The Criterion Collection

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by mja345

Seagal deserves a spot in the collection. "The Glimmer Man", "On Deadly Ground", and "Fire Down Below" need BD releases and "Out for Justice" and "Marked for Death" need remasterings. This is right up Criterion's alley. A Seagal box set would be much-welcomed.

Sorry, no he doesn't.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by Brad1963

Sorry, no he doesn't.

Dude, I was joking, as I later indicated.

[DaBargainHunta]

I have no idea why this isn't in the Criterion Collection. What an oversight!

[jedidarrick]

Originally Posted by jshaide

It is ani-May after all. Get your Miyazaki on.

Speaking of anime, I wish some label would put Gunbuster back in print.

[bsend]

Originally Posted by jedidarrick

Speaking of anime, I wish some label would put Gunbuster back in print.

Gunbustet OVA with the original omakes, so that I could retire my US Renditions VHS tapes and Bandai Visual DVDs.

[bsend]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Isn't the semi annual sale of Criterion titles at Barnes & Noble due to start sometime in May?

I wish it was. I want to throw a lot of money at them.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

The "heights" to get shots of airplane battles. Ha, I get it. Or was the pun unintentional. WINGS is definitely an amazing film, however, and the Blu-ray is just as amazing. If you haven't already got them, you need to get the Blu-rays of THE BIG PARADE and BEHIND THE DOOR.

I wish Criterion would do more silents on Blu-ray and upgrade their fine DVD editions of notable silents to Blu-ray (like PANDORA'S BOX, the von Sternberg set, KING OF KINGS, etc.).

I bought Wings and The Big Parade a few months ago. Man was I blown away at the battle scenes before CG and the story. I always loved WW1 films like them, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Dawn Patrol, and Hell's Angels.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Isn't the semi annual sale of Criterion titles at Barnes & Noble due to start sometime in May?

July.

[flyry]

The selection on Filmstruck is great, but I still feel their rollout of the service to various devices has been a complete and utter failure.

It's been 6 months since it officially launched and still no Roku support. (still saying "Spring" though)

They finally added gen 1 chromecast support after being the only app to not support it and now it doesn't seem to work whether through the app or done as a full screen tab from the browser. (they say their engineers are on it)

I realize this is not Criterion's fault but just wanted to vent, i've was a part of the beta so it's been almost a full year where I feel I haven't properly been able to dig into it. My watchlist has like 60 films.

I realize I could have simply bought a firestick or an apple tv, but that already feels redundant, especially with smart tvs and having the 2 aforementioned sticks already. I refuse to buy anything for just one app

[mja345]

My dad is currently visiting me and, when he does, we watch movies all day and all night. Two of his favorite films, "The Spiral Staircase" and "King of Hearts", are being prepped for BD releases and he was thrilled when I told him about it. We watched two Criterion releases yesterday, "Mystery Train" and "Crumb", and he loved both. I think we'll watch "Mulholland Drive" today, as he loves "Blue Velvet". It's fun when you can share this stuff with your old man.

"Mystery Train" is such a brilliant film. The first segment shows the essential optimism of life, how mythological certain places can seem when seen from an outsider's perspective. The final segment shows how mundane and troubled many places seem when you actually live there. I find the final segment laugh out loud funny, with its gallows humor. The middle segment is a fantastic bridge between the two. I've seen it four or five times and it gets better with each viewing, as many Jim Jarmusch films do.

"Crumb" is simply one of the best documentaries of all-time. It starts out fairly light-hearted and becomes increasingly dark as it goes on. Robert Crumb is one of the most fascinating people ever put to film. Alternately misanthropic, funny, and brutally candid, he seems like Larry David, Woody Allen, and Frank Zappa rolled into one. As he visits with his two intelligent, but deeply troubled, brothers, you get the sense that even Crumb is amazed at his own success given the deep-seated problems of his family. It's just a remarkable look into one man's past and what shaped his way of thinking, and Crumb is unusually honest and reflective. It's a film I believe many people will find off-putting, but it's impossible to forget. I think it's one of the best films of the past 25 years. The commentary by Roger Ebert and Terry Zwigoff is also great.

[billy pilgrim]

Originally Posted by mja345

My dad is currently visiting me and, when he does, we watch movies all day and all night. Two of his favorite films, "The Spiral Staircase" and "King of Hearts", are being prepped for BD releases and he was thrilled when I told him about it. We watched two Criterion releases yesterday, "Mystery Train" and "Crumb", and he loved both. I think we'll watch "Mulholland Drive" today, as he loves "Blue Velvet". It's fun when you can share this stuff with your old man.

