The Rock and Armegeddon - worth Criterion upgrade?
 

I was thinking of picking up both the Criterion editions of The Rock and Armegeddon. I already have both, are they worth the upgrade?

Hard to say. The extras on the Criterion are top notch, but Armageddon is non-anamorphic, although I believe The Rock is anamorphic.

If you enjoy the movies, by all means go for the Criterions - solid extras on both.

Criterion's The Rock is an example of how to create a DVD set. Informative extras, a beautiful transfer, great sound. The only caveats I can think of - Michael Bay really, really, really sounds silly on the commentary (God, remember his plan for the sequel!), and the dts track is actually inferior to the Dolby Track.

Criterion's Armageddon is similar. Great stuff on it, and Ben Affleck gives his best comic performance on the commentary, poking fun at the film's little idiocies. It is not anamorphic though - but when your only other option is a non-anamorphic disc that's practically bare bones, what would you go with?

If you have multiregion capability, you can get the english* release of Armageddon, with most of the Criterion extras AND an anamorphic print, for about a third of the price.



Damn, I thought for sure Immortal Zeus would have chimed in by now!


*Region 2, PAL encoded. Some people complain about the marginal speedup of the film on a PAL transfer - I don't.

I am one of the few Michael Bay lovers, and I upgraded both when they came out. I think it was defniitly worth it, sounds better, picture, although non-anamorphic on one, still better, extras are a boat load better, by far its better.

I upgraded my copy of The Rock and watched some of the extras, which are pretty interesting, but after my second voewing of Armageddon, I didn't really like the movie enough to buy it again.

Upgraded "The Rock" only because it had the anamorphic transfer. I have yet to watch any of the extras except for Ed Harris getting really pissed off about flubbing his lines. It's actually pretty frightening.

The Rock rocks. Cage is in his best shape and the cinematography is awesome. And the extras are great. Never bought the original release so I was happy to pick this up. Never liked Armageddon, so I could care less about the transfer, although I do understand the extras are very interesting and fun.

Armageddon is defintely an improvement video-wise with Criterion. The only thing from making this the ultimate edition is that it's not anamorphic. However, the transfer is good. Solid blacks and whites with a filmlike appearance. The 5.1 track is outstanding (very similar to the Buena Vista's).

I would have to believe we will see an anamorphic version one day by Buena Vista.

It's too bad studios were so short-sighted when it came to making DVDs without being OAR and anamorphic.

I am one of those people who LOVES The Rock. It was one of my favorite movies ever, so it was a no brainer to pick up the Criterion version.

The commentary is great, the extras as well, but it's the audio/video that is just ridiculous. Looks and sounds really good on our system.

I didn't like Armageddon that much, so I wouldn't upgrade to the Criterion for any reason.

I'd upgrade. I waited forever to find a good price on both movies, and decided to go the half.com route and picked them up for about 15 or so each.

I'm not sure if I should be flattered that you know I like these movies or scared that you're stalking me. ;)

:up::up: to both Criterions, I have both and enjoy them immensely.

I'm not ashamed to say that I like Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer movies.

http://www.ameritech.net/users/dvdtalk/rome.gif

DeeKay, since you already own both, I'd say "go for it".

Thanks everyone, will definately upgrade!

The Rock is a good movie. Armageddon is not..
Criterion Rock is the way to go.

It is also worth mentioning that the Criterion version of Armageddon is a longer cut of the film, with several deleted scenes spliced back in. The BV barebones disc is the theatrical cut.

So what was his idea for a sequel?

By all means pick up both CC if you like the movies.

To be honest with you, I thought Armageddon was alright but probably wouldn't have picked up the CC version if it wasn't for CH

Definitely get The Rock. With Armageddon, I guess getting the Criterion wouldn't be a bad idea since when we get an anamorphic version, it will probably be from Disney and therefore is highly unlikely to have the extras on the Criterion set.

Since we are talking about Bay Criterions..any chance for a Bad Boys 2 Criterion? :)

Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2 are from CTHE. It's unlikely that CTHE would license them to Criterion. If not, we probably would end up with regular edition, then special deluxe edition, then superbit and finally Criterion version.

I'd hit it! Whoops, wrong forum...

uhh

The Rock is a shining example of how to make a big budget action movie that isn't completely ridiculous. I'd say Die Hard and The Rock are probably at the top of action movies.