MGM reaaly needs to lose the "Photoshop" mentality... (1 Viewer)

[RobertCharlotte]

I have to say, I only own one Criterion, but I much prefer the cover they gave Hopscotch to the Kendig-kissing-Isabel cover that I got so sick of on the VHS. Hopscotch is not a romantic comedy. It is a caper comedy.

 

[Will K]

Second of all... NO ONE makes fun of Charles Bronson (the biggest badass EVER) on my watch.

Amen to that! One Badass to rule them all.

 

[Alex Spindler]

I love the covers for Armaggeddon, Robocop (which may be one of the best covers I have got), Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums (which are wonderfully consistent and tie directly to both films), and The Silence of the Lambs. All of them are excellent in capturing the spirit of the film itself, either by artwork inspired by the film or by getting close to the feeling of the film.
And, I do believe that the cover to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai has to be the silliest thing I've got. It's already hard to explain why I love the film based on its title and premise. Giving it a ridiculous cover just makes it even harder.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Solaris has a great cover as well, as does 8 1/2, rushmore, and the royal tenenbaums. gimme shelter is decent too.

CJ

 

[Ted Todorov]

I completely fail to understand why anyone would care about the DVD cover art. Albums I can understand: while you're listening to the music, you are often holding and looking at the album cover.
But DVDs? When you are watching a DVD, you are watching the DVD, not looking at the box. When you are not watching it, the DVD is on the shelf and only the spine is visible (I am all for legible spines). So if MGM save some time and money on their lousy DVD covers in favor of spending time and money on better transfers, extras and more films, I am all for it. Bravo, MGM!
Ted
P.S. As usual Criterion gets a free pass: the cover for the new Pepe Le Moko DVD is plain awful, BUT I DON'T CARE: it is a GREAT film and I'm sure Criterion did the thing that actually counts right -- the transfer.

 

[JulianK]

Yeah, this happens when cover Art becomes cover Product. It's also a by-product of shrinking product size. Cover art has never been the same since the (almost) death of the 12" LP.

Yeah, what they should do is make DVD's the same size as LPs, then we could keep the original theatrical art.
I'll get me coat...

 

[Tony Whalen]

I completely fail to understand why anyone would care about the DVD cover art.

Some of us do Ted. Although interestingly enough.. while I tend to be sorta anal about my DVD cover art, I never cared much about LP cover art. Go figure.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

A couple butt-ugly Criterions off the top of my head:

The Bank Dick
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Billy Liar
Diary of a Chambermaid
Fiend Without a Face
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
The Lady Vanishes
The Long Good Friday
The Magic Flute
Playtime
Shock Corridor

Yeesh! Some of the color choices are stomach-turning. And there are plenty of Photoshop Jr covers to be found in the Criterion Collection too (Do the Right Thing, I Know Where I'm Going, etc.).

 

[Vic_T]

I love it when they use the original poster art for the DVD covers. Particularily the pulp style art for some the the classic films (like the Universal Monsters. Gee, I wish those would all come back).

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I like most of the Criterion covers but one that I didn't care for was JULIET OF THE SPIRITS. The design of the cover did not represent the film at all. In fact it reminded me of an advertisement for an "xtreme sports drink" or something.

 

[Mark Tay]

I'm equally interested in getting a good transfer of the film onto DVD, as well as interested in getting the original one sheet poster used as the DVD cover art.

Both represent the same goal: film preservation.

 

[Dean Kousoulas]

6 Charles Bronson movies released in one day? What, is it his birthday or something?

Dean

 

[Larry P]

I have to respectfully disagree with these comments.

MGM makes absolutely beautiful cover art. This is one of the reasons MGM is my favorite studio. Someone remarked they look like the "colorized" black and white covers, and yes, if you look at the evolution of cover art, this is where it started. They seem to "add" color to the actors faces and everything else. It makes for a very distinct style, I think.

They obviously put a lot of work into these covers, whether you like them or not. The fact is, a lot of these movies are older, and so the original poster artwork looks very dated.

I really think, more often than not, it is better to create new art for these films from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Things change, whether you like it or not. A lot of the original poster art is very bland.

Yes, I love the great painted epic posters too. I grew up with them too. But they don't fit in with any of the posters/covers of modern films, because they don't use paintings to promote films anymore.

Besides, this makes it more fun to collect these old posters. My feeling is, if you have the artwork on your DVD cover already, what fun is it to have the same artwork displayed somewhere else? I think it's neat that the studios do something new with it.

Unfortunately, a lot of times, the other studios don't put a lot of effort into these new covers. Just like they don't put enough effort into most of the posters for their modern first run films.

But MGM does. A lot of the time, they are just recoloring the original poster art, and maybe adding a few things. I mean, it's a Photoshop world that we live in now.

It's natural really, if you see some dated cover art for an old film, you might not be as interested in it. I think this is true even for the average film buff, because there are still a lot of older films that you are unfamiliar with. It makes old films seem new. And MGM has been so great about dusting off these older titles and giving them new life on DVD. It's great I think, that some younger people might be discovering some of these older films, classics or not.

I wish the studios were still getting great modern painters to do amazing posters like they used to; but they don't. Those type of posters have been out of style for many years. I am sure one day, they will start using paintings again.

MGM creates beautiful art of a different kind for their covers. I really enjoy most of MGM's original cover art more than I do most of the posters for new films.

Cover art for music albums is a different story, because traditionally they have never changed the artwork.

 

[Walt Riarson]

I don't think the MGM's upcoming batch of Midnite Movies double feature covers look that bad at all.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Larry, I think the point you are missing is that the C.B. covers are far too similar - the angle of the titles, the tag line font at the bottom of each disc. These 'package' releases don't really sell the film to someone like me who might otherwise be interested in seeing this as an impulse buy or rental. An eye-catching cover can go along way do selling a video or even a CD amongst the sea of 'product' (as I am loathe to call it). Even though box sets such as TV season shows (or for example, the 'Disney Treasures') repeat their artwork, they are done with some sort of individuality that makes them a worthy investment, possibly because their releases are staggered, rather than assaulted on the public all at once.

Now, I gonna head over to Emmett's Fix-It Shop...to 'fix' Emmett!!

 

[Dharmesh C]

Oh my, the MGM James Bond covers are atrocious, thank God for Zinema's artwork, top stuff. Looking at the MGM covers puts me off watching the DVD for some reason.

 

[Walt Riarson]

"Photoshop mentality" or not, you've just gotta love MGM...

 

[rhett]

There is something to show the grandparents!

 

[Will_B]

Walt, that's disgusting - looks like someone cut her throat with an MGM shaped weapon! Yeeech!

 

[Craig Beam]

As much as I hate some of the DVD cover art being churned out, it's comforting to know that, in these modern times, we all have the power to create or obtain customized replacements. Sometimes the inner booklet is representative of the original poster art (REAL GENIUS and FLATLINERS are two examples), so it's simply a matter of sliding the booklet into the outer sleeve (or scanning and printing a copy). In other cases, you can either create your own or download new ones (from dvdcoverart.com for example). If the studios truly are Photoshop-happy, can't we be as well?