The Criterion Collection

[Dragun]

Originally Posted by Stewynewy

I still don't believe the After Hours release is real, it doesn't feel right. What are people going to keep asking for now?

I'm still waiting for them to announce Heroic Trio

[Midway30]

Originally Posted by Stewynewy

What are people going to keep asking for now?

Narc (2002)

[dtower182]

Now I can stop being one of these people asking for After Hours every month or so! My brother even phoned me up to tell me! One False Move as well? Incredible!

Think this is the first line up in a while that I'm really excited about! Great news.

[Fabi T]

Very, very excited about After Hours & One False Move as well! And both in 4k, incredible, thank you Criterion, my money will be yours!

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by Stewynewy

I still don't believe the After Hours release is real, it doesn't feel right. What are people going to keep asking for now?
.

Samurai Rebellion?

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Cremildo

Samurai Rebellion?

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Midway30

Narc (2002)

Probably coming from Kino if I were to guess. They still have 3 2000's Paramount titles to announce and none have been on Blu-ray yet.

[Meek12345]

Long time lurker here. I've posted in this thread before, but the last time was back in 2020. Thank you all for the news, knowledge, friendly debates, etc.

Anyway, I finally watched After Hours for the first time last weekend after reading all of the posts on here about it over the last several years. My short review is that it was one of the greatest film watching experiences I've ever had. I was hooked from beginning to end and had no idea what would happen next. I get it now guys.

[Show spoiler]Putting this in spoiler tags because my following statement indicates that Paul survives his crazy night in Soho...I think I'll go read Tropic of Cancer and wonder what a sequel to this film would be like. I suppose a sequel is completely unnecessary, but I can't help but wonder what Paul's future held and what are those wacky people up to in Soho now.

Martin Scorsese has an interestingly diverse filmography to me. I find value in all of his films that I have watched so far. Although, I prefer the Age of Innocence, the Aviator, and now After Hours over films like Goodfellas and Raging Bull...Please don't throw tomatoes. I'll see myself out.

I really do hope we get a box set of films by that director that happened to make several critically acclaimed films with Toshiro Mifune. I won't mention the director's name directly, so hopefully it doesn't get pushed back another year.

Other than that box set, a 4K of Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair is what I want most. I will take it from Criterion or Miramax or whomever currently has the rights to it.

[ravenus]

I saw High Sierra today on the Criterion blu. I suppose it could be because I have seen several cooler Bogart movies before, like Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, In a Lonely Place etc but this one struck me as a rather routine programmer, a stodgy melodrama which relies on Bogie to sell a not particularly well-written character.

At the beginning, Bogie has just had an early release from prison, when he is propositioned by an old colleague for another job, involving robbing a hotel deposit safe after the place is filled with wealthy tourists. There are 2 other accomplices in the job, and when Bogie meets up with them, he finds to his contempt, them fighting over a woman they brought along (Ida Lupino). He wants to send the dame away, but she convinces him to let her stay. In the meanwhile Bogie also comes across a traveling family with a young girl he develops feelings for. Of course, Ida has the hots for Bogie but he keeps her at a distance. Things go wrong in the job, and suddenly Bogie and Ida Lupino are on the run. There is a showdown in the titular mountains.

All of the above on paper sounds good, but the film stumbles on the tone. A lot of it is a not particularly artful melodrama. The manner in which Bogie falls for the young girl is not convincing, which makes the denouement of that thread a stodgy and painful process to sit through. There's a stereotype comic relief black character with protruding eye-balls and a slow manner. There's also a cute dog character that would really have been more at home in a screwball comedy than a film like this. In John Huston's script there is little of The Maltese Falcon's acid wit or The Big Sleep's bitter poetry. Individual moments shine and that climax shot on location in the mountains is a doozy, but the bulk of High Sierra is rather dull flatland.

The A/V on the Criterion blu-ray is generally quite good, save for some source inherited issues. Extras include an hour-long archival docu on Bogart, a feature-length piece on director Raoul Walsh, an old retrospective on the film's production, and some new featurettes on the director and on the problematic legacy of black actors of that era like Willie Best.

