Criterion Goes Blu!!! - Page 6

Hilarious, dude!

You're 100% on point!!

Last time I checked, the Weinsteins took them when they left Miramax. "Hard Boiled" is on Blu-ray if you have the PS3 game "Stranglehold: CE", and it was signed off by The Weinstein Company.

IIRC, the Weinsteins when they ran Miramax were the real problem. Harvey's not nicknamed "Scissorhands" for nothin'.

Well, that is one kind of windowboxing, but there is another. When a film is formatted to display on a screen in its proper aspect ratio (in this case lets say a 16x9 screen) but the image is made smaller to ensure that the entirety of the picture (or as much as possible) is visible on screens with overscan, resulting in black bars on all sides.

I'm going to have to disagree on the analogy. I'll argue that these films are the equivalent of indie music, and at the end of the day I'd rather listen to the Dirtbombs and the Kills than the Stone Temple Pilots.

I'd rather have diversity and listen to anything i like....Same goes for movies....One day i'll watch Armageddon....Next day i might watch The Seven Samurai......I have never understood those who think its impossible to like all sorts of movies.....You can say to some people "Oh i'm going to watch Armageddon tonight" and they automatically assume you are incapable of enjoying The Third Man....I find that snobbery just total ignorance...True film fans will watch anything ( they might not enjoy everything they watch but they watch it nonetheless )

100% agree.

I even like my fair share of rom coms...

Personally I draw the line at The Stepford Wives remake.

I never said I only watch (or listen to) one type of movie (or music). Just because I prefer one type over another doesn't mean I'm a snob or ignorant. Get over yourself.

It's a great film and I have the Criterion SD DVD, but I'm not sure the video will benefit that much from the extra resolution. I'm sure the audio will sound great, however.

I'll probably sell the SD DVD on Ebay, and pick this up for a few extra bucks. The Criterion SD DVD's tend to hold their value pretty well. I'll probably do the same for The Third Man, but I don't watch For All Mankind enough to upgrade that.

I may get Bottle Rocket also as I like that film. I haven't seen The Last Emperor since it came out theatrically when I was 8, so I don't remember it well at all. Everyone raves about it, so I might pick up the box.

This is great news. I will be buying Chungking Express, its one of my favorite movies ever and I need it on Blu!

I wonder why they chose Bottle Rocket over Rushmore. Great movies both, but if I had to choose one...

Well Bottle Rocket has never had a Criterion release. They'd been talking about doing one for some time, and the studio-released DVD is now out-of-print, so it must have seemed like a good time.

I forgot about them taking those with them. My bad.

The Dragon Dynasty Hard Boiled transfer is completely ****ed up. It's squished and the color is off. Plus it is dubtitled. It's a complete POS. The Stranglehold version is not even 1080p. It's taken from a 480p downconvert of the 1080p master.

Obviously we all have different tastes in movies and there are likely few who will buy all of these initial releases, but Criterion brings a certain demographic with it, as well as a superlative history of high-quality releases of high-quality films. This is excellent news and announcements like this -- and Kino -- are what will happen now that the major studios are all on board with Blu-Ray. It shows a confidence in the format and the expanding diversity of the types of titles released on the format will help bring in new Blu-Ray buyers, which will further help bring about the deep library we all hope to see.

This is happening much quicker than many suspected, I might note.

Well, technically it's "Les quatre cent coups"; and I just picked up the recent re-mastering. Oh well, be really cool to see Chungking Express, in HD, which I did originally see in the theaters. But it does seem Criterion tried to do a good mix of films to come out, as many lists of 'to buy' don't always have overlap.

Now can we start getting Greenaway's stuff released. I vowed I would wait on Prospero's Books until it came out in HD (as it was mastered in an early HD system in Japan).

Criterion does not own rights to any of these films. They license it. That's why you can find separate versions from Disney, Universal, Sony, etc. of movies that are also on Criterion. A movie being released by any other studio does not mean it won't be on Criterion. And usually the Criterion version is far and away the better edition.

Me too. "The Third Man" is a must. Can't wait! The pinnacle O.W. film IMHO.

again, still have the Ambersons LD (never made it to DVD)... Don't get confused noobs over those Crits that made it to LD vs those that the studios "took back", such as Kong, Kane, et. al. Hell, the copy of Muchausen that arrived yesterday pretty much makes my LD version ($120 I think I paid) useless...

I doubt I'd get Bottle Rocket, but I'm all over a double dip of Rushmore, Tennenbaums, and Life Aquatic, and a BD release of Darjeeling wouldn't be terrible either...

So, yeah, let's make this a Crit wishlist thread... heh.

I'll throw out the need for La Regle du Jeu just for fun... anyone in? Any PS3 gamers looking for eye candy?

ps. Let's not forget that Gimme Shelter is the only film that George Lucas "shot" that's a Criterion Collection film, while Michael Bay has two of his own directorial flicks on their list...

pps: Good lord, we've got a Canadian film finally! (http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=438)

ppps: With the announcement today by Kino, having Metropolis on BD would be pretty gnarly...

I think it's more like comparing Cool Ranch Doritos to the original Nacho Cheese.

Where do u see bluray on criterion website?

Since they just FINALLY released Night On Earth recently I'd think it was safe to say that they made a new HD transfer. One of my faves and I recently met Giancarlo Esposito, (Yo-Yo)

The problem is not 2K versus > 2K. The problem is no original negative used and everything optically combined from separation masters. To get better detail one has to recombine the separation masters digitally (2K or 4K) or go back to the negative where possible.

6. Anamorphic enhancement for DVD was resisted a long time.
7. Windowboxing was added on some titles to 'compensate' for overscan.
8. Prices were/are very high.

(Criterion deserves praise and criticism. Some of their output/decisions is/are questionable.)

I'll eat my words. I have since tested with my new A/V equipment and happy to report that The Criterion Spartacus DVD is the best. Great transfer and NO AR DISTORTION. Sorry for the confusion I might have brought. You are right as always FoxyMulder.

Noted the same yesterday. I have always resisted buying Mon Oncle Antoine as it was out in 4:3 even by the National Film Board. Knowing Criterion's attention to details, I will lease this one and wait for it in BD (Maybe wishful thinking)..There are so many other great Canadian films out there. Thank God that they are issued locally on DVD! I also find it ironic that Criterion will not ship any of their products to French speaking Canada! Yet, they are available in stores....

I think this is stereotyping and we all do it to some degree. As they say, all stereotypes have some basis in fact.

Art

http://www.criterion.com/blu-rayannounce.html

I think is is a very fine post - Criterion certainly has done some wacky stuff in the past, making it "questionable", but very rarely have they done something to arbitrarily ruin the film (say, excessive DNR). Even 6 and 7 were done for very specific reasons that had to do with preservation of quality/entire image on the base television that was their benchmark. While I do wish they would have embraced anamorphic far earlier, and dropped windowboxing to overcome overscan issues far earlier, I do understand and respect why those decisions were made.

That said, I'd be downright shocked if their benchmark for BD releases wasn't a 1080p, full pixel, 24p capable set, thus negating the need for compensations such as windowing that SD releases resorted to.

Mon ami Meriadec, I do wish you well with your copy and hope it's treated well... I kinda hated it, finding almost as plodding as On The Road (the English language Ur-Cinema, for those not in the know...). While certainly the vast majority of excellent Canadian cinema is from PQ, I find this more of historical interest than being a joy to watch.

Additionally, I misspoke earlier - of course, a crapload of Cronenberg has been out on Criterion (awesome alliteration!), and, damn it, he's from here too!