misterlime wrote:No, just a fan. I'm involved with the press and get their announcements early. I've discussed these complaints with KEY fellow critics and laugh at the fact that people are being critical of a new great company that's releasing films that people have been waiting for years. Instead of giving them the respect they deserve, they're going out of their way to talk crap about them. They're doing a service for the film community and people should support labels like this.
You're making it sound like the people here are all like this guy. There aren't any comments about the "poor quality" of Olive's Face to Face here - Knives even says "...the Face to Face release (which is good)...". Seems pretty clear to me that Olive is well appreciated around here, in fact on the prior few pages there is much excitement about Johnny Guitar, My Son John, The Boogens, Body & Soul and Force of Evil, the Godards, and anticipation for the Bresson and many other upcoming titles. So what if some people are criticizing the cover art? Olive's not the only one; Criterion even gets it worse.
Anyway, the point was that you're overreacting to a perfectly innocuous comment.
misterlime wrote:No, just a fan. I'm involved with the press and get their announcements early. I've discussed these complaints with KEY fellow critics and laugh at the fact that people are being critical of a new great company that's releasing films that people have been waiting for years. Instead of giving them the respect they deserve, they're going out of their way to talk crap about them. They're doing a service for the film community and people should support labels like this.
You do sound a lot like the Frank Tarzi (Olive's director of sales and acquisitions, as Jeff said here), who commented so frequently and aggressively on the Amazon Face to Face review linked to in Jonas EB's post, who kept saying things like 'I would like to see a negative review from a REAL critic, not some blogger,' and who refused to admit that he worked for Olive. But since you're not him you might want to differentiate your voice from his a little bit.
Last edited by Sloper on Mon Jun 04, 2012 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
That Amazon review did seem oddly hyperbolic, though. The same guy started a thread on the film’s imdb page telling people to boycott the release. I haven’t seen the disc yet, but the reviews I’ve read suggest that it’s serviceable, if flawed. And even if it is a lousy release, would that really call for such aggressive campaigning against it?
I think Amazon Customer Reviews has a special filter that turns everyone into an idiot, it seems to be impossible to discuss anything there without both sides turning to absurd mud flinging and hyperbole. At any rate, unless Olive horribly screws up the PQ on all of their upcoming blus, they're obviously a company to watch at this point- though personally, I'd love a commentary or two by a so-called historian, particularly on something like Force of Evil where the story about Polonsky is nearly as interesting as the film.
misterlime wrote:No, just a fan. I'm involved with the press and get their announcements early. I've discussed these complaints with KEY fellow critics and laugh at the fact that people are being critical of a new great company that's releasing films that people have been waiting for years. Instead of giving them the respect they deserve, they're going out of their way to talk crap about them. They're doing a service for the film community and people should support labels like this.
You, and perhaps your "KEY fellow critics," are being awfully harsh with the commentators from this Forum. I've read nothing but praise here for what Olive has been doing, and the praise is well deserved. You're being a little too combative and there isn't a good reason for it.
First of all, I'm not Frank Tarzi, he might be a little too busy to respond to stupid posts, just because we agree on something doesn't mean we're the same person. Let's be honest, as soon Olive release a lesser version of SAVAGE INNOCENTS, you'll start seeing negative reviews on Amazon and these blogs warning customers to stay away from the release. FACE TO FACE was their only Paramount/Republic title that was not re-mastered in HD and they were undeservedly killed for it. They didn't want a repeat of that with SAVAGE INNOCENTS. The key critic that agreed with me, is arguably the most important classic film reviewer in the business... you can figure out who it is. This is my final post on this forum... I tried to clarify a few things and I don't need this soap opera.
misterlime wrote:First of all, I'm not Frank Tarzi, he might be a little too busy to respond to stupid posts (...). This is my final post on this forum... I tried to clarify a few things and I don't need this soap opera.
misterlime wrote:First of all, I'm not Frank Tarzi, he might be a little too busy to respond to stupid posts (...). This is my final post on this forum... I tried to clarify a few things and I don't need this soap opera.
Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
I didn't quite get that since there were no subtitles. Don't jet to poor Hindu outings way out?
I'm glad Olive has people like "misterlime" defending them. With the "better than you all" asshole attitude, referring to user's comments as "stupid posts",and name dropping without actually name dropping, I'm sure many users here won't be turned off of the brand. Especially when NOBODY SAID ANYTHING REALLY BAD about them.
Mathew2468 wrote:All 8 of misterlime's posts were in this topic.
That's nothing. He's got 87 posts at Home Theater Forum, and each and every one of them is about Olive. Many of them are of a promotional/announcement variety. That's some amazing brand loyalty for a guy who's "involved with the press" and "just a fan."
It's certainly an object lesson in how not to big up your label.
I hadn't really registered Olive that much until now, but I've been less than impressed by their attitude - and it's actually worse if 'misterlime' isn't Frank Tarzi, because it means that the label employs two obnoxious arseholes instead of just one. Defending your product against unreasonable criticism is one thing, but going out of your way to alienate potential customers by making blanket references to an entire forum's "stupid posts" and "soap opera" is something else entirely.
There are a lot more diplomatic ways of saying "we'd rather release these films with bad cover art and no extras or subtitles than not release them at all".
See, I don't even work for Olive (oh, I mean, "don't even not-work-for-but-I-am-a-fan-of for Olive"), and I put it in a way that is diplomatic towards Olive's customers.
You really should consider getting Tag Gallagher to do a video piece for Letter From an Unknown Woman or Pursued, though.
What A Disgrace wrote:There are a lot more diplomatic ways of saying "we'd rather release these films with bad cover art and no extras or subtitles than not release them at all".
Patient, non-patronising and non-aggressive explanations of economic realities usually work round these parts.
And if they're by someone authorised to speak on behalf of the label, that's more often a bonus than otherwise, because it adds authority - but they have to be willing to engage in constructive dialogue and take criticism on board.
Frank Tarzi would have done a lot better on the Amazon thread to acknowledge that Olive was aware that the master was sub-par (as 'misterlime' explicitly did above) instead of ranting about how "KEY critics" thought it was wonderful. Especially when even these "key critics" have technical criticisms - Michael Atkinson (Sight & Sound) thought that "the transfer has a touch of noticeably grey droopiness in the dark scenes" (though, to be fair, he's generally pretty positive).
misterlime wrote:First of all, I'm not Frank Tarzi, he might be a little too busy to respond to stupid posts, just because we agree on something doesn't mean we're the same person. Let's be honest, as soon Olive release a lesser version of SAVAGE INNOCENTS, you'll start seeing negative reviews on Amazon and these blogs warning customers to stay away from the release. FACE TO FACE was their only Paramount/Republic title that was not re-mastered in HD and they were undeservedly killed for it. They didn't want a repeat of that with SAVAGE INNOCENTS. The key critic that agreed with me, is arguably the most important classic film reviewer in the business... you can figure out who it is. This is my final post on this forum... I tried to clarify a few things and I don't need this soap opera.
I think people were most upset about the release not being the full 181 minute TV version than the picture quality not being the greatest.
