There are certainly a few outright dogs in the Criterion Collection, and a fair number of movies that I don't personally care for despite whatever attention or acclaim they've gotten elsewhere, but in general I find that Criterion at least tries to pick movies that are interesting for some reason - either as art or for historical value.

The appeal of blind-buying Criterion discs is the sense that someone with wider film knowledge than yourself is curating a list of movies worth seeing. For many of them, you might not have ever had to the chance to be exposed to them previously until Criterion brought them to your attention. You may not like them all, but broadly speaking, watching them will help to expand your film horizons.

Don't you find that at all limiting?

To me it seems like the very smart thing to do. The only thing he's limiting is the amount of money potentially thrown away on something he shouldn't have bought.

Nowadays it's so much easier to watch a movie you've never seen before buying it. Why roll the dice on a movie that can cost $25-$50 only to find out you might not like it?

For me the Criterion label is very niche. I don't own that many but from the ones that I have seen released, I don't think many of them have multiple replay value.

So I can see how some don't find the prices appealing ($20-25+) at all to make that kind of investment and maybe watch the disc once and then toss it in the closet or shelf for years.

I have the Criterion DVD for Ran, which is considered one of Kurosawa's best movies. But, it's a super slow burn samurai movie that's like close to 3 hours long. Plus, there's like 2 1/2 hours of extras on the disc. Am I really going to devote that kind of time to watch the movie and all the extras? I've seen Ran maybe twice once on VHS and once on my disc. I doubt I'm going to watch it again anytime soon. I'd rather watch something new instead. There's endless new content coming out month after month. I mean I'm glad I own it as it's a big piece of film history.

Criterion has such a wide breadth and scope to their catalog, I can't imagine making broad generalizations like that. Ok, so Ran may not be totally re-watchable, but what does that have to do with just about anything else they have put out? For every Ran there is a Rushmore. For every Salo there's an Umbrellas of Cherbourg. For every Andrei Rublev there's a Night Train to Munich. You get the point. I mean, blind buy or don't blind buy, I get all the arguments either way, but trying to put Criterion's catalog into a tidy little box like that seems pretty reductive to me.

If I were to divide my collection into actual re-watch hours by studio, I'm quite sure Criterion would win by a country mile. To each their own, though.

I didn't mean to generalize. I know Coral here is a minority. For every 1 of him who say they won't spend more than $5 on BDs and him saying that Criterions aren't worth that kind of money, there are 20 others who love this label and it's releases.

He's the clear minority.

I like specialty catalog titles too like Shout/Scream Factory. But, then again not every Shout/Scream is worth the asking price and that's how I also feel about Criterion. I'm sure there are plenty of other great Criterion titles that are much more re-watchable than Ran. Maybe a slow burn Japanese period piece isn't the best example of a Criterion title.

Not the slightest bit limiting.
In the olden days, pre-DVD, I would rent videos with a passion and buy LDs of those films I liked. When DVDs came around, I blind-bought some, but I have found over the years that, on average, I like about 1/6 of the films I see enough to warrant owning them, so blind-buying, which was never an attractive proposition to begin with, is especially so now that I have very little disposable income.
Besides, the films that interest me don't tend to be released on DVD or BD, which is a great shame. There are so many incredible films out there that no one knows about. I still prefer to own physical copies of films I like or love.

Back in 98/99/00, Borders was the only place that really carried a huge selection of movies. Best Buy had some, but Borders...damn. I remember spending $40 several times on Criterions that were just not available locally. Even online those type of movies commanded high price tags.

Suncoast also had a big selection but they were always MSRP + additional. Great horror selection.

Back in the early days it was easy to get cheap DVDs of common titles thanks to DVDTalk.

That was the case for me. For quite a few years, I bought every single Criterion release, and while there were a fair number that were very much not for me (In the Realm of the Senses, Salo, and the Trilogy of Life immediately come to mind), I was introduced to quite a lot that I greatly enjoyed and wouldn't have seen otherwise. Leading up to getting married, I just no longer had the time or money. (...and while I've watched all of the Criterion titles I've picked up over the past couple of years, there are films from sales from several years ago that I still haven't gotten around to and possibly never will.)

