Paul_SD

We're a little over a month past the midway point of the year, but the release this past week of the Demy Criterion set had me musing on just how many pretty damn spectacular releases this year has seen (for my taste, anyway).

In addition to spectacular renditions of Demy's greatest films, there was the Todd AO version of Oklahoma! mastered at 30 fps...a home video holy grail since the dawn of home video- not to mention finally getting all the other R&H films to boot.
Other titles long awaited- an OAR version of Sorcerer; a almost complete reconstruction of the roadshow version of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Mann's Thief, The Region A releases of Touch Of Evil and Double Indemnity, Ace In The Hole; The remaining truly great Woody Allen movies including Crimes & Misdemeanors- and a personal favorite The Front; and pretty much the entire Herzog catalog.

I don't miss any opportunity to bitch and moan, but to be honest, this year so far has been absolutely bountiful in terms of great content. Just a matter of choosing to focus on what's been released instead of what hasn't yet.

So how about you guys. Any standouts for you so far?
Anything to make you not the least bit remorseful for dropping coin on this hobby?

just to make it a little more concrete, here's 10 releases that I am extremely thankful for. All time favorites that I've been waiting 8 long years for. And I could have easily stretched the list out to twenty.

1) The Essential Jacques Demy
2) The Rogers & Hammerstein Collection
3) Nosferatu The Vampyre
4) Sorcerer
5) Somewhere In Time
6) All That Heaven Allows
7) The Swimmer
8) Aguirre Wrath Of God
9) Norma Rae
10) Tess

mattysemo247

Frozen, Catching Fire, and Captain Phillips for me. Haven't watched GOT S3 or True Detective yet, but I'm sure those would be up there as well.

Solid Snake

Thief and Sorcerer. Those are the biggest deal to me.

I'd never seen Picnic at Hanging Rock from the B&N sale. Great Blind buy.

Why So Blu?

Yeah, Sorcerer and the Herzog collection are going on my top-10. There will be more, though.

gryffinmaster

Along with others already mentioned :

hdnmickey

The Spectacular Spider-Man - The Complete Series
Robocop (1987)
The Jungle Book
A Hard Days Night
Thief
IAMMMMW
King of Comedy
Breaking The Waves

gryffinmaster

Forgot about that one, since it was released so early this year. Definitely.

Solid Snake

Fucking forgot RoboCop.

400 Blows has been out for a long while on BD. How is that a standout release for this year? Also how is that Spider-Man set a standout? Or was it like a miracle to even come out or something?

hdnmickey

The information I had for 400 Blows BD showed a release date of April 2014. But I see that info was wrong and I don't know where they found that date. I only got it during the recent B&N sale. Edited original list.

Paul_SD

Should have been clearer in the qualifications- It doesn't have to be a loaded release. As long as it was released in the first 7 months of 2014, and it's a title you value highly for whatever reason, that makes it a standout.

Somewhere in Time is nothing special in terms of extra features- and may even be gimped from the DVD. But it never got an anamorphic DVD release, and because of the style of the cinematography, it's never looked all that good on home video- until now.
A favorite film + beautiful presentation = one of the best releases of the year so far for me.

My Other Self

RoboCop (1987)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid)
The Wolf of Wall Street

I haven't bought a whole lot this year I guess.

zyzzle

SORCERER, ROBOCOP, and THIEF (color timing notwitstanding) for me.

Shout and Arrow continue to give catalog horror films the Blu treatment in 2014, which is always a great thing. So, this great privilege is also a standout.

PhantomStranger

Don't forget The Agony & The Ecstasy, one of the best film transfers seen this year.

Why So Blu?

'Visitors' from Godfrey Reggio is spectacular.

Shagrath

400 Blows went out of print for a brief time and then Criterion re-released it when they went to dual-format releases.

I have a feeling we'll see lots of OOP comments for Criterions since future printings will no longer be dual-format.

hanshotfirst1138

I tried asking about the OOP releases on the Criterion Forum, but for the 12th time, the moderators wouldn't approve my post Maybe before hell freezes over, they'll actually let me post there. I think of the distributors with whom they collaborate had a disagreement with them or an expired licensing agreement, and quite a few discs are going OOP.

OldBoy

Solid Snake

Well I hope we keep up with the news here cuz sometimes that shit escapes CC. LOVE my BD of The Third Man.

hanshotfirst1138

Yeah, I bet you do, that motherfucker is expensive.

Fielding Mellish

It's be even greater if we could buy it for less that $50. God, I hate limited releases.

Paul_SD

It's $36 on Amazon from SAE as a third party seller...and they ship internationally.

Solid Snake

It is. And still its value doesn't make me want to sell it. It's just a really good BD. I actually had never seen the film before but it going OOP and what I heard of it made me get it ASAP. Really good movie. Probably one I find very unique out of all my BD collection.

inri222

Trouble Every Day (Yeah I know it's a DVD, so fucking what. I'm just glad that this is finally available.)
Sorcerer
Twin Peaks 'The Entire Mystery'

hdnmickey

Even with all the color timing issues? Not that I would be able to spot them. I never watched the show during it's first run. Seen the movie, but barely remember it.

Jory

For me, Nosferatu the Vampyre and RoboCop. Also, the new Godzilla movie getting a lot of the old stuff released on Blu-ray has been nice, and it'll continue into August and September and hopefully even after that. Surely Godzilla 1985 will get released at some point before William is fucking King of England.