The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Surely this is the month that a complete Twin Peaks 4K box set is announced.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Surely this is the month that a complete Twin Peaks 4K box set is announced.

They missed the chance to announce it or release it on February 24.

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Surely this is the month that a complete Twin Peaks 4K box set is announced.

I've had my Z to A set in my drafts on eBay for months waiting to pull the trigger, haha.

[Scottie]

As others have said, this seems like a good time to announce Demon Pond. Similarly, Janus has had I Vampiri for some time now, which seems like another good film to announce for October release.

And while it isn't related to horror, I do wonder why Basquiat hasn't been announced yet. Criterion released it for purchase digitally over a year ago.

[joshinminn]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Surely this is the month that a complete Twin Peaks 4K box set is announced.

I'm sort of mystified by the idea of Criterion releasing the full series. It already has great releases on BD and there doesn't seem to be many other series that they've tackled. Definitely looking forward to a 4K FWWM, and if they do the series, I'd probably double dip.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by CRASHLANDING

Any good comparisons? Or what sort of viewer would it most appeal to?

It's an arty film with an episodic structure that uses a lot of stylized sets and visuals.

[DeyoreW]

Can anyone offer suggestions for the best Criterion 4K upgrades from Blu? After reading several reviews saying small resolution uptick's, dark gradings, little noticeable difference etc, I haven't taken the plunge for any 4K upgrades since I own just about all the Criterion Blu's.

Was curious what folks in the forum thought were the worthwhile upgrades that really impressed compared to previous older Criterion blu's.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by DeyoreW

Can anyone offer suggestions for the best Criterion 4K upgrades from Blu? After reading several reviews saying small resolution uptick's, dark gradings, little noticeable difference etc, I haven't taken the plunge for any 4K upgrades since I own just about all the Criterion Blu's.

Was curious what folks in the forum thought were the worthwhile upgrades that really impressed compared to previous older Criterion blu's.

Blow Out
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Le Samourai
The Princess Bride

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by dwk

All of their UHDs are Dual format UHD/Blu-ray combos, as the UHDs only have the films and commentary tracks, while the Blu-rays have the films and other extras.

I'd like to give a defense of the modern combo pack. There's a huge difference between the DVD/Blu-ray and DVD/HD DVD combo packs of ye olden dayes and the 4K/Blu-ray combo packs of today.

The old packs mainly helped people who hadn't made the jump, which at least for me wasn't that many. There were those who hadn't made the jump and never would, those who had made the jump, and those who inadvertently made the jump when they bought a PS3. Also, as anyone who saw the same commercial I did geared towards kids and families can tell you, the Blu-rays are better for children because they're more scratch resistant. Those combo packs' lifespans ended well over a decade ago, even though they're still being produced for unknown reasons.

At this point, you've either shat or gotten off the pot when it comes to Blu-ray, and likely with physical media in general, so to continue packing DVD and Blu-ray in one set is honestly a waste. Individual DVDs suck balls still sell and still have a purpose for f*cking morons, and individual Blu-rays still sell and still have a purpose, but packing both in one set actually makes a lot of people skip out, because they don't want one irrelevant disc that they're never going to use.

With 4K/Blu-ray combo packs though, there's more of a purpose for the extra discs though. For one, 4Ks are in at most 20% of physical media users' homes, and that's probably something of a stretch. A lot of people, including myself at one point, are either people who made the jump gradually or are eventually planning on making the jump. They need the Blu-rays to hold them over. (Also, they need those Blu-rays to be quality discs, not just some ancient ass Blu-ray from ten or twenty years ago that sucks.)

Also, even though the compression and video codec on a UHD is way better than even the best encodes and the best codecs for Blu-ray, it still helps the film when there's as much breathing room on the 4K disc as possible. While many films now have special features on the 4K, a practice I wholly disagree with, if those features are relegated to the Blu-ray disc/a Blu-ray disc in the same package, the movie proper has the best chance to shine.

But for some of us, including me, the main perk of having 4K and Blu-ray together is that UHDs are like hair-triggered bombs. If you so much as fart too loudly the UHD will stop working. You need a Blu-ray to fall back on. With most of my 4Ks except three, I have that Blu-ray to fall back on, so I'm mostly covered. (The exceptions are Willy Wonka, which has a Blu-ray but it's such a step down from the 4K it's not even funny; Planes, Trains And Automobiles, which is one of the few 4Ks where the difference between the disc formats is so negligible that the special features and the movie itself are the only selling points; and After Hours, which has a Blu-ray that just stubbornly refuses to work, which is driving me nuts.) If all releases were just 4K only, and they all just decided to stop working on me, I'd probably either jump ship or go back to Blu, since I wouldn't want to have a wholly unreliable format to work with.

4K/Blu-ray combo packs need to be here to stay.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I don't think this has been mentioned, but Criterion quietly released the Three Colors films individually on Blu-ray in May. Based on the Amazon listings, they still appear to be the old discs.

[Show spoiler]

Blue White Red

Just Blu? Or 4K/Blu?

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by Scottie

What a strange decision. The box set that makes the most sense of being a box set (a trilogy) is the one that gets split up into standalone releases. And as you said, with the old masters to boot.

Packaging photos from hillcitytradingpost on eBay.

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by hillcitytradingpost

I'mma just casually remove the B&N stickers so I can charge beaucoup bucks for these.

