Since the days of Laserdisc, the Criterion Collection has dedicated their efforts to collecting the greatest classic and contemporary films from around the world, and make them available to the general public at the highest quality possible. Today, they release their first wave of Blu-ray titles, which represent some of their most popular releases since the collection began.
Over the past few weeks, we have reviewed all four of today's releases - '
Bottle Rocket', '
Chungking Express', '
The Man Who Fell to Earth', and '
The Third Man' - with each of them representing top-notch Blu-ray releases. As staff reviewer Dr. Svet Atanasov noted in his
review of 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', "This really is what Blu-ray is all about, and in the hands of competent distributors the format is capable of delivering miracles."
The other big player today is Paramount who drop six catalog titles into the laps of Blu-ray owners. While the big focus was on getting fans some comedy favorites - '
The Heartbreak Kid', '
Hot Rod', '
Old School', and '
Tommy Boy' - they make sure to release a few dramas with '
Coach Carter' and '
Into the Wild'.
Weinstein Company drops both '
Death Proof' and '
Planet Terror' - the two parts of 'Grindhouse' - on Blu-ray today, two titles which many have been waiting a very long time for Blu-ray release, while Universal releases '
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Warrior' and '
Mamma Mia' (Holiday Hint: Your girlfriend/wife probably wants this).
And finally, baseball fans will be happy to hear that you can pick up the '
2008 World Series Film: Phillies vs. Rays' Blu-ray from Shout Factory.
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.