The Thin Red Line: Criterion Collection
September 16, 2010
After Terrence Malick made Days of Heaven in the late 1970s, he didn’t make another film for two decades. Because he shunned the press like the cinematic equivalent of Thomas Pynchon, speculation was rampant as to the reasons why. It was rumored that...
Ride with the Devil: Criterion Collection
April 27, 2010
Ang Lee is a filmmaker not afraid to take chances. He brought a historical epic steeped in spectacular martial arts to the mainstream and Oscar glory with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Less successfully, he tried to merge his soulful aesthetic...
Che: Criterion Collection
January 14, 2010
Che (2008) began as a personal project for actor Benicio del Toro around the time he was making Traffic (2000) with Steven Soderbergh. Originally, he planned on making the film about iconic revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara with Terrence Malick...
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Criterion Collection
May 4, 2009
For years now, the Academy Award has eluded David Fincher despite the consistently good work that he has produced. Films like Seven (1995) and Fight Club (1999) were too extreme for the play-it-safe Academy voters and The Game (1997) and Panic Room (2002)...
Australia
March 4, 2009
After his debut film Strictly Ballroom (1992), writer/director Baz Luhrmann never looked back, creating lavish, ultra-stylish musicals William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001), and let’s not forget that $5 million Chanel...
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: 3-Disc Special Edition
December 22, 2008
With the success of the first Chronicles of Narnia film, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005), a sequel was inevitable but could Disney get everyone back who made the original so memorable? For the most part, the answer is yes but seeing as how...
Lonesome Dove: Two-Disc Special Edition
August 11, 2008
Based on Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel of the same name, Lonesome Dove was adapted into a four-part television mini-series that focuses on the relationship between two retired Texas Rangers as they drive a cattle herd from Texas to Montana...
The Fall of the Roman Empire: Limited Collector’s Edition
April 24, 2008
It’s a cliché to say but they really don’t make films like The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) anymore. Anthony Mann’s magnum opus is part of a grand tradition of big budget historical epics like Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and El Cid (1961)....
There Will Be Blood: Special Collector’s Edition
April 17, 2008
After the highly unconventional romantic comedy, Punch-Drunk Love (2002), many speculated about what writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson would do next. In a bold move, he decided to adapt Upton Sinclair’s novel, Oil! about ambitious oil tycoons in...
300
July 30, 2007
Capitalizing on the success of Sin City (2005) and some canny marketing (the screening of a trailer at the San Diego Comic Con was particularly effective), 300 (2006) became a surprise commercial hit despite mostly scathing reviews. Like Sin City and...
