The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

Cleo from 5 to 7 or Vagabond would both make for good introductions.

Pretty sure Cléo from 5 to 7 is my favorite New Wave film.

[SkyAntoine]

Just watched my new favorite "war" movie...Paths of Glory. This is another title I've had forever and just never taken the time to watch. I consider this a rare 9/10 which I don't give lightly. Dr. Strangelove took the absurdity of war a step further and compliments this film very well.

I thought everything about the film was fantastic. Kirk Douglas was so great I'm popping in Ace in the Hole now.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Just watched my new favorite "war" movie...Paths of Glory. This is another title I've had forever and just never taken the time to watch. I consider this a rare 9/10 which I don't give lightly. Dr. Strangelove took the absurdity of war a step further and compliments this film very well.

I thought everything about the film was fantastic. Kirk Douglas was so great I'm popping in Ace in the Hole now.

Kind of surprised that Ace In The Hole only has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Thought it would be closer to 100%.

I've only heard great things about it.

And hey, what do you know, Bosley Crowther was one of only three negative reviews.

...shocking.

...what a putz.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Kind of surprised that Ace In The Hole only has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Thought it would be closer to 100%.

I've only heard great things about it.

I find that puzzling, as well, though that might be more of an indictment of the modern movie viewer, and less a commentary on the film's quality.

Truth be told, I don't put a lot of credence into Rotten Tomatoes.

[Martin_31]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Just watched my new favorite "war" movie...Paths of Glory. This is another title I've had forever and just never taken the time to watch. I consider this a rare 9/10 which I don't give lightly. Dr. Strangelove took the absurdity of war a step further and compliments this film very well.

I thought everything about the film was fantastic. Kirk Douglas was so great I'm popping in Ace in the Hole now.

Paths of Glory is my favorite war movie. George Macready is awful and detestable. He pissed me off so much. I wanted him to pay for everything. I really like movies that deal with injustice.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I find that puzzling, as well, though that might be more of an indictment of the modern movie viewer, and less a commentary on the film's quality.

Truth be told, I don't put a lot of credence into Rotten Tomatoes.

Bosley Crowther was a film critic for The New York Times in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

He's notorious, at least in my mind, for giving negative reviews to a number of the greatest, most cutting-edge films of that era.

...he was a boob imo.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I find that puzzling, as well, though that might be more of an indictment of the modern movie viewer, and less a commentary on the film's quality.

Truth be told, I don't put a lot of credence into Rotten Tomatoes.

Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are worthless. The fact that "The Dark Knight" has a 9/10 on IMDB is all you need to know. That movie is absolute shit outside of Ledger's performance. Most people haven't been exposed to movies pre-1990. It's sad really. There are so many great films that are ranked around a 6-7 on IMDB while absolute garbage gets ranked higher.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by mja345

Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are worthless. The fact that "The Dark Knight" has a 9/10 on IMDB is all you need to know. That movie is absolute shit outside of Ledger's performance. Most people haven't been exposed to movies pre-1990. It's sad really. There are so many great films that are ranked around a 6-7 on IMDB while absolute garbage gets ranked higher.

While I do agree on IMDB, I think Rotten Tomatoes is a bit more helpful, at least based on the overall reviews score instead of just the percentage of who liked it, specially if you have a group of reviewers you tend to agree, but yeah, sometimes I feel the critics also get into the Hype train for certain movies in which I cannot understand why they went all negative, or all positive.

Also for older films RT there are fewer reviews so the percentages doesn't mean that much.

[pedromvu]

Anybody knows what's up with Do the Right Thing? I was thinking on getting it since it is pretty cheap and has a good review on the site, but the screenshots don't look that great, also not sure if it has all the extras from the Criterion version, and it appears the Criterion is not OOP, so could that still be released from a new restoration in the near future?

[Ray Jackson]

Alright which one of you buttheads stole the last copy of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in Eugene, Oregon?!!!!

When I find out who it was...it will not end well.

[The Great Owl]

I'm shoving everything else in my still-unwatched Blu-ray stack aside, and I'm about to start watching Pather Panchali from The Apu Trilogy tonight.

I want to see what all of the acclaim is about. I'm thinking that the next day and half is going to be quite fun. (Monday is my flex day off of work, and I plan to go through the other two titles tomorrow.)

