The Criterion Collection

[teneightypee]

Originally Posted by shamdy

Finally there are tons of DVD's that have better picture quality than blurays. For example the Bluray picture quality of MCCABE AND MS MILLER is horrendous in my opinion.

It genuinely blows me away that anyone could think this. McCabe & Mrs Miller is one of the best Blu-Ray releases Criterion has ever done. It's an astonishingly good restoration of what must have been an extremely difficult project. I know people are entitled to their opinions, but claiming that the DVD is better is objectively incorrect. It's just wrong.

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by diskspinner

I have In a Lonely Place and I liked it as well...Read some not too good review on They live by night

Well, if you want to go by the critical consensus, it's unanimously positive. I've read about the film for years in various books and recall one of my teachers talking about it. It's a pretty renowned noir.

[UncleBuckWild]

Note: It's a pricing glitch, so those interested, order now.

The Marseille Trilogy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XP66WXX/

$34.56

$46.11
Estimated shipping & handling: FREE
Additional Discount: -$11.55

Total before tax: $34.56

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

Well, if you want to go by the critical consensus, it's unanimously positive. I've read about the film for years in various books and recall one of my teachers talking about it. It's a pretty renowned noir.

Yeah if we're going by critics, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 100%. Users on iMDB like it also 7.6/10. I always put off watching it for so long since I said I was never going to like it, but I took the dive a few months ago and came away with the opinion that is one of the best film-noir's I've seen

[Ray Jackson]

I went out to Barnes & Noble today to grab a random blind buy, not sure what I was going to get.

As I was driving along the freeway, a guy passed me in some kind of souped-up muscle car...might've been a 1970 Buick Skylark GS...matte black custom paint job. This thing had some horses in it, that's for sure.

So even though I had already decided that it wasn't for me, of course there was only one film I could get.

...the film gods were clearly speaking to me.

[Show spoiler]

[jw007]

Originally Posted by shamdy

Dear members of the criterion forum,
The following statement is just a personal opinion so please don't get offended with its content. It's just something i wanted to get off my chest and nobody can take it seriously.
Well, I just can't believe that people are praising the Criterion Blurays that much. Or even the images of some of its titles.
The blurays of Criterion has a major flaw IMHO which is the subtitles. I got tricked by becoming a member of the Bluray community when I started reading Reviews by Dr. Svet Atanasov who usually praises the criterion blurays titles as if he's paid to do so. Then I bought a bunch of important classic and foreign films whom I saw when I was growing up and decided to add them to my collection when i read the great reviews.
These titles were on my shelf for a while as I had other movies to watch before watching them again. Then when I decided to enjoy my criterion bluray classic collection i received one of the shocks of the trade.
I was appalled when I saw the font of subtitles used by criterion on their bluray releases. I FIRST NOTICED IT WHEN I WATCHED PERSONA BY INGMAR BERGMAN. There were instances while watching as if there were no text available as the subtitles were almost invisible and hard to read. I watched the movie non the less till the end believing it's just a one time fluke. Then I got the complete shock when I put other black and white foreign films like THE MUSIC ROOM, THE COMPLETE JEAN VIGO, THE RULES OF THE GAME, VIVRE SA VIE, THE NAKED KISS, THE APU TRILOGY and the list goes on. L'AVVENTURA by ANTONIONI is a joke by Criterion on Bluray ( Fantastic picture quality with nonsensical hard to follow subtitles. I love that movie by the way. But the criterion subtitles made me stop watching halfway )
The list of bad subtitles goes on on movies like HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, UMBERTO D, LA JETTE and this is to name a few.
I even found the trouble of following the subtitles on certain colored foreign films like THE EMMIGRANTS and The BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT.
Well after spending so much on various criterion bluray titles, i figured out i was conned into believing in such format by a great and respectable company. I now find that People who want upgrades are cheating themselves as the criterion DVD'S are much worth our money people. At least the subtitles are thick and easy to read and enjoy against white backgrounds.
Anyways, thank you all for a lesson learned late. At least I loved BITTER RICE and IL SORPASSO when i watched the criterion DVD versions due to beautifully written subtitles font.
Finally there are tons of DVD's that have better picture quality than blurays. For example the Bluray picture quality of MCCABE AND MS MILLER is horrendous in my opinion. Also many beautiful movies who are only available on DVD are worth watching instead of waiting for a company to come and blotch it on this format known as Bluray.
And the best way to watch films are in cinemas.
And please forget about fake technologies that destroy what is beautiful. Damn the 4K for example. Rich people want to make more money from fake technological advancements.
Take care all

