Yeah, not sure what the issue is. It was just a joke, and not a terrible one. Not great, but Groucho funny.

Criterion movies are obscure and pretentious and weird. Haha.

-

The jokes are pretty lame, but I can live with stupid jokes. It's a bigger problem that the "humor" relies on stupid and ignorant cliches about the types of films Criterion releases and about foreign films in general (and he doesn't really seem to be subverting those cliches and misconceptions in any way, but rather perpetuating them, in the same way that this commercial from 20 years perpetuates them with the same type of humor.)

But it's really only his last post, when he pulls the "if people were as objective as me they would see that most of these movies are just trash!" card, that set me off.

seriously? Groucho literally makes me laugh out loud 50% of the time. and 90% of the time his jokes are ON POINT. this guy couldn't even muster a grin out of me.

Films like Life During Wartime might seems like they're only released because of the director, but there is another selling point: it's a new film. And any recent film probably generates more money than something like The Phantom Carriage. There are tons of retail and rental places that will stock almost anything as long as it's new. Movies like The Rock or Benjamin Button or The Life Acquatic may stand out as obvious cash cow titles, but can those few really pull the slack for all the titles like Apart from You, The Small Back Room and Berlin Alexanderplatz?

Sure, there are plenty of classics like Seven Samurai that pay for themselves. But there are dozens of other Kurosawa films that may not sell so well.

There are always people who will be interested in something that's new, no matter what it is.

Years ago I used to go to Hollywood Video with some friends. They would only ever look at the new releases. It made me nuts that they would ignore so many (better) films in other sections simply because they hadn't been released in the last five minutes.

I once asked someone if she wanted to see Annie Hall in the theater. Her response? "I don't want to pay to see an old movie."

I definitely agree that new films are probably automatically guaranteed more sales than a number of their "classic" releases, and that they have to have a certain number of "guaranteed" classics and new films to pay for a set of Naruse silents, etc. - I just sometimes wish they would choose different modern films to release (like the aforementioned Certified Copy and Police, Adjective.) Though, of course, Life During Wartime is entirely in English and that probably helps sales too.

Sad but true - Netflix only carries the newer Blu-rays that Criterion releases. 12 Angry Men, Salo and Harakiri are the only (pre-80's) Criterion catalog titles from 2011 that you can rent from them, which is ridiculous.

I do also notice that Amazon is no longer selling 12 Angry Men. It has one of their "Item Under Review" notices:

Item Under Review

While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!)

We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.


Anybody know what the deal is??


UPDATE: Well, it seems to be fine again. But it was like that for almost a week. I was just slow to post it! Wonder what the issue was.

It was too fucking much to handle the awesomeness of having 12 Angry Men via CC. They need to change their pants...even in India.

Weird about 12 Angry Men. I just noticed that Identification of a Woman has a $29.95 MSRP. Nice to see Criterion using the lower MSRP for a few titles.

Yeah, their recent barebones Blu-ray releases - The Makioka Sisters, The Moment of Truth, Three Outlaw Samurai, and the Antonioni - are only $29.95.

..wtf...they're barebones?! WTF.

Except for trailers, and an interview on The Moment of Truth - yes. If it's a choice between getting them with no extras or not getting them at all, I'm glad that we're getting them, and on BD - however, it seems like they could have at least scrounged up some extras for the Antonioni and the Ichikawa.

Agreed.

Last Temptation of Christ coming per Facebook hint.

Yes!! My most wanted (along with The Game).

The game.

Fantastic.

Has anybody tried the "My Criterion" thing on their site yet?

what are you talking about? A link would help cuz I can't find it somehow.

I just tried it now because I saw your post. Not bad. Pretty simple. Just a name, wishlist and collection.

http://www.criterion.com/my_criterion/61178-bob_bobbson

It's in the menu at the top right of their site. http://www.criterion.com/

oh...for some fucking reason...I did look at that..but just didn't actually pay attention to it.

Alright..worked w/ it. neat. Never noticed how many CC BDs I actually wanted. Damn.

I set up an account. Not too excited about adding 500 Criterions to the "my collection" section.

Liar. You're excited to nerd out at how awesome you are for owning them.

Haha... I was definitely during the DVD Aficionado days but now... meh.

Edit: Okay you win. Here's my link if anyone's interested. Loaded up 300 titles, will finish tomorrow.

Awesome.