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Bosley Crowther was a film critic for The New York Times in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

He's notorious, at least in my mind, for giving negative reviews to a number of the greatest, most cutting-edge films of that era.

...he was a boob imo.

I couldn't agree more. And I have no idea how he managed to keep such a prestigious post for such a long time, when he was clearly totally unfit for the position.

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Kind of surprised that Ace In The Hole only has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Thought it would be closer to 100%.



I've only heard great things about it.



And hey, what do you know, Bosley Crowther was one of only three negative reviews.



...shocking.



...what a putz.

2/2 on films today. Ace in the Hole was brilliant. Wilder can weave together the best stories. Nowadays the ending would have been different, but it would have destroyed the film. Loved this one. Two 9/10's today.

I've watched 6 Criterions in 2 days so I don't know if I have another one in me. We'll see...

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

2/2 on films today. Ace in the Hole was brilliant. Wilder can weave together the best stories. Nowadays the ending would have been different, but it would have destroyed the film. Loved this one. Two 9/10's today.

I've watched 6 Criterions in 2 days so I don't know if I have another one in me. We'll see...

Bitter Tears?!

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by jmclick

I couldn't agree more. And I have no idea how he managed to keep such a prestigious post for such a long time, when he was clearly totally unfit for the position.

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Bitter Tears?!

Nope, already finished that one. Maybe Hands Over the City. I've been wanting to watch that since I found out it was about land developers. That's how I pay for these Criterions so I thought it may hit close to home.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Nope, already finished that one. Maybe Hands Over the City. I've been wanting to watch that since I found out it was about land developers. That's how I pay for these Criterions so I thought it may hit close to home.

Already finished it!

Well...what'd yah think dammit?!!

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

For Fassbinder fans...



This week I have watched Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. I'm having a very odd reaction to Fassbinder's films. On one hand I love everything about the style, framing, dialogue, pace, etc. However, I would give both of these a rather average rating of 7/10.



I don't mind slow paced movies (i.e. Ozu), but I keep finding myself wanting a little more pizzazz or substance to his story-lines. It almost seems like his output was so prolific that he didn't perfect either of these films. For some reason he reminds me of Orson Welles with cinematic ADHD.



Am I off base with this very premature judgement? I want to keep watching his films waiting to be blown away, but I'm not there, yet.



Any recommendations? I have World on a Wire, The Merchant of Four Seasons, the BRD Trilogy and Berlin Alexanderplatz that I still need to watch.

Here's some of what I posted on Petra von Kant and Fassbinder in general. I liked it...didn't love it.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Here's some of what I posted on Petra von Kant and Fassbinder in general. I liked it...didn't love it.

Oh yeah my bad, I remember now.

Which one did you like better?

...Ali or Bitter Tears?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Truth be told, I don't put a lot of credence into Rotten Tomatoes.

Originally Posted by mja345

Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are worthless. The fact that "The Dark Knight" has a 9/10 on IMDB is all you need to know. That movie is absolute shit outside of Ledger's performance. Most people haven't been exposed to movies pre-1990. It's sad really. There are so many great films that are ranked around a 6-7 on IMDB while absolute garbage gets ranked higher.

I disagree. Certainly with RT, and to a lesser degree with IMDb.

On RT, the scores are an averaging out of a couple of hundred critics reviews. Granted, not all of the critics are equal: some are terrific, and some are awful. But that's the advantage of averaging out over a relatively large sample: outliers aren't going to affect the bottom line that much.

IMDb is an average across however many registered users choose to vote. These aren't professional critics, and they most likely serve their own personal agendas, so the results are questionable. But if there is a large enough sample (like tens of thousands), it can still be useful in many respects.

Now, whether you as an individual agree with the rating scores on one or the other site is a completely different question. Not everyone sees any given film the same way. No matter how well-praised one film might be, there will be detractors. No matter how panned another film might be, there will be fans.

I don't fuss about the specifics of any score on Rotten Tomatoes...whether a film has a score of 93% or 73% doesn't much matter to me. But I do use the score to gauge my desire to see something. If something that looks interesting gets a score below 50%, I tend to lose interest.