The Criterion Collection

[jw007]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Lawless is the most accessible John Hillcoat film to date, but it's still an exceptional movie with beautiful scenery and a good Nick Cave score. Parts of the movie were filmed where I grew up.

I used to own The Proposition and The Road on DVD, and sold them with the intent of upgrading to Blu-ray soon, but I'm sort of over those movies for the time being and have not had an urge to shell out for the Blu-rays, although the Blu-rays are incredible cheap. The urge to see those movies will probably hit me in a year or so, and, typically, the prices will have climbed back up again.

I recently upgraded my DVD of The Proposition to Blu-ray and pretty satisfied with that decision. The movie is so incredibly violent though, that its hard to watch this film a lot. I think there are flashes of brilliance in the film, but overall, its a very bleak and dark story. The Road is even more bleaker, but I upgraded that to Blu-ray as well last year. I don't know of another film that uses such gloomy cinematography, that is certain. I must check out Lawless next.

By the way, this is my 666th post! Yikes!

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Lawless is the most accessible John Hillcoat film to date, but it's still an exceptional movie with beautiful scenery and a good Nick Cave score. Parts of the movie were filmed where I grew up.

I used to own The Proposition and The Road on DVD, and sold them with the intent of upgrading to Blu-ray soon, but I'm sort of over those movies for the time being and have not had an urge to shell out for the Blu-rays, although the Blu-rays are incredible cheap. The urge to see those movies will probably hit me in a year or so, and, typically, the prices will have climbed back up again.

Owl, Lawless has a terrible, terrible screenplay. Sur, it's a great achievement in digital cinematography, but everything else left much to be desired.

The Proposition is a masterpiece on the other hand.

[Judex]

Criterion just posted this on Twitter.
rare color footage of tarkovsky directing andrei rublev

Very nice, hopefully when the blu comes they'll include more of this.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Judex

Criterion just posted this on Twitter.
rare color footage of tarkovsky directing andrei rublev

Very nice, hopefully when the blu comes they'll include more of this.

That's one of my most anticipated releases. I hope it's spread across two discs.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jw007

By the way, this is my 666th post! Yikes!

Maybe this is a good sign that we'll get The Seventh Victim (1943) or Night of the Demon/Curse of the Demon (1957) on Criterion.

(I'm just wishfully thinking.)

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Owl, Lawless has a terrible, terrible screenplay. Sur, it's a great achievement in digital cinematography, but everything else left much to be desired.

I wouldn't be that harsh. Lawless is a good story, even if it's not as strong as the stories in Hillcoat's other films. I will admit that I was expecting something much bleaker, given Hillcoat's history.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I wouldn't be that harsh. Lawless is a good story, even if it's not as strong as the stories in Hillcoat's other films. I will admit that I was expecting something much bleaker, given Hillcoat's history.

Fundamental disagreement there. I can't tell you how crushed I was opening weekend.

Again, I DO want to own the BluRay if only for the cinematography. Yeah, it's that gorgeous.

[Kevin Holly]

I thought Lawless was badass.

[JJJ225]

Lawless was awful.

Even a naked Jessica Chastain couldn't make up for it.

Tom Hardy grunted more than he spoke.

[Abdrewes]

Lawless Tally:

2-2

[King Troll]

Lawless was great is there gonna be a criterion?

[jw007]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Maybe this is a good sign that we'll get The Seventh Victim (1943) or Night of the Demon/Curse of the Demon (1957) on Criterion.

(I'm just wishfully thinking.)

Maybe wait until October 2014 for those releases.

Okay, all this talk about Lawless is making me want to watch this now.

667th post...whewww.

[TheDot]

DVDBeaver reviewed 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini.

Safe to say it'll be the release of 2013.

[The Great Owl]

Getting back to Hillcoat's The Proposition...

In my immensely successful quest to upgrade my favorite DVDs to Blu-ray with a minimum of expense over the past year, I've realized that there are a handful movies that I watched a lot on DVD, but have grown weary of them to the point that I feel no real urge to upgrade. Mike Judge's Office Space, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage, and John Hillcoat's The Proposition are films that most readily come to mind.

I'm sure that The Proposition would look awesome on Blu-ray, especially for the $5 price that I see everywhere, but I'm just not feeling it.
Maybe in a year or two. It's worth having just to marvel at John Hurt's supporting role.

I thought that The Road was a fine film as well, but it omits a couple of key moments from the brilliant Cormac McCarthy novel. I normally overlook such things with movies, but The Road is so "watered down" compared to the novel that I cannot overlook the differences.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by jw007

Okay, all this talk about Lawless is making me want to watch this now.

667th post...whewww.

Id be curious to know your thoughts, JW. It's not a film without its pleasures, but God, is it dumb.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jw007

Maybe wait until October 2014 for those releases.

I could definitely get behind that, seeing as how Criterion apparently missed its chance to release a box set of the Friday the 13th films.

As far as this coming October is concerned, Eyes Without a Face rules all.

[Scottie]

I just finished watching Amarcord.

It's a somewhat self-reflection of Fellini's own childhood. Therefore, think of it as part coming-of-age story, part character study, and part politics over the course of a full year.

It's great. It had me laughing for most of the film, despite its darker moments.

It's beautifully shot in Italy and as many of you know, I'm a sucker for beautiful shots of foreign countries.

4 / 4 for me. Highly recommended, especially since I hate 8.5 so much.

[Edward J Grug III]

Add me to the pro-Lawless camp. Not his best film, but I enjoyed it.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Jay, I just felt the character development was paper thin. So, another 20 minutes or so would make a HUGE difference. You know, it may go from really contrived and over ambitious to, at least, fairly resonant.

I can understand why someone would never want to give it another shot, though.

Well, to be fair, when I went through the extras on the DVD, which talked about Aronofsky's original, much longer treatment, I was interested. It seemed clear to me that bean counters seriously got in the way of what he wanted to do. It's been a while, but I don't think there's enough actual shot footage to be added that would help the film any.

Agree with you on the character development. My favorite part of the film was the present-day sequence, and that had the most character development.

[SammyJankis]

Lawless was underwhelming, given the talent behind it, but terrible? Hardly. I have zero motivation to watch it again and some of the cast was completely wasted, but there were a couple redeeming qualities holding it back from bad, let alone terrible.

Haven't seen The Proposition. Been tempted to pick it up because it's so cheap, but just can't bite the bullet.