The Criterion Collection

[Ausjdm]

Wow after reading these stories i feel really lucky I had a father that's hugely into good cinema. We still go to the movies multiple times per year. I saw mad max Star Wars Sicario Hateful 8 all with him.

Plus he introduced me into all films. Criterion movies before they were in collection like Ran, Rashimon, Toosie, Mullholland Dr, 81/2 etc.

One the best summers I ever had, I was home from college and me and him watched the entire AFI top 100 movies list it was awesome.

Sidenote: most awkward movie I ever saw with my parents was Monster's Ball. Lol we had no clue about the movie other than it had all those nominations and by the end I was like did I just see a porn with my folks?! Haha....

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Ausjdm

Wow after reading these stories i feel really lucky I had a father that's hugely into good cinema. We still go to the movies multiple times per year. I saw mad max Star Wars Sicario Hateful 8 all with him.

Plus he introduced me into all films. Criterion movies before they were in collection like Ran, Rashimon, Toosie, Mullholland Dr, 81/2 etc.

One the best summers I ever had, I was home from college and me and him watched the entire AFI top 100 movies list it was awesome.

Sidenote: most awkward movie I ever saw with my parents was Monster's Ball. Lol we had no clue about the movie other than it had all those nominations and by the end I was like did I just see a porn with my folks?! Haha....

My parents and I watched a ton of movies together back in the late 1980s and during the 1990s. They would always ask me to drive to the video rental and find a movie. I have a lot of great memories from those days.

The only drawback is that my parents loathe horror movies, especially anything involving supernatural horror, whereas I had a natural affinity for horror movies back in the 1980s. The interesting thing is that they love cop movies and adventure movies where people shoot each other to pieces, but they cannot stomach horror at all.

I rented Air Force One for my parents once, and they raved for days about how they absolutely loved the film. I don't think that I've ever made anybody else that happy in my whole life. That's a pretty funny memory, in retrospect. They also loved The Shawshank Redemption, although they were pretty wary during the first hour or so, when they had no idea how things were going to play out.

I guess that it goes without saying that my parents are extremely conservative and quite active with their church. They were both extremely disapproving of my affinity for Stephen King, Clive Barker, punk bands, and such when I was an adolescent, but they begrudgingly allowed me to read those authors and listen to those bands. I guess that, as a parent, you have to pick your battles.

They hate excessive foul language in movies, and, when I would rent something like The Usual Suspects, I would see them flinching at all of the f-words.

These days, my father spends all of his time watching golf on television, playing golf, and watching Fox News. My mother, however, loves to watch Turner Classic Movies. It's fun to kick back to a Humphrey Bogart film or something of the sort on TCM when I visit my parents now.

My first movie memory was when my parents took my brother and me to see Benji (1974) when I was two or three years old. The sight of a dog on a huge movie screen really freaked me out at that young age, and, for a long time after that, I kept having these nightmares where I would be playing in my front yard and then see this massive three-story-tall Benji dog running down the street toward me. It's funny how something so innocuous can really traumatize a child.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Ausjdm

Wow after reading these stories i feel really lucky I had a father that's hugely into good cinema. We still go to the movies multiple times per year.

Well, I sincerely wish I could say that, but my father has been gone for quite a long time. Sadly, when I read jw007's "Also, regarding watching Criterions with our Dads..." my first thought was, "My dad passed away a year before Criterion released their first laserdiscs." Even if he was still alive today, he'd be coming up on his 101st birthday, so it's unlikely we'd be going to many movies together.

(Just so you know, I'm not fishing for a pity party. I'm just sayin'. Life is what it is.)

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I rented Air Force One for my parents once, and they raved for days about how they absolutely loved the film. I don't think that I've ever made anybody else that happy in my whole life. That's a pretty funny memory, in retrospect. They also loved The Shawshank Redemption, although they were pretty wary during the first hour or so, when they had no idea how things were going to play out.

The oddest memories I have of my parents and films were:

(a) My father thought Charly was very well done, but it depressed the hell out of him.

(b) Circa 1977, Rollerball was showing on TV for the first time (I remember, because I recorded it on Betamax). I was surprised to discover that while I was taping it down in the basement, my mother was watching it in the living room. And even more surprising was that she absolutely loved it. It was one of those "Have I slipped into an alternate universe?" kind of deals.

[jayembee]

It just struck me how odd this is. When most men talk about bonding with their fathers, it involves playing catch or watching football together. We're talking about watching movies.

[oildude]

Probably my earliest memory of seeing a film with my parents was in Texas about 1970. I was a wee tyke at the time, I think in first grade, and my mother and father loaded up my baby brother and me in the station wagon to go see a rerun of The Dirty Dozen playing at the local drive-in.

This would make The Dirty Dozen my first ever non-TV movie-going experience, except that I did not pay much attention to it. This was because the drive-in had two screens 180 degrees opposite each other, and the other screen behind the station wagon was showing a softcore porn film. I watched it in the passenger side mirror while pretending to view The Dirty Dozen. I thought it was a lot more interesting to watch nekkid girls than Lee Marvin. I wanted to turn around and just watch it through the rear window but I was afraid of getting smacked.