And oh, there's a whole other feature, a Walsh directed Western called Colorado Territory, which is apparently inspired by the same plot as High Sierra. Given that the best part of this movie for me was the very Western like showdown at the end, perhaps that one will work better for me as a movie.

[Burt Lancaster]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

WOW that gif is in amazing quality. Is that what those 4K Bond's look like?


Is it possible for criterion to upgrade (hopefully to 4K) Life of Brian?

[Taylor3978]

Originally Posted by ravenus

I saw High Sierra today on the Criterion blu. I suppose it could be because I have seen several cooler Bogart movies before, like Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, In a Lonely Place etc but this one struck me as a rather routine programmer, a stodgy melodrama which relies on Bogie to sell a not particularly well-written character.

High Sierra is one of my favorite Bogart films, and it is the film that first made his name. It was on the basis of this that Huston wanted to use him for Maltese Falcon, but had to wait for George Raft to turn down the role. Bogart made several other excellent films, such as Key Largo and Dark Passage (a personal favorite), but this was his first great film.

Besides Bogart, the other strength of this film is Ida Lupino. She is one of the greatest actors from Warner Brothers' Golden Age, and it is she that makes her relationship with Bogart convincing and moving. She is also wonderful in They Drive By Night and On Dangerous Ground (my favorite Nick Ray film, I despised In a Lonely Place). Other young actors who were much bigger later are Cornell Wilde and Arthur Kennedy.

This film is the swan song for the 1930s gangster films, Roy Earle is obvously based on John Dillinger (if Dillinger had served time instead of being killed outside the Biograph theater). But it is also a tragedy. This is not White Heat, Earle has served time and relishes his time in the park when he gets out, but now he has to pay the price for his pardon. His love for Velma is hopeless and painful to watch, that's the whole point, he and Velma are not going to sit down with a farm someday. The dog Pard is not a Disney touch, Pard always brings misfortune to everyone he attaches to, foreshadowing Roy's doom.

I have to agree that the Algernon Step'n'Fetchit character is painful and embarrassing. This was only a couple of years after Gone With The Wind.

Among the extras with the Criterion disk is a documentary about Raoul Walsh. Lee Marvin makes an interesting point about these great larger than life directors that we don't see any more (thinking of the Carl Denham character that was so important to King King, who was obviously based on the real director Merian C. Cooper).

There were several remakes of High Sierra. There was a Jack Palance version in the 1950s that had the advantage of widescreen, it is not a patch on this version, in case anyone doubts the excellence of this film. Walsh himself remade it as a Western with Joel McCrea. And it's an obvious inspiration for Peckinpah's The Getaway, which does not hold a candle to High Sierra for its tragedy.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by ravenus

I saw High Sierra today on the Criterion blu. I suppose it could be because I have seen several cooler Bogart movies before, like Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, In a Lonely Place etc but this one struck me as a rather routine programmer, a stodgy melodrama which relies on Bogie to sell a not particularly well-written character.

At the beginning, Bogie has just had an early release from prison, when he is propositioned by an old colleague for another job, involving robbing a hotel deposit safe after the place is filled with wealthy tourists. There are 2 other accomplices in the job, and when Bogie meets up with them, he finds to his contempt, them fighting over a woman they brought along (Ida Lupino). He wants to send the dame away, but she convinces him to let her stay. In the meanwhile Bogie also comes across a traveling family with a young girl he develops feelings for. Of course, Ida has the hots for Bogie but he keeps her at a distance. Things go wrong in the job, and suddenly Bogie and Ida Lupino are on the run. There is a showdown in the titular mountains.

All of the above on paper sounds good, but the film stumbles on the tone. A lot of it is a not particularly artful melodrama. The manner in which Bogie falls for the young girl is not convincing, which makes the denouement of that thread a stodgy and painful process to sit through. There's a stereotype comic relief black character with protruding eye-balls and a slow manner. There's also a cute dog character that would really have been more at home in a screwball comedy than a film like this. In John Huston's script there is little of The Maltese Falcon's acid wit or The Big Sleep's bitter poetry. Individual moments shine and that climax shot on location in the mountains is a doozy, but the bulk of High Sierra is rather dull flatland.

