The Criterion Collection

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I watched Carnival of Souls on TCM this morning because I couldn't sleep.

I've never been a fan of older horror films because they're usually very silly, but this was honestly one of the creepiest ones I have seen.

Even though I was dozing off here and there, I can see why everybody wants an upgrade.

I love Carnival of Souls and will likely be revisiting my Criterion DVD this week.

If you like Carnival of Souls, then you'll probably like The Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-Hiker", which is my personal favorite half hour in television history.

Here's "The Hitch-Hiker" in its entirety.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I love Carnival of Souls and will likely be revisiting my Criterion DVD this week.

If you like Carnival of Souls, then you'll probably like The Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-Hiker", which is my personal favorite half hour in television history.

Here's "The Hitch-Hiker" in its entirety.

Thanks for the link, Owl! I will definitely give it a viewing.

I may purchase the DVD of it (as well as L'Avventura and L'Eclisse in anticipation for Antonioni's Trilogy watch at the end of the month) because that's how much I enjoyed it.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I love Carnival of Souls and will likely be revisiting my Criterion DVD this week.

If you like Carnival of Souls, then you'll probably like The Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-Hiker", which is my personal favorite half hour in television history.

Here's "The Hitch-Hiker" in its entirety.

"The Hitch-Hiker" is definitely a great episode. I think my personal favorite right now is "Perchance to Dream" - the one with the carnival and the woman with the cat eyes.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Haha, I try to keep the negativity out of here, JW. But since you asked for it:

1. Keith Lemon: The Movie
2. The Boondock Saints
3. Date Movie
4. Kick Ass 2
5. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
6. The Ugly Truth
7. Diary of a Mad Black Woman
8. I am Sam
9. Madea's Family Reuinion
10. The Waterboy

Okay, I would have to say those are all great contenders for some of the worst movies in recent times. I'm finding it difficult to formulate my own list because I'm thinking of really old films as well as recent ones (and since I don't watch newer "bad" movies any longer, I'm going to have to dig deep into the past to remember some of the worst movies or ones I really didn't like). I'll try to get my list out shortly....

One thing though, are these all movies you own? Cause if we're putting together a "bottom 10" list of movies in our collections, I have basically none that would make the cut for bad films (since I only buy "good" films). Lol.

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Off the top of my head...

My 10 Least Favorite Films...

1. Pay It Forward
2. Crash
3. Rob Zombie's Halloween
4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
5. Norbit
6. Spawn
7. Just Cause
8. Domestic Disturbance
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
10. The Matrix Revolutions

Now, I've seen a lot of bad movies in my time, since I went through a phase years back when I would shell out five dollars for those Mill Creek "50 Chilling Horror Movies"/"50 Sci-Fi Movies"/"50 Grindhouse Movies" DVD packs and just sift through them to find jewels among the stones.
The above 10 movies are probably better described as "most disappointing movies" or, better yet, "movies that suck so bad that I cannot even joke about them like I joke about the Mill Creek horror movies."

Those are all bad ones too. Excellent!

[bwdowiak]

Abdrewes and Great Owl - I'd be more interested in hearing which highly regarded films you dislike. Tyler Perry films and horror retreads are low hanging fruit, no?

Here's 4 that I thought were absolute garbage for reasons which I will spare everyone who is here wanting to talk about Criterion films:

Gone Baby Gone
Drag Me To Hell
Being John Malkovich
High Fidelity

[jdw89]

My Criterion order is finally set to arrive after over a week.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Abdrewes and Great Owl - I'd be more interested in hearing which highly regarded films you dislike. Tyler Perry films and horror retreads are low hanging fruit, no?

Here's 4 that I thought were absolute garbage for reasons which I will spare everyone who is here wanting to talk about Criterion films:

Gone Baby Gone
Drag Me To Hell
Being John Malkovich
High Fidelity

Actually, YES! This is what I meant to ask! I want to hear "highly regarded" films that you found to be disappointing or bad.

I disagree with Being John Malkovich, because I think that is a really innovative/original film.

[RipleyLV426]

Who else cannot positively stand waiting for the B&N Criterion sale?!?! My list (and gift cards) are ready and waiting

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by jw007

I disagree with Being John Malkovich, because I think that is a really innovative/original film.