I also saw a rerun of Fantastic Voyage at that same drive-in a few months later. That definitely held my attention, although it no doubt helped that there weren't any boobies playing on the opposite screen.

[mja345]

The first two movies I saw with my parents in the theaters were "Ghostbusters 2" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". I saw "Ghostbusters 2" with my mom when I was 3 years old. No memory of going, but she's told me many times. Then, my dad and I went to Indy Jones and I apparently spilled an orange soda on a woman near us and my dad decided to get us the hell out of there, so we didn't see the whole thing. The first R-rated movie I saw in theaters was "Jerry Maguire" when I was 9 or 10 with my dad and older brother. The most awkward moviegoing experience I had was when my mom allowed me to rent "Revenge of the Nerds" when I was 7 or 8 and she watched some of it with me. Let's just say the scene in which the nerds place the camera in the sorority to spy on the girls was quite awkward to watch with her.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Well, I sincerely wish I could say that, but my father has been gone for quite a long time. Sadly, when I read jw007's "Also, regarding watching Criterions with our Dads..." my first thought was, "My dad passed away a year before Criterion released their first laserdiscs." Even if he was still alive today, he'd be coming up on his 101st birthday, so it's unlikely we'd be going to many movies together.

(Just so you know, I'm not fishing for a pity party. I'm just sayin'. Life is what it is.)

I might as well talk about my earliest memories of seeing a movie in a theater with a family member (such as my Dad).

I believe it was in 1986 when I was 8 years old and I saw Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home with my Dad. Back then people still took pride in big blockbuster movies and I remember receiving a special laminated flyer promoting the movie at the big cineplex (and there were only two or three back then here in Pittsburgh). I then clearly recall seeing that movie a second time in West Palm Beach in Florida with my Uncle, Aunt, Cousins and Dad in a movie theater with the wrong aspect ratio (I recall the projectionist screwed up the film and had it squeezed to 4:3 aspect ratio! I will never forget when some of my relatives said out loud: "Well, geez, those guys sure look awfully skinny!").

[bwdowiak]

I also thought The Lincoln Lawyer was a pretty darn good movie... And that came as quite a surprise because I wasn't expecting much.

I despised... I mean absolutely loathed Gone Baby Gone. By the end of the film, it stands behind an ascertation that is completely false. (CC related.. The Big Chill is also guilty of this - Everything the characters come to realize about their relationships w/ each other by the end of the film is a bunch of phoeey.) Since Ben Affleck is also near the top of my list of worst actors, it came as quite a surprise that I enjoyed both The Town and Argo as much as I did.

[lemonpie30]

The first movie I saw in theaters was The Karate Kid, Part II. My mom took my older brother and didn’t have a babysitter so I went, too. I was well-behaved because I remember going to the movies a lot...?

Then, around age 12, I rode with my dad sometimes when he would deliver huge truck-loads of products to supermarkets. Once, we got stranded in a small town during a snowstorm and we took refuge in a small two screen cinema showing Misery and Dances with Wolves.
I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever that my Dad took me to these “grown-up” movies even if Misery scared the crap out of me. Ever since then, I’ve always loved seeing movies back-to-back. I also attribute it to my film-love because from that point on, I had little to no interest in children's/family films.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by lemonpie30

The first movie I saw in theaters was The Karate Kid, Part II. My mom took my older brother and didn’t have a babysitter so I went, too. I was well-behaved because I remember going to the movies a lot...?

Then, around age 12, I rode with my dad sometimes when he would deliver huge truck-loads of products to supermarkets. Once, we got stranded in a small town during a snowstorm and we took refuge in a small two screen cinema showing Misery and Dances with Wolves.
I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever that my Dad took me to these “grown-up” movies even if Misery scared the crap out of me. Ever since then, I’ve always loved seeing movies back-to-back. I also attribute it to my film-love because from that point on, I had little to no interest in children's/family films.

That's great. I always loved seeing 2-3 movies in the theater back to back when I was a kid.

[atlantajoseph]

Since 4k and UHD BD have been the hot topics on this forum for the past two days, I wanted to get a feel for how many folks here are interested in Criterion following that path? I remember it took them a while to commit to BD releases, but that was mainly because of the long, drawn out format war which is not a factor this time.

I recently was gifted a 4k-upscaling BD player (not UHD native player) and was also wondering since I don't have a 4k tv yet -- how do Criterion BDs, especially those mastered in 4k look up-rezed?

Will I be blown away watching Cries and Whispers up-rezed, and would I be more so by a UHD BD if that ever came to pass? (I chose that movie as I think it is one of the most gorgeous in the collection and an amazing movie to boot.)

Thoughts, opinions?

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by atlantajoseph

Since 4k and UHD BD have been the hot topics on this forum for the past two days, I wanted to get a feel for how many folks here are interested in Criterion following that path? I remember it took them a while to commit to BD releases, but that was mainly because of the long, drawn out format war which is not a factor this time.

