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 Post subject: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2021, 17:09 
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When I decided to get a laserdisc player I told myself that I would only buy films I either absolutely loved or were hard to find on Blu-Ray. That way I wasn't double dipping and could control my spending.

I've now broke both those rules and just had delivery of Boogie Nights and I have Trainspotting and Dracula on the way.
I'm interested in picking up as many Criterion films as I can and I was wondering if there were any significant ones that are worth keeping an eye out for. I'm guessing they're hard to pick up as many were only released in the US so there won't be as many copies floating around. I buy a lot of NTSC retro games, and it's a similar situation with availability. It seems too expensive to consider importing anymore.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2021, 18:25 
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What titles to own on Criterion LD is a tough question because there are many variables to think about. Let me see if I can break it down easily

1) Titles not on Criterion DVD or Blu ray. Many Criterion LD titles did not get a DVD remaster because of the film's original studio did not want to renew their contract during the format switch (they wanted to make their own special edition). Too many titles to list but we're talking about a lot of mainstream films like The Wizard Of Oz, 2001, Blade Runner, Robocop, etc. Here is the full list....
https://mubi.com/lists/criterion-laserd ... dvdblu-ray

2) Titles that have supplements. Some Criterion LD's are just the movie and that is it. If that is the case, I would usually say skip the Criterion unless that was the only release of the film and / or there was never a widescreen version released by the original studio.

3) Titles in CAV. Many Criterion releases came in a CAV or CLV format. So if you want freeze frame, slow mo, clear scan and don't mind flipping a disc every 30 minutes, this is sometimes the preferred version. Obviously, with CLV you have fewer discs and fewer sides to flip but you do lose the cool special effects playback (unless you have a Digital Field Memory player).

4) Titles with nice packaging. This is purely personal taste. I happen to like a box set or a nice gate fold that holds the disc.

5) Titles with AC3 encoding. I know that you don't have have an AC3-RF equipped player so probably not important. Also, there were only a handful of AC3 titles in the Criterion Collection but I like having them once again because of packaging and the supplements (which many had).

6) Titles that are only on Criterion. There are few and mostly titles that are just not sought after. They might even be so obscure that you may not have an interest in them.


There might be other things to consider but I have to think about it. Otherwise, these are my big six considerations I think about.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2021, 18:57 
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ldfan wrote:
What titles to own on Criterion LD is a tough question because there are many variables to think about. Let me see if I can break it down easily

1) Titles not on Criterion DVD or Blu ray. Many Criterion LD titles did not get a DVD remaster because of the film's original studio did not want to renew their contract during the format switch (they wanted to make their own special edition). Too many titles to list but we're talking about a lot of mainstream films like The Wizard Of Oz, 2001, Blade Runner, Robocop, etc. Here is the full list....
https://mubi.com/lists/criterion-laserd ... dvdblu-ray

2) Titles that have supplements. Some Criterion LD's are just the movie and that is it. If that is the case, I would usually say skip the Criterion unless that was the only release of the film and / or there was never a widescreen version released by the original studio.

3) Titles in CAV. Many Criterion releases came in a CAV or CLV format. So if you want freeze frame, slow mo, clear scan and don't mind flipping a disc every 30 minutes, this is sometimes the preferred version. Obviously, with CLV you have fewer discs and fewer sides to flip but you do lose the cool special effects playback (unless you have a Digital Field Memory player).

4) Titles with nice packaging. This is purely personal taste. I happen to like a box set or a nice gate fold that holds the disc.

5) Titles with AC3 encoding. I know that you don't have have an AC3-RF equipped player so probably not important. Also, there were only a handful of AC3 titles in the Criterion Collection but I like having them once again because of packaging and the supplements (which many had).

6) Titles that are only on Criterion. There are few and mostly titles that are just not sought after. They might even be so obscure that you may not have an interest in them.


There might be other things to consider but I have to think about it. Otherwise, these are my big six considerations I think about.

Some excellent points there and you've certainly given me some food for thought.
This may sound weird but I was initially collecting all the Blu-Ray releases (I used to write all the reviews of them for our company's Blu-Ray magazine). I stopped when I realised that they no longer had the rights to certain films meaning my collection could never possibly be complete. Let's hope I can live with not having a complete Criterion Laserdisc collection. It certainly looks like I wouldn't be able to afford it :lol:
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2021, 19:18 
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I find that some films I want to have the Criterion Laserdisc as well as its regular release and sometimes I double dip on up grades within the Collection. I want to get as an example the Wizard of Oz Criterion because it was in the collection and be nice to have with my other Wizard of Oz releases. I've kept the Princess Bride on LD and bought the digibook upgraded release. It's hard to get rid of Criterions and to say when to stop imo.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2021, 21:23 
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This is a good topic.

There are some Criterion LDs that will always look and feel good to me. Kane and Kong, which were #’s 1 and 2, originally came in these cool slipcase boxes. The inner jacket for disc 1 has a very cool concept sketch and the one for disc 2 is the shot from the film realizing that drawing. Black and white movies work much better with LD than color so to me releases of early cinema are as useful for as long as I have a player.

Brazil: Special Edition #196 (1985) [CC1348L] the Porsche 959 of LDs, US releases anyway, it is what DVD and Blu-ray eventually became. It’s relevance in period is greater than now but it’s still possibly the one Criterion release that to me has the greatest sense of gravity, literally and metaphorically.

