It is really great to see that Criterion is now fully ‘on board’ the Blu-ray train.

In May it was announced that Criterion was planning Blu-ray titles.

Well, it just got a lot more real with the listing of five titles on their website.

I see that The Third Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth, Chungking Express, Bottle Rocket and The Last Emperor are scheduled for release in November 2008.

It looks like the retail pricing will be $39.95, though the Criterion store is listing them 20% off. No doubt Amazon will list them for less, and I will be sure to keep an eye out for them there.

The releases will largely feature new restored High Definition transfers and have director approved aspect ratios.

Audio looks to be mostly lossless, though some list Dolby Digital 5.1 - hopefully that will be revised closer to release!

The extras are fairly extensive as one would expect from Criterion releases.

All in all I couldn’t be happier to see this move from Criterion!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Studios, US Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.