Something by Valerio Zurlini More film noirs & westerns Criterion missed the boat on giallo and cult horror
It would be nice if they can continue to release Charlie’s Chaplin’s films instead of the drivel they’ve been releasing lately.
A 4K restoration was completed a few years ago, and it’s a frustration that it hasn’t been released yet. It’ll come, though I think it’ll be through Warner Bros., not Criterion.
Yes x1000 from me. American Splendor is just wonderful. Paul Giamatti is the greatest US actor living today IMO. Personally the ONLY film I was on Blu-Ray is Disney's "The Black Hole". A proper restoration.
Note: I didn't see this thread until after posting my criticism of a blaring omission to the current schedule of upcoming releases in the October thread, so I'll re-edit, cut and paste my comment (recommendations) below... Not a bad group of contemporary classics, but I'm disappointed with Criterion for apparently dropping the ball on Harold Lloyd's remaining silent output on BD. Although Criterion released excellent transfers of Safety Last, The Freshman and Speedy, they've overlooked one of Lloyd's best silent features, The Kid Brother. If Criterion were to stop after The Kid Brother, it might be understandable as in combination, these four films are arguably his best silent film productions. That said, if there's a planned combined release of Lloyd's shorter features and two reel comedies set(s) also being contemplated that would be greatly appreciated as well, but The Kid Brother shouldn't be overlooked as a stand-alone. Perhaps this is on theor schedule for future release, but I've heard nothing but crickets since the last Lloyd film on BD and I'm getting impatient. Cat
That might not be a dropped ball on Criterion's part. All the Lloyd films are controlled by the Lloyd Family Trust, so there may or may not be tie-ups with the estate on negotiating more licenses. I'd love to see more of Harold's films show up on Criterion as well!
someone needs to do a good release of King Kong Versus Godzilla to include the original Japanese edition which remains the only Japanese edition never available officially in the USA. Criterion would be awesome for it IMO and would probably be a decent seller with the big american remake on the horizon.
Criterion aquired the rights to several Godzilla movies, including King Kong vs Godzilla, so it is very possible. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
I didn't know they got king kong I saw they were streaming some of the other titles that were released in the toho master collection which were great but sadly skipped over king kong (doesn't universal have some kinda stranglehold on it?). fingers crossed! I'm sure someone will finally step up to the plate by the time the new one is out but criterion would be best.
You are correct, King Kong vs Godzilla is not on the list. Sorry about that, I misremembered that, probably wishful thinking on my part. Here is the list for anyone else interested: Confirmed: Criterion Intends to Release Showa Godzilla Films on DVD/Blu-Ray - Godzilla 2 Movie News
I've got a suggestion for Criterion: start making distribution deals with Thunderbean Animation, Shout! Factory, and other small video companies that are already doing their best to conserve outstanding historical film works. Thunderbean is essentialy the unchallenged leader in public domain animation, Shout! currently holds the rights to the Miyazaki films and a lot of interesting b-movie properties. Give them just a bit of your restorative skillz and bonus-features assembly, just to bring the best of them up to snuff, slap your logo on next to theirs, and move some units, baby!
Excited to hear Criterion is getting their hands on more Godzilla movies - I can finally replace the ones I have ripped from bad prints of the movies to begin with. Plus, they put together such terrific packages... Suggestions? I'd love for them to have a crack at the Ray Harryhausen library. Not that solid versions of his films aren't readily available, but it'd be great to have Harryhausen's films given the archival treatment and presentation they deserve. A James Cameron audio commentary perhaps? Also, it would be fun for Criterion to have some of the Blaxploitation classics from the 70's - Shaft, Black Caesar, Superfly, Cleopatra Jones, etc - imagine what they could put together for these movies!
And that's (mostly) my work, as well as Greg Hamlin from Lowry Digital (now with Dolby). One of the Disney people told me he thought it was the best the film had ever looked, and we took the time to fix some awful matte work and stuff that had marred the film for more than 35 years. But you'll still see the extremely-visible wires on the Maximilian robot, and the plot is as bad as it ever was. The quality of the surviving Harryhausen negatives and IPs is pretty awful. I did Mysterious Island myself for laserdisc in the 1990s, and I just about pulled my hair out in frustration. I think that took close to 100 hours of work, which was unheard of for a B-movie like this. Columbia never took very good care of their film vaults in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and by the time Sony took over, most of the damage had already been done. Sony tries very hard, but so much old stuff has gone bad, there are limits to what you can do with the crap that survives.
I take it this was some time ago this work was completed, around talk of a remake. I wonder if it will ever see the light of day.
These Indicator box sets are fantastic and are all region: THE WONDERFUL WORLDS OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN, VOLUME ONE: 1955-1960 - LE THE WONDERFUL WORLDS OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN, VOLUME TWO: 1961-1964 - LE THE SINBAD TRILOGY - LE
Someone needs to release Hitchcock's early silents and it light as well be Criterion. They did a great job with The Lodger and the BFI has already done the restoration - time for a box set!
Lion’s Gate has the best did a pretty good boxed set with some silents and early talkies. the fact that they are mostly public domain and not as well known probably works against them. I ageee about The Lodger.
Goldeneye Manhunter T2: Judgment Day Black Rain Reindeer Games Reservoir Dogs Dante's Peak The Ghost and the Darkness These are just a few good movies that got a pretty poor Blu-ray release. Reservoir Dogs and Black Rain are just MPEG-2 encoded onto a BD-25. I don't know what is the point of making a Blu-ray if you're going to do that and then only include Dolby Digital 5.1EX or DTS-ES 6.1 instead of lossless audio. I wouldn't mind Criterion doing The Abyss either. At least we would then get it on Blu-ray and not that crappy 4:3 non-anamorphic DVD. Thief was like that too where for a long time you could only get the 4:3 DVD until the Criterion one came out.
