You are assuming that people who collect Criterions don't watch them more than once, thus your argument is not valid. And your second point, owning movies for spine numbers and studios is also a false assumption. The studio puts out a lot of good films and people like that, thus they buy. Not everyone who collects, collects for the spine number. I watch all of them films and love, not like, a grand majority of them.

I can tolerate another opinion, but your summary dismissal of this collecting as seeing it as 'pointless' is uninformed and shortsighted. You lump all of those who collect Criterions into one group and dismiss them and this is not fair and shows that it is you who cannot tolerate another opinion. I think I hit the nail right on the head.

As far as owning all of the Criterions making one more of a film buff, I would agree that this is false - but watching all of the Criterions and many other non- criterion films (just a lot of movies in general) and gaining a large knowledge of film and widening the catalogue you have witnessed in my book does make one a bigger and more knowledgable film buff.

Personally, I am looking to witness every acclaimed movie in every genre ever made. It's a grand task, but an enjoyable one as well. I love film and I love seeking out it's origins, techniques, and genres as well as watching acting/directing/cinematography unfold over history. Horror, Drama, Sci-fi, Comedy, it's all wonderful to me. Criterion presents a huge slice of these films I would never have seen otherwise. I for one, think Popcorn is right on for attempting this feat.

Man, you guys are casting stones at me from all directions.

I was kinda hoping for my replies such as "whatever you like, go for it" but I got more of what I expected.

Its funny how Criterion is such a love/hate topic on this board. Tons of positive replies in the monthly Criterion releases threads. And usually the one guy in there who speaks out against Criterion is bashed out of the thread. However, I ask for opinions on collecting every Criterion and I get raked over the coals for it.

I asked for opinions and you gave them. Keep giving them though, its an interesting read.

So you like every movie Criterion has put out & would like to watch them all again?

Just to save some time:

- If you like all the films in the Criterion Collection & would like to watch them all again, while I would find that unbelivable, I don't know why you are responding to me since I wouldn't be addressing you.

- If you don't like all the films in the Criterion Collection or don't plan to watch some again that is where you would fall under when I gave my opinion. I just find it pointless to own something you don't like or don't want to see again. Simple as that.

- I don't care how many Criterions people collect. I gave examples as to why I DON'T collect them all along with my opinion on buying the an entire collection just to have it is pointless. That is my opinion. I think my money can be better spent on stuff I do like, or need, or use, or that brings me some enjoyment, NOT confined to a bunch of DVDs sitting on a shelf. That is my opinion.

You're twisting my opinion into what you want to hear.

People! All this hostility about who is right about such a relative thing as a person who wants to collect all the Criterion DVDs ever released!?

Firstly, this is a relative subject and no one should be as fascistic as to impose their principals on collecting on anyone.

I bet some bashers here do not have the money to collect all of criterion’s releases, but wish to—or even wish to subconsciously, as their mindset is repressed by their budget.

Hey, if the guy has the money to collect all the discs, more power to him! It’s good for the status of Criterion, which is one of the few DVD manufacturers that is not as commercially motivated as most companies. They need the revenue to keep giving us the rare, obscure releases we get (with little marketing and “trailers” inserted on discs as “bonuses”).

If you are a fan of any Criterion title you should be thankful for people who buy Criterion discs as feverishly as they do. I’m glad we are getting Fat Girl on Criterion and we just had Videodrome released by them (I’m super looking forward to getting Short Cuts, which I haven’t seen since I caught it at the movies 10 years ago!). Who knows if we ever would have got these titles if Criterion wasn’t such a popular DVD manufacturer thanks to the compeletist collectors (thank God for those spine numbers!).

What a novel idea? Not buying films you don't like....

...but then how oh how will you ever live with yourself for not having the dvds line up in sequential order with no gaps in the numbering???

Popcorn,what you gonna do if criterion releases a michael Moore set lol

So basically, you started a thread hoping things would get heated. Hmm sounds like trolling to me.

My first post, if you are reading them, was a "whatever, go for it".

Then you posted about checking eBay prices and dumping them based on the price trend.

I call 'em as I see 'em. Not really sure what you are wanting from this thread though. How about a "yay for you" and close it up?

I would love to do this if I had the time and money.

It's about educating yourself to a huge part of film history, from the Passion of Joan of Arc to Armageddon. Somebody thought that every film they released was worth seeing (note: I didn't say "good", "great" or "teh R0XX0rS", I said "worth seeing"). You can learn a lot about film from all these movies and their extras, regardless of whether or not you loved every single film.

More power to you PopcornTreeCt.

Tscott is right on.

Some people don't understand that Criterion is more than just a summer blockbuster. Film history plays a large part for me.

If you don't believe that I re-watch my Criterions then you can live in the dark.

I am building a film library and that means I keep them on the shelf for my or my guests enjoyment at any time. That is the point of keeping all of the movies I buy. This applies to every movie I buy, not just Criterions. Sorry you don't understand.

lol, Good point! Its kinda like I'll never buy a Moore film unless its an overpriced double disc set with a spine number.

It's actually kind of frightening. Unlike Pokeman stuff, they will have great resale value.

No, I started a thread to gather opinions. I had a good idea of what kind of replies I was gonna receive but still hoped to get some positive ones. Which I did. I didn't make any arguments or ask for any.

