Criterion Club

Went a bit crazy at the sale today myself. I was going to grab Godzilla but I didn’t think I would be able to justify it as I’ve seen a good portion of those films via a friend that was way too into them.

Instead I grabbed:
Time Bandits
Police Story
The Gold Rush
Stalker
Koker Trilogy

especially excited to finally see Koker films in HD. I had to write an essay on them in college off some degrade VHS tapes and I always felt I missed the subtlety the performances.
 
Went a bit crazy at the sale today myself. I was going to grab Godzilla but I didn’t think I would be able to justify it as I’ve seen a good portion of those films via a friend that was way too into them.

Instead I grabbed:
Time Bandits
Police Story
The Gold Rush
Stalker
Koker Trilogy

especially excited to finally see Koker films in HD. I had to write an essay on them in college off some degrade VHS tapes and I always felt I missed the subtlety the performances.
I started to watch Stalker the other night, but I fell asleep. I really like it, but knowing Tarkovsky’s pacing, I should have known better than to watch it in bed.
 
I started to watch Stalker the other night, but I fell asleep. I really like it, but knowing Tarkovsky’s pacing, I should have known better than to watch it in bed.

hahah I did the same once to The Mirror, which in addition to requiring full attention also requires a fair dose of Russian history. Needless to say that one needed to be rewatched.
 


Karel Zemen box is really cool. I do wish Criterion would have gotten into UHD discs with Roma. In fact, besides the special features I don't see much of a reason to buy this at all, anyone with Netflix premium can see this in the native 4K Dolby Vision format which looks far better than any BR disc I've ever seen. With that master good to go it's sad they haven't tried this out as a way to get into that format, and it would have benefitted the film to have a healthy bitrate that discs provide. Oh well.
 


I literally shouted for joy. I believe this is the first time a Netflix Original movie has had a physical release. Here's hoping for Okja, Marriage Story, The Irishman, etc.

I do wish Criterion would have gotten into UHD discs with Roma. In fact, besides the special features I don't see much of a reason to buy this at all, anyone with Netflix premium can see this in the native 4K Dolby Vision format which looks far better than any BR disc I've ever seen. With that master good to go it's sad they haven't tried this out as a way to get into that format, and it would have benefitted the film to have a healthy bitrate that discs provide. Oh well.

4K UHD would be nice, but even Criterion's standard Blu-rays have a bitrate at 1080p as high as Netflix manages at 4k. It's gonna be the best looking format for those of us who don't have HDR capable TVs.
 
4K UHD would be nice, but even Criterion's standard Blu-rays have a bitrate at 1080p as high as Netflix manages at 4k. It's gonna be the best looking format for those of us who don't have HDR capable TVs.

Agree if you’re working with 1080p SDR only, against a 1080p SDR Netflix stream, BR no contest. But, since this film is B&W and digitally shot it’s not getting hit too hard by the compression on Netflix, and it’s native 4K Dolby Vision, so does those with the capability the sheer detail loss and lack of dynamic range is going to make the BR look worse. Bitrate is hugely important but the pros of the stream outweigh the cons here. Normally I would be inclined to say streaming is always a compromise etc etc, but this is yet another case of disc getting 1080p SDR only which is a shame to me.
 
That's on the channel, right? I need to give that one a rewatch. The David Shire score is exceptional.
It is. I know I just mentioned it a few posts ago, but this score rocks, one of my favorites! It just finally got a great vinyl release semi-recently too!
 
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