.

[Watershipdownisgood]

Hoping for October to be just a big horror and Japanese film month

Hoping for
Demon Pond Blu-Ray plus 4K UHD
Seven Samurai 4K UHD
Stray Dog Blu-Ray
The Bad Sleep Well Blu-Ray
Eyes Without a Face 4K UHD one of the few French horror films out there also haven’t seen it yet
I Walked With a Zombie Blu-Ray
Kwaidan 4K UHD plus Blu-Ray
Barbarian Blu-Ray plus 4K UHD highly doubt we’re getting this one but you never know
Drunken Angel Blu-Ray

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by Flex_MythoMass

I was very surprised at how great For All Mankind looked, coming from a 16mm scan. Great pickups!

I don't know where this rumor that 16mm equals a bad disc came from, but it's so wrong I can't say it enough.

When scanned and restored properly, it looks at worst a hair off of 35mm. Look at the caps for the three 16mm John Waters films they did on Blu. They look wonderful. Pink Flamingos is maybe a 4/5, but Female Trouble and Multiple Maniacs are easily 5/5. They look beautiful. Only a little more grain, only a little less detail. Nothing like the high grain, low detail mess people make 16mm out to be.

I don't know where this lie came from, but it needs to go back there.

Originally Posted by bhankins

Recent convert from digital movies, I ordered these:

[Show spoiler]

Probably in my second round:

Regarding Citizen Kane, before you break the seal, check the back to make sure it's the second pressing. The first pressing had a bad DV/HDR-to-SDR conversion that completely screwed up the Blu-ray. First pressing has a bad Blu-ray, second pressing has the fixed one. If you get the first pressing, email Criterion before you break the seal to see if they can hook you up. B&N would likely just send you another first pressing. (I toss to other users, could you return in-store and pick your own replacement?)

Also, check out some prior tapes, laserdiscs, DVDs, and Blu-rays for the myriad special features that weren't carried over.

Originally Posted by Gacivory

Oops

[Show spoiler]

Dogfight is an underrated masterpiece. If it weren't for July being legendary it would've been Dogfight, On The Waterfront, Freaks, and then a lot of Lynch, Scorsese, and Bergman.

As for Querelle, judging by the caps, I wasn't too impressed. It looked like a good DVD or a so-so Blu-ray, not this restored Blu-ray that it should've been. I haven't seen a "high definition transfer from the interpositive" in a long while from Criterion, so between the words and the caps I'd say the transfer is very old, likely from the DVD era or at the very latest the format war.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by ben6543

Someone made a post on Twitter that I agree on. TMNT 1990 should be in the Criterion collection
https://x.com/ZackHeTweets/status/1806753362672501235

[Show spoiler]

[take1leave1]

Finally pulled the trigger on the Ranown Westerns set. Having these in 4k is nuts. Only Criterion would understand the importance of these films.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by TV2693

Hopefully Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid 4k goes down to 34.99. 49.99 is a bit steep.

Blu-ray (Two Blu-rays): $25 (regular price $50)

4K (Two 4Ks, Two Blu-rays, all three cuts on both formats per Svet): $35 (regular price $70)

(Prices only good during B&N sales)

$25 for two solid Blu-ray discs and $35 for two solid 4Ks and two solid Blu-rays ain't that bad. I say bite the bullet and go for it. If you have extra cash, pick up the old DVD too for the sake of the cuts and features that weren't carried over.

Now what's maddening is that even with two fairly comprehensive releases and many books and docs over the years, we still don't have everything for this movie. If you have every book, every doc, the DVD, and the 4K, you only have about 40% of what there is for PG. Just think about that.

[jt839]

Originally Posted by Watershipdownisgood

Hoping for October to be just a big horror and Japanese film month

Hoping for
Demon Pond Blu-Ray plus 4K UHD
Seven Samurai 4K UHD
Stray Dog Blu-Ray
The Bad Sleep Well Blu-Ray
Eyes Without a Face 4K UHD one of the few French horror films out there also haven’t seen it yet
I Walked With a Zombie Blu-Ray
Kwaidan 4K UHD plus Blu-Ray
Barbarian Blu-Ray plus 4K UHD highly doubt we’re getting this one but you never know
Drunken Angel Blu-Ray

That's a lot of films for one month.

[Watershipdownisgood]

Originally Posted by jt839

That's a lot of films for one month.

Yes but it would be amazing it would be one of the greatest months of Criterion releases ever. Yeah 9 films is a lot, but you never know we could get all of these titles all at once in one month which would be actually insane. I highly doubt it though so I'm leaning more towards a month like this.

Eyes Without a Face
Stray Dog
Demon Pond
I walked with a Zombie
Seven Samurai
Bad Sleep Well

Still a good list of titles though as a few of these titles are
still waiting on Blu-Rays either in the US, or for the First time ever.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Shane Rollins

4K/Blu-ray combo packs need to be here to stay.

I very much prefer UHD/Blu-ray combo releases, which is one of the reason I've skipped a bunch of Arrow's UHD releases (and skipped those from Indicator and Eureka), I don't have a UHD player or 4K tv yet and if something isn't dual format I can't watch the movie at all. So unless it is a great price for the UHD (like the Arrow Deep Red which I got for $15 or $18 at Hamilton Book), I can wait.

[Gacivory]

Looks like someone’s suspension was lifted.