The Criterion Collection

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by smoss469

You need to call them and throw a royal fit. If you didn't order it, you shouldn't have to pay anything for them to correct their mistake.

I keep looking at The Magician but I honestly can't recall ever seeing it mentioned around here. I haven't really dug through the search results but I would've thought I would've stumbled upon at least a name drop in the last few months.

Agreed - Maybe try calling again and you might get a different customer service person.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by demolitionkirby

Aww, sucks to not have a B&N store with movies I'd love to take advantage of that...

Order the movies you want into your store.
When I went to the one closest to me two of the employees told me that for orders that are pre-pay only they can still apply your 10% off members discount for you, so I'm sure you could co-erce them into letting you use a coupon. (if you're lucky).
And thats only on the specific items that are listed as pre-pay (usually box sets), other stuff you can have shipped into their store and paid for like any regular release.

[LegacyCosts]

Originally Posted by JJJ225

Thinking of these for blind buys. Any opinions?

Black Orpheus
Traffic
Down by Law
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold
Paris, Texas
Broadcast News
Blow Out
Godzilla
Life of Oharu

I wouldn't go for traffic as it isn't something that I would ever watch again. Blow out yes.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by JJJ225

Thinking of these for blind buys. Any opinions?

Black Orpheus
Traffic
Down by Law
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold
Paris, Texas
Broadcast News
Blow Out
Godzilla
Life of Oharu

Black Orpheus is a favorite of mine. Don't see it mentioned too often on here but it is a wonderful film with a great use of color and music.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by demolitionkirby

Yeah good idea. Even if I can't end up using the 40% coupon on the Zatoichi set since it's a box set, I'd still get the membership discount... Thanks for that man! Hopefully I can sweet talk the employees into letting me use the coupon!

No worries! One of those useful pieces of information that I'd never known either up until the weekend so its pretty cool to pass along.
Hoping to do the same myself

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by demolitionkirby

I'm extremely disappointed right now. I pre-ordered Tokyo Story from B&N, and the package arrived today, but instead of getting TS, I received Planes. Then I found out that I got Planes because TS was out of stock. Now I have to send back Planes and get refunded because they don't have Tokyo Story.

There's probably a silver lining to this mix-up. Some eight year old kid who wanted Disney's Planes is going to throw a bratty tantrum when he opens his mail package to find Tokyo Story. Upon watching the film, however, he will be attentive and grateful when his grandparents travel to visit him from their rural province, and he will also treasure the presence of his parents in the knowledge that he cannot show his appreciation from beyond the grave.

[Saucerful]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

There aren't any spaghetti westerns in the Criterion Collection, are there? Ugh, imagine Great Silence on Criterion – that'd be amazing.

I'm a little late to the party here, but you just blew my mind!

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by ccg1978

Is Solaris worth the blind buy? Saw the remake and thought the story was intriguing...

Well, it's twice the length of the second adaptation (not remake), with greater earth portions and a lot more navel-gazing (which can be pretty good). I would re-watch Soderbergh's film more often.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Rich Pure Doom

The results of these polls are always frustrating because the winners are always the most popular ones or the film the most people have seen. It's never what the "best" film is. King Kong best movie of the 30s? Seriously?

Well, it's "Top movies of the <decade>", which means different things to different people. Some people vote for the films they think are "best", some vote for the ones they enjoyed the most. Those aren't necessarily the same thing. I generally try to stray toward "best", but there might be a few that stray towards "most enjoyed".

King Kong is a case in point. There are better films from the 30s, no doubt about it, but I'd be hard pressed to think of another film from the 30s that I enjoyed more.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Oblivion138

It was also the second movie that a certain distributor decided to put out on LaserDisc back in the mid-'80s, right behind Citizen Kane.

Well, actually, it was released at exactly the same time. It was only relegated to be "spine #2" later on -- the original releases of those two titles didn't have spine numbers.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Nosferatu has always rocked my world. I'm convinced that the people who filmed it really did believe in vampires.

You should hunt down a copy of the DVD of Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Well, it's "Top movies of the <decade>", which means different things to different people. Some people vote for the films they think are "best", some vote for the ones they enjoyed the most.

Exactly and in the case of the recent Top 20 threads the OP specifically mentions 'favorite films'.

Is Used Cars a better film than Raging Bull or Paris, Texas? Of course not.

But it's sure as hell one of my favorites.

And even by that measure I could barely keep a straight face while adding The Octagon but in the words of somebody who should absolutely get a whacky C one of these days, 'the heart wants what the heart wants'

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

So I know this is not Criterion related, but thought this might be of interest to a few here. One of today's Amazon Black Friday Week deals is the Ford At Fox Collection. It contains The Frontier Marshall / My Darling Clementine / Drums Along the Mohawk / How Green Was My Valley / The Grapes of Wrath / Becoming John Ford. It starts at 11:24am EST, but is DVD.

