The Criterion Collection

[Gusto-Guus]

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by octagon

Dumping The Maltese Falcon in order to keep Moonraker or Octopussy is at least as crazy as having hundreds of discs but no Bond.

At least.

I love all of the James Bond movies, even the ones that suck by popular consensus. I grew up watching all of them, and I consider all of them to be quintessential for my movie collection. Quite simply, these films contain everything that I love about cinema.

Of course, I've never claimed to be sane, either.

For the record, I looked back in the Movies forum when everyone was posting their lists of Bond movies in order of preference. Here's mine...

Bond movies in order of preference...

1. Dr. No
2. From Russia With Love
3. Casino Royale
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Goldfinger
6. The Living Daylights
7. Thunderball
8. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
9. The Spy Who Loved Me
10. You Only Live Twice
11. Skyfall
12. Live and Let Die
13. Spectre
14. The Man with the Golden Gun
15. Quantum of Solace
16. The World Is Not Enough
17. Octopussy
18. Moonraker
19. Licence to Kill
20. Goldeneye
21. A View to a Kill
22. Tomorrow Never Dies
23. Diamonds Are Forever
24. Die Another Day

I'll add that I think that Pierce Brosnan was exceptional as James Bond, but his movies generally had the weakest scripts. Not that Bond movies have to make sense, of course, because none of them really do.

Bond movies were released on Criterion laserdisc, so this is not off-topic.

[ajburke]

Criterions make up 15.1% of my current collection. It's the highest representation among labels, ahead of second-place Warners.

As a big 007 fan, here are my obligatory two cents. From Russia With Love, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice are my favorites from the Connery era. Others that I love are OHMSS, The Living Daylights, and GoldenEye. That would be a reasonable starting place for my top 6. I recently had the epiphany that although I like Craig as Bond, I don't think I love any of his Bond films. That said, all of the Bond films are very watchable, and I'm almost always in a state of slowly cycling through the whole franchise. Seen them all many times.

If Criterion were somehow to release only one of them on BD, Dr No, or From Russia With Love would be the best choice. There are some cool tidbits about their banned commentary track here:

http://filmschoolrejects.com/feature...commentary.php

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

Watched Kurokeko once and it didn't really grab me but I'll def watch it again someday.

Tried Kagemusha on TCM a couple times but couldn't get more than a few minutes into it.

Sanjuro/Yojimbo - liked but didn't totally love. At the risk of sounding like an ugly American I sometimes have trouble anchoring dialogue to supporting characters in foreign films, particularly period pieces and doubly particularly black-and-white period pieces. And keeping track of the players is kind of important with these two.

The Hidden Fortress - absolutely loved it. It's a little more to the light-hearted adventure side of the spectrum but it's a really good adventure.

Sword of Doom - I was really surprised at how much I liked this. Going into it I expected it to be an okay way to kill some time and looking back on it dispassionately it probably wasn't much more than an okay way to kill some time. Except it was kind of a blast

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

All of these are great picks, but if you're riding high off Harakiri I'd probably go with Sword Of Doom as it also has a pretty bleak tone to it. Great film and I intend to pick it up myself this friday.
Sanjuro/Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress would be my next choices.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

I'd go with the Yojimbo/Sanjuro set.

My choice is based mostly on the strength of Yojimbo, which I consider to be one of my absolute favorite Akira Kurosawa films, but Sanjuro is incredibly fun as well, and it has a great surprise at the end.

If you are a fan of Dashiell Hammett novel, Red Harvest, or you like Sergio Leone's film, A Fistful of Dollars, then you'll find a lot to love with Yojimbo.

[silverlakephil]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

Since you didn't mention Seven Samurai, I'd recommend Kurosawa's other Samurai masterpiece, Yojimbo. I guess you can buy it with Sanjuro, but I love Toshiro Mifune's physicality in Yojimbo and there's a lot of humor going on along with the sword play.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

Sanjuro/Yojimbo is my vote, although I only own Yojimbo, another that I would add if you haven't seen is Three Outlaw Samurai

[oildude]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

The Hidden Fortress #1, Sword of Doom #2

But if you are coming off a high from Harakiri (one of my favorite films BTW, I praise it regularly), I will recommend something not on your list. Not sure if you have this or not already, but my choice would be:



It rarely gets mentioned here, and I think a lot of people either haven't seen it or often forget about it when making a recommendation. This is epic, a magnificent sword opera spanning three films chronicling the journey of a man as he transforms into a master swordsman. If Japan put up a samurai contender that could stand toe to toe with classic Hollywood epics like Gone With the Wind or Ben-Hur, this would be it. And you get Toshiro Mifune at his best.

