Criterion Press Release: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) (Blu-ray) (2 Viewers)

[AlexNH]

No, because Criterion takes the time with their releases were as Universal rushes theirs.

No, because Criterion takes the time with their releases were as Universal rushes theirs.

0	Aloha, Spicoli.

 

[darkrock17]

0	Aloha, Spicoli.

Your gif doesn't work

 

[Derrick King]

Interesting question- has Criterion ever released a BluRay, then the original distributor released a UHD after?

I think around 15 or so spine numbers, with one of those being the Bruce Lee Fortune Star titles, so about 18 or 19 films out of the well over 10XX movies they've released on DVD or Blu-ray have been released on UHD somewhere in the world.

 

[B-ROLL]

I think around 15 or so spine numbers, with one of those being the Bruce Lee Fortune Star titles, so about 18 or 19 films out of the well over 10XX movies they've released on DVD or Blu-ray have been released on UHD somewhere in the world.

Parasite was released on blu-ray by Neon (the US and Canada rights holder) through Universal on 01/20/2020. Then Neon/Universal and released the 4K version on 06/02/2020. Criterion announced their blu-ray set on 07/15/2020. Criterion licensed the film from Neon.

It appears that some the supplemental materials were being produced by Criterion in March of 2020 prior to the release of the 4K but while the Neon/Universal blu-ray was out.

 

[titch]

I think around 15 or so spine numbers, with one of those being the Bruce Lee Fortune Star titles, so about 18 or 19 films out of the well over 10XX movies they've released on DVD or Blu-ray have been released on UHD somewhere in the world.

The Elephant Man, Parasite and Crash were released on 4K UHD BEFORE Criterion announced their versions. So they had a 4K UHD master available for them.

 

[Nick*Z]

Frankly, I'm tired of Criterion re-releasing movies that have already been available in hi-def, with minimal upgrades, and minimal 'new' extras. I mean, they used to be the 'go to' label for art house and hard to find catalog. Now, by far and large, their focus just seems to be as an offshoot for re-distribution of product already marketed elsewhere. Leave Her To Heaven, The Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Honestly, with so many movies 'of cultural significance' still awaiting a first Blu-ray release, I would expect Criterion to go after some of the more 'hard to find' stuff that is deserving of at least one North American release, starting with El Cid, Fall of the Roman Empire, 55 Day at Peking, and Circus World. Maybe they could do a Samuel Bronston collection?

Then they could start by giving us Around the World in 80 Days, Ordinary People, Six Weeks, Raintree County, Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939), The Thornbirds, Beyond the Forest, The Pleasure of his Company, North and South, Pepe Le Moko, The Ghost and the Darkness, Ruthless People, Advise and Consent, Meet John Doe, Z (1969), Flower Drum Song, The Talk of the Town, Theodora Goes Wild, Summertime, Young Sherlock Holmes, Hercules (1958), The Possessors (Les Grande Famillies 1958) Porgy and Bess, Centennial Summer, I Love Trouble (the director's cut, which was being prepared back in the LaserDisc era, and then never materialized, either on DVD or Blu-ray), The House on Telegraph Hill, Maria Chapdelaine, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Staircase, Gunga Din, City for Conquest, Moulin Rouge (1952), and, State of the Union. As well as a new Blu of Topper, one of the irrefutable classic screwballs given short shrift currently, and, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - a great Billy Wilder movie in an abysmal transfer currently.

If they want to go after the whack-tac-u-lar 70's/80's/90's comedies, there's always, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Outrageous Fortune, The First Wive's Club, In & Out, Can't Buy Me Love, The Witches of Eastwick, All of Me, Oh Heavenly Dog, Stardust Memories, After Hours, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Only the Lonely, Night Shift (1982), Death Becomes Her (which is currently only available in an atrocious transfer from Shout!), Heaven Can Wait, Paper Moon, Manhattan, Play It Again Sam.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Frankly, I'm tired of Criterion re-releasing movies that have already been available in hi-def, with minimal upgrades, and minimal 'new' extras. I mean, they used to be the 'go to' label for art house and hard to find catalog. Now, by far and large, their focus just seems to be as an offshoot for re-distribution of product already marketed elsewhere. Leave Her To Heaven, The Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Honestly, with so many movies 'of cultural significance' still awaiting a first Blu-ray release, I would expect Criterion to go after some of the more 'hard to find' stuff that is deserving of at least one North American release, starting with El Cid, Fall of the Roman Empire, 55 Day at Peking, and Circus World. Maybe they could do a Samuel Bronston collection?

