At the risk of being ridiculed for asking such a stupid question, what or who is "Criterion"?? Everyone talks about them, but I have no idea why. Are they a movie studio?? A film to DVD transfer company?? Any help would certainly clear this up for me!

This should be a FAQ too. Criterion is an independant video company that licenses movies from other movie studios and produces special editions from them.

During the laserdisc days, Criterion pretty much pioneered the special edition (a movie with not only the best audio and video transfer, but tons of extra features, such as deleted scenes, commentaries, etc.)... Criterion has continued this tradition to an extent in DVD...

Nowadays, I give them most credit for licensing the rights for lesser-known films (especially foreign films) and turning out very decent special editions from them, although they do special editions of popular movies (Silence of the Lambs, Robocop, etc.) too.

Visit:
http://www.criterionco.com

They have a catalog list there and also a recent interview with Criterion President Peter Becker, which gives a nice synopsis of their history, mission, and future.

Moving to Talk forum.

--Heather