The Criterion Collection

[dr.mabuse]

Originally Posted by EricJ

The IMDB Bottom 100 is even worse, having been completely besieged by MST3K fans, RottenTomatoes 0% Club fanboys, and gay Paris Hilton gigglers.
You can imagine how corrupted a user-submitted Top list would be once the Nolan, Burton and Cameron fanboiz were let out of their cages.

That said, there's always Criterion's own Three Reasons page on YouTube for easily-Cliff-Noted visual aid (esp. for Great Dictator, Night of the Hunter and Seven Samurai), but unfortunately Paths of Glory, Beauty & the Beast and The Killing aren't on it yet.
http://www.youtube.com/user/criterio...0CFF58FCFD7A66

Totally agree with you. Most of the users are overrating some stupid mainstream titles.

I find the Top 1000 List from theyshootpictures.com to be way better...

[Zacherywolf7]

The best top 100 list is The Moving Arts list.
Yea, it has some terrible mistakes (two star wars movies?)??!, but it was still good.

[SpiderBaby]

Say for example you have 10 guys (of course would be more in IMDB, They Shoot Pictures, etc) who makes a list of top whatever "Best" movies. 10 out of 10 has seen Star Wars. 8 out of 10 has seen Seventh Seal. Only 1 out of 10 has seen Black God, White Devil (a highly praised Brazilian film by Rocha for those Criterion fans out there that doesn't watch what Criterion doesn't put out). And then 0 out of 10 has seen Memories of Underdevelopment (from Cuba).

That is pretty much why I think "Best of all time" lists are s***. Maybe call them "Movies so far that I have only seen" lists.

[Member-38928]

Originally Posted by Banned User

Why? What throws you off and what titles did you try and watch?

Forget the top IMDB. I would say watch Sweet Smell of Success and The Night of the Hunter. Neither have subtitles and are fairly accessible. If you don't mind subtitles try Yojimbo and Diabolique. That's my humble opinion. IMDB is a popularity contest that shows what films are popular only among IMDB users. Obviously only a select few people of certain types actually take the time to interact with the site. One only needs to look at the popularity of reality TV to see following the masses isn't always a wise choice.


I would love to see those Universal Classics get a new restoration and Bluray release!! Sorry couldn't control myself. /offtopic

Well it is hard to explain in detail, I will do my best though. I was in a near death motorcycle accident... from it I got a traumatic brain injury. My short term, long term and working memory are very bad. Working memory is what helps you follow a movie as you remember what has happened previously in the movie as it goes on. So complicated plots, tons of dialogue and having to read subtitles to follow a movie makes it harder. Although I pretty much use subtitles on every movie I watch, but its subtitles in addition to the spoken english track. The more input the better. Sadly movies will never be the same for me, before the accident movies were my biggest hobbie. I have like 600 blu-rays and have seen maybe 75 of them....I am also a big sports fan so that is part of the reason I have seen so few of them.
Often times it takes me 2-3 days to watch a movie and sometimes I start one and give up, put it back on the shelf and say "I will have to try it another time.". I already have several Criterions that are gonna be hard to watch whenever I do get around to them, #1 being Seven Samurai, its gonna take me a week to finish that one. Why it takes so long is because I start at the beginning again about 1/2 the time because I don't remember what happened ......well not enough for me anyways, I like to be really be into the movie entirely. Anyhow, I hope that makes sense but this is why I asked the question I asked, oh and I just started THIS thread today too. I hope it makes sense why.

[Monty70]

These lists are rather pointless IMO. The appreciation of art is a subjective practice, and can not be accurately tabulated.

[Member-38928]

Originally Posted by Monty70

These lists are rather pointless IMO. The appreciation of art is a subjective practice, and can not be accurately tabulated.

In general I think that most folks have rather short attention spans like me and the top 250 is based on opinions from the general public, its not like the Academy Awards which is are pretty much worthless in determining if a movie is worth seeing or not. No?