Just thought I'd post since I know there are Ford fans in here.

You can't go wrong with that set. The Frontier Marshall is the only one of his films in that set that I don't already have as a separate DVD, so it's not for me, but it's a corker of a set.

My Darling Clementine happens to be my all-time favorite western.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I was thinking of trying that, but I've been seeing so many French noirs recently that I figured I'd give it a break... at least for a little while, anyway. High and Low is considered noir, yes?

I don't know if it's considered noir or not, but it shouldn't be. It's a terrific film, but I wouldn't call it noir. The novel it's based on (one of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books) was a police procedural, but I don't think I'd even slap that label on the film.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

There are a lot of different opinions out there, but I definitely prefer the original to the remake. I think the original is much more emotionally affecting than the remake.

I prefer the remake, and the original is one of my least favorite Tarkovskys, but it's still very much worth seeing.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by JJJ225

Thinking of these for blind buys. Any opinions?

Black Orpheus
Traffic
Down by Law
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold
Paris, Texas
Broadcast News
Blow Out
Godzilla
Life of Oharu

All of them are worth seeing. Of all of them, I think Black Orpheus was the one that grabbed me the most.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by dorothyv

What are the chances of the Dreyer box set or the Bergman Trilogy box set being upgraded to blu anytime soon?

I am think of picking up one (or both) of those dvd box sets at B&N when their 40% coupon becomes active during the Black Friday weekend. (Each would only be $21.60 with a membership discount and the 40% coupon).

I'd love to have either one on Blu (I've got both on DVD), but there hasn't been any word on either getting an upgrade. Maybe if you take one for the team, and buy the DVD sets, they'll get upgraded sooner rather than later.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by demolitionkirby

LOL I don't think so. Have you seen the price of Planes on their site? It's $40! (at least the version I got is) Good thought though.

That's standard MSRP for most of Disney's major titles (at least the animated ones). Makes me smile whenever someone gripes about the price of Criterions being so much more than releases from the big studios.

[kndy]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

Frances Ha is a strange one indeed - I like all of the director's other films and Tiny Furniture, and I love Girls (Season 1, not so much Season 2).

I'm getting fed up with Greta Gerwig too - she's consistently playing realistic but unappealing characters.

Well I did enjoy her in "Damsels in Distress" but that was due to Whit Stillman's witty dialogue.

Originally Posted by GentleGiant

Lola Montes left me cold. It was visually lush but totally uninteresting to me.

Of the Ophuls films, it's the only one I have not purchased. Ebert made a mention in his review of the film in regards to Martine Carol which Ebert wrote, "Miss Carol was a third-rate actress, and she comes across as wooden, shallow, not even very attractive."

I happen to agree.

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

These are the two you should be debating between. If you're familiar with Bergman's work, go with Fanny. It's a different taste of Bergman, yet it still revolves around the typical themes he'd fixate on. It's warm, nostalgic, and just utterly brilliant. It's not my favorite Bergman, but I would have no problem with someone saying it's his best. Plus it's fitting for the holidays and whatnot.

I agree. And just the overall package from Criterion and how much you get with the actual drama series is fantastic. For those planning to buy "Fanny and Alexander", definitely make sure you watch the long version before the film version.

Originally Posted by momaw

Based on all the great chatter on Tokyo Story and Late Spring I have just placed an order for them. I always intended to add them to my Japanese centric criterion collection but feared they would lead to further purchases of Ozu eclipse sets.

Oh...if you haven't purchased the Eclipse series yet for Ozu, you must! They are magnificent! Especially Early Ozu!

Originally Posted by dorothyv

What are the chances of the Dreyer box set or the Bergman Trilogy box set being upgraded to blu anytime soon?

I am think of picking up one (or both) of those dvd box sets at B&N when their 40% coupon becomes active during the Black Friday weekend. (Each would only be $21.60 with a membership discount and the 40% coupon).

Upgrade to Blu-ray, likely...soon, not so sure.

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

On a side note, Judgment at Nuremberg is on TCM tomorrow night, one of my top wish list films. I personally consider it to have the best written script of all-time. Of course, part of that is due to me being a former prosecutor, but the eloquence of the words and conveyance of them in the film is just very powerful and moving.

I don't have much time to watch television but when this came on, I had to watch.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Well, it's twice the length of the second adaptation (not remake), with greater earth portions and a lot more navel-gazing (which can be pretty good). I would re-watch Soderbergh's film more often.

ditto.