The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

It's amazing. I watched my new copy last week, and thoroughly enjoyed the upgrade.

I can tell that the PQ and AQ was exceptionally well done during the upgrade.

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Just watched Days of Heaven and I really enjoyed it!

I know that most cinephiles have either Badlands or The Thin Red Line as their favorite Malick, but mine is Days of Heaven. A friend of mine, who was originally from India and then grew up as an adolescent in the UK, said that Days of Heaven was the greatest film for him in terms of understanding the concept of America.

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Went and look at your collection, similar to mine. Good mix of classics along with some stuff that make people go "are you serious"

I must be the only one who post here more or less regularly who as Masters of The Universe in his collection

I did not count but do you have the the Criterion releases on Blu-ray?

I definitely like to have a variety in my collection, so that there is always something I want to watch. If I posted my DVD collection it would be even more eclectic.

Almost all of my Criterion collection is on blu. I think I have 96 Criterion blus, and about 18 of their DVDs. Most of the DVDs I have still are things that they haven't upgraded (Written on the Wind, Vampyr, Jules et Jim, Joan of Arc etc), things they won't upgrade (Hoop Dreams), and things they no longer have (Peeping Tom, Ran). I also have not yet upgraded my Hitchcock titles, Charade, or Videodrome.

I haven't seen Masters of the Universe since it first came out. Maybe it is time to revisit it...

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

I watched it about a year ago or more in Italian with subtitles. My friends and I found it hilarious as they were the slowest moving zombies ever. It was unrealistic, and the subs just made it even more amusing.

For the past two years I've ended up watching it on Halloween, so I guess that's the start of some sort of tradition for me...

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I know that most cinephiles have either Badlands or The Thin Red Line as their favorite Malick, but mine is Days of Heaven. A friend of mine, who was originally from India and then grew up as an adolescent in the UK, said that Days of Heaven was the greatest film for him in terms of understanding the concept of America.

Oh, that's really interesting! I can see where he is coming from. The film did a great job at portraying life during the early 1900s, especially labor.

I have all of the Malick films, but this is the first one that I've seen. I look forward to watching the other ones very soon, though.

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I have all of the Malick films, but this is the first one that I've seen. I look forward to watching the other ones very soon, though.

Wow! Well, what a great one to start with. You have many wonderful hours ahead watching some gloriously-told stories.

[Lino11]

Got around to watching Following this afternoon. For anyone on the fence, brilliant disc. Nolan has a great commentary on there, too.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Oh, that's really interesting! I can see where he is coming from. The film did a great job at portraying life during the early 1900s, especially labor.

I have all of the Malick films, but this is the first one that I've seen. I look forward to watching the other ones very soon, though.

I envy you in a way, because I wish that I could experience Malick's films for the first time all over again.

I saw The Thin Red Line at the theater with friends when it was released in the late 1990s. My friends hated it, because they had expected another film like Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, which had been released earlier that year. I was mesmerized by the movie, however, and, although I did not grasp everything in that first viewing, I was instantly a Malick fan.

I am a huge fan of The Tree of Life. It's so rare for a current director to swing at the upper deck to knock a ball out of the park with a movie that encompasses everything, in the way that Kubrick did with 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Malick pulled it off with The Tree of Life.

[Show spoiler] It's a monumental film that shows the creation of the world to portray exactly how one single family comes into existence, and, as such, works as food for thought about grand scale creation versus small-town religion to show that we are insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, while, in another way, our individual conscious hopes and dreams actually are the universe.

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

For the past two years I've ended up watching it on Halloween, so I guess that's the start of some sort of tradition for me...

Zombi 2 is a great movie...it might be time for me to watch it again!

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

Wow! Well, what a great one to start with. You have many wonderful hours ahead watching some gloriously-told stories.

So I'm told

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I envy you in a way, because I wish that I could experience Malick's films for the first time all over again.

I saw The Thin Red Line at the theater with friends when it was released in the late 1990s. My friends hated it, because they had expected another film like Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, which had been released earlier that year. I was mesmerized by the movie, however, and, although I did not grasp everything in that first viewing, I was instantly a Malick fan.

I am a huge fan of The Tree of Life. It's so rare for a current director to swing at the upper deck to knock a ball out of the park with a movie that encompasses everything, in the way that Kubrick did with 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Malick pulled it off with The Tree of Life.

[Show spoiler] It's a monumental film that shows the creation of the world to portray exactly how one single family comes into existence, and, as such, works as food for thought about grand scale creation versus small-town religion to show that we are insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, while, in another way, our individual conscious hopes and dreams actually are the universe.

Thanks for the insight. I'm really looking forward to them!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

For the past two years I've ended up watching it on Halloween, so I guess that's the start of some sort of tradition for me...

The original 1922 Nosferatu has been a Halloween tradition of mine for several years.

A funny true story about one Halloween a few years back when I decided to break the tradition by watching Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu instead...

The Herzog version features an intensely creepy scene where thousands of rats are scurrying around on a boat dock. I was watching this scene alone in my apartment with the lights out when I saw something move next to my feet on the sofa. I screamed at the top of my lungs, jumped up, and turned on all the lights. A baby squirrel had entered my apartment through an A/C duct leading to the roof. I chased the baby squirrel, corralled it into a corner, used a towel over my hand to catch it, and let it go in the woods behind my apartment. I went back inside, turned out all the lights, and resumed the movie where I had left off.

