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Criterion is just a brand that releases "important" films -- which doesn't always mean good -- usually that are extremely obvious -- and there are shitloads of awful movies on their label. On the other hand, there are constant surprises.. Dog Star Man, Revanche, Hausu, etc... My biggest thing with them is that all their dvd's are $40+. That's ridiculous. People can argue all day about that, $40+ (note the plus) for a 90 minute movie is completely absurd. People can say, "OH, BUT YOU GET SO MANY SUPPLEMENTS! THE PACKAGING IS KEWL! eTC!" To me, it makes movies turn into this fetishistic object, rather than you know.. just being a movie you enjoy. I have a non-Criterion Breathless that's just as good as the Breathless print, it just doesn't have some ridiculous special feature you're only going to watch once. The packaging usually is cool, but doesn't justify the price; the only thing I can see is the little booklets in most of their releases, but again, it's something you're going to read once, maybe, and that's if you love the movie. Really, the reason they charge so much is that they know they can get away with it.
On the other hand, FACETS does put out almost exclusively amazing movies, I've watched probably 60 Facets titles and 100% of them have been interesting, and most of them have been great. And you can get them for cheap, usually!
Again, I like Criterion, but they've released some absolute dog shit.
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