The Criterion Collection

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Do you think it's possible that Criterion lost the rights to a lot of Kurosawa's films? It seems bizarre that after this long we only have a few Kurosawa films on blu-ray. I know this has discussion is like beating a dead horse with your semi erect penis. Frustrating and pointless but I needed to let my anger out about it to others who share my annoyance over how long they're taking. I really doubt they'll release anywhere near as many on blu-ray as they did on dvd. Blu-ray will probably be dead before they get through even half of what they released on dvd.

[lim.davidd]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

Eh, disagree with you about LMS andThe Departed. The Departed was probably the first film that made me take Leo seriously as an actor.

I'd read the Benjamin Button source material first, it's much better. Of course, I can't seem to find any film adaptation of F. Scott's work that I truly like. I may own the Redford/Farrow version of Gatsby, but it's still not as good as the novel. I'm dreading this new 3D version.

To be honest, I just read Fight Club today, to keep on a Fincher discussion, and I think I've outgrown it. I enjoyed the film when it came out, but now, both the novel and the film just don't do anything for me, and in fact, bore the heck out of me. It's not a bad adaptation, it's just that the subject matter no longer appeals to me at all in any format.

I really need to get caught up on the Best Picture noms for this year, as I've only seen Les Mis so far. I've managed to watch every single Best Picture Winner, but not every single nominee, since 1929. Admittedly, a lot of the films I hate are ones everyone loves to death. I also think the 80s were the worst decade of BP winners, but many may disagree. I did my rankings on a scale of 10, and then averaged out the films per decade. The 1950s were surprisingly my top choice for BP winners, as it had an 8.2/10 average.

I also disagree on The Departed and Slumdog Millionaire, they are future classic great films and they deserve to win the Oscar Best Picture. Hurt Locker too, also deserved the win.

[kdawq]

I'm surprised The Big Lebowski didn't get the Criterion treatment

[retablo]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

Do you think it's possible that Criterion lost the rights to a lot of Kurosawa's films? It seems bizarre that after this long we only have a few Kurosawa films on blu-ray. I know this has discussion is like beating a dead horse with your semi erect penis. Frustrating and pointless but I needed to let my anger out about it to others who share my annoyance over how long they're taking. I really doubt they'll release anywhere near as many on blu-ray as they did on dvd. Blu-ray will probably be dead before they get through even half of what they released on dvd.

No.

[drbikeshorts]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

Do you think it's possible that Criterion lost the rights to a lot of Kurosawa's films? It seems bizarre that after this long we only have a few Kurosawa films on blu-ray. I know this has discussion is like beating a dead horse with your semi erect penis. Frustrating and pointless but I needed to let my anger out about it to others who share my annoyance over how long they're taking. I really doubt they'll release anywhere near as many on blu-ray as they did on dvd. Blu-ray will probably be dead before they get through even half of what they released on dvd.

Animated emoticon required!

[Abdrewes]

Throwing my hat in the ring.

Les Mis, The Help, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, War Horse, the Blind Side. Sure there have been some stinkers but the Academy Awards have always been safe:


Dances With Wolves: Sure it's not as good as Goodfellas, but what a wonderful film.

The Silence of the Lambs: Very Deserving.

Unforgiven : Very Deserving

Schindler's List: Really want to re watch this come March. I'm sure it still holds up.

Forrest Gump: I've always liked this film, and it's a bit more subversive than people (Spike Lee) give it credit for.

Braveheart : it's not the classic everybody says it is, but a good film nonetheless.

The English Patient: I'm a fan*

Titanic (1997): A technical achievement if nothing else.

Shakespeare in Love: I really like this film, but best picture?

American Beauty: It wasn't the best of the year but love the film, so no qualms.

Gladiator: Very undeserving, but a good rip roaring 21/2 hours nonetheless.

A Beautiful Mind: haven't seen it since it first came out so I'll with hold judgement.

Chicago: Not the best film of the year, but a fun musical nonetheless

The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King: I like the film but prefer 90's Peter Jackson by far, hell even King King Kong.

Million Dollar Baby: haven't seen it in years, but I've always liked it.

Crash: haven't seen it in some while, maybe I misjudged it.

The Departed: I really love this film even if its not top tier Scorsese.

No Country for Old Men: excellent film, but considering There Will Be Blood was the best film of the decade, maybe not as deserving.

Slumdog Millionaire: fair movie that has only grown slightly offensive and safe in the years hence

The Hurt Locker: very deserving of the accolades.

The King's Speech: a good movie, but a far cry from the years best.

The Artist: Very nice film, but there are scores of classic silent films that are better.

