That's my experience in a nutshell. The first few I bought were so good I've double and triple dipped on titles to take advantage of the better AV quality and extra features on the Criterion Collection releases.

Like the Arrow Video BDs, they always have excellent booklets and, in some cases, entire screenplays or novels to read after you've seen the film.

I'm tempted to sell my ITV BDs of BLACK NARCISSUS (OOP now and selling for a fair bit on amazon!) & THE RED SHOES and buy the Criterion versions. Do you know if there's much difference AV-wise?

According to DVDBeaver there is a massive difference between the ITV and the criterion releases, I think he said something along the lines of black narcissus being pretty much the perfect BD, although I do take him with a pinch of salt most of the time.
He has some comparison screenshots on the site if you want to check them out, they do look awesome!

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My replacement 'An American Werewolf in London' Steelbook turned up from Play.com yesterday and thankfully this one wasn't damaged like the first one they sent!
Watched it last night too, very pleased with the picture, was no where near as bad as I was expecting after some of the reviews I'd read about it. :)

These arrived from HK... ;)

Fong Sai Yuk (unedited) (1993) (Universe)
Fong Sai Yuk 2 (unedited) (1993) (Universe)

http://dv1.us/p1/385/014385-d0.jpg http://dv1.us/p1/383/014383-d0.jpg

I always worry with criterion that Eureaka will get the uk liscense soon after, in my experience Eureaka tend to do a better job with their transfers, and on DVD the BFI releases of kurosawa's movies always looked better than criterions. Nice sleeve art though and you do get some interesting extras though. I still have my Criterion DVD of Silence of the lambs, it has one of the best commentary tracks done for the film.

As for blu-rays. Watched ACT OF VALOUR. Some great Action sequences tied in to a mediocre plot and duff acting performances. Will look great on a home cinema set up though.

Also just through checking out LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (CORMAN) and The Blu underground release of VIGILANTE. Both look Astonishing, the colourisation of Little shop is incredibly done and we still get the B&W version for purists. VIGILANTE is a much better transfer than MANIAC and looks amazing, light years ahead of the dvd and well worth picking up as well.

Picked up the Odeon release yesterday of Blood on Satan's Claw.
I did intend waiting for the Bluray, but i couldn't resist as it was going pretty cheap in HMV.
Nice upgrade from Anchor Bay's.

New arrivals a little thin on the ground this week.

Still a nice little film though, Dem. :nod:

I've actually only had two films arrive so far this month myself, so am in the middle of a little 'dryspell' too.

Do you still have something around to watch BE? ;)