The A/V on the Criterion blu-ray is generally quite good, save for some source inherited issues. Extras include an hour-long archival docu on Bogart, a feature-length piece on director Raoul Walsh, an old retrospective on the film's production, and some new featurettes on the director and on the problematic legacy of black actors of that era like Willie Best.

And oh, there's a whole other feature, a Walsh directed Western called Colorado Territory, which is apparently inspired by the same plot as High Sierra. Given that the best part of this movie for me was the very Western like showdown at the end, perhaps that one will work better for me as a movie.

[Show spoiler]

Then Warners remade it again as I Died a Thousand Times with Jack Palance in the Roy Earle role.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by JupiterMission

Well, we don't have Stalker in HDR10+ or Dolby Vision sooo....not too sure what you're all happy aboot. I got different taste.

[dkelly26666]

Originally Posted by Meek12345

Long time lurker here. I've posted in this thread before, but the last time was back in 2020. Thank you all for the news, knowledge, friendly debates, etc.

Anyway, I finally watched After Hours for the first time last weekend after reading all of the posts on here about it over the last several years. My short review is that it was one of the greatest film watching experiences I've ever had. I was hooked from beginning to end and had no idea what would happen next. I get it now guys.

[Show spoiler]Putting this in spoiler tags because my following statement indicates that Paul survives his crazy night in Soho...I think I'll go read Tropic of Cancer and wonder what a sequel to this film would be like. I suppose a sequel is completely unnecessary, but I can't help but wonder what Paul's future held and what are those wacky people up to in Soho now.

Martin Scorsese has an interestingly diverse filmography to me. I find value in all of his films that I have watched so far. Although, I prefer the Age of Innocence, the Aviator, and now After Hours over films like Goodfellas and Raging Bull...Please don't throw tomatoes. I'll see myself out.

I really do hope we get a box set of films by that director that happened to make several critically acclaimed films with Toshiro Mifune. I won't mention the director's name directly, so hopefully it doesn't get pushed back another year.

Other than that box set, a 4K of Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair is what I want most. I will take it from Criterion or Miramax or whomever currently has the rights to it.

Scorsese has a VERY diverse career. I love the crime films, too, but was always annoyed that people acted like he's just 'that gangster movie guy'.

He's done so many different things. I love all of his films.

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by dkelly26666

Scorsese has a VERY diverse career. I love the crime films, too, but was always annoyed that people acted like he's just 'that gangster movie guy'.

He's done so many different things. I love all of his films.

Absolutely. I mean, the man has a whole damn religion trilogy that’s arguably one of the great yearning cinematic spirituality statements ever made. He directed one of the all-time great female-led films of all time right out of the gate with Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. His percentage of gangster films compared with total output is less than Coppola’s, but HE gets tagged as the gangster director. It’s revoltingly unfair and grossly inaccurate.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by dkelly26666

They're just about to polish off my long time wishlist.

Giving me Pasolini box in June and then After Hours in July. I'm getting their One False Move, too, even though I have the Imprint Neo-Noir set with it in it. It's good enough to double dip.

After Hours.... OMG.... pinching myself. Just like I did with that Pasolini set.

Criterion is absolutely killing it right now.

Now, if only we all hear something this Fall about a box of that obscure Asian filmmaker that made a few OK movies.... Sorry, don't wanna get it delayed another year by saying it....

I too would like an upgrade of their Mikio Naruse sets.

[dkelly26666]

Originally Posted by bergman864

I too would like an upgrade of their Mikio Naruse sets.

Well, that, too!

[peschi]

Originally Posted by Stewynewy

I still don't believe the After Hours release is real, it doesn't feel right. What are people going to keep asking for now?

Bringing out the Dead

[dvining]

Originally Posted by peschi

Bringing out the Dead

Nah, it'll be Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

[huskersports]

Originally Posted by Stewynewy

What are people going to keep asking for now?

Missing (1982), The Rock (1996), Armageddon (1998), and/or Chasing Amy (1997) upgraded to Blu-Ray at least. Wishful thinking, I know...and licensing as well.