I cannot wrap my head around this. I'm trying not to see this post as something that a "troll" would write, but it bothers me a lot...that such unjustified criticism to perfectly professional subtitling would raise such a concern, to the point of judging the Criterion Collection blu-rays as an incompetent and inferior product. To make matters more illogical, I cannot understand for a second that many DVDs have "better picture quality than blurays". How could one come to such a conclusion when we're dealing with upgrades in video and audio quality on an immeasurable scale with scans at 4k (3840 pixels × 2160 lines of resolution) compared to 720 x 480. The math, the numbers, do not lie.

I shouldn't even be responding to this absurd post to begin with, but... technology is not fake. It can be used to make the world a more beautiful or ugly place, depending on its intentions. In this case, blu-ray technology is a beautiful thing. I have seen details and experienced a director's true vision on my blu-rays that no DVD could ever attain.

[Scottie]

Criterion has the poster for Stalker available for purchase on their website.



https://www.criterion.com/shop_produ...stalker-poster

[burningfool]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

I wouldn't expect anybody to release "This Is Spinal Tap" any time soon, there's a huge lawsuit between the band and the owners of the film. The end result of the lawsuit *could* be the band getting the rights to the film free and clear, in which case Criterion would have as good a shot as anybody, I suppose.

The version of "This Is Spinal Tap" currently streaming on the Tribeca channel (via SlingTV) has a Studio Canal opening logo. Interesting.

[ArnoldLayne56]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I went out to Barnes & Noble today to grab a random blind buy, not sure what I was going to get.

As I was driving along the freeway, a guy passed me in some kind of souped-up muscle car...might've been a 1970 Buick Skylark GS...matte black custom paint job. This thing had some horses in it, that's for sure.

So even though I had already decided that it wasn't for me, of course there was only one film I could get.

...the film gods were clearly speaking to me.

[Show spoiler]

I have that queued up as well, and Gone in 60 Seconds............

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by ArnoldLayne56

I have that queued up as well, and Gone in 60 Seconds............

I watched about 30 minutes of it last night before falling asleep.

It's cool, but my god, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson were two of the worst actors in movie history.

...just hideous.

I'm sure that Monte Hellman would try to spin the decision to cast them by throwing out some pretentious nonsense about wanting to use non-actors for the authenticity they brought to the roles or whatever. But that's complete BS.

The only logical reason why they were in the movie is because they were famous musicians who could bring some shine to a small film.

...at least it has Warren Oates.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I watched about 30 minutes of it last night before falling asleep.

It's cool, but my god, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson were two of the worst actors in movie history.

...just hideous.

I'm sure that Monte Hellman would try to spin the decision to cast them by throwing out some pretentious nonsense about wanting to use non-actors for the authenticity they brought to the roles or whatever. But that's complete BS.

The only logical reason why they were in the movie is because they were famous musicians who could bring some shine to a small film.

...at least it has Warren Oates.

I've done pretty well on Criterion blind-buys.

Two Lane Blacktop was not one of them.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

They Live By Night is excellent. You need to never read reviews from the people would said it wasn't good ever again. They obviously do not have any idea what a great movie is.

So only read positive reviews for every movie basically because that means every movie is great in other words? That makes a lot of sense. I had no idea CHIPS was a great film. Guess I'll have to watch it now based on your logic

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

So only read positive reviews for every movie basically because that means every movie is great in other words? That makes a lot of sense. I had no idea CHIPS was a great film. Guess I'll have to watch it now based on your logic

No, he simply thinks that They Live by Night is unquestionably great, and that people who don't think so have poor tastes, and their opinions should be ignored. It wasn't a general statement about ignoring all movie's negative reviews.

I believe you were negative about They Live By Night, but only after watching like 30 minutes I think?

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

No, he simply thinks that They Live by Night is unquestionably great, and that people who don't think so have poor tastes, and their opinions should be ignored. It wasn't a general statement about ignoring all movie's negative reviews.

I believe you were negative about They Live By Night, but only after watching like 30 minutes I think?

Opinions vary and everyone has them and yes I wasn't a fan of They Live by Night from what I saw. I didn't write a negative review about it though. Just agreed with someone else who didn't like it.

