This is a long video, but I cover my entire Criterion Collection Blu-ray set, in order of spine number!! Please remember to subscribe and also to follow me on Instagram! / films_at_home
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wasn't released in a standard case due to Criterion not settling on a packaging standard for their early releases, it was due to the deal with Paramount (they basically licensed the Criterion name) who also did the manufacturing/distribution for the title.
So this video is almost two years old, so you may not see this comment or you may already own this title, but I would highly, HIGHLY recommend Criterion’s release of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing. 1.) It’s a super awesome, highly underrated early Kubrick flick that is one of the best noir/heist films ever. 2.) The release includes Kubrick’s previous film Killer’s Kiss 3.) It is the only way to own either of those movies on blu-ray, if you want to complete your Kubrick collection 4.) The art presentation is magnificent across the board!
I highly suggest you get a copy of Night of the Hunter. Its an amazing film. As well as Being There. Probably Peter Sellers best work and its good to find another Chaplin fan, but you gotta get Limelight! Great vids man!
What’s great about movies on The Criterion Collection is that if you blind buy a movie and don’t like it you can usually make most of your money back selling it on eBay. I have Jellyfish Eyes and actually really liked it.
Two you definitely need: Night of the Hunter absolute must! The Vanishing. These are both right down your alley. Also The Innocents, Ace in the Hole, Badlands are all as you say-no brainers. Watch Repulsion again. Fun video.
Being a movie collector must take an incredible amount of discipline. I only have, maybe 450 Blu-rays, a few hundred DVDs, and only 20 or so 4K Blu-rays so far, but I'm stuck when it comes to choosing something to watch. Seriously, I've got a beautiful new TV and many movies in my collection that I haven't even removed the cellophane from, and what do I do? I spend my time watching a guy who spends his time actually watching and enjoying his collection. I feel depressed, quite frankly. I want to watch everything I own, all at the same time. It's driving me batty. Sometimes, I'll just put a movie on to marvel at how good it looks, but not actually enjoy it as a piece of art. Is it the movie we're attracted to, or it's appearance, PQ and AQ, etc? I bought the Criterion collection movie The Fugitive Kind, many months ago, but have not watched a single frame as of yet. I have many unwatched discs. If one was a philatelist it would take little time to enjoy hundreds of stamps without needing to spend hours doing it. Movies require time and concentration to get the best out of them. I can remember a time when I could watch five new movies a day. Rental movies. Now I own all these movies, the only movie I've watched from start to finish, in MONTHS, WAS the Arrow version of The Thing! Help me, I'm begging anyone? How do you all manage it?
I watch about 5 movies a week. There are some movies which you'll never want to watch more than once. So get rid of those discs and forget about them, it'll give you space to collect more that you want to rewatch.
I make it a habit to watch one movie every evening after work. Usually with my friends Ben & Jerry’s. I have a pile of blurays next to me that I want to see first. It makes me feel happy to know that I still have about 400 films to see before I catch up. And that’s next to my comic book reading, videogame playing and statue collecting. Yes, you have to work for it and achieve your goals step by step, but that’s also the case with maintaining a relationship, or leading a family life. Nothing is free, everything has its price. As long as you honestly love what you’re doing its ok. If you don’t love watching movies anymore, you may want to consider finding a new hobby, or maybe new people to spend time with.
Out of sequence there towards the end...Pan's Labrynth is actually spine # 838 and Punch Drunk is spine #843. Anyways great vid, I highly recommend Night of the Hunter, (Digipack version if u can find it) The Killing (Which has become one of my favorite Kubrick films), 'M' by Fritz Lang is essential, maybe Inside Llewyn Davis since it's Coen Bros. and La Haine, I watched that on FilmStruck and thought it was really good, French sort of urban hood movie from the 90's starring a young Vincent Cassel.
