So.... you find the whole collection over-rated, even though you haven't seen them, and haven't even heard of a great majority of them? Obviously a knowledgeable film buff....

And exactly what "genre of films that Criterion chooses" do you mean? The collection includes virtually all genres, from camp horror to documentary to thriller to classic foreign to contemporary foreign to silent to mystery to comedy to sci-fi to romance..etc. If you have "zero interest" in all the genres that Criterion chooses to do, what do you watch? Commercials?

Man Bites Dog


I think my expectations were too high.
I have around 175 Criterions and it was the only film that I found to be tedious. It is the one Criterion I regret buying. I have held off buying the I am Curious set because I am afraid it may be even worse.

I liked Man Bites Dog. I thought it was pretty well done and the ending was pretty sweet. As for I am Curious..well there is tons of nudity in it.

When you say it that way, it does sound peculiar... but my personal experience has been remarkably similar.

There have certainly been Criterions that I've enjoyed (Spartacus and Life of Brian in particular), but I've had a strong negative reaction to most of the other Criterion films I've seen. There's just something that I can't quite put my finger on that seems to be a common thread - not in genre, or subject matter, or anything clear-cut like that - in the Criterions I've disliked. (There seems to be some selection process that goes for movies that have "something" that I don't like. For instance, I've either liked, or really liked, nearly all the Hitchcock films I've seen... except for Notorious.) Whatever it is, it's consistent enough that I stopped choosing to review Criterions, because clearly there was something that didn't "click" with me.

So it does make sense to me, from my experiences, that a lot of people would either like the Criterion Collection as a whole, or dislike the whole thing. Which means that they're doing a really good job of producing a consistent label that provides potential viewers with a good idea of what they can expect.

I have about 70 Criterions so far, and am pleased with them all.

However, there are several Criterion titles that I have seen either at the movies or on a commercial-free cable broadcast that I have no interest in owning, including Man Bites Dog, How To Get Ahead in Advertising and Schizopolis.

Armageddon -- just a poop movie. better than the average natural disaster flick. oh wait nevermind, The Poseidon Adventure, though campy belongs more. come on. after that i wondered if maybe they sometimes receive money from certain people to have a movie find its way into their collection.

Jubilee -- I feel bad mentioning this film in this thread because i wholeheartedly enjoyed it. I just dont think it belongs. Criterion does have a lot of quirky artsy stuff in their collection. but this SLC Punk meets Time Bandits is way out in left field. no, nevermind, its outside the foul lines.

You disliked "Notorious," and you're a DVD Talk Reviewer? Dear Lord. I love this site, but that's very disturbing...

ya know a lot of a movie depends on your mood when you watch it. my most enjoyed firsqt viewing was the original dawn of the dead. its above an above average movie, but how could it be deserving of this praise? but i watched it in the middle of a tornado producing thunderstorm. and the 2 combined made it just a thrilling experience. one i will never forget.

You should have watched Twister that day.

yeah, i forgot to mention that my girlfriend is deathly afraid of tornados (she grew up in central kansas). it was enough to get her to watch dawn of the dead. she will not watch twister. period.

It's your loss. Tokyo Olympiad is one of the best documentaries ever made. Even though it's almost 3 hours long, it left me wanting more.

My biggest disappointment was The Element of Crime.

Well, I guess that's why I come here. I just put it as number one in my netflix queue. I'll let you know what I think once I've watched it.

Nevertheless, for a company that prides itself on the quality of its product, Criterion has been slow to innovate. Just as Criterion was late to enter the DVD market to begin with, it was also late to switch from letterbox to anamorphic. Columbia Tri-Star was releasing anamorphic DVDs by the fall of 1998. Criterion's first anamorphic release was Insomnia on July 27, 1999.

That's actually the case for Armageddon. Bay had it in his contract that Disney get Criterion to do an SE of the film, and Disney paid through the nose to get them to produce extras and release the dvd. It's a lot less sinister on Criterion's part when you realize the money they made allowed them to license countless other classics that we might otherwise never have gotten.

As for Worst Criterion(or least worthy), I think it's a bit of a moot question, since everyone likes different films, and values them differently(I for one quite like Element of Crime). But playing along, I'd say Traffic. Did we really need another dvd of this so soon after the previous one, oscar nomination or no oscar nomination? Also the Bay films, but those were purely financially motivated and not chosen so much as grudgingly accepted into the collection.

It wasn't terrible, but I was kind of disappointed with Contempt--might've been that my expectations were too high.

I also didn't think too much of Rules of the Game (another one where I had really high expectations), but luckily I got that one at the library (at the same time as I got Onibaba, which I liked a lot).

"This is Spinal Tap"

I thought it was going to be a medical thriller, but it was a documentary about this horrible band. I've never even heard of them, and I don't know why anyone would bother making a movie about them, they were so lame.

The singer sort of looked like Lenny from "Laverne and Shirley" and the bass player talked like Principal Skinner.

Half of this Criterion s**t is just that...s**t...artsy fartsy s**t...

Mamma Roma is the definition of bleh choice for Criterion.

If you ask me they just wanted an excuse to put out the extras they forgot for the Salo DVD..


I haven't seen them but couldnt they have acquired the rights to his trilogy of life instead?

The Ruling Class

Just not my cup of tea.

While I can appreciate it from an aesthetics standpoint, Tokyo Drifter is the only Criterion I've unloaded. I quite enjoy Branded To Kill, however.

I don't dislike Notirious, and I do think it is a pretty good Hitchcock film, but I also think that it is my least favorite of the five Criterion Hitchcock films that were out. Its first half just seems terribly slow sometimes and, unlike most other Hitchcock movies, I really have to be in the mood to watch it. Plus there was a whole lot of film grain in this version of it that was noticeable even on my 19" TV. Everyone has their own tastes and opinions, and there's no reason to bash someone for them. Plenty of people dislike films that other people love.

"The Night Porter."

Not really sure what I expected, but wasn't impressed.

Of course, QuiGonJosh has seen ALL of the Criterion films, hence qualifying his informed opinion.

He also liked the Star Wars prequels. And Hulk.

Criterion Collection movies themselves are nothing special in that everyone is going to have an opinion on whether they're good or bad.