Hey Jonathan! What's happenin'? BJM is probably all what you say it is and I have not seen it beyond it's original theatrical run so it's been a while. All I can remember is a dude in a birdcage and thinking the whole thing was just too absurd. "Adaptation" failed to engage me for the first half of it's running time, so I guess that cemented my opinion on BJM.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

Who else cannot positively stand waiting for the B&N Criterion sale?!?! My list (and gift cards) are ready and waiting

Well, I am definitely looking forward but I'm not going to go overboard like I did with the July sale when after 8 months of waiting (big gap between November and July sales) I spent $600+ and bought like 30+ Blu-rays. For this sale, I plan to purchase no more than 10 titles! We'll see just how accurate that turns out to be.

[Ausjdm]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Off the top of my head...

My 10 Least Favorite Films...

1. Pay It Forward
2. Crash
3. Rob Zombie's Halloween
4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
5. Norbit
6. Spawn
7. Just Cause
8. Domestic Disturbance
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
10. The Matrix Revolutions

Now, I've seen a lot of bad movies in my time, since I went through a phase years back when I would shell out five dollars for those Mill Creek "50 Chilling Horror Movies"/"50 Sci-Fi Movies"/"50 Grindhouse Movies" DVD packs and just sift through them to find jewels among the stones.
The above 10 movies are probably better described as "most disappointing movies" or, better yet, "movies that suck so bad that I cannot even joke about them like I joke about the Mill Creek horror movies."

Funny you mention Norbit. I once was setup on a blind date and the chick wanted to see that movie... Needless to say when it was over, I felt like I lost valuable IQ points, I never talked to the girl or saw that dreaded movie again lol.

Also I mentioned Sunshine which was inspired by 2001 and Solaris. I saw The Skin I Live In last night which Almodòvar said Eyes w/o face and M inspired him. Damn good movie one of his best. Oh man what a plot twist! Check it out. His movies need to be Criterion'd badly he's a master at his craft!

[jw007]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Hey Jonathan! What's happenin'? BJM is probably all what you say it is and I have not seen it beyond it's original theatrical run so it's been a while. All I can remember is a dude in a birdcage and thinking the whole thing was just too absurd. "Adaptation" failed to engage me for the first half of it's running time, so I guess that cemented my opinion on BJM.

Hey Brad, its all good yo. I think you need to revisit BJM another time because after I saw it again after years of neglect, I really thought it was a brilliant film. I'm not a huge fan of Charlie Kaufman but Spike Jonze did great with this one. (and Catherine Keener is one of my favorite actresses too!)

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Ausjdm

I saw The Skin I Live In last night which Almodòvar said Eyes w/o face and M inspired him. Damn good movie one of his best. Oh man what a plot twist! Check it out. His movies need to be Criterion'd badly he's a master at his craft!

One of my favorite directors with ZERO films released by Criterion.

[The Great Owl]

I thoroughly enjoyed this one...



Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear has never received the same accolades that have been bestowed upon his standout films, like Metropolis, M, or The Big Heat, but this 1944 wartime thriller is an immensely engaging work that showcases the director's talent for utilizing uncanny angles, frames, and darkness to define characters. The shadows in Ministry of Fear have a tangible presence that makes them characters in their own right, and the experience of watching this movie can best be described as a ride through the most twisted gothic film noir funhouse in the world. The Criterion Collection has a reputation for creating cover art that perfectly matches the respective films, and Ministry of Fear is a standout example.

Ministry of Fear loosely echoes the "wrong man" premise of Hitchcock's Saboteur, but coats it with an additional layer of sinister abstraction. This film opens with Stephen Neale, played by Ray Milland, watching a ticking clock as he observes his final moments in a mental asylum for reasons that become apparent later in the story. Little does Neale realize that he is exiting the mental asylum only to enter a larger grand scale asylum in the form of London under the Nazi threat. Lang's piecemeal plot revelations place us in Neale's shoes for the remainder of the film as we visit carnivals, seances, dark alleys, and darker new acquaintances. Marjorie Reynolds figures into the equation as one of the most strikingly breathtaking blondes of 1940s cinema, and her character commands adoration during her every moment on the screen, even if we are unsure about whether she is a precious ally to Neale, a femme fatale, or both.

