criterionforum.org

glaswegian tome wrote:

Luke M wrote:Spidey and Frodo enter the Criterion Collection!!

Spidey was in Fear and Loathing, brah.

I was all excited that Christina Ricci was entering the Collection as well, until I read this post and realized that she was in Fear and Loathing as well.

Hopefully they'll get Rick Moody to contribute to the extras in some way.

domino harvey wrote:Hopefully they'll get Rick Moody to contribute to the extras in some way.

I would count on it. Moody was very pleased with the adaptation. I imagine he will be interviewed. He and James Schamus and Ang Lee did an episode of The Charlie Rose Show together.

Lee and Schamus wrote introductions to the published screenplay, and I expect those will be included. Other than those features, the original featurette (on the current disc), and a writer/director commentary, I don't know what they could include. That would make quite a nice package though.

he should have been very pleased. the movie was about a thousand times better than the book. I'm not intentionally posting flamebait here, but I really hated the book and loved the movie.

Maybe we'll find out whatever happened to Adam Hann-Byrd after all these years, or perhaps be treated to an apology by Christina Ricci for all those breast reductions? But if Jonathan Lethem is involved in any way, I'll probably have to set fire to my crocheted pillow emblazoned with Kevin Kline's face, immediately.

Seeing this in the collection is kind of confusing, even if it might delete the $7 in-print edition I've given away dozens of times as rough gestures/gifts.

Luke M wrote:Spidey and Frodo enter the Criterion Collection!! I liked The Ice Storm alright, but I can't stand Ang Lee for the absolutely horrendous Hulk and equally terrible Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

What an advanced form of trolling. I'll bite: you suck for hating CTHD.

Svevan wrote:

Luke M wrote:Spidey and Frodo enter the Criterion Collection!! I liked The Ice Storm alright, but I can't stand Ang Lee for the absolutely horrendous Hulk and equally terrible Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

What an advanced form of trolling. I'll bite: you suck for hating CTHD.

Why? I recall finding CTHD to be incredibly overrated, and I'd take any King Hu film (Lee's obvious point of departure) or Ashes of Time, hell, even Tsui Hark's uneven The Blade or his ridiculously pulpy Swordsman trilogy over it anyday.

Which brings me to my next point: Why isn't King Hu in the collection yet?

Cold Bishop wrote:Which brings me to my next point: Why isn't King Hu in the collection yet?

This is surely a topic for another thread, but let's see how far we get before we split it off.

I'm convinced that no one at Criterion has an interest in Hong Kong cinema. I suggested that they pick up a few of the choice Shaw Brothers titles back when the catalog opened up (including King Hu's Come Drink With Me). To give them the benefit of the doubt, they may very well have looked into acquiring a title or two and decided against it. But we could sit here all day and list the rich national cinemas that remain completely ignored by Criterion.

Cold Bishop wrote:Which brings me to my next point: Why isn't King Hu in the collection yet?

And this is how a thread is derailed...

Tribe

Tribe wrote:

Cold Bishop wrote:Which brings me to my next point: Why isn't King Hu in the collection yet?

And this is how a thread is derailed...

I look at it more like cell division than derailment, but thats just me...

In this article about DVD extras, Kim Hendrickson reveals:

The upcoming Criterion release of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm," for instance, will feature interviews with all the key cast and crew members.

So, now that The Ice Storm is official. I hope the furor behind my comments that Ang Lee is not my cup of tea are done with. I enjoyed The Ice Storm I really did.

Looks like a pretty solid release if the extras are insightful. They sound like they could be mostly fluff, so I'll just have to trust that Criterion digs deep. Good to see so many of the cast/crew involved in the features; I'll take that as a good omen for them being of substance.

criterion.com wrote:Featuring a cast of tremendously talented adults (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver) and kids (up-and-coming stars Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood), The Ice Storm is one of the finest films of the nineties.

I couldn't help but take this as a shot directed at Katie Holmes, given that she's listed in the credits.

Oh, it's probably just an oversight, but in my own warped little world, I'd like to believe that whoever wrote the blurb meant for us to read it that way.

jbeall wrote:

criterion.com wrote:Featuring a cast of tremendously talented adults (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver) and kids (up-and-coming stars Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood), The Ice Storm is one of the finest films of the nineties.

I couldn't help but take this as a shot directed at Katie Holmes, given that she's listed in the credits.

Oh, it's probably just an oversight, but in my own warped little world, I'd like to believe that whoever wrote the blurb meant for us to read it that way.

I wouldn't be surprised if the slight actually was intentional, but for less nefarious reasons. I think that Katie Holmes was close to the height of her popularity shortly after the Ice Storm came out, with the first season of Dawson's Creek. I actually had to look up her credits to even recall what else she's done, and realized I was only really familiar with her as a minor supporting actress (never having actually seen her in the aforementioned teen drama).

Basically a Hays Code film. Sexual experimentation, no matter how titillating (or not), must be punished.

The book it was based on has essentially the same plot. Was it a Hays Code novel?

This film is currently available on DVD. Isn't the question here a matter of how Criterion is going to justify a $39.95 price point?

This has happened before with the Martha Graham disc which is in my opinion one of the most entertaining packages Criterion has ever produced but this one seems rather slim.

Suzukifan wrote:This film is currently available on DVD. Isn't the question here a matter of how Criterion is going to justify a $39.95 price point?

Sigh. Unless you like burning money, no one is buying this for $39.95.

You can pre-order this from $31.96 from Criterion. And as everyone here knows, it will be even cheaper from other sellers.

As far as the extras go, they are hardly "slim".

Well actually you can pick it up for $28.95 but that's still a hefty surcharge.

Does seem tough to justify in this case.

It'll be 24.99 on DVDPlanet. Is this your first day on the internet that you think someone is paying list price for a DVD?

arsonfilms wrote:

jbeall wrote:

criterion.com wrote:Featuring a cast of tremendously talented adults (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver) and kids (up-and-coming stars Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood), The Ice Storm is one of the finest films of the nineties.

I couldn't help but take this as a shot directed at Katie Holmes, given that she's listed in the credits.

Oh, it's probably just an oversight, but in my own warped little world, I'd like to believe that whoever wrote the blurb meant for us to read it that way.

I wouldn't be surprised if the slight actually was intentional, but for less nefarious reasons. I think that Katie Holmes was close to the height of her popularity shortly after the Ice Storm came out, with the first season of Dawson's Creek. I actually had to look up her credits to even recall what else she's done, and realized I was only really familiar with her as a minor supporting actress (never having actually seen her in the aforementioned teen drama).

Good to know... I haven't had television in years (just my dvds and a netflix subscription), so I've never seen Dawson's Creek.

Suzukifan wrote:This film is currently available on DVD. Isn't the question here a matter of how Criterion is going to justify a $39.95 price point?

This has happened before with the Martha Graham disc which is in my opinion one of the most entertaining packages Criterion has ever produced but this one seems rather slim.

Colour me baffled. What's the connection between Martha Graham and The Ice Storm. Did I miss the bare bones release of Graham's dance shorts going for $9.95?

domino harvey wrote:It'll be 24.99 on DVDPlanet. Is this your first day on the internet that you think someone is paying list price for a DVD?

Um...we don't pay list price, but a lot of folks actually do. You know, there are still people our there who buy stuff at places like Best Buy, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Seems crazy, I know, but there is another world outside of Internet cinephilia, where people buy shit like The Ice Storm for $39.95.

Other people don't turn around and bitch about it on an internet message board though