This trilogy along with Harakiri and a few others turned me into a samurai movie fan. HIGHLY recommended.

[Purplenoon]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I'd definitely go w/ From Russia w/ Love... it has a really good plot and a good villain... it doesn't feel campy or anything like that. it almost feels, to me anyway, like a late Hitchcock.. Torn Curtain, but better

btw.. I think I have like 41% Criterion, which surprised me a bit as I don't care who releases a film - as long as the PQ reviews are good and the price is right, I'm in

Absolutely agree: FRWL best by far. Just watched it. No gimmicks. Very Hitchcockian.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Gusto-Guus

Alright, lads, gonna go one last time on Friday to pick one title. After watching HaraKiri, I'm in the mood for another samurai movie. These are the choices:

Kagemusha
Sanjuro/Yojimbo set
Sword of Doom
The Hidden Fortress
Kuroneko

IF you had to pick one, which would it be?

All are worthwhile, but the Yojimbo/Sanjuro set is the best of the lot.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by oildude

The Hidden Fortress #1, Sword of Doom #2

But if you are coming off a high from Harakiri (one of my favorite films BTW, I praise it regularly), I will recommend something not on your list. Not sure if you have this or not already, but my choice would be:



It rarely gets mentioned here, and I think a lot of people either haven't seen it or often forget about it when making a recommendation. This is epic, a magnificent sword opera spanning three films chronicling the journey of a man as he transforms into a master swordsman. If Japan put up a samurai contender that could stand toe to toe with classic Hollywood epics like Gone With the Wind or Ben-Hur, this would be it. And you get Toshiro Mifune at his best.

This trilogy along with Harakiri and a few others turned me into a samurai movie fan. HIGHLY recommended.

I REALLY need to see this. I've been meaning to forever. And I always forget.

Thanks for reminding me.

[spargs]

I'm a big Bond fan as well, starting watching them with my dad in the late 70s at a young age. My Top 7:

1. From Russia With Love
2. Goldfinger
3. The Spy Who Loved Me
4. Dr. No
5. Casino Royale
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
7. Thunderball

For Gusto: I'd go with the Yojimbo/Sanjuro set, but I highly agree with oildude's recommendation of the Samurai Trilogy.

Finally, I stopped by B&N on my way home from work and grabbed In Cold Blood and Ikiru. That should do it for me for this sale.

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I met Pete Best years ago at a Beatles fan convention! I asked him what he thought of bands like Oasis (who I loved) who made their fame while aping The Beatles. He told me, "I'm not too keen on them." Very British, indeed.

Hah! That's actually kind of surprising, considering Best's less-than-amicable split from The Beatles. I wonder if he just doesn't like their music, or if it is because they've ripped a few bands off. Like you, I'm an Oasis fan, despite their overzealous borrowing of other bands' sounds (see Lyla vs. the Stones' Street Fighting Man; Morning Glory vs. R.E.M.'s The One I Love; the solo in Supersonic vs. the solo on George Harrison's My Sweet Lord (which, ironically, Harrison was sued for because of its' striking similarity to the song He's so Fine by The Chiffons); etc.)

[jmclick]

I've had a lot of fun reviewing, pondering and interpreting the Statistics pertaining to my blu-ray and DVD collections this afternoon. A few interesting tidbits:

I'm over-represented in both formats with films noir ... as if it's even possible to have too many films noir in one's library!

In blu-ray, my leading studios are Criterion, Warner Brothers and 20th Century-Fox; in DVDs, it's Warner Brothers, 20th Century-Fox and Universal. I think my blu-rays reflect my passion for Criterion titles, and my DVDs reflect all those cool Warner Brothers boxed sets I picked up over the years.