Adventures of Robin Hood, The: Special 50th Anniversary Edition #66 (1938) [CC1166L] a top contender for best picture on LD (if you have a low noise player), terrific mile a minute commentary, a stone cold Hollywood classic, fantastic bonus section. For fans of TECHNICOLOR.

Tokyo Olympiad #117 (1965) [CC1227L] as a film fascinates me in general. Having it in CAV isn’t really necessary...whatever. This movie was government funded and its distribution is as difficult and slow and irregular and expensive as you’d imagine something considered a national treasure by the Japanese government would be. Therefore it’s hard to find or expensive on every format and this one is probably the cheapest. The essay on the back of the box is very good. I love this massive thing.

Not to be forgotten are Janus Films releases which aren’t specifically Criterion but are similar in every way such as Red Balloon, The/White Mane #??? (1952) [CC2000L] which probably saw most use in American middle school French class...which I flunked, probably because we only watched it on VHS...easily one of my favorite LDs.

There are some I have that I consider basically worthless, Carnal Knowledge comes to mind. A loathsome film and a bland LD with zero special features. These discs remind us that the main point of Criterion in the early days was to simply get significant films on video to be seen instead of disappearing into obscurity once they aged a bit. Carnal Knowledge was some kind of hit in the 70s but not at any point past that.

Then there is Armageddon which I swear is not an April Fools joke but a real thing.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2021, 22:28 
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Another thing is, sometimes they are just cheaper at this point. I have a few Japanese films because the LD was like $10 and obviously the BD is going to look better but in those cases it was about $40. In general Japanese cinema is the bulk of my Criterions.

I have the Robin Hood LD zeta mentions and it is great. I've watched it multiple times.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 25 Feb 2021, 15:08 
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I've just had Trainspotting turn up and it's a lovely looking disc.
There's some good recommendations so far so I've got plenty to mull over. The Brazil and Robin Hood sets look lovely.
I've love the King Kong one too, but I'd imagine discs rarely pop up on UK ebay.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 25 Feb 2021, 17:17 
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KK on Criterion may be near to impossible to get the silver box issue in the UK and your only option would be to import it from the US.

Zeta is talking about the second release silver box, which is actually cooler but the first issue is a larger box but no graphics inside.
I think there is a topic where I posted some pictures, was Ratkins who posted a pic, I may have in another topic but this is the pic I found.

https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=366
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 25 Feb 2021, 18:37 
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rein-o wrote:
KK on Criterion may be near to impossible to get the silver box issue in the UK and your only option would be to import it from the US.

Zeta is talking about the second release silver box, which is actually cooler but the first issue is a larger box but no graphics inside.
I think there is a topic where I posted some pictures, was Ratkins who posted a pic, I may have in another topic but this is the pic I found.

https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=366


I stand corrected!

I got mine from Thomas Video when they went out of business. Thomas Video was likely the first video store in the US and the world. They lasted up to 2014. Their selection of used LDs wasn’t as big as eBay but it was the largest selection you could sort through in person that I had ever seen. When they went down I bought about three feet of LDs from them.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 25 Feb 2021, 20:40 
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It was only the first two they did the silver then smaller slip boxes, I had both of Citizen Kane and King Kong that's the only reason I know.
Took a very long time to hunt them down, you can find silver but not really the correct ones, if you need the large box etc.

They are cool to have in the collection and I think they had the prices printed on the back corner of the box on the first and possibly second one
but I don't have the second ones anymore, sold them before my last move to go from 450 to 400 LDs.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2021, 00:11 
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rein-o wrote:
It was only the first two they did the silver then smaller slip boxes, I had both of Citizen Kane and King Kong that's the only reason I know.
Took a very long time to hunt them down, you can find silver but not really the correct ones, if you need the large box etc.

They are cool to have in the collection and I think they had the prices printed on the back corner of the box on the first and possibly second one
but I don't have the second ones anymore, sold them before my last move to go from 450 to 400 LDs.

Thanks for the info, I'll keep a look out.
It's frustrating being on the wrong side of the pond. I was sorting out a US collection of N64 games earlier this year and many were a nightmare to find because it's just not worth importing any more.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2021, 01:07 
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I recently paid half in shipping the value of some Dreamcast games I bought since there is still only fedex and dhl. Not ideal but for a couple of the games only one seller had them listed at all. Fun games but they haven't been popularized by some youtube channel yet.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2021, 01:21 
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Did you finally buy Stupid Invaders? Nobody ever talks about that game but I like it.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2021, 04:36 
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I don't know if I've ever had that game, and it didn't have a Japanese release.

I got a Mahjong game, Tokyo Bus Guide, Golf Shiyouyo 2, Sengoku Turb and J League Spectacle Soccer. Dreamcast had some wild s**t, a buddy let me know about Tokyo Bus Guide and it was cheap. Looking forward to it.
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2021, 08:13 
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Loved "Resident Evil : Code Name - Veronica" on sega dreamcast.....
Dreamcast was too underrated .....

Ahead of its time in someways....

Enjoy it !
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 Post subject: Re: A slippery slope
PostPosted: 27 Feb 2021, 11:00 
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Watched Boogie Nights the other night as well as the documentary. Really interesting and I had no idea so many elements of Boogie Nights are lifted from it. I may try watching trainspotting tonight.
Seen a Pulp Fiction on EBay but it looks a little tatty so will wait for a better one to show up.
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