You should collect whatever makes you happy. When I consider purchasing a Criterion disc, I ask myself whether I would buy the disc if it was released by some other studio. Most of the time, the answer is "no". It's true that Criterion does release great discs, but so do other companies. I try not to get caught up in the Criterion name and just focus on the movies themselves.

what makes Criterion unique? spine numbers and the low number of releases. If you are interested into cinema and its history and international films why don't buy all the titles published by Kino or Image Entertainement too?
in a sense, buying the entire Criterion Collection is not collecting films/DVD's since you are goin' to own someone else's collection. I'd like to be looked as a knowledgeble guy in films so instead of readind a lot of books about cinema I collect films someone else has chosen. It is not collecting, it makes no sense, and I ignore even while I am replying to this thread.

My Collection

Not at all...good luck to you if that's what you want...why should you really care what anyone else thinks!?..it's what you think on a personal level that counts..what you do with your own shelf space is your own concern.

Ah, now I see the difference. I buy the Criterions of movies I enjoy, and even if they suddenly started giving them away in cereal boxes, I would never consider my Third Man or Brazil or The Leopard or Black Narcissus or any of the other Criterions on my shelf to be worthless.

Popcorn,

Collect what you want! My only advice is to keep an open mind and realize that down the road your views may change. That's part of collecting. For example, for awhile I was collecting all of the MGM Midnite Movies. Then they started releasing some things that I really had no interest in so I changed my standards and started collecting only the Vincent Price titles and horror/scifi titles (and anything else that seemed interesting, of course.) I still have my collection of MGM MM's, but now it's more tailored to my liking, if you know what I mean.

I had the same aspirations to the Criterions as you do, but didn't get very far basically due to the cash involved and so have tailored my CC's to fit my tastes as well. The only exception is that I'll try to buy a movie that's gone OOP. Not to sell or anything like that, but because a friend of my wife's always checks out to see what's new on the shelves when he's over, and he always freaks out that I have title X in shrink wrap and it's OOP. Goofy, yes. But that in and of itself is another type of collection. There are a lot of good CC's out right now that I'd like to buy and more coming down the road. I'll get all the ones I want as spending allows.

As for the whole blu-ray deal, I wouldn't even stress it. It's not going to wipe out your DVD collection like DVD did to laserdiscs. To make it in the market blu-ray is going to have to be backwards compatible to DVD, otherwise it will become a niche product like Digital VHS is now. You'll be able to have a mixed collection, and if you're in it for the film and not trying to make money, who cares? Nobody says you have to rebuy them all.

I consider myself a film fan first, and a collector second, but the two really go hand in hand. If some people can't see that, then that's their problem.

When I first started collecting my goal was to get every Vampire movie on DVD. What happened is I started to get movies on immortality, shape-shifting, resurrection, different countries ideas of Vampire-like creatures, etc...then I gave up. I just buy them as they show up but only if the price is good. Having a goal is good but don't nail yourself to a door, be open, have fun. Who knows where it would lead you. Another great DVD production company is KINO. Check out their titles. Great restoration and foreign movies. No numbers .

I have about 70 Criterions, but I have no desire to own every singel title. Why? I don't like every title. If somebody wants to own every Criterion and has the money for it good for them. I buy movies that I like and know that I will watch again. I find it hard to believe that whoever has the entire collections or wants to own it will like every movie in the collection. I know there are several people on this forum that hate Criterion and are always bashing thier movies. Hey that's there opinion. Then there are those (like myself) that love Criterion. There are several movies that if it wasn't for Criterion wouldn't even be on DVD.

But like renaldow said keep an open mind about it.

Also pagansoul made a good point if you like Criterion, check out some of Kino's title

I have the complete Criterion collection inc Salo (White ring ver)

tbh it wasn't that hard to get them all (well after the oop titles are obtained - which is the problem)

I started first with all the OOP titles which a few are still easily obtainable (straw Dogs, Notorious, rebecca)

While others are rarer (how to get ahead in advertising, robocop) and cost around 2-3 times than actual initial price.

Some very rare (The killer, Spinal Tap, playtime) are expensive being regulalrly over $100 on ebay)

And the rarest of them all (Salo) which goes for over $250 - $500 and is now very hard to obtain.

Now your thinking why am i stated these? If your serious about collecting the Criterion collection then you really have to get the oop titles first as the longer you wait the harder (and more expensive) they will become to buy..

The criterion collection has so many brilliant films it's hard to know which to start with first.. But i love to watch them and i love to collect them.. (in fact Slacker is on the way to me as I type)

When i only had a few criterions i thought all those who got them all where a bit well mental.. but maybe i was jealous because i now have experienced so many superb films what i wouldn't have if hadn't got this collection (doh)

I only wish i'd started collecting them at the beginning (so i'd could buy 50 Salo DVd's and sell them for $300 each - LOL)

As one who owns the complete collection, I kinda feel I should weigh in here...

It kinda amazes me that this subject often gets generates such controversy.

I mean, imagine going to a stamp collecting board, and getting flamed for a desire to own a $10,000 stamp that you can't even use to mail a freaking post card.

People collect all kinds of silly things, and pay big bucks for their hobby. You don't have to justify your desire to collect something... you just have to enjoy it.

Just be reasonable about your expectations. If you think that you are going to pick up chicks, or be able to some day retire on the proceeds from owning the entire CC, then you will probably be disapointed.

But, if you think you would enjoy owning the collection, then go for it.

Myself, I am happy with my decision to get the whole collection. Shoot, when I get board of looking at all the pretty spine numbers, I can actually ::gasp:: put in a movie and watch a film. Try doing that with a stamp.

Well said.. People don't get that it's fun collecting this collection and watching the many great films in there..

Of course people who don't have the complete collection are either Jealous - not interested in some of the titles or not as completist as others..

Simple.. some want to get the complete set, some don't, some can't..

WHAT????, your saying that getting the complete criterion set will not get you laid,the hell with it then,i am just gonna go pick up Good Burger