[PBateman87]

Over the weekend, I watched the first of my 4 purchases during the B&N sale, Two-Lane Blacktop. I certainly liked it on first impressions, though I wasn't quite as grabbed by it as I thought I would be, going into it (the "existentialist road movie with gearheads" angle really intrigued me). But I feel like with a couple more viewings down the road (no pun intended - honestly!), it will really grow on me. I most enjoyed the Americana aspect, the late '60s/early '70s desolate highways of mid-America, before the massive interstates really started to take hold, and it made for some beautiful widescreen compositions. And I have to say, that ending is superb!

[PBateman87]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I watched about 30 minutes of it last night before falling asleep.

It's cool, but my god, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson were two of the worst actors in movie history.

...just hideous.

I'm sure that Monte Hellman would try to spin the decision to cast them by throwing out some pretentious nonsense about wanting to use non-actors for the authenticity they brought to the roles or whatever. But that's complete BS.

The only logical reason why they were in the movie is because they were famous musicians who could bring some shine to a small film.

...at least it has Warren Oates.

Haha, only saw this comment after I made my above post. True, Taylor and Wilson were never going to win any acting awards. I feel it would have been better if Taylor was basically mute the whole film (he doesn't talk much as it is, but still...). Taylor was certainly at his best when silent and we could read his face (eg., in the diner as he watches "The Girl" take off with some random motorcycle guy). But yeah, at least a pro like Warren Oates was added to liven things up. He was great as usual.

[llj]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I watched about 30 minutes of it last night before falling asleep.

It's cool, but my god, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson were two of the worst actors in movie history.

...just hideous.

I'm sure that Monte Hellman would try to spin the decision to cast them by throwing out some pretentious nonsense about wanting to use non-actors for the authenticity they brought to the roles or whatever. But that's complete BS.

The only logical reason why they were in the movie is because they were famous musicians who could bring some shine to a small film.

...at least it has Warren Oates.

I didn't think James Taylor was that bad. His line reading may have been awkward, but he had an internalized intensity to him that was utterly fitting to the part.

I also feel it's better to act down than act up if you're not a pro. I'd rather watch Taylor's expressionless glowering over some guy hamming it up.

Anyway, Two-Lane Blacktop is one of the best American films of the past 40 years. Maybe even better than Top Gun. Or did I just blaspheme?

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by llj

I didn't think James Taylor was that bad. His line reading may have been awkward, but he had an internalized intensity to him that was utterly fitting to the part.

I also feel it's better to act down than act up if you're not a pro. I'd rather watch Taylor's expressionless glowering over some guy hamming it up.

Anyway, Two-Lane Blacktop is one of the best American films of the past 40 years. Maybe even better than Top Gun. Or did I just blaspheme?

I agree with this. In fact, part of the reason the film works for me is simply because the leads are two non-actors who don't do a lot of "acting" and creates a greater contrast with Warren Oates. Having a couple of musicians in the lead roles bring expectations that they are much more genuinely "counterculture" than a professional actor would be, plus there aren't previous roles to compare to. To me, these guys simply belong to this film and no other, so when the film ends the way it does they go with it.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I watched about 30 minutes of it last night before falling asleep.

It's cool, but my god, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson were two of the worst actors in movie history.

...just hideous.

I'm sure that Monte Hellman would try to spin the decision to cast them by throwing out some pretentious nonsense about wanting to use non-actors for the authenticity they brought to the roles or whatever. But that's complete BS.

The only logical reason why they were in the movie is because they were famous musicians who could bring some shine to a small film.

...at least it has Warren Oates.

I figured they were ok for the characters they were portraying.

[Show spoiler]These two weren't exactly chatterboxs even between themselves and their existence seemed to be-setting up races, working on their car, racing and then moving on to another location to do the same thing. As human beings they were pretty mechanical themselves and seemed awkward when they had to interact about things outside of racing. GTO (Oates), on the other hand, was the polar opposite; talking constantly with every passenger getting a different story of his life. He was lonely, insecure, and seemed desperate to connect with somebody and settle somewhere. The Driver and Mechanic didn't seem to care about any of that.

[theater dreamer]

Guys, let's all try to demonstrate respect for each other's opinions on film, ok? We all have different tastes, and what might be enthralling to one of us might bore another to tears. We can provide constructive input on the films being discussed without impugning another member's tastes. A film's "greatness" is completely subjective. If you like a movie, trying to convince another member of it's merits will always be appreciated.

Some people like Rembrandt. Others think Dogs Playing Poker is a hoot. There's room for everybody here without being dismissive. The more information we provide, the better equipped we all are to build the kind of collections we can enjoy.