The Criterion Collection

[brandon_260]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

I'm still a little pissed towards Amazon for never sending me a copy of Marketa after having it on preorder for three months. I'm just going to pick it up at this sale now. I would have loved to have watched it weeks ago.

Welp, scratch this. Just as I went to cancel my order, it showed that it had finally shipped. Literally happened within the hour. Would have liked to save the $10, but no choice now.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

Welp, scratch this. Just as I went to cancel my order, it showed that it had finally shipped. Literally happened within the hour. Would have liked to save the $10, but no choice now.

They sound like DeepDiscount Sorry to read that

[Lordy]

Originally Posted by dizzy4111

Alright, I've decided to limit myself to 6 blu rays during this sale. Naked Lunch and Marketa Lazarova are the only two I'm 100% certain on picking up.

I need help choosing 4 from these 8 choices. All will be blind purchases:

The Wages of Fear
Rushmore
On the Waterfront
Blow Out
The Thin Red Line
Wings of Desire
Eating Raoul
House

What would you guys suggest?

Go for five titles:

On the Waterfront
Blow Out
The Thin Red Line
Wings of Desire
Eating Raoul

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by Lordy

Go for five titles:

On the Waterfront
Blow Out
The Thin Red Line
Wings of Desire
Eating Raoul

Those are almost the five I'd go for, except I'd probably substitute WAGES OF FEAR instead of BLOW OUT (although the latter includes another full-length feature in HD as a bonus), and as the fifth alternate I'd definitely go with HOUSE over EATING RAOUL.

[MitchA17]

Originally Posted by dizzy4111

Alright, I've decided to limit myself to 6 blu rays during this sale. Naked Lunch and Marketa Lazarova are the only two I'm 100% certain on picking up.

I need help choosing 4 from these 8 choices. All will be blind purchases:

The Wages of Fear
Rushmore
On the Waterfront
Blow Out
The Thin Red Line
Wings of Desire
Eating Raoul
House

What would you guys suggest?

Rushmore, On the Waterfront, Thin Red Line, and Wings of Desire absolutely.

Eating Raoul vs. House depends on your ability to enjoy dark comedy and nonsensical insanity, respectively. (I enjoyed both quite a bit.) But I'd say all 4 above are absolute must-own titles.

[RandyK]

I'm excited for the sale and and excited that we're one week away from October announcements! Most anticipated announcements so far.

[shadedpain4]

I watched The New World this weekend which was the only Malick film I had yet to see. I would rank them:

Tree of Life
Thin Red Line
The New World
Badlands
To The Wonder
Days Of Heaven

To The Wonder may jump Badlands with additional viewings. I'm always amazed at how different people's favorites are when it comes to Malick. I don't think there are any that even come close to being a consensus favorite.

[shortmartin]

Originally Posted by Kbg1292

So here's my expected haul for the upcoming sale:

The Red Shoes
Paris, Texas
Kiss Me Deadly
Sweet Smell of Success
Wild Strawberries
Solaris

I can probably stretch for 1-2 more. Out of the following what would you suggest?

3:10 to Yuma
Repulsion
Quadrophenia
Gomorrah
Marketable Lazarova
Paths of Glory


Thanks

Paths is my favorite war movie of all time, it's awesome . . . Marketa is a blind buy for me, and looks like it'll wind up as one of the great releases of the year.

[shortmartin]

Originally Posted by dizzy4111

Alright, I've decided to limit myself to 6 blu rays during this sale. Naked Lunch and Marketa Lazarova are the only two I'm 100% certain on picking up.

I need help choosing 4 from these 8 choices. All will be blind purchases:

The Wages of Fear
Rushmore
On the Waterfront
Blow Out
The Thin Red Line
Wings of Desire
Eating Raoul
House

What would you guys suggest?

I would choose Waterfront, Wages, Thing Red Line, Rushmore

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by shortmartin

I would choose Waterfront, Wages, Thing Red Line, Rushmore

"Thing Red Line"?....spined

Unrelated Side Note:
It would have been awesome to have had my hands on Guillermo Del Toro's Devil's Backbone this week. Gonna have to settle for rewatching Hellboy, Cronos and maybe Pan's Labyrinth.

[The Great Owl]

Last night, I finished off the Blu-rays in my America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set by watching The King of Marvin Gardens, starring Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern.

...and, since this is the last day before the big B&N sale, I'll take the liberty of writing a sales pitch for those of you who do not yet own America Lost and Found.



The BBS production company of Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner used money earned from the popularity of The Monkees television series to create seven innovative films between 1968 and 1972. These seven films are presented on Blu-ray with exemplary picture quality and audio quality, along with a multitude of informative supplements, essays, and commentaries.

When viewed in sequence, the seven films of this box set stand together in what could be viewed as a metaphorical rise and fall of the American Dream, where buoyant energy and hopeful enterprise gradually give way to deteriorating cynicism mixed with weathered resilience. While I would not go so far as to characterize these films at overtly bleak, I do believe that they have a wistful "It was fun while it lasted." air about them that lingers like the smell of a carnival that thrived in town for a few days only to leave a littered vacant lot in its place.

