Criterion Recommendations

By now, most of you know about the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale. All DVDs and Blu-Rays are 50% off for a limited time, and though I expect most hardcore film buffs to have already made their purchases, I thought I'd offer a few recommendations:

Terrence Malick has gotten a lot of play here and in other places with the theatrical release of Tree of Life in May. I still have yet to see that, but his finest hour for me remains Days of Heaven. That wasn't the case when I first saw it, but I still haven't shaken it since my first viewing. In fact, I've watched it three times since and have fallen in love with it more each time.

David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is another film that I love more every time I see it, and considering I've seen it 8 or 9 times since its release in 2008, it's safe to say I'm pretty in love with it at this point. I've actually never seen the Criterion release, but I imagine it's stellar. If you're interested in revisiting the film, now might be your best chance.

I haven't actually seen Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, but it's probably the most highly rated film of all the submissions I received for my Criterion blogathon. Four fellow bloggers all gave it perfect scores, and everything I've ever read confirms their opinions. I picked up the film on Blu-Ray and will be digging into it later on this summer.

Blow Out is a film I found really fun and surprisingly twisty. Like Days of Heaven, it has stayed with me since I first watched it, and I definitely would say it's worth owning.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to Stagecoach, one of my all-time favorite westerns and definitely a worthy Criterion purchase. The picture quality of the DVD I watched in college vs. the quality of the Blu-Ray I now own is like night and day.

The purchases I made were actually all blind buys. Figured I'd take advantage of the lower prices to grab some films I've been curious about for a while. They are:

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique (Blu)

Jules Dassin's Rififi

Guillermo del Toro's Cronos (Blu)

Ingmar Bergman's The Magician (Blu)

Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich

Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (Blu)

Charlie Chaplain's Modern Times

So if you want to check out the sale, click here. And if you pick up anything good and want to contribute a review to my Criterion blogathon, just leave me a comment or e-mail me at johnlikesmovies@gmail.com.