I admit I've fallen into the trap of buying titles just because they had the Criterion label, and I wanted to bring some "class" to my collection. I do make sure to wait for the sales and I pick up used ones all the time.

But I'm casting a more critical eye at my purchases these days. I've got a collection of over 1500 DVDs and Blus, with a large percentage of them unwatched. And I'm running out of physical shelf space to put them (we're in a condo, so no room to expand). I need to watch some of the older DVDs to see if they both hold up as films I enjoy, and if the picture quality is acceptable on my current 60" screen (many were bought back when I had a 29" 4x3 tube TV).

But as for Criterion re-watchibility? I kid you not The Fantastic Mr. Fox is my most watched Criterion title (I even upgraded to the Criterion Blu from the regular Blu release).

I only buy Criterion titles I’m interested in and don’t really have a whole ton of them. I don’t have much interest in foreign films or the more art house titles they release. I appreciate the care and effort they put in and when I buy their discs I know I’m getting a quality release but I don’t buy just because of the Criterion label. This upcoming Tuesday will be the most I’ve purchased from them in a long time and it’s just two releases (Night of the Living Dead and The Silence of the Lambs).

I assume this will make its way to disc:

Janus Films to Release Olivier Assayas’ 4K-Restored ‘Cold Water’ in the U.S. (EXCLUSIVE)
http://variety.com/2018/film/global/...ve-1202692161/

I love your shelving. Great work.

#shelvinggoals

I never went overboard buying Criterions on DVD, but I do have about 70 on blu-ray. Nearly all were blind buys, but I cut out doing that a few years ago. I do trust that a film will have some artistic or cultural value if it's selected for a Criterion edition, but art is subjective and everyone has different tastes. I always tried to do my research to make sure each movie I bought was something I'd find appealing.

These days, I'm not as willing to roll the dice just because the case has a blue sticker and spine number. That said, I don't really regret what I've picked up so far. I think Vanya on 42nd Street was the only title I immediately sold off because I knew I'd never bother watching it again. Only a handful (House, Brazil, Crumb, Grey Gardens) have high replay value for me, but it's appealing as a collector to own such beautifully restored editions of many classic films -- even if most of them are just gathering dust on my shelf.

I remember in the early days, when there were fewer than 100 titles available, there was a certain cult of collectors who had to have every spine number Criterion released. This was back when some titles went OOP quickly, and the ultra-rare Salo DVD was selling for $1,200 on the secondary market.

Nowadays, with spine number 1,000 not that far out, it has become burdensomely expensive and impractical for most.

Thanks. I posted some other pics in the DVDTalk "show your collection thread".

I've purchased many Criterions sight unseen - sometimes it's as much for the experience that their publishing brings as the movie itself. Getting them at a bargain is not as simple as it used to be so it's tempered my enthusiasm a bit. But I have to admit I've discovered films that I love this way as much as any other way.

Indeed, awesome. Wish I had the room to display like that. I like my drawers and really just my hobby and if I displayed I know my friends and family would have me committed. They don’t even know my sickness...

Criterion Flash sale is live! Promo code is GOLD in caps.

Watched my copy of Silence of the Lambs and this thing is a reference BD. I've yet to dig into the special features but the PQ is phenomenal.

Yet another fine recent example from a 4K source that makes me continue to wish Criterion would get up off of their butts and include a UHD disc with their new releases so we could have something truly definitive.

I'm not sure it would be worth the effort for them.
Criterion consumers who've adopted UHD-BD would be a very small niche of a small niche.

It wouldn't require that much effort. They're already working from a 4K master in these cases and the additional costs of UHD replication are pretty insubstantial. No need for a separate SKU; just make a combo-pack like they used to with DVD. I'm sure a lot of people would jump into UHD specifically if Criterion got on board. This is a premium brand charging premium prices- they need to step up their offering.

By "effort", I actually mean cost.

I agree that they need to step up their game because of the prices they charge, but adding to their cost with an extra disc (and certainly a UHD-BD disc is more expensive to make than DVD or BD) isn't going to be offset by the extra revenue.

In an era of declining sales for physical media, Criterion needs to drop their prices altogether, which means they'll need to reduce their cost instead of increasing it.

And I'm not seeing many people on the Criterion forum clamoring for UHD-BD, unlike when BD was released - many forum members were anxious for Criterion to jump aboard.