The Criterion Collection

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by 14728

I don't have Hulu plus. I've been considering it, though.

It's a great investment if you're interested in seeing Criterion movies that you're unsure of buying. It's helped tremendously to filter what I needed to own, and what I didn't. They also have a ton of Criterion movies that will probbaly never see a physical release on there too. At the very least, get a trial to it and check it out. The interface and navigation leaves a lot to be desired (using my PS3 app) and the HD quality isn't as good as other streaming services to me, but I still think it's a good value even for just the Criterion library.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

Maybe he doesn't want to pay to watch commercials when he can watch them on TV for free?

Criterion movies don't have any commercials whatsoever.

[Vlad Draculi]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Criteiron movies don't have any commercials whatsoever.

Even before the movie? That seems totally unlike Hulu.

[RestlessEye]

I was surprised to see Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is on Hulu Plus. I was going to just blind buy it but I should probably stream it first.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

Even before the movie? That seems totally unlike Hulu.

No ads at all. It's been like that from the start with Hulu Plus. TV shows do have commercials, and apparently even those have improved. There used to be tons of them, but now there are less and shorter, or options for just one long one and then nothing for the rest of the show.

[Vlad Draculi]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

No ads at all. It's been like that from the start with Hulu Plus. TV shows do have commercials, and apparently even those have improved. There used to be tons of them, but now there are less and shorter, or options for just one long one and then nothing for the rest of the show.

Interesting. Now if they would only actually show every episode from the season instead of just 5 at a time it might be almost worth it.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

Interesting. Now if they would only actually show every episode from the season instead of just 5 at a time it might be almost worth it.

I agree. I think they have done that with a few shows now too. I recall them highlighting the fact that you can watch certain shows from the start. They're slowly improving, gaining exclusives like Seinfeld, etc..There's also rumors of a completely ad-free option in the works, but at like $5 more.

[nondiatonic]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

Maybe he doesn't want to pay to watch commercials when he can watch them on TV for free?

There's a Criterion channel?!

Originally Posted by 14728

I don't have Hulu plus. I've been considering it, though.

Hulu Plus is a great investment for Criterion fans.

Here's a list of the Criterion films on Hulu:
http://www.criterion.com/hulu

I use that page above to search for movies since Hulu has a HORRENDOUS search function. HOWEVER, even that page is not perfect. If you search "Dino Risi" nothing will show up, but Criterion's release of Il Sorpasso is on Hulu. So, there are apparently (at least one) additional movies not represented in that list. So, if there is a movie I really want to see that isn't on the criterion.com list, I'll resort to using hulu.com search to see if it's there.

Not the most intuitive set up, but definitely worth it since there are a large number of BD releases represented, all (I believe) of the Eclipse films (many in HD), and many additional films not available in physical media at all (but Criterion apparently holds the rights).

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by tisdivine

Has anyone seen Samuel Fuller's House of Bamboo? Whats the closest movie you can compare it to? I noticed TT is releasing it in August. Ive looked for a place to stream it and its not available anywhere.

I love/own The Naked Kiss & Shock Corridor but I get the feeling Bamboo might not be that style.

I own House of Bamboo on DVD. It's a loose remake of The Street With No Name and both versions were released as titles in the Fox Film Noir series. I reviewed the complete series of DVDs for Scarlet Street magazine and had this to say about the two titles in question:

The Street With No Name is one of the best of the docu-noirs that Fox excelled in making during the late forties. The title is taken from a quote by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover about organized crime, which was then seeping into smaller American cities. Fox contract player Mark Stevens, a handsome and capable leading man whose career never really took off, heads the cast as Gene Cordell, the FBI agent who goes undercover to infiltrate a gang headed by Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark, who commits a little burglary of his own by stealing the film). Beautifully directed by William Keighley, the film is a fast-paced crime yarn lifted out of the ordinary by the interplay between Stevens and Widmark, whose performances indicate a subtextual sexual interest between their two characters. (Cordell's undercover name is Manly!) This tension ratchets up the suspense as the two men alternate between being the pursuer and the pursued.

The gay subtext is even more pronounced in House of Bamboo, writer/director Samuel Fuller's reworking of House of Bamboo, with Robert Ryan and Robert Stack standing in for Widmark and Stevens. Filmed in CinemaScope and De Luxe color, and reset in Japan, the film is arguably more an international crime story than a genuine film noir. Missing are many of the stylistic trademarks typically associated with the genre. Most scenes take place in bright sunlight to take advantage of the colorful Japanese locations and to fill the wide screen; the sense of claustrophobia that characterizes so many noirs simply isn't present. Cult director Fuller isn't able to coax much of a performance from the wooden Stack; the acting honors go to Ryan. As Sandy Dawson, the smoothly diabolical crime lord who violates his own heartless standards of conduct when handling protege Eddie Kenner (Stack), Ryan imbues his character with delicious ambiguity: does Dawson fully realize the implications of his feelings toward Kenner? Although the original is a much more interesting and satisfying example of noir, it's fun -- and instructive -- to watch both films as a double feature and compare their stylistic and thematic differences.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's a great investment if you're interested in seeing Criterion movies that you're unsure of buying. It's helped tremendously to filter what I needed to own, and what I didn't. They also have a ton of Criterion movies that will probbaly never see a physical release on there too. At the very least, get a trial to it and check it out. The interface and navigation leaves a lot to be desired (using my PS3 app) and the HD quality isn't as good as other streaming services to me, but I still think it's a good value even for just the Criterion library.

I would do it if I had a decent set-up on my TV.

