Movies I'd Like to See End Up in Criterion's Library

With performances by Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis filmed, I think this would make a kickin' addition to the Criterion library, particularly since one of the cornerstones of the Criterion oeuvre is that they're all about great soundtracks.

"Grosse Pointe Blank" had the inconvenience of coming out at a time when DVD was making it's presence known in the home video market. Even with a killer soundtrack (which Criterion often seems to notice in it's films), it's the performances and the movie's sense of humor that carry it through. John Cusack plays a career assassin who returns to the hometown he skipped 10 years ago for his high school reunion, one last job and the girlfriend he stood up on prom night. Minnie Driver plays the jilted ex, Alan Arkin as a fearful psychiatrist and Dan Aykroyd as a nemesis out to take down Cusack's character. It's like Lloyd Dobler went homicidal.

Criterion has always appreciated a good movie soundtrack, and for a movie that so celebrates music, I can't think of a more appropriate entry than "High Fidelity". Unfortunately the DVD for HF is not that great. It's got a terrible menu and some bland special features that are just begging for more. It also helps that director Stephen Frears has another entry into the Criterion Collection with "The Hit". But this film features a winning performance from Cusack in what is sure to be one of his greatest roles. Not to mention some guy named Jack Black pops up in this film, in what is undoubtedly his breakout role (that he nearly turned down from Cusack and the co-writers who wrote the part with him in mind) that Disney executives were reluctant to cast him. Fortunately he was in the film and literally stole the rug right out from underneath everyone else.

John Woo has made a lot of movies but it's "A Better Tomorrow", his first action film that really put him at the top of the list as an original.