Side by Side Comparison of: CRITERION COLLECTIONS vs Amazon

Classic. Love it.

Thank You

awsome

What can I say... an absolute classic in the genre of horror/suspense. superb action with the scanners. I saw this in the 80s when it first came out and was hooked. The absolute best of the series hands down. A must see.

This is a fantastic version of Scanners the packaging is a thing of beauty. There just seems to be amazing artwork everywhere. One of my favourite releases I own. The transfer of the film is also outstanding.

Classic 80s film. One of David Cronenberg's greatest creations.

Sibling rivalry, conspiracies, industrial espionage, a goon squad of killers, some intrigue, and a duel over world dominance............or?Well, it’s never dull but it does suffer from the limited acting skills of the lead character (artist Stephen Lack as Cameron Vale) and his sidekick (Cover-Girl model Jennifer O’Neill as Kim Obrist). Most of the heavy lifting is done by Patrick McGoohan and Michael Ironside. There isn’t as much scanner destruction as one would want (the iconic “head” scene is wasted early on). More thriller than a sci-fi flick, it’s an interesting concept that begs for a remake but apparently Cronenberg won’t allow it.

Patrick McGoohan as Dr Ruth in this conspiracy movie about a special serum that opens peoples minds and can give them control over others.

good.

I liked patrick mcgoohan in a different role

my least Favorite Cronenberg film I've seen

Unexpected classic movie mastery, one of the better movies that are close to a B rating, i like the idea this movie enlist in ones mind. One part i never expected was during the beginning of the movie where 1 scanner is testing his ability to company personal from around the world at a top secret convention, where his power is used to try and explain what and how it works. This test goes horridly wrong when he picks the wrong person from the group of watchers that are seated to view this test. I won't say any more so that it won't spoil the movie, but lets just say he gets a bit to excited ha ha ha. Check this movie out, it has a great twist in the end that you'll not understand until the very very end lol. 4/5 based on actors alone, the acting is good, the plot is very good, only problem is that its kinda a knock off of a few other movies but thats ok, still a great film.

I love this movie and was excited to watch it on blu-ray, but when I put it in I realized the disc wouldn't play on my blu-ray player (in the United States). It's my fault for not reading the details but I wish it was more clear before I bought the disc. Maybe putting that info in the title or something so you know right away. Otherwise the product was in perfect condition and I had no other problems, just wish I could watch it. Since my purchase I've also tried viewing this movie on other forums and it won't work because I live in the US. Why does the US hate Scanners!!?

You have to see it if you like the sci-fi horror genre, especially of this era in film making. The story is pretty good, the cast is equally pretty good and the special effects are fun at times (and you imagine scanning people that are rude, like peeps that let their dogs take a dump on the sidewalk and don't clean it up). I am not nearly as smitten by this as many folks are. It did launch the quintessential sci-fi horror villain actor's career of Michael Ironside. I'd give it 3.5 stars, but there are not 1/2 stars. Not 4, because it won't get watched even once a year. Still, it's worth seeing at least once, if not for the overall experience, but for cultural reference.

Scanner (Criterion Collection) = a *3* star Movie

The movie itself I would give 3 1/2 or 4 stars. However, the picture quality on this Criterion version is average at best....and I can't believe I'm saying that about a Criterion release. I've been a huge fan since their laser disc days. Actually, I don't think it's really Criterion's fault; I suspect it's Cronenberg's. He personally supervised this new 2K scan and transfer. He turned the contrast way, way down and did something weird with the color timing. The picture now has a greenish tint. Swell, huh? As compared to a good HD transfer on blu-ray, the picture here looks muddy, washed out, and faded. It's almost as though Cronenberg (if he's the one responsible) was going for a VHS look. Check out blu-ray.com's screen caps and see for yourself.Additionally, I would like to encourage anyone that already owns this version of the film to check out the supplemental feature, The Ephemerol Diaries. During this feature, several segments from the film are shown. Here, the film looks SPECTACULAR. The detail, contrast, and color is gorgeous. For some reason, Cronenberg's tweaking is absent. You only wish you could actually watch the film with this version of the transfer. After having poked around a bit online, I found out these clips are from the German blu-ray, from the distributor, Subkulture.I have already ordered the UK Blu-ray, from distributor Second Sight. You can get it on amazon's UK site, and you don't have to get the fancier steelbook version, unless you want to. However, you'll need a region-free player.I can only recommend the Criterion version over the previously released DVDs. All other blu-ray versions, in terms of picture quality, are far more to my taste. My strongest recommendation is to pick up a region-free player and get one of the blu imports. (You may be able to get a hardware modification for your current player that will make it region-free. Since it is hardware and not software, you can still install all of the manufacturer's firmware updates. I have an Oppo blu-ray and the mod for it is very easy to install: just plug into two places on the rear of the player. That's it.)So disappointing this has been done to one of Cronenberg's most entertaining films...

A horror movie of a different kind that is a little hard to follow at times. Yes I know you're not suppose to think too much into horror movies. I can't help it though.

Great classic

Discs are in good condition, but the protective case is all banged up on the corners, i payed almost 30 dollars for this collectors edition blu ray and it is in pretty bad condition.

boring

This movie appears to be a possible transfer from a vhs tape. The film is not clear and the color is terrible. Not much care was put in placing this movie on dvd. When there is a closeup of the cast speaking, their lips do not move with the words. I was very disappointed in the quality of this dvd. This movie is good and should have looked better on dvd. Two stars was given because it is a good movie. I have this movie on vhs, and could have saved my money by not buying the bad dvd. Save your money.