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The original 1922 Nosferatu has been a Halloween tradition of mine for several years.

A funny true story about one Halloween a few years back when I decided to break the tradition by watching Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu instead...

The Herzog version features an intensely creepy scene where thousands of rats are scurrying around on a boat dock. I was watching this scene alone in my apartment with the lights out when I saw something move next to my feet on the sofa. I screamed at the top of my lungs, jumped up, and turned on all the lights. A baby squirrel had entered my apartment through an A/C duct leading to the roof. I chased the baby squirrel, corralled it into a corner, used a towel over my hand to catch it, and let it go in the woods behind my apartment. I went back inside, turned out all the lights, and resumed the movie where I had left off.

That's hilarious. I don't know if I could have gone back to the movie after all of that!

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

Zombi 2 is a great movie...it might be time for me to watch it again!

Yes, lots of love for it (although I much prefer The Beyond, and it always makes me want to re-visit that one instead). The review for the new UK edition tempted me to want a copy, but I'm plenty happy with the US release as is.

Originally Posted by blkhrt

That's hilarious. I don't know if I could have gone back to the movie after all of that!

I don't know if I would have either

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I know that most cinephiles have either Badlands or The Thin Red Line as their favorite Malick, but mine is Days of Heaven. A friend of mine, who was originally from India and then grew up as an adolescent in the UK, said that Days of Heaven was the greatest film for him in terms of understanding the concept of America.

Wha..? Really? I mostly see people list either Days of Heaven or The Thin Red Line as their favorite Malick. I usually see Badlands listed as lesser Malick (something I agree with, though it's still great.)

Personally, my favorite of his is The Tree of Life, by quite a large margin.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

That's hilarious. I don't know if I could have gone back to the movie after all of that!

There's actually a second part to this story...

The next morning, after the baby squirrel scare while I was watching Nosferatu, I was thinking about the incident as I drove to work on the downtown connector through Atlanta in the work vehicle Blazer. I remember thinking, "Nobody is going to believe this story! That baby squirrel during the movie was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life."

BAM!!!

A large moving truck illegally merged into my lane without looking and destroyed most of the back driver's side of my Blazer. The truck's side view mirror shattered through the Blazer window and came inches away from my head. I frantically veered the Blazer around to keep it from flipping over, then pulled off on the side of the road by the truck to call the police. I was miraculously unhurt, although the right side of my body bruised days later from the sudden pressure of the seatbelt.

So, I actually had two good scares that Halloween. One funny scare, and one not-so-funny scare. I probably lost ten years of my life due to those two incidents within a matter of hours!

[dag]

Went to the video rental store today and picked up the two Dardenne brothers films and the four David Lean Directs Noel Coward films, all in BD. Looking forward to these, all first-time viewing.

[Grethiwha]

Malick and Tarkovsky are similar for me in that I'm not really a fan of either of their films but they have such a small amount of them, all considered masterpieces, that I've seen most of them anyway. Anyway, my favourites are Days of Heaven and Ivan's Childhood, and while I don't quite like them enough to buy, I happen to think they're also two of the most visually incredible films I've ever seen, so the five-star video transfers on Days of Heaven, and now Ivan's Childhood as well... awful tempting.

Also, I know this day-old post is ancient by this thread's standards, but, just want to say:

Originally Posted by GoldMotel

So finally sat down and watched Pt. 1 of Fanny and Alexander (the tv version)...It's much slower than I expected. The film is visually stunning, but I just felt like nothing really happened the whole time I sat there.

I'm hesitant to watch Pt 2. I may just give up and resell it. Ultimately, the film so far is just too hard for me to get into.

Should I give Pt 2 a go before making a decision?

When I first watched Fanny & Alexander (it was the TV version), I found the whole first half of the film kind of slow and hard to get into, like nothing was really happening, but the second half blew me away, and I've since come to appreciate the first half, and it's one of my favourite films. So I definitely recommend watching the rest of it. But that's just me.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

Wha..? Really? I mostly see people list either Days of Heaven or The Thin Red Line as their favorite Malick. I usually see Badlands listed as lesser Malick (something I agree with, though it's still great.)

Personally, my favorite of his is The Tree of Life, by quite a large margin.

I'd have to say it's a tie between Days of Heaven & Thin Red Line. Words cannot express how much those two films have augmented my cinematic passion. It's like diving into a boundless sea with those two films, my mind reeling just trying to express what I'm feeling and reading.

Tree of Life is certainly more difficult, but just as rewarding. It absolutely blew my mind when I saw it in theaters.

[GoldMotel]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

Wha..? Really? I mostly see people list either Days of Heaven or The Thin Red Line as their favorite Malick. I usually see Badlands listed as lesser Malick (something I agree with, though it's still great.)

Personally, my favorite of his is The Tree of Life, by quite a large margin.

I may be a minority, but my favorite Malick is The New World.

[skonka]

The March titles are pretty damn amazing imo. All fantastic films which I'm definitely going to add to my collection. My wallet already hurts from the B&N sale, and there are still so many more CCs I want.