guess they don't work on President's Day ...

C'mon..Third Man Re-release, Man Who Fell to Earth Re-release and Tokyo Olympiad. One can dream, right?

Ah. Not from the US here.

Those claiming it would be out a few months after the initial release were certainly jumping the gun. Criterion releases of both The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox came out years after the initial releases.

No surprises there.

In for Zissou.

I'm with Team Zissou.

The Criterion Red River looks stacked compared to the MoC version. Absolute buy for me.

Ace in the Hole and Life Aquatic.

No DVD with Life? So random.

Agreed. Rushmore (DVD) was pretty quick a decade ago.

I could be mistaken, but my guess is that while part of the "Criterion Collection," the Life Aquatic dvd is actually distributed by Disney (or whichever of their subsidiaries handles the film). That's why it's priced so much cheaper than normal Criterions. When it comes to the dvd, Criterion isn't really involved. The blu-ray, on the other hand, is distributed by Criterion themselves.

Why does he have to be dead to get a boxed set?

Tarantino got a boxed set. Not Criterion, but still.

Umm. Ok.

Overlord is the same way. I'm wondering if they're basing it off of the supply of dvd's they have.

I'm sure that's exactly the case. They probably don't anticipate selling out their existing supply of dvds anytime soon. I can't imagine something like Overlord is a huge seller. Contrast that with 400 Blows or Breathless which are probably two of their highest sellers. They've been switched to dual-format due to the fact that they're probably pressing new discs on a consistent basis. Peter Becker makes in very clear in the article on Criterion's website that Blu-ray only upgrades will happen from time to time. I also think they're still figuring all of this out as they go.

Also, I see a lot of used copies of the DVD of The Life Aquatic where I buy used discs. Only titles like Royal Tenenbaums, Chasing Amy, Armageddon, etc show up more. Also, it was released in a single disc and two disc versions, so there's a lot out there.

So what's up with the inconsistent packaging on these dual-formats?

City Lights was in a clear case that more-or-less fit the other Chaplin Criterions.

Now, I get Fantastic Mr. Fox and Foreign Correspondent and both are in cardboard fold-out packages with clear disc holders (2 on one side, 1 on the other) in cardboard slipcovers.

Don't get me wrong, they look nice, but are a bit of a shock because they are as wide on a shelf as the old fat 2-disc amaray cases and a little taller than standard blu-ray cases.

It also makes less sense for them to sell clear replacement cases and artwork for their earlier cardboard package releases (done to allow people have more consistent Criterion collections) if they're just going to switch things up again.



What's the pattern on packaging for the dual format releases so far?

City Lights is only 2 discs, thus it gets a plastic case. Anything 3 discs or more gets a cardboard digipack at this point. I can't speak to the size of the 3 disc digipacks, as I haven't seen one yet. Are they significantly bigger than say, Seven Samurai or Night of the Hunter? It wouldn't surprise me if Criterion comes up with a 3 disc plastic case at some point, but it would have to be pretty wide to accommodate the typical Criterion booklet.

I've seen DVD sized 3 disc case (the second X-Files movie comes to mind), but a booklet would be an extremely tight fit.


I've also seen several 3 disc Bluray cases, so not sure why Criterion couldn't get access to those either.

yeah if the dual format needs 2 dvds, you get the cardboard cases. If there is only one dvd, you get the City Lights type packaging.

is Red River a good blind buy?

Hell yeah, it's a great film. If you halfway like John Wayne, you'll think it's one of his best. He gets to be a kind of "bad guy" similar to Ethan in The Searchers. Those roles suit him best.