[Norbie]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

I live in Australia. They don't seem to ship outside the US and Canada
I needed a replacement disc for Walkabout because the one I have is faulty and barnes and noble wouldn't deal with it, so I contacted them about that and got no response. Granted I did give them my post details in the email so they may have just sent the replacement disc without replying. I guess I'll find out eventually if that happened but I doubt it.
The 400 blows paper digipak is so ugly

I'm in the same boat. I had about five of those crappy digipacks and the way I went around them not posting to Australia is find a company that redirects mail. Since I was five cases it didn't cost to much taking in the cost of redirecting, if you only want one case it might not be worth it. Then again, maybe someone here in the might do it for you.

[octagon]

Time to play a little catch-up before the Ambien kicks in...

Foreign Correspondent - probably my favorite pre-Rebecca Hitchcock, a Criterion blu would be most welcome.

Primer - very interesting and more than likely I'll give it another look at some point but when it comes to modern low-budget time travel films I'm a Timecrimes man. I wouldn't complain if either one showed up in a newsletter hint but if it were up to me...

Crash - I like to second-guess the academy as much as anybody (well, no, probably not...some people really like it) but I rarely actually care let alone get annoyed but Crash's win was just absurd. Forget that it wasn't the best picture, it wasn't even a good picture. Nicholson's 'whoa' pretty much said it all.

[joie]

"freight forwarder" is a company that forwards/reships/remails things

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by octagon

Crash - I like to second-guess the academy as much as anybody (well, no, probably not...some people really like it) but I rarely actually care let alone get annoyed but Crash's win was just absurd. Forget that it wasn't the best picture, it wasn't even a good picture. Nicholson's 'whoa' pretty much said it all.

There was a lot of manufactured controversy that year about the possibility of Brokeback Mountain winning Best Picture. I have never seen that film, but I am inclined to think that it was not a big deal and that, like Stephen King wrote in his magazine column at the time, Brokeback Mountain was something that America would eventually pass like a painful kidney stone before forgetting about it altogether.

At any rate, it appeared as though the Academy wanted to avoid taking a risk of controversy with Brokeback Mountain or Munich and, instead, simply settled on the most bland film in the lineup.

Of the movies that I had seen on the list that year, Capote was the one that I would have chosen for Best Picture. That was a pretty amazing little movie. Every year, though, there is at least one Best Picture nominee that will not be selected simply because it is too intelligent to win Best Picture. Quiz Show, Capote, The Reader, and The Pianist are a few that come to mind. I'm not saying this to sound pretentious or to insult the masses, although it may seem that way. It's just that some movies are so cerebral in nature that they just do not connect on a mass popularity scale that most associate with a Best Picture award.

[*DrStrangelove*]

Anyone seen the Pusher remake? How is it? I would love for Criterion to release Nicolas Wending Refn's original Pusher Trilogy.

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

Do you think it's possible that Criterion lost the rights to a lot of Kurosawa's films? It seems bizarre that after this long we only have a few Kurosawa films on blu-ray. I know this has discussion is like beating a dead horse with your semi erect penis. Frustrating and pointless but I needed to let my anger out about it to others who share my annoyance over how long they're taking. I really doubt they'll release anywhere near as many on blu-ray as they did on dvd. Blu-ray will probably be dead before they get through even half of what they released on dvd.

You do know that he has the most releases put out by them on blu-ray, and also the fact that they only release a limited amount of releases over a year's time? Add to that the fact that there are filmmakers out there that doesn't even have dvd releases of their best films, yes, Kurosawa is getting no love. Ask retablo who shares his annoyance over how long they are taking for their first Rivette film to even be released. Or the fact that they love 60's wave of filmmakers, but completely ignore the Cinema Novo (wonder why). Kurosawa is getting more love then entire Countries of filmmakers. He is the head dog for Criterion, the releases will come.

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Throwing my hat in the ring.

Les Mis, The Help, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, War Horse, the Blind Side. Sure there have been some stinkers but the Academy Awards have always been safe:


Dances With Wolves: Sure it's not as good as Goodfellas, but what a wonderful film.

The Silence of the Lambs: Very Deserving.

Unforgiven : Very Deserving

Schindler's List: Really want to re watch this come March. I'm sure it still holds up.

Forrest Gump: I've always liked this film, and it's a bit more subversive than people (Spike Lee) give it credit for.

Braveheart : it's not the classic everybody says it is, but a good film nonetheless.

The English Patient: I'm a fan*

Titanic (1997): A technical achievement if nothing else.

Shakespeare in Love: I really like this film, but best picture?

American Beauty: It wasn't the best of the year but love the film, so no qualms.

