Hmm, I'll try to find it on streaming.

I only watched it once, because the day I was going to watch it came on probably the worst day of my fucking life, so I've put off a second viewing and even a 4k disc might just ignored by me at this point.

Citizen Kane
Menace II Society
The Piano
Mulholland Dr.
The Red Shoes
A Hard Day’s Night

That's an interesting spread of titles, but none that really interest me. Mulholland Dr might, but I already have it on blu-ray. It will have to be a huge upgrade over the blu-ray to get me to bite. I've been getting a lot more bearish on my movie purchases, and am generally reluctant to upgrade anything from blu-ray to 4K unless it's an absolute must-have classic like Alien, Blade Runner, LOTR, or 2001 A Space Odyssey.

The only film in that list that I’m really champing at the bit to experience in UHD is The Red Shoes: Technicolor + HDR (assuming that applies here) is a siren song I can’t resist. And hopefully Black Narcissus isn’t far off. A Matter of Life and Death has a 4K master ready to go, if Sony’s willing to share.

Mulholland Dr. is up there for me as well, although it’s less “Lynch in UHD!” so much as “I kept meaning to pick up the Criterion BD but never did!”

It’s a respectable selection, but I kind of wish they hadn’t limited themselves exclusively to English language films, half of which were produced in the space of a few years. (Okay, maybe I’m being too generous using “few” to cover 1993-2001, but whatever.) It would’ve been nice to see at least one iconic Janus title in there, especially with the BFI putting out The Seventh Seal alongside Criterion’s opening salvo.

TRS better get HDR. That will be a must upgrade. So good.

I'm operating under the assumption that The Red Shoes will not be getting HDR. The press release indicated that not every title would get it and the restoration for Red Shoes is well over a decade old at this point. Not to say it's impossible to do an HDR pass on it, but maybe I'm just trying to manage expectations.

It wouldn't be unprecedented; The Ten Commandments is based on an 11 year old scan, for instance, and still got an HDR pass.

I'm tempted to think that Criterion will only include HDR when there's direct filmmaker involvement or if it's supplied by a licensor, neither of which would be in the cards for The Red Shoes. (Unless someone like Scorsese were to advocate for it.) And maybe that's why there are several films from the past 20-30 years -- because directors/DPs are still around to approve those HDR grades.

I hope that's not the case, though. I can imagine Citizen Kane being SDR-only, given that the only remaining elements aren't particularly high-contrast anyway, but The Red Shoes would just be jaw-dropping in ways I can't even wrap my head around in HDR.

Never seen The Red Shoes, so this will be a great way to dive in. If we're talking more Powell and Pressburger in 4K, let me get The Thief of Bagdad next.

Once Upon a Time in China

No DVD version of the new (not already in collection) 4K titles. There will be Blu-ray editions and combo UHD/Blu editions. MSRP is $49.96. Kane is $59.96.

interesting cover art choice for Citizen Kane...

Too bad it doesn't seem to include The Battle over Citizen Kane doc.

Yeah, I was going to say... that's notably absent.

Nice to see all three UHD titles for November have Dolby Vision HDR, not that that's a deciding factor for me, personally.
I think, with their initial announcement, they didn't want people to expect it on every title... but they'll include it whenever they can. So The Red Shoes still has a chance!

The Once Upon a Time in China set is missing the final film Once Upon a Time in China and America.

And MSRP-wise, it looks like the standard for UHD releases will be $50 (although the four-disc Kane set will be $60). And since they come out in November, presumably we can pick up all 3 at Barnes and Noble for $80 + tax!

I think we should have a separate Criterion releases on 4K thread now.

So is not a complete collection? That sucks.

Not it isn't. It is a special feature, just like it is on the Eureka set.

It is a complete collection.

Ah my bad. I missed that.

By the way they worded the 4k announcement, I thought we would only get CK in November. Very happy about that and definitely will pick them up during the B&N sale.

Well, technically it isn't, since it leaves out Part IV – which continues the story from Part III – and Part V, which returns Tsui Hark to the director's chair (in addition to producing and writing as usual) and is one of the best movies of the series. I get that the UK and, now, the Criterion sets are based primarily on Jet Li's interpretation of the character and not Vincent Zhao's take, but keeping IV and V out of circulation for this long really denies newer fans (and even some older ones) the opportunity to see the truly complete series. Its doubly frustrating because all give films were made by the same production companies (Paragon Films and Tsui's Film Workshop) and distributed by Golden Harvest, so you know the elements exist to get them back into circulation, but it's like all involved seem to willfully deny they exist.

On the plus side, there seems to be some differences in supplements between the Criterion set and the UK collections, which means purchases of the latter weren't in vain. Curious to see if that holds true once 88 Films and Eureka start releasing their already-available HK titles in North America. Doubtful.

Not sure I understand what you’re talking about. The Criterion set includes all 6 films.

Oops. My bad. I hadn't looked at the whole listing at the time, so I happily stand corrected. And still happy to keep the UK sets for their unique extras, though it still raises the question of why Eureka didn't bother with IV and V.

Now the only thing I might have left to moan about is what appears to be another crappy cardboard gatefold box similar to the Bruce Lee set.

The Menace II Society specs:

Details!:

https://www.criterion.com/films/31502-menace-ii-society

"New 4K digital restoration of the directors’ cut of the film, supervised by cinematographer Lisa Rinzler and codirector Albert Hughes, with 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Original 2.0 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio

Two audio commentaries from 1993 featuring directors Albert and Allen Hughes

Gangsta Vision, a 2009 featurette on the making of the film

New conversation among Albert Hughes, screenwriter Tyger Williams, and film critic Elvis Mitchell

New conversation among Allen Hughes, actor and filmmaker Bill Duke, and Mitchell

Interview from 1993 with the directors

Deleted scenes

Film-to-storyboard comparison

Trailer

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

PLUS: An essay by film critic Craig D. Lindsey"

If you find the letter K that interesting. I find it pretty boring.