The best way to collect Criterion: Add your all-time faves + iconic films like Bicycle Thieves, Seven Samurai, Seventh Seal, etc. to your library. Watch Criterion's Closet Picks and you'll see patterns emerge among filmmakers as to what's essential viewing. Non-essential: Watch them on Amazon or some other streaming service (the HD transfers are typically pretty good). As someone who's collected DVDs and blu-rays since the beginning and has spent _thousands of dollars_ on them, the technology and quality is always changing and as soon as you buy them, obsolescence is right around the corner, so I've found a smaller, essential library is ideal.
I hope everyone has pre-ordered The Great Escape and the Bruce Lee Collection coming out soon. So hyped and love my Criterion Collection, got about 20 myself.
Thought I should mention that if you need a criterion edition of a film and you can't wait for the barnes and noble 50% sale, might I suggest checking out Amazon, while I can't say this for sure, many of the releases I've been interested in are usually less than 3 dollars more than buying them during the sale (or at least that is currently the case as of the publication date of this comment) , buy I'd recommend double checking the films you intend to buy yourself just to make sure this applies to you
Just watched this posting...there's an easy way to fix the annoying 'normal' Blu-ray case that CC inexplicably did with Benjamin Button. There are plenty of places that sell empty cases, a lot of them via eBay. I bought heaps of them years ago as I found the occasional movie would arrive with cracks in the case. British label Powerhouse Indicator even used to sell the double clear cases but I they don't stock them anymore. I'm sure you can find some with a bit of searching. You usually have to buy a minimum of ten or so but they do come in handy. Now my CC edition of Benjamin Button looks completely normal on the shelf amongst all the clear cases 👍
Top collection mate, lots of top recommendations aswell being in the uk we haven’t had many criterions released over here but some of these film are released on other labels like Charlie Chaplin’s films on cuzon. Top video look forward to the next one
If you go to the the criterion gift shop on their website, you can actually buy clear cases so maybe you can swap out the cover, book, and disc into the new case so that it looks uniform
I feel you on Benjamin Button. What I actually did was I had an extra criterion blu Ray I didn’t need with a clear case and I put the artwork from Benjamin button in to that case I honestly forgot I did that and have been happy ever since
The first criterion I want to buy is the blob, rosemary baby, the graduate, Rushmore and moonrise kingdom. I live in Asia so they are kind of hard to get so I'll try to find them, love your video!
I'm probably incredibly biased since George Romero is my hero but my favorite Criterion release is the original Night of the Living Dead. Having owned several versions of it before this....the criterion release is definitely the best release
Thanks for the vid! I absolutely LOVE collecting Criterion films! I made note of several that you have that I need. I thought I would post my personal Criterion films. I can't wait for the next sale! I am going to finally pick up Zatoichi! # 12 Angry Men 400 Blows, The A Apu Trilogy, The (3-Disc) * Pather Panchali: Song of the Little Road * Aparajito: The Unvanquished * Apur Sansar: The World of Apu B Blob, The Blood Simple Breakfast Club, The D Dazed and Confused Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb E Eraserhead Eyes Without a Face F Fantastic Mr. Fox (3-Disc) G Ghost World Godzilla (1954) Good Morning Graduate, The H Hidden Fortress, The I Ikiru In Cold Blood It Happened One Night It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (5-Disc) K Killing, The L Le Samouraï M Moonrise Kingdom Mulholland Dr. O On the Waterfront (2-Disc) R Rebecca (2-Disc) S Seven Samurai (2-Disc) V Vampyr Y Yojimbo & Sanjuro (2-Disc)
Jeff, it looks like you do not own any of the Satyajit Ray BDs released by Criterion. The Apu Trilogy is a must, also Hero (Nayak), The Lonely Wife, etc. Also another gem is Cloud Capped Star, directed by Ritwick Ghatak. All these BDs are Bengali movies, and I'm proud of the fact that these movies have been released in USA, but also sad that none of these movies are available in high definition in the country of origin, i.e. India.
I am using this to determine what my last haul at the B&N half price sale should be. One thing that bugs the stingy Scotsman in me is picking up a Criterion film when I already have a pressed copy. It seems Criterion has been releasing films that MGM/UA already released barebones and some that WB put out not so bare bones. So these are difficult calls for me. Thanks anyways.