Gladiator: Very undeserving, but a good rip roaring 21/2 hours nonetheless.

A Beautiful Mind: haven't seen it since it first came out so I'll with hold judgement.

Chicago: Not the best film of the year, but a fun musical nonetheless

The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King: I like the film but prefer 90's Peter Jackson by far, hell even King King Kong.

Million Dollar Baby: haven't seen it in years, but I've always liked it.

Crash: haven't seen it in some while, maybe I misjudged it.

The Departed: I really love this film even if its not top tier Scorsese.

No Country for Old Men: excellent film, but considering There Will Be Blood was the best film of the decade, maybe not as deserving.

Slumdog Millionaire: fair movie that has only grown slightly offensive and safe in the years hence

The Hurt Locker: very deserving of the accolades.

The King's Speech: a good movie, but a far cry from the years best.

The Artist: Very nice film, but there are scores of classic silent films that are better.

I'm tired of the Les Miserables bashing. It deserves the nomination. And WTF does the Oscars have to do with Criterion?

[Yojimbo]

Kurosawa is actually tied with Bergman right now for Criterion blu-ray.

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by Yojimbo

Kurosawa is actually tied with Bergman right for Criterion blu-ray.

So he is tied for 1st.

[brandon_260]

Les Mis is a terrible film and the fact that it has defenders is astonishing.

On topic: my copy of Chungking Express showed up the other day and I wyche it last night. Really fantastic. I love the essay it came with as well, one of my favorites.

[Romulus]

Okay, so Netflix has given me a month free on DVDs/Blu-rays. I decided that I was going to add a bunch of Criterion titles to watch in the next month. I would happily take some suggestions. Here's just a few I've added:

• Ivan's Childhood
• Au Revois Les Enfants
• Army of Shadows
• The Great Dictator
• Revanche
• Summer Hours
• Yi Yi
• Kuroneko
• Onibaba
• Andrei Rublev
• Close-Up
• Taste of Cherry

Any that you would recommend on must watching?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Romulus

Okay, so Netflix has given me a month free on DVDs/Blu-rays. I decided that I was going to add a bunch of Criterion titles to watch in the next month. I would happily take some suggestions. Here's just a few I've added:

• Ivan's Childhood
• Au Revois Les Enfants
• Army of Shadows
• The Great Dictator
• Revanche
• Summer Hours
• Yi Yi
• Kuroneko
• Onibaba
• Andrei Rublev
• Close-Up
• Taste of Cherry

Any that you would recommend on must watching?

You've got a Melville film on your list, so you're golden. Army of Shadows is the best Blu-ray that I own right now.

Hit up The Vanishing on Criterion DVD. It's the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made. I'd love for that movie to come out on Blu-ray.

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

There was a lot of manufactured controversy that year about the possibility of Brokeback Mountain winning Best Picture. I have never seen that film, but I am inclined to think that it was not a big deal and that, like Stephen King wrote in his magazine column at the time, Brokeback Mountain was something that America would eventually pass like a painful kidney stone before forgetting about it altogether.

At any rate, it appeared as though the Academy wanted to avoid taking a risk of controversy with Brokeback Mountain or Munich and, instead, simply settled on the most bland film in the lineup.

Of the movies that I had seen on the list that year, Capote was the one that I would have chosen for Best Picture. That was a pretty amazing little movie. Every year, though, there is at least one Best Picture nominee that will not be selected simply because it is too intelligent to win Best Picture. Quiz Show, Capote, The Reader, and The Pianist are a few that come to mind. I'm not saying this to sound pretentious or to insult the masses, although it may seem that way. It's just that some movies are so cerebral in nature that they just do not connect on a mass popularity scale that most associate with a Best Picture award.

Piss on Capote, Infamous was better, but everyone sees it as inferior because it came out a year later, despite going into production first. Toby Jones is a way better Capote than Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

I always have "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" from Avenue Q playing in my head while discussing Crash. Not a fan of the film at all.

Originally Posted by Brad1963

I'm tired of the Les Miserables bashing. It deserves the nomination. And WTF does the Oscars have to do with Criterion?

I don't get the Les Mis hate either. Yes, Russell Crowe was farking terrible, but there are far worse Best Picture nominations and winners. Even the detractors have to admit Anne Hathaway can sing.

Best Picture sorta relates to Criterion since a lot of nominees get added to the collection, and hey, On the Waterfront, which was a winner, is coming out in a couple weeks.

[Kevin Holly]

Originally Posted by Brad1963

I'm tired of the Les Miserables bashing. It deserves the nomination. And WTF does the Oscars have to do with Criterion?

I think he meant to post that in the other thread that's in existense right now that deals with poor Academy decisions.