Along the trajectory of David Cronenberg's career, Scanners feels like a step backwards. While the premise is intriguing - drug companies and evil corporations wage bloody war with telepaths as cannon fodder - the execution is painfully dull and unintentionally funny. Part of the problem is the acting, which is wooden all around but reaches new depths whenever Stephen Lack opens his mouth. This guy is dreadful. He sure does Lack the ability to deliver lines. The high point of the film comes early with the infamous exploding head scene. Nothing that follows, not even the climactic psychic battle royale, comes close to the visceral potency of that scene. It's all downhill from there. For instance, how does a telephone booth explode? And if you were shot in the hand with a huge dart, wouldn't you just pull it out rather than run around a mall until it knocked you out? If there were a few more exploding heads I might not be splitting hairs. A disappointing outing from a talented filmmaker.

I honestly can't see what all the fuss is about. For years I've heard how Scanners was a classic piece of sci-fi, how it was David Cronenberg's first masterpiece. But when I sat down to see it I could only see small pieces of greatness drowning in a sea of a greatly overrated film.Sure Cronenberg is a talented director, and Scanners shows his promise, but this story about people with telekinetic powers seems like it comes from a rough draft of a script without the ideas, plot and characters fully worked out. Almost as bothersome is the monotone acting by the lead, a newly recruited scanner sent to kill another attempting to take over the world. Though many have said the acting is intentional, it just came across to me that he was a very poor actor (of course, the DVD's badly dubbed voices could account for some of that). But more so, every scene seems as though it's still a work in progress, that the screenwriter (Cronenberg) ran out of time before production. It doesn't feel remotely closed to polished.I admit that if I had seen this in 1980 when it came out, that it may have had a bigger impact on me. But I've seen plenty of sci-fi prior to this time that was leagues better then Scanners. I know I'll catch some flak for my unpopular view, but it's my honest, well thought out opinion. Of course I thought the "exploding head" scene was excellent in its shocking quality, the rest of the film just seemed to fall from there.Scanners was a major disappointment for me, and though I know many disagree with me, I can't share their enthusiasm. It's worth checking out if only too see the exploding head, but, for me, is otherwise a forgettable film.

Region 2, this shouldn't even be sold on Amazon US. Out $20 because the discription didn't say it was region 2. Conveniently is does now after we opened it to play it.

Product was damaged. Returned

I'm not sure if it was the wooden acting or the pedantic dialogue -- contrived purely, strophe/antestrophe style, for plot exposition -- that killed this film for me. I felt I was being dragged through a film that would have been better-rendered as a novel. But even in a novel, the character relationships wouldn't have worked. Suffice it to say that in my view, if characters and concepts aren't introduced in action, they don't exist. Hemingway used to say that if you used an adjective, you didn't use the right noun. Well, if you have to have explicit exposition using tedious dialogue between two flat characters in a tableau, you haven't selected the right actions to film. The film started with a fine sequence, in which the most critical knowledge about the characters was conveyed wordlessly. Unfortunately, the characters then opened their mouths, and ceased to be real people; they became simply bloodless instruments to explain the plot, revealing Mr. Cronenberg's utter contempt for his audience. It seems as if he forgot that just because people can't scan, it doesn't mean they can't make inferences. The film culminates in a Scooby-Doo style BIG REVEAL scene, containing perhaps half the script, but none of the justification for the revealed secrets. It's hard to suspend disbelief for long enough to reach that point -- I mean, couldn't they have just scanned each other's minds for all this expository information??? -- and impossible to do anything once the BIG REVEAL scene begins except distractedly read the DVD's packaging material, looking for the run time to see how long the antagonist's explanation will last. The film's tiresome devices made me long for the comparatively engrossing characters and carefree plot of, say, a film based on an Ayn Rand novel.

I'd rank this with the worst movies I've ever seen. I found it boring, muddled, badly acted, and not even particularly horrific. About halfway through, the budget for exploding heads seems to have run out, and the movie takes a nosedive to even lower depths of awfulness. At about that same point, I and my family members began making wisecracks and not really caring what happened any more. It's that kind of movie.Scanners 2 is a better movie and kept me modestly amused. Not this one.

Because "I" wasn't careful & busy I didn't look at the regions & these only play overseas. They REALLY should have something that alerts you to the region though. Maybe, b4 the transactions complete, open a screen w/ that information for people. I can't dog on the service. I suppose by it coming all that way, it wasn't late. I hate it b/c I really wanted to watch those movies. I guess the store is okay :/

I'm not going to comment on the story line. Others have done that well. This review concerns the DVD release.Despite that the film has mono sound, it still appears fine...until chapter 12. About 2/3 of the way into the film, you can tell they did voice overs for the rest of the movie, and poorly. The voices are so out of sync with the lip movements, that I was unable to enjoy the rest of the film.I have the video tape as well (purchased when it first came out many years ago) and although being pan and scan, it is clearly superior. Not only are the voices original and therefore in sync, but the background sounds are noticeable too. For example when the characters are talking and a door is closed, you can't hear the door shut on the DVD because the voice overs muffle all other noises. On the video tape, it is as clear as day.I recommend watching the video tape until they come out with a better DVD.