*googles Jellyfish Eyes* I picked up 54 titles during the summer sale (62 films total taking box sets into account). Nearly doubled my total. Anyhow you've got a decent American collection. Quite a few I'm still in need of, mainly Cronenberg (except Videodrome) and Anderson (besides Rushmore and Life Aquatic - both DVDs but $1 each at the pawn shop). The foreign films you have are ace but few and far between. I'd recommend some more Bergman (just get the set coming in November), Kurosawa and Tarkovsky along with some Fassbinder, Pasolini, Bunuel, Ozu, Godard, Dreyer, Fellini, Bresson, Mizoguchi, Antonioni, Kieslowski, Kobayashi, Powell & Pressburger, etc. BTW nice horror collection. Don't think I saw The Innocents. Highly recommended, one of the top 10 horror films of the 60s (Criterion has at least half of them with that, Rosemary's Baby, Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls and Eyes without a Face - they had Peeping Tom on DVD long ago, Shoot I'd throw Kwaidan in there as top 10-15 of the decade as well. Luckily horror films are getting love from so many great companies these days almost everything is available. Wish they could attain Dawn of the Dead, even for a short period of time. As for nonhorror, Happiness (1998) is a film that could really use the Criterion treatment to get rediscovered and would fit right in with their recent trend of doing lots of American comedies.
Great job of giving a quick overview of these movies. How about recognizing early Hitchcock British films like: the British "The Man Who Knew Too Much", The 39 Steps, and "The Lady Vanishes." They are available in Criterion in Blu-ray, but probably not HDTV.
I recommend Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express. Tarantino listed it as one of his favorite 90s movies. Iis out of print, but you can get it on Ebay. Unfortunately, the price has gone way up due to its out of print and high demand status.
🤔...How does one get in the know about where to buy these flicks in the "Criterion Collection"...❓❓❓ I mean, like, obviously these aren't being sold at Walmart, so where exactly does one obtain these at...❓❓❓
I haven't seen Jellyfish Eyes, so I have no basis for agreeing/disagreeing with what you said about it. Nonetheless, I recommend a Japanese art house film called House (spine number 539 I believe) - which is a horror comedy of sorts, but also a personal, metaphorical film for the director. In any case, it's just such a trippy, fun creative film - one of my favorites to watch during the Halloween season. I'm almost positive Sam Raimi must have seen this film before making Evil Dead.
Sometimes a well utilized 70 minutes like island is lost souls is better than a three hr "epic" that's all flash and no substance...(i'm lookin at you five armies)
someone explain why Criterion....honestly most of these movies really dont look or sound that great and a lot i have never even heard of.....is it just because they are collectibles, i dont get it.....no disrespect everyone has different taste....Dazed and Confused is one of my favorite movies ever, but im trying to understand why pay more for the same movie because its a criterion release....does it look better ?
They usually come with booklets and great special features you wouldn't find in your standard blu ray edition. Plus they do look and sound better as well.
The problem with criterion collection is that god damn region coding becouse their releases are unique, globaly. I have a region free player (oppo 203), but I don't want to mess up with my player, or limit me in what player sould I choose. I really hope they reissue all of them region free.
Brazil, one of the best movies ever made. Living in America just before Trump declares himself king, I would rather not see it. Comment all you like, he has already said he wants three or more terms.
I THINK A MOVIE WITHOUT A CLEAR CASE IS NOT A REASON TO DOWN PLAY IT..I HAVE A 4K TV..VERY EXPENSIVE ONE..I HAVE A REALLY GOOD 4K PLAYER AND I CAN SAY..SOME BLU RAYS LOOK BETTER THAN 4Ks..4k is are not all good picture
fatmanandschizard yup and loved it! Very graphic and disturbing clearly but really enjoyed it and have been on von trier tear since. Melancholia was amazing as well
Sean Gerant yeah I’m not a fan. His facts about Columbine are all wrong and it’s just not a great documentary. But it’s good timing for them Sales-wise given the current political climate
