The Criterion Collection • Page 5

Does anyone have Pan's Labyrinth Criterion Collection? Is it worth upgrading my blu-ray copy to it?

 

You mean that box set? Seriously considering buying it when the flash sale starts in an hour.

 

Whoa. Flash sale? What's going on? Apparently I picked the right day to come into this thread.

Where's this happening?!

 

I think people thought it wasn't worthy of Criterion Collection but I mean John Hughes was one of the most influential filmmakers and the whole " that isn't real art" conversation is silly

 

It’s on the criterion site. Half off everything MSRP

 

I’ll admit that I also thought Ferris Bueller was a slog to get through. They’re not generally the type of film I watch or really enjoy though.

 

Oh my!

 

This starts at noon Eastern?!

 

Yep. Presumably there’ll be a big header on the main page that says what the promo code is to use at checkout.

 

Got Paris, Texas, Bicycle Thieves and Short Cuts

 

Ahhh, Paris Texas is so good!

 

The Breakfast Club is okay but it is a mostly silly movie. It isn't something that needs to be criticized too deeply because it is not aiming to do too much, but going to high school in the 2000's and teaching high school beyond that makes it really hard to see how young people relate to those stereotypes.

 

The Breakfast Club deals with child abuse, bullying, struggles with personal identity, teen suicide and other issues in ways that connected with millions of people and continues to do so to this day. Yeah, sounds like a silly film to me, too.

 

The only thing about the movie that bugs me is what happens with Ally Sheedy’s character.

 

John Hughes: When you’re 16, you’re more serious than you’ll ever be again | Roger Ebert's Journal | Roger Ebert

"Not aiming to do too much"

Somebody should've told John Hughes, poor guy didn't even know what he was aiming to do with his own film.

 

What directors out there think their films are silly? This is one of the stranger defenses of a film I have ever seen.

 

You said it's silly and "It's not aiming to do too much." I remind you that it tackles several serious topics in a completely serious way, and also present evidence that it was, in fact, aiming to do quite a bit. You come back with "How strange it is to use things like 'actually watching the film' and 'actual quotes from the writer/director about what he was actually aiming to do against me?"

Nice.

 

What does how the director views his own film have to do with how someone judges a film? You are arguing against film criticism itself.

 

Buddy, you're the one who said "The film isn't aiming to do too much." You didn't say "I don't think the film accomplishes what it set out to do." One is ascribing motive to the filmmaker, the other is criticism. Learn the difference before the next attempted pedantic one-line nothing-response.

 

One of the more useless phrases in criticism is a film "accomplishing what it sets out to do". That doesn't really tell us anything; most movies "accomplish what they were trying to do" unless the production runs out of money or someone gets involved in the creative process. The film is not really trying to do too much; it focuses on a narrow set of characters who are set in an isolated environment and come from a very distinct suburban background. It is meant for a mainstream audience, so it really does not dive that deep, and when it does it is pretty laughable, especially the Mighty Ducks coach. It ends with the same sort of feel-good note as other 80s movies. However, its frivolousness is what makes criticizing it mostly pointless; it is a perfectly fine movie to watch even if its enduring popularity is a mystery.

 

Damn, you managed it anyway. I expected nothing less from you!

 

just got my first: punch drunk love

 

I watched the film twice in a row the day that blu came out

 

Indulged in my local videos store’s Boxing Day sale and grabbed General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait blu and Rossellini’s History Films Eclipse set.

 

Flash sale baby!