[Monty70]

Originally Posted by bentvalve

In general I think that most folks have rather short attention spans like me and the top 250 is based on opinions from the general public, its not like the Academy Awards which is are pretty much worthless in determining if a movie is worth seeing or not. No?

I have no problem with favorite or suggestion lists, but when a list ranks films as "this is superior to that" I question it's validity. If rankings help you find films you enjoy then more power to you. My experience has been that asking film lovers with similar tastes to mine for suggestions (along with research afterwards) has helped me find films that have been very enjoyable. (Last Year at Marienbad was suggested to me years before it was added to the Criterion Collection, and has since become one of my favorite films.)

Good luck in your search.

[greekak229]

I really wish High and Low was coming out this week. Can't wait for that release.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by bentvalve

In general I think that most folks have rather short attention spans like me

Okayyy, so would be amiss in guessing the reason why we find Criterions "hard to watch"?

(They do have the problem of requiring a little more involvement than the various canons of Family Guy.)

[Benchman]

Originally Posted by greekak229

I really wish High and Low was coming out this week. Can't wait for that release.

+1 $20 for a new release criterion is great especially for a great movie like High and Low. I'm excited to see how it looks, the review is up on dvdbeaver but I've heard that site can't always be trusted, but the screen caps did like pretty amazing

[greekak229]

Originally Posted by Benchman

+1 $20 for a new release criterion is great especially for a great movie like High and Low. I'm excited to see how it looks, the review is up on dvdbeaver but I've heard that site can't always be trusted, but the screen caps did like pretty amazing

Absolutely, yeah. It will obviously be a fantastic release. Although I am looking forward to picking up a new Criterion tomorrow.

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by bentvalve

Well it is hard to explain in detail, I will do my best though. I was in a near death motorcycle accident... from it I got a traumatic brain injury. My short term, long term and working memory are very bad. Working memory is what helps you follow a movie as you remember what has happened previously in the movie as it goes on. So complicated plots, tons of dialogue and having to read subtitles to follow a movie makes it harder. Although I pretty much use subtitles on every movie I watch, but its subtitles in addition to the spoken english track. The more input the better. Sadly movies will never be the same for me, before the accident movies were my biggest hobbie. I have like 600 blu-rays and have seen maybe 75 of them....I am also a big sports fan so that is part of the reason I have seen so few of them.
Often times it takes me 2-3 days to watch a movie and sometimes I start one and give up, put it back on the shelf and say "I will have to try it another time.". I already have several Criterions that are gonna be hard to watch whenever I do get around to them, #1 being Seven Samurai, its gonna take me a week to finish that one. Why it takes so long is because I start at the beginning again about 1/2 the time because I don't remember what happened ......well not enough for me anyways, I like to be really be into the movie entirely. Anyhow, I hope that makes sense but this is why I asked the question I asked, oh and I just started THIS thread today too. I hope it makes sense why.

EricJ, that was a little uncalled for. Are you saying that everyone who has a short attention span is uncultured? My uncle has Alzheimer's and has problems watching any sort of TV show or film for the exact same reasons bentvalve has stated in this post I quoted.

A lot of people do have short attention spans for the wrong reasons, but don't lump all people in with those idiots.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

Looks like another batch of Criterions/Januses are leaving Netflix streaming on 7/22/11 (next Friday). The Battle of Algiers, The Wages of Fear, Tokyo Story, Earrings of Madame..., Fanny and Alexander, Mishima, Pandora's Box, and Playtime, to name a few. There probably are more.

Thanks for the heads up Joe! That's really too bad...guess I'll push to watch The Battle of Algiers before Friday.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

Say for example you have 10 guys (of course would be more in IMDB, They Shoot Pictures, etc) who makes a list of top whatever "Best" movies. 10 out of 10 has seen Star Wars. 8 out of 10 has seen Seventh Seal. Only 1 out of 10 has seen Black God, White Devil (a highly praised Brazilian film by Rocha for those Criterion fans out there that doesn't watch what Criterion doesn't put out). And then 0 out of 10 has seen Memories of Underdevelopment (from Cuba).

