Ha! I thought that same thing with Lola. Although I'd go with either blue or black/white outlined in white/black for readability.

I'm busy being mildly annoyed that, in contrast to Amazon (which has subtitles on a great number of films), Hulu appears to have lost the option for subtitles entirely.

It is going to take some work, but I should be on pace to complete the checklist as I can do it in as few as five films. It has been a rough month as far as free time as this is my first day off in a few weeks, but I still have found time for 19 films already which has been very rewarding. One of these challenges, I will actually have time to participate in the thread more.

I watched "The Man Who Knew Too Much" tonight. I enjoyed it a lot better than "Spellbound." If someone has access to this and is looking for a quick watch, it's only about 70-75 minutes and is pretty fast paced.

I see my local library has "North by Northwest" in stock, so I hope to be able to grab it tomorrow when I bring these last two back. That would probably be my last movie for the month.

I ended up watching a lot fewer movies than I thought I would going into the challenge, but I did increase the number of Hitchcock movies I've watched by 4 (maybe 5) so I call that a win.

I watched less than I had hoped too, but I did watch more than in years past, including some very good first time views.

Finally had time to get movies in again after a busy couple weeks, so I put in Gojira in preparation for the Horror Challenge. Nothing like the later Godzilla movies, a very good drama, and this is coming from someone who is a big kaiju fan.

Not sure if I'm reading that right, but... I like this challenge purely because most* of things are new. And rather than hoping they'll be 'tolerable,' with very few exceptions everything I watch new is well worth watching.

....of course, it helps that (until the last few years) I'd watched few of the more famous films that the CC includes in its numbers. So I can watch new-to-me films like I Married a Witch, The Browning Version and The Life Aquatic. I can be reminded why I've always assumed sight-(largely)-unseen that I'd be fond of Harold Lloyd films and Wes Anderson; that I always "knew" I'd like Being John Malkovich from the plot and the cast, and that Bulldog Drummond and the Korda/London films would be always engaging and often exciting and thoroughly enjoyable.

Even ones I've only watched because they were there (Hulu, Amazon) like Sling Blade, The English Patient and The Browning Version have exceeded my limited expectations. I was near-dreading Patient and only went for Browning because it came up when I was searching something else. And The Browning Version is now on my "ought to own" list, while I was pleased to notice that I already have The English Patient in an Academy Award Winners collection.

I like this challenge. And possibly jointly with TV, despite the artificial limits, it paradoxically offers the biggest range of subject matter (literally encompassing overlaps with ALL the other challenges). Comedy is probably my favourite, and all have their moments, but the Criterion Challenge has led me to many films that I feel I ought to have seen, many that I want to see, and - broadly - none that I regret watching. Which is a much higher success rate than most of the others..!



*Bar the favourites and the company-friendly staples.

After watching Gojira earlier today, I decided to watch the Americanized version, Godzilla: King of the Monsters tonight. They are both good movies in my opinion, and it depends on what kind of mood you are in as to which one you would enjoy more. If you want to think, watch Gojira, but if you just want a 50s monster movie, watch King of the Monsters.

I did my best Alan Smithee impersonation and bought a Silence of the Lambs Criterion laserdisc on ebay. Went to storage and found my laserdisc player tonight. Tomorrow evening I'll watch it for some cross-Challenge retro checklist frenzy.

Edit to add: crap, it's after midnight already?! I guess it's tonight I'll be watching it; and I have to wake up in 4 hours. Goodnight all. Happy last day.

Thanks to my miserable health, this is easily my worst showing in this challenge so far and stands to be my worst showing in any challenge unless I squeeze in at least one or two more here at the end. I can't quite articulate how disappointed I am, because this is my favorite challenge of the entire year. These just aren't the kinds of movies you can throw on and half-watch when you're drowsy, though. I'm gonna try to watch something here shortly, though. Depending on run time, I might even have it in me to do a double-feature as long as I put off writing about them until later.

[Pro-tip: Stay healthy, kids!]

I agree with you that the challenge has led me to many films I would never have picked out and watched on my own. I think I might have a higher fail rate though! I definitely have crossed off a lot of films I feel I should watch (classics/popular) and many that I haven't even heard of before this challenge. I would say though, that I probably really like about 1 in 4, I'm glad I watched about 2 in 4 and dislike about 1 in 4. But that one film I really like, I would never have discovered.

I also am glad that I'm...encouraged...to watch the classics in this challenge as that is a weak point in my film watching. If I had to pick a film, I usually like action/adventure or comedy or musicals. But this challenge for me is all about stretching myself and picking something I'm not going to any other time.

Such as "North by Northwest" that I did get to see tonight. If I had been watching for another reason or caught it on TV, I'd have turned it off after about 25 mins. I struggled through it and did enjoy the last 40 mins or so and am glad that I finished it off. Plus, I now get why the people who made Richie Rich added the Rich monument. That whole scene was a total parody of the scene in "N by NW."

