Your Top 10 of 2014

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Your Top 10 of 2014

Postby James-Masaki_Ryan » 16 Dec 2014 14:10

2014 is almost over and it's when most publications and sites post top 10 releases of the year. I thought it would be interesting to hear this forum's users.
Top 10 Blu-ray, Top 10 DVD, Top 10 Blu-ray or DVD, it's really up to you. Details or additional information as well if you want.

Top Blu-ray Releases (I put mine in alphabetical order)

1. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955) Criterion
2. The ‘Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989) Arrow
3. Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) Eureka Masters Of Cinema
4. The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961) BFI
5. The Gang’s All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943) Eureka Masters Of Cinema
6. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) Criterion
7. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Studio Canal UK
8. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941) Arrow
9. Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery (David Lynch, 1990-1992) Paramount
10. Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson, 1987) Arrow

(No DVD list this year, since I barely bought any new release DVDs...)

The good this year:
Indie labels going the extra mile, Arrow especially incredibly.
Major studios becoming more lenient in licensing to indie labels.
One of my favorite indies Scorpion Releasing teaming with Kino was excellent. (Now why is Code Red so stubborn?)

The bad this year:
Major labels becoming even lazier with their releases. Good transfers, good audio, but having the same-old same-old extras on every release.
Major labels dumping their catalog titles to made-on-demand DVD-Rs, and they are not worth supporting to me. (Offer them streaming or for download instead!)
BD-Live is dead, no studios are using the tech when they should be.
DVDs are still hanging around for some reason...
Flicker Alley: Starting burned-on-demand discs, and their Cinerama discs have increased $10 more in price.
Oscilloscope Laboratories, one of my favorite indie labels had a very quiet year with very few releases.
Criterion had amazing boxset releases with the Jacques Tati and Jacques Demy sets. But unfortunately, the Tati bonus films looked pretty terrible compared to the older BFI Blu-rays, and "Lola" in the Demy set looked like it went through a hazy filter.
RaroVideo's releases like "Slaughter Hotel" and "I Vinti" were embararssing transfers. I'm not sure if anyone there is hired to do any quality control...
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Re: Your Top 10 of 2014

Postby Paul_Lewis » 17 Dec 2014 20:34

Nice thread! :)

I'm really busy at the moment, what with marking students' work, etc, but I think I can put together a 'top ten'.

1. THE SHOOTING/RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND (Monte Hellman, 1966) (Criterion, Blu-ray, US)
2. CAMERA OBSCURA: THE WALERIAN BOROWCZYK COLLECTION (Arrow, Blu-ray, UK)
3. LOVE STREAMS (John Cassavetes, 1984) (Criterion, Blu-ray, US)
4. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Richard Lester, 1965) (Second Sight, Blu-ray, UK)
5. BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (Brian Yuzna, 1990) (Capelight, Blu-ray, Germany)
6. THE WERNER HERZOG COLLECTION (BFI, Blu-ray, UK)
7. CURTAINS (Richard Ciupka, 1983) (Synapse, Blu-ray, US)
8. NIGHTBREED (Clive Barker, 1990) (Shout, Blu-ray, US)
9. STAGEFRIGHT (Michele Soavi, 1987) (Exposure Cinema, Blu-ray, UK)
10. LES DEMONS (Jess Franco, 1973) (Redemption, Blu-ray, US)

There have been some great releases this year. I'm already regretting leaving Arrow's RABID DOGS off the list, for example, and the Goya releases of Jess Franco's films - and the recent Austrian Blu-ray release of SILENT TRIGGER... plus Eureka's releases of TOO LATE BLUES, RAPTURE, FAUST, THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, 88 Films' release of TRANCERS, Second Sight's 40th Anniversary release of TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, the Blu-ray release of TWIN PEAKS: THE ENTIRE MYSTERY, Network's THE PROFESSIONALS Blu-ray sets, Warner's release of Billy Friedkin's SORCERER. However, I'm going to resist the temptation to revise/overhaul my list, as I think it represents a good spread of releases of different films by various companies which all show good form.
'I ran out of ambition at the age of 27': Peter Cook.
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