I had a blast watching Ministry of Fear for the first time last night. Ministry of Fear is not a horror story, but it does have a haunted house vibe that makes it the perfect October film. It's impossible, in fact, not to think of a vampire when watching a Scotland Yard official ascend a flight of stairs to a building roof during one pivotal scene.

Fritz Lang's shadows look marvelous on this Criterion Blu-ray, although the film shows its age at times. The only supplement is a fast-paced and highly informative interview with historian Joe McElhaney, who guides us through the differences between this adaptation and the Graham Greene source novel while explaining the film's place in Lang's canon.

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Does anyone else despise when others mention there being a plot twist in a movie you're looking forward to watching? I hate to sound dramatic but it kinda ruins the impact the movie would've otherwise had on me, when I already know there's one coming. I end up automatically wondering what the plot twist will be and when it will come throughout the whole movie. By the time it does come, I've almost always guessed it already.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Abdrewes and Great Owl - I'd be more interested in hearing which highly regarded films you dislike.

I'm up for the challenge...

Aside from my above-listed film, Crash, which won Best Picture, here are a few other highly-regarded films that I dislike...

Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
For me, the experience of watching a Wes Anderson film is like attending a party where I do not know any of the other attendees, but they all know one another and are conversing with inside jokes to one another that go over my head. For me, one of the joys of cinema is "meeting" fascinating and likeable people, so I do not like to watch a film with the awkward feeling that I get if I'm the only person who shows up at a formal event without a tie.

Little Miss Sunshine
In retrospect, I should have included this on my Worst Films list above. I'm averse to the "dysfunctional is the new normal" films of this nature across the board.

The Departed
Infernal Affairs would make a wonderful Criterion Collection release someday, and it's a masterful film. This American remake, by contrast, was like a big road sign where all directions lead to excruciating boredom.

There Will Be Blood
"Rosebud"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher version)
I loved the source novel and the Swedish film, but this English remake hit all of the wrong notes for me (aside from Rooney Mara's and Daniel Craig's impressive performances).

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

There Will Be Blood
"Rosebud"

Oh, Owl.. Oh, you disappoint me.

[Judex]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

Who else cannot positively stand waiting for the B&N Criterion sale?!?! My list (and gift cards) are ready and waiting

I'm hoping it gets delayed to mid November.

I need to buy a new multi-region player in the next couple of weeks, so I won't be able to purchase too much. Then again there's only about 7-10 I'm after.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

Does anyone else despise when others mention there being a plot twist in a movie you're looking forward to watching? I hate to sound dramatic but it kinda ruins the impact the movie would've otherwise had on me, when I already know there's one coming. I end up automatically wondering what the plot twist will be and when it will come throughout the whole movie. By the time it does come, I've almost always guessed it already.

That's very high on my pet peeve list. Most people do it innocently enough and 90% of the time the existence of some big reveal has been tipped by trailers and posters and whatnot so I try to keep from getting too annoyed.

But yeah, it can be pretty agravating.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'm up for the challenge...

Aside from my above-listed film, Crash, which won Best Picture, here are a few other highly-regarded films that I dislike...

Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
For me, the experience of watching a Wes Anderson film is like attending a party where I do not know any of the other attendees, but they all know one another and are conversing with inside jokes to one another that go over my head. For me, one of the joys of cinema is "meeting" fascinating and likeable people, so I do not like to watch a film with the awkward feeling that I get if I'm the only person who shows up at a formal event without a tie.

Little Miss Sunshine
In retrospect, I should have included this on my Worst Films list above. I'm averse to the "dysfunctional is the new normal" films of this nature across the board.

There Will Be Blood
"Rosebud"
.

okay, great.. NOW this is interesting. "Rosebud" is going over my head, though.. can you elaborate? of course I know the reference, but w/ regard to TWBB, what am I missing?

regarding Wes Anderson, I squirm when I see people pining for "The Life Aquatic" to get a Criterion blu-ray release. I really liked his first 3 films, especially the two you mention, but c'mon... the whimsy has got to stop somewhere. you can add "Moonrise Kingdom" to my list of highly regarded movies that I could not stomach.