Noirfan,

I would put I Live in Fear, The Lower Depths, The Quiet Duel, Scandal (and the horror) Throne of Blood and Ikiru below Kagemusha.

Personal taste of course but I have always found the latter two to be not as brilliant as they are reviewed.

Having said that, all of the above films are at least good and the comparison is only relative.

Watched White Material today, great film. I wish there were more features and more of a discussion about it.

That Criterion closet is one closet I wouldn't mind going in and staying for awhile. Where do I get my visitor's pass?

Although it is awesome to see these directors going in and getting movies and discussing their thoughts....but personally if I were in the business I would buy them all on release day as they come out! (As I'm sure many other Talkers would...)

Those kinds of people are usually working all the time. The successful, working people are typically pulling 12+ hour days. And the ones that aren't working likely couldn't afford to buy Criterions.

I tried the business for a little while but didn't like not knowing where or when my next paycheck would come from. I think it's much easier for 9-5ers like most of us to keep track of the movies than the business folk.

Blu-ray.com review of Pale Flower

I buy a lot of Criterions but who wouldn't mind being handed a grab bag and the keys to the closet? Yes, those that work can buy movies but if Criterion is handing them out then why not take some that you don't have. I'm not one to spend my money on every single Criterion release out there just because they exist.

I do because I'm crazy. The downside is that since so little of worth is coming out from other studios at the moment, my backlog is nothing but Criterions. I think I was six deep until watching Blow Out last night. The other downside is seeing Amazon post insane sale prices for Criterions I've already bought for $27.99 but haven't actually watched yet.

Yeah I used to buy all of the Criterion BDs, when it was around 2 a month, but now I can't keep up.

If I play hard and spend around $450 this upcoming BN Criterion sale, then I will own all of the Criterion BDs through July of this year. Of course, with the release schedule, I'll be out of date within a few weeks.

I they let me in that closet I would sure as shit own them all by the end of the day.

not Criterion news per se, but tonight at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in LA is a digital presentation of 'Spartacus' via 4K DLP technology:

SPARTACUS (1960)
Director - Stanley Kubrick

Running Time: 3hr - 20mins
Digital Cinema

~~

okay what's the story here, did Universal actual do a new transfer or did they throw the shoddy inferior bluray hidef transfer onto 4K harddrive form?

hmmm.....

hmmm.....

I don't understand why people would own or want to own the entire Criterion catalog - there is no way you like every film they have released, is it because of the brand or what?

When I see the people on facebook post pictures of their collection and its all neatly organized with the bulk of titles unopened - it drives me insane.... BUT if you do enjoy every film in the catalog, more power to you I guess.

Off to watch Modern Times again.

From what I've seen, I'd venture that the brand has something to do with it, along with the whole "Collection" aspect of it.

With that said, regardless of whether you love or hate the films, I do think every film in the collection is worth watching at least once.

I have the whole collection minus some new releases. I also own about 1400 other films.

Was Criterion the first to put a spine number on their products? That was really genius as it really was driving the compulsive in me to by all their releases. I stopped as there there were too many I didn't need. When I was collecting the DVD ones, I couldn't resist selling some of them when they hit certain prices when oop.

I love CC as a whole. I also love some of their films. NOT all but a good chunk of them. Most of the ones on BD... I actually like and got. Now if you asked me about the DVDs they had....I had about 40 or 50. I had all their Kurosawa films. Their new films in the CC are the ones I'm especially attracted to as of late.

DVDBeaver on Something Wild: "The image quality frequently appears just brilliant. This is dual-layered with an astronomic bit rate and may be one of the best transfer ever for an 80's film."

I hope they're right. My mouth waters already.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-r...ld_blu-ray.htm

I have enjoyed practically everything I've seen from Criterion. There are a couple that I've enjoyed less, i.e. Jubilee, but even those I feel I should come back and give another try. Plus, if I don't like something, as long as I'm buying them for a good price, if I want to sell them, I should recoup most of my money.

The one exception to that is the unopened 2nd copy of America Lost & Found. I should have been able to easily get $80 out of it, but people around here don't want to pay what they'd pay from Amazon and in the time since it was released, Amazon has fucking killed me on this set by repeatedly making this one of the only Criterion titles to get deep deep discount sales numerous times.

Trust in the fact that there are far less worthwhile and non-engaging things to collect -- not to mention blow one's money on -- than classic films on Blu-ray and DVD. While I understand and somewhat agree with your sentiment (I'm a film lover, not a collector), I also understand the urge to build a substantial library while in the gather-to-completion mindset, and I don't think those who opt to collect cinema over something else should feel bad about it in the slightest.

Although it has the weakest array of extras for any Criterion Blu-ray yet. All the principles are still with us, which makes their lack of participation all the more disappointing. I wasn't planning on buying it either way, but hardcore fans of the film must be a bit bummed.

Blu-ray.com review of The Great Dictator

I don't buy a lot of Criterions but I have been waiting anxiously for this one. The quality of the extras us disappointing but it will do.

I would certainly have liked more extras on Something Wild since I do love the film. But it hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for the BD that much. This is not a title that Fox/MGM would probably have given a BD release at all, so I'm definitely stoked to see it in Criterion quality.

DVD Beaver on Fear and Loathing

uh..that's not for the CC BD....it's for the universal.