The Criterion Channel

[fdm]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I watched Three the Hard Way last night. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly team up to take on a white supremacist group that has come up with a way to taint the water supply so that only black people are poisoned and killed. Wild premise, great action!

I'm about halfway through that now... Finished up Trouble Man before that. I can see watching another one or two, or try something else.

May not stay up so late this time though, with Criterion sale starting tomorrow… So June's going to end up a light month for me.

edit: Finished up with Original Gangstas. Was curious to see a film shot in Gary IN.

[fdm]

Slow month channel-wise for me so far. Expiring-wise I went ahead and watched the few Ida Lupino titles I won't necessarily have access to after Sunday. I recall them being Moontide and Woman's Prison, the former was decent enough, the latter was a bit on the hoaky side (I can see why she went into directing…). I also re-watched Out of the Fog which is pretty good too.

Next I watched the one Trintignant-starring film I had not seen called Rendez-vous. Juliette Binoche's in "her star-making breakthrough performance". Though it was interesting to see her so young, it's the weakest film I can recall seeing Jean-Louis Trintignant involved in, probably Juliette's too. It was all right I suppose. (Also it's not expiring for a while, if ever.)

Those were much earlier in the month. A few days ago I started watching Picture Bride, which I will probably get back to tonight or tomorrow. I guess ditto with SubUrbia. Was just too late those nights I guess.

No telling what else I'll be watching on the channel the next few days…

[DaBargainHunta]

I watched Alan & Naomi last night. Very touching - but strange - period piece about the friendship between a sensitive Jewish-American boy and a traumatized French-German girl who witnessed her father get killed by the Nazis.

Not sure what I'll get to tonight. Moontide and They Drive by Night are on the list though.

[fdm]

Unfortunately my ISP decided a few hours after I posted to go on the fritz again. It's been worse, knock on wood, but for now it seems fairly stable. I tried to stream something earlier but it was a failed experiment. This is about a month after the first time it acted up finally cleared up after 4 days of sucking bad, hope this current episode doesn't last that long.

I remember They Drive By Night being decent. I also liked The Man I Love which I caught not too long ago on TCM.

I added Alan & Naomi to my watch list (need to go thru everything and prioritize what else to try and get to)…

Finally called my ISP this time (for the first time), and I decided I'm just gonna have to ride them hard whenever things get flaky, as I don't think they get many reports from others, at least in may area. They did know it was acting up, but didn't seem to know it had been down for at least a half hour earlier in the day. I guess they're going to get to know me pretty well if they keep this up.

Edit: Redid my network connection test so it should be more accurate now (?) [was using a presumably flaky dns server to ping off of, now I'm not]. See what happens. The network was still definitely acting up though, and did so even during saving one of the earlier edits to this post. Also speedtest was behaving really badly at a couple points…

[DaBargainHunta]

fdm, I hope your network issues soon clear up for good. They need to figure out why this keeps happening.

I watched Moontide last night. The Channel describes it as a "broodingly fatalistic noir melodrama," but I found it to be less noir and more melodrama. Pretty uneven film overall that takes almost an hour to get to the central premise, but the good parts are good - acting, cinematography, that awesome drunken sequence at the beginning.

Not a must-watch, but not bad.

Tonight is definitely They Drive By Night for my film club (PM me if you want details) and maybe High Sierra right after if I'm not too tired.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Tonight is definitely They Drive By Night for my film club (PM me if you want details) and maybe High Sierra right after if I'm not too tired.

This is what I ended up doing.

While High Sierra is by far the more even and consistent film, I think I still prefer They Drive by Night. Both are decent-to-good, not great - ditto for Moontide - though I am impressed by how different Ida Lupino is in all of them. She makes it look effortless, like she's not acting at all, even though she very much is.

Tonight, I don't know, maybe the Lang film or the two blaxploitations.

[fdm]

In terms of Ida Lupino films, I think The Man I Love was pretty noir-ish, if I recall rightly. (My recollections can be pretty dismal sometimes.)

Things cleared up internet-wise in the morning yesterday, but I didn't get around to the channel until early this a.m. By then I decided it was too late to watch a movie, so I plan to get around to SubUrbia earlier tonight and who knows what else after that. (I've been trying to squeeze in more (headphone) music listening into the wee hours lately as well.)