...but I hate watching movies on my laptop.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I would do it if I had a decent set-up on my TV.

...but I hate watching movies on my laptop.

I don't know what kind of TV you have, but perhaps invest in a Roku device. They're cheap and have a bunch of different channels including Hulu.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by jw007

My original posting on 2001 yesterday was exactly on all that. I still can't wrap my head around that damn ending!

[Show spoiler]Aliens are responsible for our evolution. That's pretty much the ending. The whole "star child detonates a nuclear warhead orbiting Earth" part from the book shows the further growth of a species, but wasn't needed the film.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

[Show spoiler]Aliens are responsible for our evolution. That's pretty much the ending. The whole "star child detonates a nuclear warhead orbiting Earth" part from the book shows the further growth of a species, but wasn't needed the film.

[Show spoiler]Aliens or a higher being. The movie doesn't really specify. It could be either. I guess a supreme being could be considered an alien as well though.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Rich Pure Doom

[Show spoiler]Aliens or a higher being. The movie doesn't really specify. It could be either. I guess a supreme being could be considered an alien as well though.

I haven't read the book, but I got the impression off the film sequel (if this is even relevant) that it was

[Show spoiler]a higher being rather than aliens

.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I don't think it holds up well.

..or it could be the fact that in middle school ET was the go-to movie late in the school year for just about every year for teachers.

I have to confess, one of my teachers showed it while I was in grammar school. I had to make a point of it to escape to the bathroom right near the ending because it certainly wasn't cool for a 12 year old (or thereabouts) boy to cry.

Then someone had the bright idea to bring in The Ricky Bell Story with Mario Van Peebles playing Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Ricky Bell who died at age 29 from dermatomyositis. Pulling the heart strings with anything tied to sports definitely leads to the water works for me... couldn't hold back for that one.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Three words: ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

Originally Posted by jw007

In purely scientific terms, oh yes.

I like to take a more, should I say, mystical approach, to all this though.

I wasn't necessarily thinking about it in purely scientific terms. I was 14 when I saw the film back in 1968, and hadn't known a thing about Haeckel's theory. It took me two viewings and weeks of thinking about it to work out that Bowman's aging must have been a representation of his evolving into a higher being, and that the image of him as the Star Child was to say, "He's now starting his new existence as a member of a new species."

To this day, I still haven't quite figured out if there's something more to the hotel room setting other the assumption that Bowman was using a memory of his as a way of making sense of a surrounding that was beyond his understanding.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Then someone had the bright idea to bring in The Ricky Bell Story with Mario Van Peebles playing Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Ricky Bell who died at age 29 from dermatomyositis. Pulling the heart strings with anything tied to sports definitely leads to the water works for me... couldn't hold back for that one.

A few years ago, I started a gym workout while the 1993 movie, Rudy, was showing on the television in front of my treadmill.

Roughly an hour later, these two huge muscular police officers walked into the gym to start their workout. They noticed me on the treadmill, and one of them asked me why I was crying.

I pointed at the television, and told them that I was watching the end of Rudy. Both of them nodded with understanding, and one of them said, "Oh man... Yeah... I know. I know, man."

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

When it was released on blu me and my wife picked it up and watched it after not watching since we were kids. Needless to say, it didn't hold up that well. I don't see us watching it anytime soon. Maybe show it to the kids?

Originally Posted by waxHead

I watched E.T. with my fiancee a few months ago, we both hated it. The movie may have been groundbreaking at the time, but compared to other science fiction films released in the late 70's and early 80's (Blade Runner and Alien in particular), the quality of the entire production seems quite poor now. At least Drew Barrymore helped offset some of Elliott's endless whining. Even in E.T., her acting talent stood out.

I got sucker punched by E.T. when I saw it on opening day. I thought it was just wonderfully emotional, and all that. When a friend came to visit from out of town, I insisted that we go to see it again (again for me; first time for her). My reaction to it the second time was completely different; I couldn't believe it was the same film I reacted so positively to the previous time.

I had previously posted a comment about what I realized was wrong with E.T.. I won't post it again, but here's the link:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=97986

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

A few years ago, I started a gym workout while the 1993 movie, Rudy, was showing on the television in front of my treadmill.

Roughly an hour later, these two huge muscular police officers walked into the gym to start their workout. They noticed me on the treadmill, and one of them asked me why I was crying.

I pointed at the television, and told them that I was watching the end of Rudy. Both of them nodded with understanding, and one of them said, "Oh man... Yeah... I know. I know, man."

ha ha!! good stuff!

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by jw007

I don't think this is a universal film though as the masses or at least most of the general viewing public wouldn't have the patience or appreciation to sit through this. Try asking a younger person between the ages of 18-35 if they ever saw this movie and likely they'll be clueless about it. Those who have seen it will probably tell you either "I fell asleep trying to watch it" or "This was the most boring film ever". I also feel this movie appeals more to the male gender than female gender as 9 out of 10 women I've talked to never include 2001: A Space Odyssey on their top Kubrick films lists.

wait, you've polled 10 women on their top Kubrick films? or you've polled more than 10 and have observed that approx. 9 out of 10 do not prefer it? there are probably 10 women in my office, I'd be shocked if 9 out of 10 of them even know who Kubrick is.

Originally Posted by jw007

It's just hard to convince someone to watch it and then if they do and don't like it, its hard to be their friend... I know , I know, I'm being critical and picky here but I feel if a person doesn't like 2001, they won't like me. Ha.

just ball bustin' and teasing here...

based on the two posts above, can I draw the conclusion that you are only friends with 1 out of every 10 women?