The Criterion Collection

[zoodermin]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

La Cage aux Folles Blu-ray REVIEW

Thanks Pro-B, Is Autumn Sonata coming soon? I'm really looking forward to that one.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

La Cage aux Folles Blu-ray REVIEW

Looking forward to watching this one, I've never seen the original. But I will say I love The Bird Cage. Thanks for the review!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Agreed. And High Fidelity is one my favorite films. It has such a great soundtrack.

I love High Fidelity, and I have to revisit it a couple times a year. I saw it twice at the theater, owned it on DVD, and upgraded to Blu-ray a few months back. The soundtrack really is golden.

We're all like those characters, except with Blu-ray collecting (or, in my case, both movies and music).

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by zoodermin

Thanks Pro-B, Is Autumn Sonata coming soon? I'm really looking forward to that one.

Hello zoodermin,

I will watch the entire film tonight, all extras tomorrow, and post the review on Monday. Tomorrow is reserved for MOC releases/reviews.

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Looking forward to watching this one, I've never seen the original. But I will say I love The Bird Cage. Thanks for the review!

You are welcome, lordmorpheus72. I hope you enjoy the presentation when you get the disc. (I am sure you will. The film looks great and Ennio Morricone's soundtrack sounds so much better than it does on the MGM release).

Have a great weekend

Pro-B

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I love High Fidelity, and I have to revisit it a couple times a year. I saw it twice at the theater, owned it on DVD, and upgraded to Blu-ray a few months back. The soundtrack really is golden.

We're all like those characters, except with Blu-ray collecting (or, in my case, both movies and music).

I really relate to the movie as I have 3 friends who I swear he based the book/movie on. We were all huge music buffs, they still are more than I. We used to sit around and have some of those same discussions and look down our noses at those who didn't like what we liked, or who listened to popular music. So yeah, they are all like us and vice versa.

Btw, how's the blu-ray for it, I haven't upgraded yet?

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I love High Fidelity, and I have to revisit it a couple times a year. I saw it twice at the theater, owned it on DVD, and upgraded to Blu-ray a few months back. The soundtrack really is golden.

We're all like those characters, except with Blu-ray collecting (or, in my case, both movies and music).

I totally agree about High Fidelity, and if we are talking about Jack Black I have to say School of Rock is worth seeing too.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by jw007

how come people never talk about BD 720 and BD 1080?! How can I tell the difference between both versions? Is the BD 720 the same as a 25gb disc and the BD 1080 is the 50gb disc? I doubt that is true though. How do I know though, which Blu-rays in my collection are 720 or 1080? I thought they were all 1080! (especially 2k masterings). Arghhh.

Usually, all movie blu-rays are 1080p/1080i, and it has nothing to do with the size of the disc. It usually has to do with how the film was shot. A few productions due to reasons technical or financial were shot on digital using 720p cameras, and the BD replicates that, so it's not like you're being cheated out of a better image quality.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Btw, how's the blu-ray for it, I haven't upgraded yet?

The Blu-ray of High Fidelity looks noticeably better than the DVD, but it's not a "demo disc" by any stretch. I would suggest an upgrade if you can find it for an inexpensive price (I took my High Fidelity DVD to Best Buy Upgrade & Save, and used the coupon to buy the Blu-ray for five dollars.).

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The Blu-ray of High Fidelity looks noticeably better than the DVD, but it's not a "demo disc" by any stretch. I would suggest an upgrade if you can find it for an inexpensive price (I took my High Fidelity DVD to Best Buy Upgrade & Save, and used the coupon to buy the Blu-ray for five dollars.).

Thanks for the info. I do the Best Buy upgrade often myself. I'll have to keep a look out for their next "upgrade and save."


On a different note, anyone know when the other eight WCF films that are part of the free streaming on Hulu will be available? I watched The Housemaid tonight and loved it. Such and amazing film, so glad the WCF and Criterion were able to bring it to those who don't subscribe to HuluPlus. Thanks!

[jw007]

Originally Posted by jayembee

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Altogether, I have just shy of 1300 LDs (about 250 of them are Criterions). Now, a significant percentage of them are films that have since come out on DVD (or BD), and by the time that happened, opportunities for selling the LDs were waning (I sold quite a few on eBay, before I just dropped out of eBay altogether). Of course, in many cases, I wanted to hang onto them for collector's reasons, but I could happily divest myself of at least half of them if I manage to find an outlet to sell them.

