With about a week to go until Christmas and a week after The Dark Knight, it's no wonder this week's lineup is way less than exceptional. So because there really isn't anything to get too excited about we're going to prop up a title that we'd bet will be a classic one day, Old School. If you haven't seen this one and you enjoy a good laugh, what are you waiting for? If you have, and can't wait to enjoy it all over again for the first time in HD, then say it with us, "You're my boy blue!" Also this week, Criterion's long awaited titles finally hit the street along with plenty of catalog titles form Paramount and Universal. Universal has what is arguably the biggest day-and-date title with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but it's IMDB score of 5.2 has us unimpressed. Next week slate isn't much better, but it does have one we're looking for with Burn After Reading.

• Bottle Rocket (Criterion)
• The Cheetah Girls: One World (Disney)
• Chungking Express (Criterion)
• Coach Carter (Paramount)
• Death Proof (Weinstein)
• The Heartbreak Kid (Paramount)
• Hot Rod (Paramount)
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Fox)
• Into the Wild (Paramount)
• Mamma Mia! (Universal)
• The Man Who Fell to Earth (Criterion)
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Universal)
• Old School (Paramount)
• Planet Terror (Weinstein)
• The Third Man (Criterion)

Sometime between the third crescent moon and a witch's equinox (or early last week, to be specific), Criterion began shipping out its long-awaited Blu-ray Disc collection. The question remains, though: are these much ballyhooed discs worth their weight in gold, or what? We've rounded up a number of reviews from around the web covering a wide range of the first wave titles, and generally speaking, critics were floored. Almost every single reviewer had a difficult time hitting the "stop" button on their praises of the visual / auditory qualities, and while the plots of each film are completely subjective, it's safe to say that these are quite the must-haves for strict audio- / videophiles. The only title that didn't receive an inordinate amount of laud was Chungking Express, with the reviewer noting that it had "a somewhat erratic look on Blu-ray, alternately semi-soft and sharp." Outside of that, however, it's all glowing.

Read - The Third Man review
Read - Bottle Rocket review
Read - The Man Who Feel To Earth review
Read - Chungking Express review
Read - Overview of Blu-ray transfer process

For movie buffs who've been waiting on pins and needles to see their Criterion Blu-ray Disc order status switch from "wait longer, fool" to "shipped," we've got some excellent news. We're beginning to hear individual reports that BDs from Criterion (at least ones that were pre-ordered a few months back) are beginning to ship, and while the company has yet to replace the "Pre-order" badges with "Buy" labels on its website, we suspect that will take place in the near future. Have any of you readers received your discs yet? If not, keep a close eye on that mailbox.

[Thanks, Christopher and Harold]

Get down with your bad self, Criterion. First you make the totally necessary leap to Blu-ray, and now you've opened your mind to digital distribution. The recently launched Online Cinematheque gives viewers the ability to catch short clips of select films online for free, and if they're really intrigued, they can cough up $5 to watch the whole thing. Afterwards, if they've discovered one of their new favorite films, Criterion will put the $5 rental fee towards the purchase of the title on DVD / BD. Sorry for just providing you with a portal to kill hours upon hours of free time.

[Via Slashfilm]

The long wait for Criterion's break into the world of Blu is just about over, and we're assured that our patience will not have been in vain. According to Criterion technical director Lee Kline: "If our Blu-ray discs are going to come out, then they'd better look right." Presumably addressing the delays, he noted that "we had to make sure that the compression was right, that the audio encoding was up to par, and we had to make sure that the discs played on all players, particularly the older generation models, as well as [the] PlayStation 3." Possibly the most exciting news is that the first wave of releases will be available for purchase on December 19th. Also of note, each title will "not be housed in the traditional blue-colored Blu-ray boxes that the major studios have adopted, nor will they carry the Blu-ray Disc logo. Rather, the Criterion titles will carry a small credit on the back of the box indicating that the title is in the Blu-ray format, and there will be a blue sticker on the shrink wrap indicating the same." Way to go your own way, Criterion.

