Criterion.com 50% off DVDs & Blu-Rays until 9am EST 2/25/11

Muthafodder

Muthafodder

Banned
Via a Facebook promo and code: THANKS

Supposed to work on all in stock items but is also working on pre-orders.

Criterion.com

Limited time only.

Free shipping on orders over $50.

Deal expires around 9am EST tomorrow.

EDIT - Looks like pre-orders aren't working anymore.

And the discount is 50% off the list price.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
[quote name='dino88']I would normally agree with you, but this may be a special case. It seems he may not have even wanted to own this film, since he thought he was buying a Steve McQueen film...not a Steve McQueen film.[/QUOTE]

Hey now, we shouldn't rule out the possibility that he could be a fan of this Steve McQueen. He is an internationally famous artist after all. And this isn't actually his first film, you know. He's also made films like Bear, in which (quoting Wikipedia here) "two naked men (one of them McQueen) exchange a series of glances which might be taken to be flirtatious or threatening." I mean hey, whatever you're into dude, we're not here to judge. ;)

And um, Shrike, did you seriously spoiler tag those posts, or was that a joke? I mean, those were hardly real spoilers.
 
[quote name='arcane93']And um, Shrike, did you seriously spoiler tag those posts, or was that a joke? I mean, those were hardly real spoilers.[/QUOTE]
:rofl:I just noticed that. You've got to be fucking kidding me? I hope he's joking, otherwise we might have to start worrying about his drinking problem.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']I'm sure you can figure out how it was intended.[/QUOTE]
I guess we can hold off on the intervention...for now.
 
I holding off for BN July 50% off. It'll be very expensive month ;)
1. Blow Out
2. The Double Life of Véronique
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
4. Fish Tank
5. The Great Dictator
6. Kes
7. The Mikado
8. Pale Flower
9. Senso
10. Smiles of a Summer Night
11. Something Wild
12. Still Walking
13. Sweet Smell of Success
14. Topsy Turvy
15. White Material
16. Le cercle rouge
 
Speaking of Hunger, I bought it last year after seeing it. Its a good film, but I haven't had the desire to watch it again. I have been wondering if it really is a movie I need to own. Not sure if I have a point here.
 
[quote name='Masterkyo']I holding off for BN July 50% off. It'll be very expensive month ;)[/QUOTE]

Add at least Solaris, Diabolique, and Broadcast News, and probably Yi Yi, to that list for me, and then take into account that we don't even know yet what the new releases for June and July will be . . . Yup, July is going to be fucking expensive, which is why I decided to get three titles out of the way now.

As I've said before, I'm glad that Criterion is embracing blu-ray so whole-heartedly now, but damn, it's getting hard to keep up.
 
For those planning to buy Yi Yi, do you even know why you're buying it? I know people that are natively from that culture and understand every nuance that movie is supposed to espouse and come away from it all bored senseless. But I suppose that more or less describes nearly every Criterion movie to some respect. Art house is art house.

The BD transfer of the movie is also unusually dark. Most likely bad source print.
 
[quote name='Stele']For those planning to buy Yi Yi, do you even know why you're buying it? I know people that are natively from that culture and understand every nuance that movie is supposed to espouse and come away from it all bored senseless. But I suppose that more or less describes nearly every Criterion movie to some respect. Art house is art house.[/QUOTE]

I haven't seen it yet, but the trailers that I've seen and the descriptions I've read look interesting to me. Seeing that other culture and its nuances is one of the reasons that I like watching foreign films. It won awards at Cannes and a number of other important film festivals. If there's a coupon on top of the 50% off sale (which history shows there probably will be), I figure it's worth it.

And, um, I know people here from this culture who are bored to death by any American movie that doesn't have something exploding every few minutes. I know at least one French person who can't stand Godard (I'm sure there are plenty of others). I'm not sure what point we're supposed to take from your anecdotal evidence regarding the personal film tastes of a few of your acquaintances (especially given that we know nothing about their overall taste in film), whether they're from the culture or not.

[quote name='Stele']The BD transfer of the movie is also unusually dark. Most likely bad source print.[/QUOTE]

The blu-ray's not even out yet. Have you seen it? The review on blu-ray.com, anyway, mentions nothing about the picture being dark and states that it has "serious improvements" over the previous DVD release. I'm curious where you're getting your different information from.
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']tempted to get this:

HAUSU_CTA1091.A_3_w285.jpg
[/QUOTE]

Haha, that movie was awesome! And that shirt is awesome :)
 
[quote name='Stele']For those planning to buy Yi Yi, do you even know why you're buying it? I know people that are natively from that culture and understand every nuance that movie is supposed to espouse and come away from it all bored senseless. But I suppose that more or less describes nearly every Criterion movie to some respect. Art house is art house.