"Mystery Train" is such a brilliant film. The first segment shows the essential optimism of life, how mythological certain places can seem when seen from an outsider's perspective. The final segment shows how mundane and troubled many places seem when you actually live there. I find the final segment laugh out loud funny, with its gallows humor. The middle segment is a fantastic bridge between the two. I've seen it four or five times and it gets better with each viewing, as many Jim Jarmusch films do.

"Crumb" is simply one of the best documentaries of all-time. It starts out fairly light-hearted and becomes increasingly dark as it goes on. Robert Crumb is one of the most fascinating people ever put to film. Alternately misanthropic, funny, and brutally candid, he seems like Larry David, Woody Allen, and Frank Zappa rolled into one. As he visits with his two intelligent, but deeply troubled, brothers, you get the sense that even Crumb is amazed at his own success given the deep-seated problems of his family. It's just a remarkable look into one man's past and what shaped his way of thinking, and Crumb is unusually honest and reflective. It's a film I believe many people will find off-putting, but it's impossible to forget. I think it's one of the best films of the past 25 years. The commentary by Roger Ebert and Terry Zwigoff is also great.

I couldn't agree more with the assessments of both films.

Mystery Train was a real revelation to me and quite a surprise. I found it to be exactly as you described it. I think it may be my favorite Jarmusch. It's almost a perfect film IMHO.

What's interesting is which attitude I may have when I go into a film for the first viewing. If my expectations are high, then I find that I'm oftentimes disappointed with the film as it may not reach those expectations. However, when I have low or no expectations for a film, that's when there's a likely chance I could find myself blown away. Interesting. I had no real expectations for Mystery Train, and I found it to be a marvelous film. Laugh out loud funny at times, but always engaging. It seemed as if Jarmusch really cared for these characters.


Crumb is a film that I feel is highly underrated also. It rarely gets mentioned on these forums (along with Mystery Train, I might add), but both are some of my favorite Criterions. I found the film quite haunting, and very creepy. The scenes of Crumb with his family were fascinating and also quite sad. The interactions between the brothers were quite telling, I think. All of them appeared to be quite intelligent and extremely creative, but mental illness had marked all of them, with Crumb being the best "adjusted" person in his family. His stories of the true horrors of growing up and of the cliques of high school rang so true to me. I understand how being abused by your peers most of your formative years can make one dislike people as a whole. I've always felt that school, from grade school to high school reflects what people are basically like. The strong and pretty people ruled over the socially inept and unattractive people, with bullying and intimidation rampant. If you were on the bottom you either had to fight your way through or else pulled inward and lived within yourself and reveled in your weirdness, which caused some to embrace who they were and excel, others end up broken. Crumb, I felt, epitomized someone who embraced his strangeness and became a success.

However, the connection between Crumb

[Show spoiler]and his daughter was the creepiest thing about this film. His sexual enjoyment of women with big butts giving him piggyback rides was very different and each to his own, but then showing his very physical affections towards his daughter really made my skin crawl. It may have been innocent, but I, for one, found those scenes very disturbing.

Another interesting item. I bought the DVD well before the Criterion Blu Ray was released. In the film, Crumb makes a very valid point about how people have been literally bought and sold by consumerism. He points to people on the street becoming essentially billboards for companies by wearing clothing emblazoned with the company's logo or name. And these people willingly purchased these items! I've always been incredulous that people would buy these things but it's become quite accepted. Anyhow, he says he will never sell out to the corporate gods, and had turned down multiple offerings to use images of his comic characters commercially, which I loved. However, after the end of the film and on the DVD, a promotional advertisement appeared promoting items for sale, including coffee cups with the Mr. Natural image, Tommy the Toilet, etc. Go figure.

I also think it's fantastic that your father is a film buff, MJ, and you both enjoy similar tastes, although I admit to being more than a bit jealous. It's wonderful to have someone who shares your love of film. I could wish for nothing nicer than to have my wife or someone I know who loves these films as much as I. Anyway, it's a beautiful thing to have that type of relationship with your father.

MJ, both film reviews were right on the money. Good job and thanks for sharing them.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Every week for the past three years, I've used my Facebook Cover Photo to feature a different Movie of the Week, and I post a screenshot from the movie as the cover photo. It's a fun way to keep the cover photo feature interesting and to invite conversation from my Facebook friends.

Here is my Facebook Movie of the Week cover photo album. (For this album view, the photos are cropped to squares, but they're wide on my actual cover photos, and it was too labor intensive to post them all one by one.)

These Movie of the Week cover photos are shown below in reverse chronological order, with the top photos being the most recent.

Most of you should be able to guess which ones are Criterion releases. Criterion is represented quite well in the album!

[Show spoiler]

I figured that it would be a great idea to cheer up all of my Facebook friends this week, so I used Threads (1984) as my Movie of the Week cover photo.

