... :/

Part of the problem is that Netflix loses the license for various films, and I'm sure that's complicated by having different films available (or not) in different markets. I can recommend a bunch of things I've seen lately, but I find most of my viewing tends to be in batches as I race to see a bunch of things before they expire.

Please suggest some, because I am desperate! I am getting pretty much no new films and I am getting some ridiculous suggestions! Driving me nuts! I have noticed a few new film popping up on the foreign section that I want to check out though.

I'll make a list of things that I've seen that I really like. Later today, though. I have some errands need tending to this morning.

This is a stupid question, I am sorta new with Netflix, do you need to rate in order to get the results, because I thought it was based on what you watched lol?

I don't know exactly what algorithm they use. They do seem to recommend films based on what you've shown interest in (with me, it's adding them to my queue, no doubt). But given that one can rate movies only in whole numbers of stars (1,2,3,4,5), but their guesses about how I'll rate a given film are in one-place decimal (eg., "3.8 stars"), I suspect it works like this...

I rate all the movies I watch. Their system probably says, "OK, jayembee gave Movies A, B, and C three stars and Movies D, E, and F four stars, and Movies G, H, and I five stars. To work out what they think I'll rate Movie J, they look at other people who gave the same ratings that I did for Movies A through I, and average what ratings those people gave Movie J.

[bwdowiak]

Add another film to my list of movies that I saw ages ago and felt nothing for only to revisit them on blu-ray and really enjoy them. Seeing Grapes of Wrath many years ago (probably on VHS,) I thought it was a movie in which nothing happens. Of course, it didn’t help that the audio on VHS tapes was shoddy at best for films of that age. Anyway, I’m preaching to the choir when I say that seeing such a clean print in high definition and having the option to turn on subtitles if so desired is a miracle to modern film lovers.

I haven’t been blown away by any of the Ford films I’ve seen, but I really enjoyed 4 of them. I liked The Searchers, too, but only ‘liked’ it.
I’d rank the Ford that I’ve seen as follows:

My Darling Clementine
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley
The Searchers

anyone else? top 5 Ford titles?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

anyone else? top 5 Ford titles?

My Darling Clementine
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Searchers
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Mr. Roberts

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Add another film to my list of movies that I saw ages ago and felt nothing for only to revisit them on blu-ray and really enjoy them. Seeing Grapes of Wrath many years ago (probably on VHS,) I thought it was a movie in which nothing happens. Of course, it didn’t help that the audio on VHS tapes was shoddy at best for films of that age. Anyway, I’m preaching to the choir when I say that seeing such a clean print in high definition and having the option to turn on subtitles if so desired is a miracle to modern film lovers.

I haven’t been blown away by any of the Ford films I’ve seen, but I really enjoyed 4 of them. I liked The Searchers, too, but only ‘liked’ it.
I’d rank the Ford that I’ve seen as follows:

My Darling Clementine
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley
The Searchers

anyone else? top 5 Ford titles?

Red River is not in your top 5?

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

Red River is not in your top 5?

I'm sure many make that mistake!