Do you own any Criterion Collection DVD's?

[Guest teke184]

I own one, The Royal Tenenbaums, and it's simply outstanding in every way. I was just wondering if all of the Criterion Collection DVD's are like this, or just a select few. While we're at it, which ones do you own?

 

Are the DVD's in their line simply DVD's that would not get a special release otherwise, or just what is the deal?

 

Sincerely,

...Downhome...

Some of these movies are deluxe special editions of movies which are only offered in bare-bones form by the company who owns the film. The companies who tend to lease out their movies to Criterion are Buena Vista (Rushmore, Royal Tennenbaums, Chasing Amy, Rock, Armageddon), Universal (Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), and Anchor Bay (Life of Brian)

 

 

 

Others, like The Long Good Friday, Kwaidan, Insomnia (European version), and The Vanishing (European version) are not exactly packed with extras but are films that may still be waiting to come out on DVD if Criterion hadn't picked them up. (Vanishing is an exception... Image Entertainment had it for a while and released it as a bare bones DVD)

 

 

The Criterions I recommend that you may not have heard of are:

 

Long Good Friday (EXCELLENT British gangster movie with Bob Hoskins)

 

Wages of Fear (Drifters in backwater South America are given trucks full of nitroglycerine to deliver to an out of control oil fire. The slightest bump can cause the trucks to explode)

 

The Harder They Come (The story of a young Jamaican, played by reggae star Jimmy Cliff, who tries to become a recording artist but, instead, falls into a life of crime)

 

Kwaidan (A Japanese anthology of ghost stories)

 

Withnail and I (Two drunk and drugged up out of work actors in London during the 1960s take a weekend trip out to the country)

 

The Ruling Class (When a British lord dies, he bequeaths his properties and title to his son (Peter O'Toole)... who is under the delusion that he's Jesus Christ)

 

Last Wave (A lawyer in Australia defending several Aborigines accused of murder keeps having strange visions of water and flooding)

 

Man Bites Dog (The movie that probably inspired the Blair Witch Project. A team of filmmakers follows around a man named Benoit who happens to be a serial killer.)

[Guest godthedog]

Since I got the Antoine Donel collection, which has a new version of 400 Blows, the only Criterions I don't have are The Killer and Salo. Neither of those will be easy to find at an affordable price, either.

criterion has an antoine doinel collection? when did this happen?

 

and does it include that elusive short, 'antoine & colette'?

[Guest teke184]

The set has 400 Blows, Antoine and Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run, and a disc full of additional extras. The set was released some time in the past month.

Edited May 23, 2003 by teke184

[Guest IDrinkRatsMilk]

Salo - the crown jewel of my collection, no features, but you still probably won't be able to find it for less than $200

Holy shit dude! Where'd you get a hold of that? I've never even seen one in real life outside of bootleg eBay auctions (although allegedly there's a copy in the campus library, need to see if there's a way to sneak it out since only faculty can check out movies).

 

Also, how's Flesh for Frankenstein the movie? I've got that and Blood for Dracula in my Netflix queues, but it'll be at least a month before I get that far down to seeing 'em.

I got it from a friend of a friend who deals in dvd rarities. Picked up Salo and Cannibal Holocaust, only $70 for the two of them, and I was damn lucky.

 

Flesh for Frankenstein is indeed not fantastic, but if you have a taste for wacked out shock value gore movies as I do, you'll like it alright. Plus, I'm a fan of Udo Kier.

[Guest DVD Spree]

I just want to point out, since it's been mentioned a couple times, the OOP Criterion RoboCop blows compared to the region-2 MGM version. My review's up on the site somewhere, but here's a more direct comparison:

 

Criterion:

Good commentary track, but th participants are all recorded separately, and they're all a bit too serious. That said, Ed Neumier (sp?) isn't NEARLY as whiny and irritating a little prick as he is on MGM's. There are storyobards of a couple of unshot scenes taht aren't on the MGM disc. The picture and sound are good, but not quite as colourful as MGM. There's the original trailer, set to the Terminator score. Also, you can ONLY have the X-rated cut.

 

MGM:

The commentary is more fun and anecdotal - perhaps a little less informative than Criterion's, but less stiff and more fun to listen to. There is the awesome, awesome, awesome 'Flesh and Steel' retrospective documentary (made by the same company who did the 'I Ain't Got Time To Bleed' doc on the R2 Predator SE disc), and is one of the best reasons to buy the disc. There are also two original featurettes from the film's '80s release, two trailers (including the Terminator-scored one), plus a number of deleted scenes, including more snippets from the "I'd buy that for a dollar!" guy's show, 'It's Not My Fault!'. The sound and picture are great, and you can choose the theatrical and X-rated cut.

 

The MGM RoboCop:SE is only available as part of the RoboCop Trilogy in the UK, but it's going cheap just about everywhere and is certainly cheaper than getting teh Criterion off eBay. Try http://www.play.com

 

And just to contribute to the topic, Criterion DVDs are generally great, but there are so many houses that put out great discs now, their "stamp of greatness" really doesn't mean as much as it did.

[The Dames 0]

Spree, you're definitely right on that one. I bought the Criterion version of RoboCop because I figured it would be the best version out there and was mighty disappointed in the lack of extras. The X rated version is the only way to go, but I can see the desire to have both.

 

Dames

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Regarding Criterion's commentaries, I've read a lot of them are recorded separately and edited together. Is there a reason they do this? I'm guessing the obvious reason is because they can't get all participants into the studio at once, but doesn't that severely disrupt the flow of a commentary track? I mean it's not like they can really interact with the other snippets of commentary... or can they? I've never heard one of the edited together commentaries so I don't know.

[Guest DVD Spree]

Regarding Criterion's commentaries, I've read a lot of them are recorded separately and edited together. Is there a reason they do this? I'm guessing the obvious reason is because they can't get all participants into the studio at once, but doesn't that severely disrupt the flow of a commentary track? I mean it's not like they can really interact with the other snippets of commentary... or can they? I've never heard one of the edited together commentaries so I don't know.

 

It's kind of a mixed blessing.

 

You're right - the edited commentaries (which aren't just on Criterion discs - there's a bunch of DVDs with either interview footage or seperate commentaries spliced together, like Blade 1 or Terminator 2) are very solitary. On the one hand, this means the participants don't interact with each others' comments, meaning that the anecdotes and comradery doesn't shine through, and if someone isn't very talkative, they really don't add much. On the other, it does allow participants to share specific stories and comments uninterrupted, which can be very enlightening.

 

Group commentaries are generally more fun - Kevin SMith tracks are a good example. The problem is that, while talkative people can often coax contributions from their shyer commentators, more often than not, people get drowned out by the more dominant speakers. In addition, everyone is usually too caught up in the moment and having fun with their buddies, and sometimes the tracks can be entertaining to listen to, but reveal very little information.

 

So really, there's not a clear winner. The two Robo commentaries are a good example - the Criterion edited commentary is more informative, but pretty dry to listen to. The MGM one is more anecdotal and fun, but reveals slightly less info.