The BD transfer of the movie is also unusually dark. Most likely bad source print.[/QUOTE]

Like the discussion of Hunger above, yes, I own Yi Yi (on regular DVD), and yes, I think it's absolutely worth owning. I even used to own the Fox Lorber disc of it, and upgraded to the Criterion when it came out, I like the movie so much. And I saw it in the theatre before ever buying the DVD, so it wasn't like I bought it not knowing what I was getting into. I wish Criterion would release more of Edward Yang's movies, especially A Brighter Summer Day.

And for what it's worth, a friend of mine is Taiwanese (as is the film), she thinks it's fantastic, and she teaches East Asian Studies at a major university. How's that for anecdotal evidence?
 
[quote name='arcane93']And, um, I know people here from this culture who are bored to death by any American movie that doesn't have something exploding every few minutes. I know at least one French person who can't stand Godard (I'm sure there are plenty of others). I'm not sure what point we're supposed to take from your anecdotal evidence regarding the personal film tastes of a few of your acquaintances (especially given that we know nothing about their overall taste in film), whether they're from the culture or not.[/QUOTE]
Aren't you that guy that argued with me a year and a half back that Amazon's ECA codes are profitable? Yeah, I think you are. Since I know you're fully willing to devote a lot of time to retarded arguments, I'll leave you with this. Not everything Criterion touches is gold. Not even a quarter of it. Most of it is arthouse garbage that's more pretentious than meaningful. I simply used Yi Yi as one example. And don't even try to posture as some sophisticated film connoisseur because you're not.

Go look at the DVDBeaver review. The whole movie looks like it's being watched with shades on.
 
[quote name='Stele']Go look at the DVDBeaver review. The whole movie looks like it's being watched with shades on.[/QUOTE]

How about you actually READ the DVDBeaver review:

NOTE: With regards to the darkness of the Criterion transfer, I can assure you that the Taiwanese print I watched at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2001 (or was it 2000) was just as dark. (Thanks Veen!)

They also give the Blu-ray the highest marks:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Report Card:[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular] [/FONT] Image:
Blu-ray
Sound:
Blu-ray
Extras: Criterion DVD + Blu-ray
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']Stele you've posted twice on this page, and you've made two absolutely stupid statements. So you're 2/2 congrats.[/QUOTE]
And I'm sure your post was a gift to mankind. Criterion movies are not for 95% of moviegoers out there and this has nothing to do with lack of taste. The same kind of internet hoarders that buy every single Criterion could also never understand what art collectors see in Monet or Pissarro. It's not for the uninitiated.

As for the source print, here's the reviewer's own speculation on it.
"...struck from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of material included."
These statements gives speculation as to the quality of the source print. The Criterion bitrate is uncharacteristically low. I guess we are meant to assume the existing print was this dark? I honestly don't know - even zooming in extensively on the Starmax image I only see very minor signs of contrast boosting - if it is there at all. So it's hard to know what to think. Has the Criterion been darkened to hide softness or print limitations? or is the original color palette that muted?
Click to expand...
 
I'd also like to point out that even the screenshots between the two reviewers differ. You'll notice the shot from Blu-ray.com is noticeably brighter and sharper/less muted than from DVDBeaver. Any comments on that difference?

Regardless of these differences, darkness appears to be a a non-issue to both reviewers.

DVD Beaver:

beaverd.jpg


Blu-ray.com
51484542.jpg
 
[quote name='Stele']As for the source print, here's the reviewer's own speculation on it.[/QUOTE]

I don't know why I'm even bothering to respond to your dumb ass (I'd forgotten who you are, thanks for reminding me -- you'll hit my "ignore" list after this since I forgot to add you to it last time), but note what you're quoting:

the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9
Click to expand...
That's from the review of the 2006 DVD release, and it was specifically noted in both the DVDBeaver and Blu-ray.com reviews that the picture is improved on the blu-ray edition.