America Lost and Found: The BBS Story includes three cinematic masterpieces. Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and The Last Picture Show are milestones from the era, and the pop culture impact that reverberates from these three movies cannot be overstated even by the standards of today's viewers. Any one of these movies could have been released as brilliant stand-alone Criterion titles fetching a comparable price to this entire box set. Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces are two takes on the blessings and curses of individuality that both benefit from the presence of Jack Nicholson, whose acting abilities are on full display from a time before they became his trademark brand. The Last Picture Show is a emotional gut punch of a film that introduced Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, and other future icons to the world.

The box set also includes three offerings that are flawed, but nonetheless beautifully effective. The career arc of The Monkees ascends to a chaotic kaleidoscope in Head. Drive, He Said, Jack Nicholson's first directorial effort, gives us a fascinating glimpse of college campus life during the turbulent Vietnam years. The King of Marvin Gardens, the low-key number that closes the box set, is an awakening to reality from unattainable dreams.

The 1971 film, A Safe Place, ranks at the low point of what this box set has to offer in my eyes, but, as with any eccentric vehicle of questionable practicality on a sales lot, your mileage may vary. As is, the film is an unusually floaty work that features enough iconic actors to have place in any collection.

The end result of this attractive Criterion Blu-ray box set comes together as three masterpieces, three not-quite-masterpieces, and one film that you may or may not watch more than once. In my book, this ratio makes America Lost and Found: The BBS Story, a clear win, especially when these films are watched in sequence to give you a crystal clear series of vignettes to help you understand this short, but unforgettable slice of an era of nebulous cacophony in American history before dust temporarily settled.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

I watched The New World this weekend which was the only Malick film I had yet to see. I would rank them:

Tree of Life
Thin Red Line
The New World
Badlands
To The Wonder
Days Of Heaven

To The Wonder may jump Badlands with additional viewings. I'm always amazed at how different people's favorites are when it comes to Malick. I don't think there are any that even come close to being a consensus favorite.

The only possible thing I could say about Malick's films in terms of ranking is that I'd rank Badlands last, but I still love it. Aside from that, your guess is as good as mine how I'd rank them.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The 1971 film, A Safe Place, ranks at the low point of what this box set has to offer in my eyes, but, as with any eccentrically vehicle of questionable practicality on a sales lot, your mileage may vary. As is, the film is an unusually floaty work that features enough iconic actors to have place in any collection.

I couldn't even get through A Safe Place. Awful, awful film.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Rich Pure Doom

The only possible thing I could say about Malick's films in terms of ranking is that I'd rank Badlands last, but I still love it. Aside from that, your guess is as good as mine how I'd rank them.

To the Wonder is definitely a notch below Badlands (which had always been my least favorite). I really like it too, but I just don't find it as visually innovative as his later films (Wonder included).

[SammyJankis]

Still waiting for the Blu of To the Wonder. Damn theater never got it. I'll be surprised if I end up liking it less than Badlands.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Rich Pure Doom

I couldn't even get through A Safe Place. Awful, awful film.

I watched A Safe Place once through when I owned this box set on DVD, and I watched it a second time on Blu-ray.
I was slightly more receptive to the film during my second viewing, but it's still going to be the dust collector in the America Lost and Found box set for me.

The King of Marvin Gardens looks great on Blu-ray, and I love the acting from all involved (especially the late great Scatman Crothers), but it's hardly a fun movie. I have a hankering to watch it ever so often, but not nearly as much as I watch Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, or Drive, He Said.
I think that this particular week might have been a bad time for me to revisit The King of Marvin Gardens. I'm in a "big spectacle" type of mood, with my recent theatrical viewings of the first two James Bond movies, and my anticipation of Pacific Rim, my Amazon UK order of the Alfred Hitchcock Blu-ray set, my copy of Criterion's Things to Come, etc.

When I was revisiting these movies via my Blu-ray purchase, I was particularly enamored with The Last Picture Show. I did not have time to write a review of that individual movie when I revisited it last week, but it deserves some serious acclaim.

[Freeza]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

I hope Devils Backbone will be included in the sale

According to my local B&N, the sale ends the day before its release

[RipleyLV426]

Trying to decide...
Videodrome or Badlands?

[bdmartin134]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

Still waiting for the Blu of To the Wonder. Damn theater never got it. I'll be surprised if I end up liking it less than Badlands.

I'm going to have to rewatch To The Wonder once it hit's blu, b/c unfortunately since it didn't come to a theater near me, I had to watch it through Xfinity onDemand. Even after purchasing the HD version, the visual was so cloudy and blurred. I was pissed, which then took me out of the mood and shut it off halfway through. It's more poetic than Tree of Life, thats for sure. Got to be in the right frame of mind next time around.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

Trying to decide...
Videodrome or Badlands?

Both are awesome, but I'd go for Badlands right now. You'll find that it's a much better summer season movie.

By the way, niiiiiiiiiiiice avatar.