"House of Games" is, far and away, also my favorite Mamet film. But I'm not a huge Mamet fan.

"The Milky Way" is one of my favorite Bunuel's, up there with "El", "Viridiana", "Belle de jour", and probably 10 more!

"Cria Cuervos..." I haven't seen in years, but this is one that I'm particularly excited about. I think many folks will draw the obvious parallels and connections with "The Spirit of the Beehive", but I'd also highly recommend this film to fans of "Pan's Labyrinth".

I'll be getting all of these with the possible exception of "House of Games".

The obligatory criticism: still no re-release of "Andrei Rublev"???

It has happened before where they set the number pre-release, then get some new element or some problem which delays the release, but they don't re-assign the number. For some reason, I think this might have even happened with release #1.

Maybe the more important question you should ask yourself is, how come you've never heard of the movies that Criterion always releases?

Yeah, "Grand Illusion" was all set to go and was to be the debut DVD in the collection in March of 1998... and then a better element was found in Europe. Criterion scrapped the existing "Grand Illusion" release, and didn't ultimately release it until September of 1999.

Why are Bunuel's movies one of the few Criterions that don't seem to merit a commentary track? His movies have more things to discuss than most others.

I agree 100%. I've seen "The Milky Way" before and while I enjoyed it and got some laughs, I knew there was a LOT I wasn't picking up on mainly because my theology isn't the best. I'm no moron in the subject but I suppose you have to be pretty well versed to pick up on everything going on in this movie. That's why I'm upset with Criterion not including an audio commentary for the film. If there is ONE film that I felt warranted a commentary, it would be this one.


So for now, it will be just a rental, hopefully the special features highlight on the symbolism in the film and it's not just a feature praising how much of a genius Bunuel was.

wasn't there a non-region 1 release of 'Exterminating Angel' that had a commentary track?

I have the R2 of Extreminating Angel (the UK one, which is the only version with English subs), and it has no commentary - but that's not surprising. What's surprising is Criterion not being able to get someone to do a good Bunuel commentary.

I thought I read someone from the magazine Rue Morgue was going to do a commentary track?

All signs strongly point to Breathless being spine #400. They might have originally aimed for an August release and then had to delay for a bit. Or maybe it will still be August and just isn't up on their site yet.

Maybe because they aren't that good?

Word up.

Or maybe it's because you don't have an open mind to films outside of the mainstream?... ya know, since you've already judged films that you haven't seen (let alone heard of).

Why would you even bother to read a Criterion thread when none of their releases would ever interest someone whose taste is so commercial? I'm sure you never heard of any of their titles (Seven Samurai, Rebecca, Spellbound, Slackers, Life Aquatic, etc.).

Yes I've heard of all of them, but have yet to see any of them. I'm only interested in seeng Rebecca and Spellbound.

Oh yeah I take it back, I do have one Criterion DVD: Chasing Amy. I didn't even realize it was Criterion until I looked through my collection today.

What wrong with mainstream movies?

Nothing is "wrong" with mainstream movies - but I certainly wouldn't want to limit myself to only mainstream movies.

And, fortunately, neither does Criterion.

Which begs the question of why the need to respond to every philistine who wanders into a Criterion thread wearing his ignorance and incuriousness like badges of honor?

Better simply to let it pass and follow the sage advice of Mr. T.

I pity the fool who trashes Criterion!

HAHA... philistine. Someone's been watching The Squid and the Whale.

In a similar fashion, what I find hilarious is when someone pops up and complains that Criterion keeps releasing movies they've never heard of instead of popular Hollywood movies. It's like they're unhappy with the amount of Hollywood movies that make it to DVD (most of which will have nice Special Editions), while foreign films rarely get released and when they do they're usually lackluster DVDs.

never heard of house of games, but it sounds pretty interesting.

House of Games has some great artwork, but isn't essential for me. I'd like to see a nice version of Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, but don't think that they'd be able to get the rights to it. If I remember correctly, it's owned by Sony/Columbia Pictures, right?

I have no beef with Criterion other than their high MSRPs for barebones releases. They do some quality work.

cheers,

-the Jesus