Criterion Channel’s October Drop Explodes With Hong Kong Action Classics

Criterion is doing the most right now: stacking the shelf with new 4K discs while also turning October on The Criterion Channel into an all-you-can-watch genre buffet. Physical-media folks get some shiny classics, and streamers get a Carpenter marathon plus a monster run of Hong Kong action. No one’s going hungry.

Quick 4K disc update

Criterion’s November slate is loaded: new 4K editions of Stanley Kubrick’s 'Eyes Wide Shut', Reginald Hudlin’s 'House Party', and John Hughes’s 'The Breakfast Club'. Then in December, Tim Burton’s 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' makes its 4K Blu-ray debut under the Criterion banner. Yes, my wallet also just sighed.

October on The Criterion Channel

First up, a big, loud gift to horror and genre fans: a John Carpenter takeover. It’s basically a guided tour through his career, from scrappy beginnings to late-period deep cuts. Hitting the service in October: 'Dark Star' (1974), 'Assault on Precinct 13' (1976), 'The Fog' (1980), 'Escape from New York' (1981), 'Christine' (1983), 'Starman' (1984), 'Big Trouble in Little China' (1986), 'Prince of Darkness' (1987), 'They Live' (1988), 'Memoirs of an Invisible Man' (1992), 'In the Mouth of Madness' (1994), 'Escape from L.A.' (1996), 'Vampires' (1998), and 'Ghosts of Mars' (2001). That’s a serious binge, gaps and all.

Then there’s the Hong Kong action spotlight. Criterion’s calling out the 80s and 90s golden era, but the lineup stretches before and after that window too, which is a nice 'inside baseball' way of saying it’s not just the famous stuff. It’s a decades-spanning sampler of bruisers, bullet ballets, and heroic bloodshed.

• Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979)
• The Magnificent Butcher (1979)
• Dreadnaught (1981)
• Heroes Shed No Tears (1984)
• Police Story (1985)
• A Better Tomorrow (1986)
• A Better Tomorrow II (1987)
• City on Fire (1987)
• Prison on Fire (1987)
• As Tears Go By (1988)
• Police Story 2 (1988)
• School on Fire (1988)
• A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989)
• The Killer (1989)
• Miracles (1989)
• Pedicab Driver (1989)
• Bullet in the Head (1990)
• Swordsman (1990)
• Once a Thief (1991)
• Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
• Prison on Fire II (1991)
• Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)
• Full Contact (1992)
• Hard Boiled (1992)
• Once Upon a Time in China II (1992)
• Swordsman II (1992)
• The Heroic Trio (1993)
• Once Upon a Time in China III (1993)
• Executioners (1993)
• The East Is Red (1993)
• Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997)
• Infernal Affairs (2002)
• Infernal Affairs II (2003)
• Infernal Affairs III (2003)
• PTU (2003)
• Breaking News (2004)
• Throw Down (2004)
• Election (2005)
• Exiled (2006)
• Life Without Principle (2011)
• Drug War (2012)
• Blind Detective (2013)

Bottom line: Criterion’s hedging no bets. If you’re a disc collector, November and December look great. If you’re streaming, October might as well be called Eat The Classics Month.