Then they could start by giving us Around the World in 80 Days, Ordinary People, Six Weeks, Raintree County, Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939), The Thornbirds, North and South, Pepe Le Moko, The Ghost and the Darkness, Ruthless People, Advise and Consent, Meet John Doe, Z (1969), Summertime, Young Sherlock Holmes, Hercules (1958), The Possessors (Les Grande Famillies 1958) Porgy and Bess, Centennial Summer, I Love Trouble (the director's cut, which was being prepared back in the LaserDisc era, and then never materialized, either on DVD or Blu-ray), The House on Telegraph Hill, Maria Chapdelaine, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Staircase, Gunga Din, City for Conquest, Moulin Rouge (1952), and, State of the Union. As well as a new Blu of Topper, one of the irrefutable classic screwballs given short shrift currently, and, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - a great Billy Wilder movie in an abysmal transfer currently.

Give us Lone Star- a gem of a film. Great Expectations would also be welcome- one of my favorite classic films. Ruthless People is one of my favorite comedies, so I’d be all over that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

A title like Fast Times has the potential to sell well and subsidize some of those other titles that simply won’t. It’s a difficult landscape out there for physical media and even when it wasn’t, Criterion has always mixed more arty and obscure titles with more commercial fare. If you want to guarantee that they’ll have fewer resources to handle the lesser known or less in demand titles, stopping the releases that help maintain brand recognition and have built in audiences willing to pay for them is a great way to accomplish that.

 

[Derrick King]

The Elephant Man, Parasite and Crash were released on 4K UHD BEFORE Criterion announced their versions. So they had a 4K UHD master available for them.

I'll say it again, The Elephant Man is licensed from Paramount and Crash is licensed from Warner Brothers. Neither of which license UHD rights to boutique labels.

I don't know if UHD rights to Parasite were included in their deal with Neon. But for the sake of argument, say that Criterion has the UHD rights, with the Universal disc on the market, and often priced around $10, why would Criterion release it on UHD when it would likely retail for 4 or 5 times more than the Universal disc? The UHD market is likely too small to carry competing editions.

 

[titch]

I'll say it again, The Elephant Man is licensed from Paramount and Crash is licensed from Warner Brothers. Neither of which license UHD rights to boutique labels.

I don't know if UHD rights to Parasite were included in their deal with Neon. But for the sake of argument, say that Criterion has the UHD rights, with the Universal disc on the market, and often priced around $10, why would Criterion release it on UHD when it would likely retail for 4 or 5 times more than the Universal disc? The UHD market is likely too small to carry competing editions.

Arrow Video has the 4K UHD of Crash.

 

[AlexNH]

Frankly, I'm tired of Criterion re-releasing movies that have already been available in hi-def, with minimal upgrades, and minimal 'new' extras. I mean, they used to be the 'go to' label for art house and hard to find catalog. Now, by far and large, their focus just seems to be as an offshoot for re-distribution of product already marketed elsewhere. Leave Her To Heaven, The Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Honestly, with so many movies 'of cultural significance' still awaiting a first Blu-ray release, I would expect Criterion to go after some of the more 'hard to find' stuff that is deserving of at least one North American release, starting with El Cid, Fall of the Roman Empire, 55 Day at Peking, and Circus World. Maybe they could do a Samuel Bronston collection?

Then they could start by giving us Around the World in 80 Days, Ordinary People, Six Weeks, Raintree County, Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939), The Thornbirds, Beyond the Forest, The Pleasure of his Company, North and South, Pepe Le Moko, The Ghost and the Darkness, Ruthless People, Advise and Consent, Meet John Doe, Z (1969), Flower Drum Song, The Talk of the Town, Theodora Goes Wild, Summertime, Young Sherlock Holmes, Hercules (1958), The Possessors (Les Grande Famillies 1958) Porgy and Bess, Centennial Summer, I Love Trouble (the director's cut, which was being prepared back in the LaserDisc era, and then never materialized, either on DVD or Blu-ray), The House on Telegraph Hill, Maria Chapdelaine, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Staircase, Gunga Din, City for Conquest, Moulin Rouge (1952), and, State of the Union. As well as a new Blu of Topper, one of the irrefutable classic screwballs given short shrift currently, and, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - a great Billy Wilder movie in an abysmal transfer currently.