1,300 LDs.

*faints

[jw007]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Usually, all movie blu-rays are 1080p/1080i, and it has nothing to do with the size of the disc. It usually has to do with how the film was shot. A few productions due to reasons technical or financial were shot on digital using 720p cameras, and the BD replicates that, so it's not like you're being cheated out of a better image quality.

Yes, that makes all the sense in the world. I admit I was shooting on 720p HD cameras several years ago (Panasonic HVX-200) trying to make a documentary film (long story) and was also using a Sony HD camera with 1080i technology. This was all in late 2006 though, just when Blu-rays were starting to come out on the scene. I just shudder whenever I hear the number 720p because it is still ever so inferior to 1080p and beyond. I only accept 4 digit numbers now when it comes to "high definition".

[HuggyBear73]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Sammy told me during the month of September.

Thanks so much for the update!

[14728]

I'm looking forward to City Lights. Hope the transfer isn't crummy.

[14728]

Originally Posted by jayembee

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Altogether, I have just shy of 1300 LDs (about 250 of them are Criterions). Now, a significant percentage of them are films that have since come out on DVD (or BD), and by the time that happened, opportunities for selling the LDs were waning (I sold quite a few on eBay, before I just dropped out of eBay altogether). Of course, in many cases, I wanted to hang onto them for collector's reasons, but I could happily divest myself of at least half of them if I manage to find an outlet to sell them.

I don't even have one laserdisc. Go figure

[yhzmr]

Originally Posted by jayembee

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Altogether, I have just shy of 1300 LDs (about 250 of them are Criterions). Now, a significant percentage of them are films that have since come out on DVD (or BD), and by the time that happened, opportunities for selling the LDs were waning (I sold quite a few on eBay, before I just dropped out of eBay altogether). Of course, in many cases, I wanted to hang onto them for collector's reasons, but I could happily divest myself of at least half of them if I manage to find an outlet to sell them.

Why did you drop out of eBay altogether if you don't mind me asking?

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Originally Posted by 14728

I'm looking forward to City Lights. Hope the transfer isn't crummy.

I highly doubt it will be. All the chaplins have been stunning so far and City Lights is arguably his best film. Criterion will do right by it. I'm so excited for it!!

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by jayembee

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Altogether, I have just shy of 1300 LDs (about 250 of them are Criterions). Now, a significant percentage of them are films that have since come out on DVD (or BD), and by the time that happened, opportunities for selling the LDs were waning (I sold quite a few on eBay, before I just dropped out of eBay altogether). Of course, in many cases, I wanted to hang onto them for collector's reasons, but I could happily divest myself of at least half of them if I manage to find an outlet to sell them.

I only have about 25 or so LDs, and my old LD player. I really need to find a new player, mine is an older model that makes me take out the disc and flip it... just have to actually look for one on eBay.

Anyone have suggestions on a model and/or price range to keep in mind?

That being said, I did buy a few on my last trip to the flea market and this out of the way record store. Found some old Disney LDs that were still unopened. pretty sweet find in my opinion.

[Nighteyes]

Is there a list or a statistic somewhere grouping Criterion releases by language? We were talking on another forum about which language other than English would be the prevalent one. French? Japanese?

[onetet]

Originally Posted by Nighteyes

Is there a list or a statistic somewhere grouping Criterion releases by language? We were talking on another forum about which language other than English would be the prevalent one. French? Japanese?

Well, you can approximate the language stats by going to their site and browsing the catalog using an advanced search by country.
http://www.criterion.com/library

Doing so reveals 182 titles from France, and 176 from Japan. No other third country (other than the UK, which of course will also be English-language films) comes close. Italy has 63, and all the Spanish-speaking countries together wouldn't come close to that.

These numbers seem to total all titles rather than all spines. In other words, I believe the Zatoichi films would be counted as 25 towards Japan rather than 1. I'm saying this because I notice the total number exceeds the 681 released+announced Criterion DVD and BD spines.

[Nighteyes]

Originally Posted by onetet

Well, you can approximate the language stats by going to their site and browsing the catalog using an advanced search by country.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that.

Interesting that Italy has over 60 titles listed. I had expected far less, maybe a dozen or two.