We'd like to think that anything put out by Criterion would be worth the wait, but this is getting a wee bit annoying. After first announcing that a gaggle of Criterion Blu-ray Discs would be out by October, we were hit with the unfortunate news that things were being pushed back 'til November. Here we are in that very month, and now we're staring yet another month-long delay in the face. For reasons unknown, classics like Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, The Third Man, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Last Emperor have all been knocked back to December with the exception of the last film, which is being delayed until January of 2009. Bah, humbug!

[Via Sound & Vision, thanks Anthony]

Criterion's firmed up its release plans, backing off the initial October projections and announcing the first five flicks to get the C stamped on their Blu-ray case. Included are three classics already out on Criterion DVD due November 18 - The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Third Man and The Last Emperor. The following week Bottle Rocket and Chungking Express hit day and date with their DVD counterparts, all for the promised MSRP of $39.95 (tagged $31.96 in the Criterion store.) Original aspect ratios, BD-50 dual layer discs and the company's usual care and attention to detail, of course, are part of the package, the only question is whether you can wait one more long month.

Yeah, you read that correctly -- the obsessive audiophiles / videophiles at the Criterion Collection use Sony's PlayStation 3 as its reference Blu-ray player. In all honesty, we can't say we're too surprised. Time and again, Sony's latest console has been rated very highly as a dedicated BD deck, and the plentiful firmware updates ensure that it's always at the forefront of whatever interactive functionality is next. This snippet of factual goodness was extracted from a recent writeup that took an in-depth look at how the CC would be revamping its home theater, and even famed calibration guru Joe Kane gave his approval at using the console for playing back Blu-ray Discs. The real kicker? They also settled upon a DVIGear HDMI cable over one of those obscenely overpriced Ogre cables -- and that was after running clean out of coat hangers.

[Via CNET]

Gamers stuck with an older HDTV that doesn't support 720p input can cheer for the upcoming Burnout: Paradise "Cagney" update, which adds (among other things) 1080i output support for the PlayStation 3 version. Dismissively referring to such sets "almost HD", Simon Phipps of Criterion dropped the details on the free update due July 10 that also adds improved SD rendering on the PS3 and support for custom soundtracks. It'd be nicer if that slick 2.40 update added Xbox 360-style scaling for all games so developers didn't to expend the effort, but from the sounds of things it's not high on Sony's list of priorities.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

The Criterion Collection's long-awaited HD debut -- delayed by that annoying format war -- finally has a date, as well as a list of the first movies getting a definitive release in 1080p. If that wasn't enough, try this bit on for size: They won't charge viewers extra for the privilege. That's right, according to the e-mail that went out to subscribers today, all Blu-ray releases will feature HD picture and sound (no word on what codecs, although we expect nothing but the best considering the company has been mastering and restoring all releases in HD for years now), all the supplemental content and a matching (unspecified) price to their standard DVD editions. The complete email and list of a dozen movies follows after the break, along with a note that The Last Emperor will also be released in its original theatrical version on both formats for $39.95, while Walkabout will be an all-new edition.

[Thanks, Erik]

Unlike many fans of either format Criterion has so far been satisfied to sit on the sidelines and let things transpire as they may, and for the time being they will continue to. On the new Criterion Collection blog executive Peter Becker spelled out the company's view on the ongoing tiff between HD DVD and Blu-ray. Criterion benefited by moving from making well-received laserdiscs to the DVD format early on, but with the lack of a single standard, it is left with the choice of either alienating some customers, or creating two sets of inventory for all of its content. While dual releases might be feasible for larger players like Warner and Paramount, Criterion is going to let things shake themselves out before releasing HD content on disc. Since it has been mastering all of its films in HD for years one can only imagine the stockpile of content and extras waiting to be unleashed...someday.

It's old -school week here at HD Beat, with no Xbox 360 titles debuting we'll take it back to EDTV with a new release for Xbox and PS2, Criterion's Black. This is a shooter in the purest sense of the word. Don't worry about the story, complex enemy AI or online multiplayer here, just blow stuff up. And when it looks this good that is not a bad thing at all.