What they have to say about the blu-ray is this:

[quote name='DVDBeaver']the new 1080P transfer has the same contrast level of their 2006 DVD - it is marginally brighter - detail also advances and, overall, it looks very strong being dual-layered with a high video bitrate. It seems totally free of artefacts or noise. It is a muted, gentle appearance and makes the Starmax DVD definitely look unseemly harsh and boosted. Notable improvement over the previous Criterion DVD will depend on your discerning nature towards the visuals and how adept your system is at identifying the disparity. We run through this debate about the image quality affected viewing perception - and I definitely believe it is true. This, more pure, more film-like, Blu-ray presentation will bond closer to the individual and give the most impacting of all digital, home theater, viewings. There is no question as to that.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='blu-ray.com']The transition to 1080p has produced some serious improvements. A quick comparison with Criterion's SDVD release of Yi Yi reveals improved detail, especially during close-ups, stronger color reproduction, and better contrast. Background noise and shimmer have also been addressed. For example, during the wedding ceremony in the beginning of the film there is still some softness, but clarity is dramatically improved and shimmer eliminated. Traces of mild edge-enhancement occasionally pop up here and there, but are never distracting. It is also easy to tell that random noise corrections have been applied, but a light layer of grain is easy to see throughout the entire film. Finally, there are no serious stability issues to report in this review. I also did not see any large cuts, warps, damage marks, or stains.[/QUOTE]


Looking at the DVDBeaver captures -- I'd agree that the Criterion DVD captures are dark (though not unwatchably so), however the blu-ray captures are (to my eye, anyway) significantly better. The captures from the Starmax version are too bright and harsh (painfully so, IMHO -- the contrast looks artificially boosted to the point of oversaturation). The Winstar ones -- well, let's not even talk about those; the blur kills them before even considering any of the other problems. Overall, based on what I'm seeing there, I'd say that the Criterion blu-ray is the best of the options by far, and it looks pretty good to me.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='Stele']Aren't you that guy that argued with me a year and a half back that Amazon's ECA codes are profitable? Yeah, I think you are. Since I know you're fully willing to devote a lot of time to retarded arguments, I'll leave you with this. Not everything Criterion touches is gold. Not even a quarter of it. Most of it is arthouse garbage that's more pretentious than meaningful. I simply used Yi Yi as one example. And don't even try to posture as some sophisticated film connoisseur because you're not.
[/QUOTE]

I don't know about your previous argument, but the only one saying retarded shit today is you. You make the assumption that everyone wanting to buy this film has no reason to buy it other than it being a Criterion. And then you base your entire argument against the film around the opinion of someone you know from this particularly culture. What bridge did you crawl out from under?
 
I got a weird email from Criterion a few hours ago. It says: "This is to inform you that your backorder/special order has been canceled." They didn't give a reason or anything. It's weird because I didn't order anything backordered (at least, at the time when I placed the order). Anyone else get this email?
 
[quote name='bryancantspell']I got a weird email from Criterion a few hours ago. It says: "This is to inform you that your backorder/special order has been canceled." They didn't give a reason or anything. It's weird because I didn't order anything backordered (at least, at the time when I placed the order). Anyone else get this email?[/QUOTE]

Nope, haven't gotten anything like that. Did you order any pre-order titles? It wouldn't really surprise me if they canceled those, since their post about the sale specified that it was on "in-stock" titles. Otherwise, someone else on Facebook (see the photo of the warehouse they posted a few hours ago, it's in the comments for that) posted about getting a cancellation email as well, and then contacting them and finding out it was sent by mistake. So you might want to drop them an email.

For some reason, they have my expected shipping date listed in my order status as March 12th. Doesn't matter, but odd that it's going to take them that long to ship in-stock titles. I guess they must have really gotten a lot more orders than they're normally set up to handle.
 
[quote name='bryancantspell']I got a weird email from Criterion a few hours ago. It says: "This is to inform you that your backorder/special order has been canceled." They didn't give a reason or anything. It's weird because I didn't order anything backordered (at least, at the time when I placed the order). Anyone else get this email?[/QUOTE]

Ignore it.

I was just emailed from Criterion. "This is to inform you that your backorder/special order has been canceled." Bought 3 movies all of which were in stock at the time. Seven Samurai, Gomorrah, and Seventh Seal. Anyone else getting these?
Click to expand...

Just an update here...Just got another email from Criterion saying that i was mistakenly emailed earlier about my order being cancelled. My order has NOT been cancelled and that earlier email was triggered because several titles have gone out of stock during the sale. They say my order will ship as soon as the items are back in stock in their warehouse. Most items should be restocked by next week.
Click to expand...

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/blu-ray-ba...criterion-release-50-off-code-facebook-6.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top