Most of my blu-rays are films released in the 2000's, the 2010's, and the 1990's. On the other hand, the bulk of my DVD's are films released in the 1940's, 1930's, 2000's and the 1950's. That makes sense because there aren't that many films from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's available on blu-ray, and I'm not terribly fond of movies released during the 1960's, the 1970's and the 1980's ... comparatively speaking, that is ... so I don't own too many titles from those decades in any format. Also interesting is the fact that only 1/10th of 1% of my DVD collection are films from the 2010s ... when I went blu-ray, I abandoned DVD almost completely.

But enough about me ... what do your statistics say about you?

[AaronJ]

Strongly overrepresented: Dark Humor, Psychological thriller, Teen

Overrepresented: Coming of age, Drama, Foreign, Heist, Mystery, Period, Romance, Supernatural

Underrepresented: Sport, Western

Strongly underrepresented: Animation, Anime, Documentary, Family, Holiday, Music, Nature, Other, Short


STUDIOS:

Criterion: 18.5%
Warner Bros: 15.3%
20th Century: 12.7%
Lionsgate: 10.6%

PRODUCTION YEAR:

2010s: 37.4%
2000s: 31.1%
1990s: 12.2.%
1960s: 9.9%


Oh, and I haven't entered my DVDs yet. Which is ridiculous, I know. But I always plan on replacing them. Otherwise, 1960s would probably be near #1.

[spargs]

Originally Posted by jmclick

I've had a lot of fun reviewing, pondering and interpreting the Statistics pertaining to my blu-ray and DVD collections this afternoon. A few interesting tidbits:

I'm over-represented in both formats with films noir ... as if it's even possible to have too many films noir in one's library!

In blu-ray, my leading studios are Criterion, Warner Brothers and 20th Century-Fox; in DVDs, it's Warner Brothers, 20th Century-Fox and Universal. I think my blu-rays reflect my passion for Criterion titles, and my DVDs reflect all those cool Warner Brothers boxed sets I picked up over the years.

Most of my blu-rays are films released in the 2000's, the 2010's, and the 1990's. On the other hand, the bulk of my DVD's are films released in the 1940's, 1930's, 2000's and the 1950's. That makes sense because there aren't that many films from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's available on blu-ray, and I'm not terribly fond of movies released during the 1960's, the 1970's and the 1980's ... comparatively speaking, that is ... so I don't own too many titles from those decades in any format. Also interesting is the fact that only 1/10th of 1% of my DVD collection are films from the 2010s ... when I went blu-ray, I abandoned DVD almost completely.

But enough about me ... what do your statistics say about you?

Hmmm... Our collections are the exact opposite: 60% of the films in my collection were released in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, which makes sense because my favorite film era is the New Hollywood Era, and I grew up in the 80s, and I'm not much of a fan of newer films...

5.7% 2010s
11.8% 2000s
11.0% 1990s
19.2% 1980s
23.3% 1970s
16.7% 1960s
7.6% 1950s
3.8% 1940s
0.9% 1930s

Criterion is by far my highest studio at 22.6%, followed by Warner at 12.8%, Twilight Time at 8.7%, and Kino Lorber at 8.5%.

[Scottie]

I'm in the process of watching Death by Hanging and I can easily say that many of you are going to fall in love with it. This isn't my kind of film, but I think it's pretty damn good.

[The Great Owl]

My Collection at a glance...

Strongly overrepresented: Film-Noir, Western
Overrepresented: Coming of age, Crime, Drama, Foreign, Horror, Mystery, Psychological thriller, Surreal, War
Underrepresented: Family, Fantasy
Strongly underrepresented: Animation, Anime, Comic book, Documentary, Music, Nature, Other

The Criterion Collection makes up 18.4% of my Blu-ray collection, so it is the predominant studio.
...although, if Kino Lorber keeps up their crazy streak, then Criterion may fall by the wayside in a year or so.


On the subject of franchise films...

On Black Friday, my plan is to stay home and revisit all six of the Star Wars movies back-to-back, starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Yep...
One reason is that I'm running a half marathon on Thursday morning before spending the rest of the day with family, and then I'm running another half marathon on Saturday morning. Friday will be a rest-and-recover day, and I really don't want to go out in the heavy traffic, since I live just a mile down the street from a big shopping mall and from all of the stores (Target, Best Buy, Walmart, etc.). Staying at home and "studying" for Star Wars: The Force Awakens seems like a better plan.

[The Great Owl]

Here's the brand new trailer for Terrence Malick's upcoming movie, Knight of Cups...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGTJmeAYrzk