Originally Posted by Swedish Chef
Can anyone tell me why the Criterion Collection (a self-proclaimed "series of important classic and contemporary films") has done not one, not four, but two transfers of Michael Bay movies?
The answer is twofold. First on a representational level, they wanted a couple examples of the mainstream, big budget, effects-laden pieces of Pop Culture that routinely rule the box office. Bruckheimer & Bay, while having little to no artistic merit, are definitely representative of the late '90s slick blockbuster. If you want to have a sense of the entire scope of cinema history, you'd need at least a couple examples of just about everything.
Not every movie in The Criterion Collection (DVD or LaserDisc) is an acknowledged "classic" in the sense most people would apply that word to film. Yes they have many titles from the likes of Kurosawa, Bergman, Hitchcock, Fellini, etc., but they also have titles such as
Equinox (1970),
The Blob (1958) and
The Atomic Submarine (1959), I think none of which would be readily praised for their artistry, even by the people at Criterion, yet are representative of a kind of B-movie that had popularity for a couple decades.
The second reason is to fill the coffers with moneys from the segment of the DVD market that doesn't usually buy Criterion products.
Armageddon was just the fortieth title released and
The Rock was the hundred and eighth (Ang Lee's
The Ice Storm is due out in March and will be the four-hundred twenty-sixth title released by Criterion, and that number doesn't even include their new Eclipse Series boxed sets which adds another thirty-seven films). Plus both Michael Bay films were issued by Criterion on Laser Disc before DVD even came to be, so they already had all the supplemental material collected and ready to go.
So...like that.