My ISP did claim when I talked to them that they are 24/7, so I do wonder if the non-ISP dns servers I was using were screwing me up when the net acted like it was down semi-regularly for several hours those past months earlier this year I mentioned, or even during the 4-day mess a month ago. Now I am using their dns servers so we shall see. If it's down or limping along, it will definitely be on them now. (And I'll be talking with them. )

[fdm]

I liked subUrbia. Need to watch some more Linklater, see if Tape is HD quality… Seen about half a dozen, aside from the Before trilogy, but still some that I haven't got to just yet. And then the channel has a number of documentaries of his also. Gotta watch those expiration dates…

On to something else.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Tonight, I don't know, maybe the Lang film or the two blaxploitations.

I went with the Lang film, While the City Sleeps - good fun with a great cast.

I'll get to the blaxploitations tonight after SummerSlam, if I'm not too tired - and I think that will be it for me.

[Ryan1973]

Are movies like Raging Bull streaming in 4K DV on The Criterion Channel since it was released on 4K UHD?

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Ryan1973

Are movies like Raging Bull streaming in 4K DV on The Criterion Channel since it was released on 4K UHD?

I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but I'll let someone else answer this definitively.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by Ryan1973

Are movies like Raging Bull streaming in 4K DV on The Criterion Channel since it was released on 4K UHD?

If you mean with a 4K stream, nope. 1080 max.

[fdm]

After my early morning post yesterday, ended up watching the film with Sissy Spacek (and Kevin Kline) called Violets Are Blue…. Worth the watch to see some 80s Spacek and Kline I hadn't seen before.

So far tonight I just finished up the other expiring Linklater I'd not seen called Me And Orson Welles. Really liked that one. It's quite good and certainly stands on its own (but also had me thinking a few times about a sort of similar film I watched not so long ago on the channel called Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, which I'd say was probably even better).

Playing it by ear as I go along, might check out 'night Mother another Sissy Spacek film (from the same year as Violets). May or more likely may not have seen it before, but it also has Anne Bancroft, so hard to pass up or at least try it on for size…

[DaBargainHunta]

I watched Willie Dynamite (incredible fashion that has to be seen to be believed) and Trick Baby (insane premise) last night. Probably the most fun of the expiring films I saw this month. Definitely worth checking out!

I think that'll be it for me - unless I sneak in Easter Parade (out of curiosity).

I was going to watch Wait Until Dark, but I'm accepting a ScreenPass with that in it, and Sun Children is also on Kanopy, so it can wait.

Edit: He also has Easter Parade available now as a ScreenPass. It wasn't there last night! Decisions, decisions...

I think Easter Parade and Wait Until Dark are still $5 on iTunes - along with tons of others - through Monday.

[fdm]

About all I managed last night was 'night Mother with Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft. I still am wondering if I'd seen it before, but I'm not really sure... one of life's little mysteries I guess.

[fdm]

I really liked The Badlanders, a Delmer Daves western flick from 1958, starring Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine.

Also watched a while ago Tord and Tord an animated short which was good. May get to Bath House, another animated short, quick glance at beginning shows similar animation style.

Probably will get to something(s) by directors Jude and/or Van Brakel before the month's over as well, perhaps also August At Akiko's.

If you aint seen Mephisto give it a watch! I remember it being pretty great (back when it came out). Always fun watching Klaus Maria Brandauer in action.

(I dread the next few months worth of expiring films, seems to be a pretty good selection on the channel overall these days…)

[DaBargainHunta]

I watched The Sea Wolf last night. Great Michael Curtiz film with Edward G. Robinson as a tyrannical sea captain, co-starring Ida Lupino, John Garfield, and Alexander Knox. Well worth a watch.

Originally Posted by fdm

I really liked The Badlanders, a Delmer Daves western flick from 1958, starring Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine.

How is this? It's on my list too. Worth fitting in or something I can safely skip?

[fdm]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

How is this? It's on my list too. Worth fitting in or something I can safely skip?

Like I said I really liked it, and didn't skip it. I thought it was worthwhile. Try it, you'll probably like it. (Looks like I've seen a pretty good number of Delmer Daves movies and they've all been pretty decent.)

Good thing there aren't so many films expiring as other recent months, got most of them covered one way (seen 'em) or another (own 'em). A little tight on time is all, so later today is when I actually start making more definite decisions...

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by fdm

Like I said I really liked it, and didn't skip it. I thought it was worthwhile. Try it, you'll probably like it.

Good thing there aren't so many films expiring as other recent months, got most of them covered one way (seen 'em) or another (own 'em). A little tight on time is all, so later today is when I actually start making more definite decisions...

Thanks. I'll try to catch it before it goes.

I just finished Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo. While it's not quite on par with the director's best, it's still very good.

[DaBargainHunta]

The Badlanders was good fun - thanks, fdm.

I either own everything else I'd be interested in or don't really have any interest in watching what's left, so I'm not sure what's on the menu for tonight - if anything.