I do suspect my relative satisfaction is due in part to my having 'only' watched a couple of hundred across the laserdisc/DVD/Blu/Hulu quadruple options, and thus not delved deep into many of those which I suspect I will not enjoy. Yet. (Or "ever"...)

I also do still quite pointedly filter out most things that I'm rather convinced will not appeal - only the extremes, though, I'll still often opt for some I'm on the fence about - partly because I don't want to waste my time, and partly because there's still so many I think I will like.

Snap. Of course, several of the classics I've watched over the last few Criterion years have also been action/adventure/comedy and even occasionally musicals, so...!

This year, it looks like I'll probably have watched half a dozen TV episodes (all new) - and mostly Jascha Heifetz teaching violin - and probably 90 films. Checking roughly, I think it'll be about 25 I'd seen before (at least three of which I'd forgotten I'd seen and thought were new...), so then about 60-65 completely new (of which about four were shorts).

Of all those, the only ones I've regretted watching were the first episode of Fishing With John (I thought it was meant to be whimsical and freeform conversation between two men in a rowboat, not occasional conversation under a narrator on a boat with a loud engine, and actually mostly about the fish...), the Hollis Frampton short which seemed pointless, People on Sunday (which also wasn't what I was expecting, mostly because I neglected to read the subtitle - the documentary was interesting, though) and Lola, which seemed too ordinary and cliched... and was harder to follow with white-on-white subtitles.

Maybe another half-dozen either weren't as good as I'd hoped (which is my fault as much as theirs), or only had occasional flashes of brilliance, or just failed to hold my complete interest at THIS time - Repo Man, Unfaithfully Yours, An Ideal Husband, The Love Goddesses (too much, too fast, too little information), House of Games (predictable), Design for Living (not as clever or witty as I'd hoped - perhaps for being Coward-rewritten rather than Coward-pure), maybe Sling Blade.

The rest were thoroughly enjoyable on at least one level: exciting, interesting, excellently acted/scripted/directed/all, funny, enlightening, etc., etc.

That said, it's probably only Fantastic Mr Fox, Rushmore, Being John Malkovich and the Bulldogs Drummond that stand head-and-shoulders above the crowd as highlights. But all the Korda/London films have been very enjoyable - particularly the Olivier ones - and The Man Who Could Work Miracles and Wedding Rehearsal both had exceptional (to me) main actors. Make Way for Tomorrow and In Which We Serve were so different from similar films that I was spellbound; I Married a Witch so clearly led to Bewitched that I was alternately put off and drawn in... I don't think it's been as great a year as last year for me, but it's still been pretty good!


Couldn't agree more. Indie, Art-y, and all those things. But I also get almost as annoyed with manufactured 'twists' or things apparently designed solely to sell a film in different places - so films that do something pointedly to make sure the Chinese will want to watch it, or that it will be seen outside of Poland, or whathaveyou.

Not confined to film, either. The number of books and comics that would have been significantly better had the authors/illustrators not wanted to "prove" that it's entertainment not-(just)-for-children, and therefore insert ADULT elements, rather than strong story ones... uncountable.

There's a fundamental difference between "adult entertainment" (plot, story, characterization, subtlety) and "ADULT entertainment for its own sake". There's also a difference between films that make no apologies and ones that try to pretend to be more than they are...

I had a very good challenge and got some stuff out of my unwatched list. I'm a big fan of the Criterion Collection and have amassed quite a few of their releases. I will say that I enjoy experimental, indie, and foreign cinema quite a bit. That being said, the films I ended up watching were mostly straightforward narratives. Borderline was the most experimental, telling a story through montages and loaded juxtapositions. I need to finish up my list and post more in-depth remarks later this week.

Thanks for a great challenge Cardiff. I ended up with a final total of 31, some movies, and some shows. That's not counting the bonus content. Most of my viewings were first time views too, though I didn't keep a tally, so I'd consider it a successful challenge.

I mostly stuck with re-watches of films I knew I'd enjoy this year. I think I ended up watching much more than I planned, need to sort through my stacks and finish my list before getting too engrossed in the Horror Challenge.

Loved my laserdisc experience last night, flipping discs every 40 minutes, neat!

I try to filter a bit too, some things I know I wouldn't be able to sit through, but a lot of times, the summary of a film doesn't really give you all the info that I need to figure that out. I know I'm missing a lot that I would enjoy, but sometimes the sheer number of Criterions is a bit daunting to go through and try to find something that appeals. Especially when you have to do a search on each title to find out more about it.

After a handful, I'm just ready watch something or frustrated because nothing is really calling to me to watch it. Something that would be nice is to have a list where the titles are divided by genre (I know that Criterion has themes, but they are pretty broad. If I'm in the mood for a musical, I'd like to see a list of Criterion musicals, for example).

Fishing With John was rec'd to me last year and while I didn't hate it, I was a bit bored with it. I was expecting something a little more exciting as well.

I ended up watching 13 movies this month, only one that I have watched before, so that's not too bad. I didn't really have any that I fell in love with, but I mostly enjoyed them all. I was hoping for a few more, but that just not happen. Oh well.

Thanks to CardiffGiant for hosting!