Will there ever be a more reasonably priced Last Temtation of Christ? (1 Viewer)

[rob kilbride]

The Criterion edition is $35.99 at Borders. Pretty expensive.

 

[JeremyErwin]

Tower.com has it for 29.95, as do a number of other retailers (at least according to froogle), A very limited number of criterion titles (Chasing Amy, Royal Tenenbaums...) break the $20 barrier, but they're pretty rare.

 

[walter o]

I would think DDD would be your best bet.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Borders is high on nearly everything. I love the store, but I rarely buy anything there.

You can get it for $10 cheaper at DVD Planet.

http://www.dvdpricesearch.com/cgi-bin/dvdsearch2

 

[Mark Lucas]

Borders? Tower? Jeez, dvd price hell. Virgin Megastore too.

 

[Cees Alons]

Digital Eyes have it for $27.95 and The Laser's Edge for $27.97, respectively. Plus shipping.


Cees

 

[GuruAskew]

These tend to be the ones that are Criterions in name only but are actually manufactured and distributed by Buena Vista. Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Chasing Amy, Armageddon and The Rock can be found in stores where you wouldn't normally find Criterions because they're distributed alongside other Buena Vista titles. That's also why they tend to drop in price more.

 

[JeremyErwin]

Criterions in name only?

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

27.70 at DVD Pacific - plus shipping.

 

[Ravi K]

I still see Rushmore for about $35 in most places.

 

[JeremyErwin]

The Buena Vista release of "Rushmore" is not the same as the Criterion release.

Comparison between the two

To tell the truth, I can't discern very much of a difference in video quality in this case-- It's not like John Woo films, where the differences are immediately obvious.

"To get the very best quality on this film, you'll have to watch the Thai 16:9 anamorphically enhanced PAL release, and combine it with the soundtrack on the OOP Criterion NTSC release. There is also a pristine 1080i Chinese release with six different burned in subtitles..."

But buyers of the BV Rushmore miss out on all the extras.

edit: apparently the Criterion is 16x9 enhanced, but dvdbeaver shrinks down the image.

 

[GuruAskew]

Actually, the Criterion version of "Rushmore" IS a Buena Vista title. Normally, Criterion licenses entire films and releases them themselves. To use "The Last Temptation of Christ" as an example, Criterion has to pay Universal a substantial fee so that they can turn around and sell it as their own. The examples I listed, on the other hand, aren't licensed to Criterion. Criterion does all the production on the disc, they design the packaging and menus and produce the supplements, but they do not actually manufacture and distribute the discs. Copies of "Rushmore" and the rest are literally manufactured alongside other Buena Vista titles such as "Toy Story". Although the fact that Buena Vista distributes these titles isn't mentioned on the packaging of the earlier discs, it's now listed in the legal indica. If you look at the legal indica on regular Criterion titles, you will see something like:

The Last Temptation of Christ:

This doesn't really amount to much difference, but it allows the Criterions that Buena Vista actually manufactures and distributes to be purchased in places you don't usually see Criterions, like Target. I actually got a really sweet deal on my Criterion Rushmore, it was packaged alongside "High Fidelity", a non-Criterion Buena Vista product, for something like $25.

 

[Vincent Fok]

Basically all the Criterion titles from Touchstone and Miramax are in names only, which is why they are less than $20 because Buena Vista slash the price themselves.

 

[Brian PB]

Vincent: When you write Criterion "in name only" you make it sound as if Touchstone/Miramax/Buena Vista do all the work & then slap Criterion's name on the product at the end. That is not true. As Bill GrandPre wrote in the post above yours:

This explanation is much more accurate.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Are you guys sure about the Criterion Rushmore? I still see that one for standard Criterion prices (as opposed to Tenenbaums and Chasing amy for example).

I'm actually kind of surprised that there wasn't another DVD with all of the Scorsese releases last year. Still, the criterion disc is probably worth the money, and the film is certainly worth owning.

 

[GuruAskew]

If the Criterion Rushmore wasn't a Buena Vista title I wouldn't have been able to buy it in a 2-pack with High Fidelity.

 

[Mark_TS]

$25.97-ok, $26 *delivered* from Ken Cranes DVD Planet. (a unit of DDD)

 

[Charlie O.]

Is it true about the Criterion Last Temtation of Christ being censored in one part?

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

First I've heard. I have heard that Universal may be releasing their own SE. I'm sure I read that here somewhere. That's not to say that the Criterion is going OOP. But if you love the film (as I do) then you really ought to own the Criterion DVD.

 

[ChrisBEA]

Wonder how the BV distributed disks will be affected now that Criterion will be sxclusiovely distributed by Image, since they bought HVE and the contracts changed.....