That is pretty much why I think "Best of all time" lists are s***. Maybe call them "Movies so far that I have only seen" lists.

I really doubt 8 out of 10 people have seen Seventh Seal. That is unless you're going by a different scale.

If I were to ask 10 people at random (outside of this forum and typical film circles) if they've seen Seven Samurai I'll bet I'd be lucky find 1 who has seen it. Naturally, the number for Black God would be <1.

As popular as Criterion is with us it is still a boutique label catering to a niche.

[Banned User]

Originally Posted by Monty70

I have no problem with favorite or suggestion lists, but when a list ranks films as "this is superior to that" I question it's validity. If rankings help you find films you enjoy then more power to you. My experience has been that asking film lovers with similar tastes to mine for suggestions (along with research afterwards) has helped me find films that have been very enjoyable. (Last Year at Marienbad was suggested to me years before it was added to the Criterion Collection, and has since become one of my favorite films.) Good luck in your search.

Some films are just polarizing. Marienbad is one of them. Personally I love the film, but people who need a defined plot, beginning, end etc are usually put off by it. I've sometimes wondered if it wouldn't help if users here had a top 10 movie list attached to their profiles. Making it easier to find similar tastes. Or at least a top 10 Criterion list.

Originally Posted by bentvalve

Well it is hard to explain in detail, I will do my best though..........

list a few of your favorite movies and I'll do my best to point out similar Criterion titles to the best of my ability. I was going to look at you collection , but you don't seem to have it listed here.

[Ator the Invincible]

Originally Posted by EricJ

The IMDB Bottom 100 is even worse, having been completely besieged by MST3K fans, RottenTomatoes 0% Club fanboys, and gay Paris Hilton gigglers.

I agree with 2/3 of that. As far as MST3K is concerned, many of those movies belong in the bottom 100. That was the whole point of the show, to rag on the shittiest movies they could find. All the show did was raise awareness of these movies and get people to actually watch them. The bottom 100 is just that, the bottom 100. And MST3K uncovered quite a few "gems" with the end result being that people have now seen them and know how dreadful they are. The key being that they've been watched.

But when people vote low for something that they've never seen simply because of who's involved (like your Paris Hilton example), that bugs me. So does the Church of Rotten Tomatoes clan. You should never vote for a movie you haven't watched. It's a simple thing. But really, imdb ratings shouldn't be taken too seriously anyway. It's all subjective.

On a side (on topic) note: I finally completed my Criterion blu-ray collection. I now own/have ordered every release up through the end of July. Going to try to keep up on it now. We'll see how it goes.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

I had a student write a paper on that movie this spring and I really wanted to see it. I was disappointed it isn't readily available in the US (from what I could tell).

I was down your way over the weekend for a funeral...Shallotte/Calabash NC (just over the NC/SC border)...flew into Myrtle Beach. I might take the wife and kids for a vacation by car here next summer (just 11 hours or so by car from Dutchess County, NY).

[rkish]

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

I figure the more I hope for it, the less likely it is to happen.

Anyway, I ordered a second disc with it (Paprika - $8!) so it will probably ship in a box. I realize that doesn't necessarily mean the picker didn't drop it and kick it under an oncoming forklift before it made it into that box...

That's a great price for Paprika! I think I paid around $20 or less for it at the time. A good and very unusual anime...

[kndy]

Originally Posted by Benchman

+1 $20 for a new release criterion is great especially for a great movie like High and Low. I'm excited to see how it looks, the review is up on dvdbeaver but I've heard that site can't always be trusted, but the screen caps did like pretty amazing

I'm watched it just awhile ago and I can tell you that you will all be pleased

Btw...are any of you these individuals:

&#x202a;DVD Update: In Search of Criterions (Part 1)&#x202c;&rlm; - YouTube

[Dosto]

Originally Posted by greekak229

I really wish High and Low was coming out this week. Can't wait for that release.

I've changed my avatar in anticipation.