I feel like a "Gummo gatekeeper" would be holding the gate open, begging for someone, anyone to come watch the movie with them.

I kinda wish I hadn't...

I looked up the description and it said they spend their days hunting stray cats so I have zero interest whatsoever.

I'm beginning to move into my old man phase of thinking that maybe movies don't have to show every shitty behavior someone does, even if it's portrayed negatively. Maybe just show something else.

You just described my wife's view on watching movies but she has been that way her entire life.

I keep hoping Criterion will announce a 4K release of Pan's Labyrinth. I know there is a standard 4K UHD studio release out there, but I would prefer their touch on this movie with the prior extras they had plus new ones if possible. There has got to be one in the pipeline for them, right?

Not necessarily. Blu-ray rights and 4K rights are often separated these days.

LOL, same with my wife.
But as I get older, I think I'm catching up to her in that regard.

Viggo Mortensen, western fan :

Koji Yakusho had some good picks too, including one of his own.

Man, Criterion did a bang up job with Risky Business. It never looked or sounded better. When Phil Collins came on the bass really kicks in. It’s a glorious visual and audio spectacle. And, the movie is of course of legend. Cruise must have fixed his teeth after The Outsiders and before this. Great movie all around. Amazing soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. I’ve yet to get to extras, but it’s been a great trip thus far. Was the Blu-ray version.

It's been years and years since I last saw Gummo. Reading the plot description on wikipedia, I remember so little of it. That said, knowing it's fiction, despite the cat-violence, I want to see it again to see if it's still as disturbing.

The wiki has a Werner Herzog quote about it, saying he was "impressed by the bacon taped to the wall" in the bathtub scene.

CC40



This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition. CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology reflects the cinematic joys and inspirations of the creative community that makes the Criterion Collection possible.



The films: 8½ (1963), Tokyo Story (1953), All That Jazz (1979), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Repo Man (1984), Naked (1993), Jules and Jim (1962), Being There (1979), Weekend (1967), Yi Yi (2000), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Pickpocket (1959), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), On the Waterfront (1954), Do the Right Thing (1989), Ratcatcher (1999), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Mirror (1975), Barry Lyndon (1975), Safe (1995), Seconds (1966), His Girl Friday (1940), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Y tu mamá también (2001), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Love & Basketball (2000), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Ace in the Hole (1951), 3 Women (1977), The Red Shoes (1948), Down by Law (1986), La Ciénaga (2001), Wanda (1970), House (1977), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Battle of Algiers (1966), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Persona (1966), In the Mood for Love (2000)

BLU-RAY BOX SET AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 19
https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/7646-cc40

Huge missed opportunity by not including Citizen Kane or King Kong, their very first releases. Doesn’t seem like any early titles are represented there.

This collection is based on titles that are popular with guests who visit Criterion's closet. No one is pulling laserdiscs off the shelves in those videos.

Now I want to watch some Budd Boetticher Westerns, and I blame Viggo for it.

I don't understand who the target audience is for the CC40 set. Normal people won't drop that much on a set of movies, and the CC fans probably already have most of those movies already. The CC obsessives will get it but I cannot see it selling beyond that,

They need to do a Kurosawa blu-ray set instead along the lines of the Bergman set.

They said it's not a historical survey.

Yeah, I get with Kane or Kong aren't included but this point here is what I first thought of. I'm only a casual Criterion collector anymore and I don't have the vast majority of those, and I'm certainly not going to buy a box like this to get them.

I hope they have good market research showing that this will sell some units, I'd hate for something silly like this to give them a bad financial quarter if it doesn't sell.

That's a lot of money to drop when you know half those titles will eventually make the jump to 4K. Not sure what serious film collector would invest in this.

Criterion collectors who must own every single release. It's a release designed almost as much for marketing purposes as a legitimate profit maker. Most labels do something along those lines.

In 2024, there really can't be many of those hardcore Criterion collectors left.

When Criterion released the Martha Graham Dance on Film set I was on a DVD message board that doesn't exist anymore, and a lot of members on that board were complaining that they had to get it so they wouldn't have a skipped number. I said that I didn't understand buying something you have absolutely no interest in just cause it has a number on the spine and people got real upset with me about it. I guess this set appeals to the same group of people.

I could see them selling 27 copies to the hardcore fans, then taking advantage of the high price point to throw it into a Goldbox kind of deal and move the remaining 23 copies.

Right, but that was in 2007. As I mentioned earlier, those hardcore Criterion collectors surely would have shrunk considerably since then.
It's one thing to collect every spine number (even at #406) - but being at #1,200+ (or whatever they're at now) with many being re-purchased for the upgrade to Blu-Ray and/or 4K must've had many collectors waving their white flags. Nevermind that we're in inflationary times - making it even harder to justify these purchases.

It's a decent collection with mostly very solid titles - and the price per movie is good... but I can't see many dropping $640+ in one shot just for movies nowadays.

I don't know. The ones I was dealing with got upset when Criterion started releasing blu-rays because the case size was different and their shelves where they had them lined up by spine number would not be uniform. Their solution was to buy both the dvd and blu-ray versions which seems extreme for discs that have an SRP of $40. Then they started doing the dual format releases and they got mad about those being different.

Criterion has smartly stopped giving a shit about those people, by which I mean those who will never be satisfied by any changes they make.

I'm kinda wondering if Criterion is making these for folks in the industry to give as gifts or such. Someone like Spielberg or Lucas could buy a handful of these for friends and family or something like that.