I'm still hoping that Criterion (or somebody) will put this out in high definition.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by billy pilgrim

I couldn't agree more with the assessments of both films.

Mystery Train was a real revelation to me and quite a surprise. I found it to be exactly as you described it. I think it may be my favorite Jarmusch. It's almost a perfect film IMHO.

What's interesting is which attitude I may have when I go into a film for the first viewing. If my expectations are high, then I find that I'm oftentimes disappointed with the film as it may not reach those expectations. However, when I have low or no expectations for a film, that's when there's a likely chance I could find myself blown away. Interesting. I had no real expectations for Mystery Train, and I found it to be a marvelous film. Laugh out loud funny at times, but always engaging. It seemed as if Jarmusch really cared for these characters.


Crumb is a film that I feel is highly underrated also. It rarely gets mentioned on these forums (along with Mystery Train, I might add), but both are some of my favorite Criterions. I found the film quite haunting, and very creepy. The scenes of Crumb with his family were fascinating and also quite sad. The interactions between the brothers were quite telling, I think. All of them appeared to be quite intelligent and extremely creative, but mental illness had marked all of them, with Crumb being the best "adjusted" person in his family. His stories of the true horrors of growing up and of the cliques of high school rang so true to me. I understand how being abused by your peers most of your formative years can make one dislike people as a whole. I've always felt that school, from grade school to high school reflects what people are basically like. The strong and pretty people ruled over the socially inept and unattractive people, with bullying and intimidation rampant. If you were on the bottom you either had to fight your way through or else pulled inward and lived within yourself and reveled in your weirdness, which caused some to embrace who they were and excel, others end up broken. Crumb, I felt, epitomized someone who embraced his strangeness and became a success.

However, the connection between Crumb

[Show spoiler]and his daughter was the creepiest thing about this film. His sexual enjoyment of women with big butts giving him piggyback rides was very different and each to his own, but then showing his very physical affections towards his daughter really made my skin crawl. It may have been innocent, but I, for one, found those scenes very disturbing.

Another interesting item. I bought the DVD well before the Criterion Blu Ray was released. In the film, Crumb makes a very valid point about how people have been literally bought and sold by consumerism. He points to people on the street becoming essentially billboards for companies by wearing clothing emblazoned with the company's logo or name. And these people willingly purchased these items! I've always been incredulous that people would buy these things but it's become quite accepted. Anyhow, he says he will never sell out to the corporate gods, and had turned down multiple offerings to use images of his comic characters commercially, which I loved. However, after the end of the film and on the DVD, a promotional advertisement appeared promoting items for sale, including coffee cups with the Mr. Natural image, Tommy the Toilet, etc. Go figure.

I also think it's fantastic that your father is a film buff, MJ, and you both enjoy similar tastes, although I admit to being more than a bit jealous. It's wonderful to have someone who shares your love of film. I could wish for nothing nicer than to have my wife or someone I know who loves these films as much as I. Anyway, it's a beautiful thing to have that type of relationship with your father.

MJ, both film reviews were right on the money. Good job and thanks for sharing them.

Great thoughts, man. Right on the money.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I have this on DVD already and I will likely upgrade it.

Yeah, the DVD is actually pretty good. I've gotten a lot of use out of it over the years. That said, I'm really looking forward to projecting the BD.

[Scottie]

Just watched Tampopo.

So hungry.

[theater dreamer]

Based on the recommendation of a few of our members, I ordered Don't Look Back, and it will be here on Tuesday. I'm stoked! I know very little about Dylan, but he fascinates me, nonetheless. And if I'm going to start getting more into Criterion documentaries, I figure Bob was a good way to whet my appetite.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I have no idea why this isn't in the Criterion Collection. What an oversight!

Mr. Rule is a busy man.

[namurt28]

Picked up Mystery Train, Nashville and 3 Women yesterday. All blind buys. Watched the first last night, and I really dug it.

[c-murph]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I have no idea why this isn't in the Criterion Collection. What an oversight!

Someday. Along with Good Burger.

[llj]

Originally Posted by billy pilgrim

However, the connection between Crumb

[Show spoiler]and his daughter was the creepiest thing about this film. His sexual enjoyment of women with big butts giving him piggyback rides was very different and each to his own, but then showing his very physical affections towards his daughter really made my skin crawl. It may have been innocent, but I, for one, found those scenes very disturbing.

I don't know if those need to be spoilers to anyone who already knows Crumb's comics...

That said, keep in mind that if you cinematically juxtapose any scene of a guy/girl's sexual fetishes/deviance with "regular" affection, it's always going to come off creepy.


That said, Robert Crumb DID draw Joe Blow...