If they want to go after the whack-tac-u-lar 70's/80's/90's comedies, there's always, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Outrageous Fortune, The First Wive's Club, In & Out, Can't Buy Me Love, The Witches of Eastwick, All of Me, Oh Heavenly Dog, Stardust Memories, After Hours, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Only the Lonely, Night Shift (1982), Death Becomes Her (which is currently only available in an atrocious transfer from Shout!), Heaven Can Wait, Paper Moon, Manhattan, Play It Again Sam.

Generally speaking I agree your points, all of them. I am giving them a pass on the minimal new extras because of COVID-19. However, the current Universal BD picture quality is terrible and quite sad. The transfer is fuzzy and soft. It's a shoddy and now 10 year old disc it was released in 2011). The current Fast Times BD is the worst stuff of the format. The source elements need to be corrected and a Criterion release will fix this. I will be buying it.

Leave Her to Heaven was a SOLD OUT T.T BD release.

In the Heat of the Night was probably the most pointless recent Criterion release. The A/V was slightly improved but extras were dropped and nothing much new was an added. Was it a cash grab by MGM? Maybe.

 

[Derrick King]

According to a post from the guy that works for Cameron Crowe, Universal lost the mono track. So it isn't going to be included. But, on the plus side, the television cut is from a new HD scan of an IP.

Arrow Video has the 4K UHD of Crash.

Arrow licensed the film directly from producer Jeremy Thomas, who owns the UK rights to the film, so they have all disc, theatrical, and streaming rights in the UK.

 

[darkrock17]

According to a post from the guy that works for Cameron Crowe, Universal lost the mono track. So it isn't going to be included. But, on the plus side, the television cut is from a new HD scan of an IP.

How do you loose an audio tracks? film itself I understand, but audio though?

 

[Lasermanfan]

I have the TV version taped off late night TV, probably from 1986. So glad they are including this.

 

[TravisR]

According to a post from the guy that works for Cameron Crowe, Universal lost the mono track. So it isn't going to be included.

Maybe I'm dumb but can't they just sync the mono track from the DVD to the new scan?

I have the TV version taped off late night TV, probably from 1986. So glad they are including this.

Probably a decade ago, I found my VHS copy of the TV cut and I had planned on checking it out but thanks to thousands of Blu-rays, I never got around to it.

 

[MatthewA]

How do you loose an audio tracks? film itself I understand, but audio though?

It happens sometimes; things in studios either get thrown out by mistake or misplaced/mislabeled. It happened to the first-generation audio tracks of My Fair Lady before its first stage of restoration in the 1990s, so CBS had to use another source for that. At least they found something to work with. When WB put 1954's A Star is Born back together in the 1980s, they had to rely on a shortened 35mm print for its four-channel stereo soundtrack. It's also why Disney used ADR for missing dialogue in Bedknobs and Broomsticks while Columbia did the same for Lawrence of Arabia: the original tracks for those lines didn't turn up along with everything else that did.

Maybe I'm dumb but can't they just sync the mono track from the DVD to the new scan?

The master they used for the DVD might have been lost in the Universal Vault Fire of 2008. Even so, the DVD audio was compressed and lossy. But if they had to go that route, they could always go back to the old laserdisc to get a PCM mono track, even if they have to buy a copy off eBay.

 

[Lord Dalek]

The TV cut is in mono right? Also how hard is it to go take the optical track off an ip or master positive?

 

[MatthewA]

I think those things are physically separate from each other, unlike a film print that would actually have been sent to theaters in 1982.

 

[Arthur Powell]

In the Heat of the Night was probably the most pointless recent Criterion release. The A/V was slightly improved but extras were dropped and nothing much new was an added. Was it a cash grab by MGM? Maybe.

I would nominate All About Eve for the most pointless Criterion release distinction, but I digress.

When I first read the news about Fast Times at Ridgemont High, I must admit that my first thought was "not another film that's already on blu when Criterion is sitting on films that have never even had blu releases and in some cases have never made it onto DVD," but after reading about the current release, I can see why this release is justifiable. It still wouldn't be at the top of my priority list if I had the deciding power, but nonetheless this release does have a rationale behind it.

 

[darkrock17]

I would nominate All About Eve for the most pointless Criterion release distinction, but I digress.

The Manchurian Candidate was more of an unnecessary release than All About Eve was. Not get me wrong, The Manchurian Candidate is a perfect addition to Criterion, however nothing on that release was really worth it. I know some of the previous MGM features were dropped for some reason or another which is understandable cause of licensing and what not, but what was dropped and then had new added didn't really warnt the release in my opinion. How hard would it have been to put together a making of documentary?