I recently was gifted a 4k-upscaling BD player (not UHD native player) and was also wondering since I don't have a 4k tv yet -- how do Criterion BDs, especially those mastered in 4k look up-rezed?

Will I be blown away watching Cries and Whispers up-rezed, and would I be more so by a UHD BD if that ever came to pass? (I chose that movie as I think it is one of the most gorgeous in the collection and an amazing movie to boot.)

Thoughts, opinions?

I wont really be jumping into 4k anytime soon, right now I would need to upgrade all my equipment (receiver, player and projector) except for streaming media since I got a Shield TV that supports that, but true 4k projectors are still incredibly expensive and don't really want to downgrade the display size.

Maybe in about 3 years, depending on how everything goes, since if it never becomes too popular, I guess prices might not lower considerable to what I am willing to pay for such an upgrade.

Having said that, if Criterion starts doing 4k blu-rays, that would be a big point for me to take into consideration.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

I too loved To The Wonder. I think of it as a free-form, looser companion to Tree Of Life in the same way that Inland Empire is to Mulholland Dr.

That's pretty much how I see it... which means I may have to re-assess my feelings on Inland Empire, which I hated when I saw it

I'm not an Affleck hater, but my thoughts on his performance in TTW was that maybe Malick wanted someone to play a plank of wood (which he does superbly), perhaps to make him an everyman type? Although it was something of a contrast with the Kurylenko character and also his travel. Or maybe that's the point!

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by Sifox211

I'm not an Affleck hater, but my thoughts on his performance in TTW was that maybe Malick wanted someone to play a plank of wood (which he does superbly), perhaps to make him an everyman type? Although it was something of a contrast with the Kurylenko character and also his travel. Or maybe that's the point!

Sure, but he was pine rather than mahogany.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by atlantajoseph

Since 4k and UHD BD have been the hot topics on this forum for the past two days, I wanted to get a feel for how many folks here are interested in Criterion following that path? I remember it took them a while to commit to BD releases, but that was mainly because of the long, drawn out format war which is not a factor this time.

I recently was gifted a 4k-upscaling BD player (not UHD native player) and was also wondering since I don't have a 4k tv yet -- how do Criterion BDs, especially those mastered in 4k look up-rezed?

Will I be blown away watching Cries and Whispers up-rezed, and would I be more so by a UHD BD if that ever came to pass? (I chose that movie as I think it is one of the most gorgeous in the collection and an amazing movie to boot.)

Thoughts, opinions?

I own a LG 49" 4K UHD television, and I own a 4K-upscaling Sony Blu-ray player. Blu-rays look incredible on my setup. (I sit about five or six feet away from the screen.)
I think that the 4K television itself is the main attraction, and that the benefits of the "4K-upscaling" Blu-ray player are negligible, but the benefits are there.

Blu-rays pretty much hit the "sweet spot" for me in terms of picture quality, but I'm certainly open to purchasing a 4K UHD Blu-ray Player when prices become affordable for them, and when the initial bugs are worked out.

I still predict, however, that 4K UHD Blu-rays will be to standard Blu-rays what SACDs are to standard CDs, meaning that they will probably not replace the format, but they will have a long-term market base for a niche crowd.

The idea of replacing my current Blu-ray collection with 4K UHD Blu-rays breaks my heart a little, but I doubt that I will ever have to make that choice for most of my movies.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Yeah but he has a great penis.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

[Vinyl]

Back around '91 or '92 I remember going to the theater and watching some dumb action movie (forget what it was). I keep thinking of terminator 2.

My mom, her sister, and my grandmother went to see Chaplin staring Robert Downy Jr. Had I known then what I know now about Charlie Chaplin and silent cinema.... Things would have been different.

[joie]

Originally Posted by atlantajoseph

Since 4k and UHD BD have been the hot topics on this forum for the past two days, [...]

I recently was gifted a 4k-upscaling BD player (not UHD native player) and was also wondering since I don't have a 4k tv yet -- how do Criterion BDs, especially those mastered in 4k look up-rezed?

Will I be blown away watching Cries and Whispers up-rezed, and would I be more so by a UHD BD if that ever came to pass? (I chose that movie as I think it is one of the most gorgeous in the collection and an amazing movie to boot.)

Thoughts, opinions?

Get up close to a 4K display with a magnifying glass. Is each 1080P pixel of upscaled 1080P content replicated four times? I ask because the easiest way to upscale 1080P may be to do just that. If that is being done, it's possible that little or no difference will be seen from a distance, because pixels on a 1080P display are four times as large as UHD pixels?

Edit: The 1080P and UHD displays used for a comparison should be the same size, diagonally.

[kuro_sawa]

I'm very much not worried about upgrading equipment for 4K yet. The labels like Criterion and Eureka won't be putting out UHD or go full stop 4K for at least another 4 or 5 years, and the technology in gear isn't there yet even though Best Buy will sell you a TV saying it is. There is something called the UHD alliance (I'm not joking) that sets standards for 4K sets and players. They've only just now had the first TV set to be compatible with all the specifications (Panasonic Dx900) which basically means all the 4K TVs out now do not meet specification and are in jeopardy of not being compatible with future gear.