His Girl Friday 4K reviewed, plus Ocean’s, Marvel/Star Wars 4K pre-orders, American Sniper, Republic Horror on Blu-ray, Umbrella’s June & more!

Wednesday, 13 March 2024 21:52

His Girl Friday 4K reviewed, plus Ocean’s, Marvel/Star Wars 4K pre-orders, American Sniper, Republic Horror on Blu-ray, Umbrella’s June & more!

by Bill Hunt

All right, it’s been a busy couple of days here at The Bits in the wake of our reviews of the James Cameron 4K titles—The Abyss, Aliens, and True Lies.

Many of you have reported having trouble getting your pre-orders fulfilled, or have seen shipping dates delayed, whether from Amazon, Walmart, Disney Movie Club, Target, or what have you. This is apparently due to distribution issues resulting from—we strongly suspect—demand for these titles outstripping Disney’s expectations. In any case, more product is being replicated and shipped to distributors and retailers, so these issues should clear up over the next week or two.

Hopefully, this will send a strong message to Disney that people still want to buy catalog 4K titles—a good sign for the future.

Meanwhile, we have one new disc review here at The Bits today: Stephen has taken an in-depth look at Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940) in 4K Ultra HD from Sony’s new Columbia Classics 4K Collection: Volume 4 box set. More reviews from this set will follow soon.

In announcement news today, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has now officially set Steven Soderberg’s Ocean’s Trilogy for 4K UHD release on 4/30. [Read on here...]

All three films will be included—Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)—and these will also be available separately in Steelbook packaging. So you can either buy the Steelbook singles (SRP $40.94 each), or the Amaray-packaged Trilogy. (SRP $74.99). Soderberg himself supervised the new 4K scans and remasters, and the film’s original sound mixer oversaw the 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio restoration. The existing Blu-ray extras will carry over. Look for HDR10 high dynamic range only.

Warner Bros. is also planning to release a 4K Steelbook version of Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (2014). We don’t have a street date yet, but we expect it sometime in Q2. That will include HDR10 only and Dolby Atmos, likely with the previous extras. We’ll share the street date as soon as we have it. You can see the cover artwork below.

Also, Warner and Cartoon Network have just set the animated Craig of the Creek for DVD release on 3/26.

Sony has just set David O. Russell’s American Hustle for 4K UHD release in Steelbook packaging on 5/21, in honor of the film’s 10th anniversary. Both Dolby Vision and HDR10 will be included along with Dolby Atmos audio.

Universal is preparing a 4K UHD release of the animated Kung Fu Panda 4, also for Q2.

MPI Home Video has set Ross W. Clarkson’s The Last Kumite (2024) for release on 4K Ultra HD on 6/11.

MPI will also release Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance (2023) on Blu-ray and DVD on 5/21.

Kino Lorber has set Ron Frank’s new documentary Remembering Gene Wilder for Blu-ray and DVD release on 5/7.

While we’re taking about the label, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has a new Republic Pictures Horror Collection Blu-ray set for release on 5/7, which will include George Sherman’s The Lady and the Monster (1944), John English’s The Phantom Speaks (1945), and Lesley Selander’s The Catman of Paris (1946). Also coming separately that same day is Charles Marquis Warren’s Back from the Dead (1957).

Umbrella Entertainment has set a new 4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition of Gareth Evans’ The Raid (2011) for release on 7/3, including a graphic novel, a softback book, custom artwork, art cards, a reversible poster and more. The disc-based content will also include a new commentary by filmmakers Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce, and The Raid Fight Reaction Video with fight Choreographer David Chea.

Also coming in their June slate of Blu-ray titles are Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971), and an Ozploitation Rarities: Volume 1 box set that features Mark Egerton and Keith Salvat’s Crosstalk (1982), Terry Bourke’s Lady, Stay Dead (1981), and Ross Dimsey’s Final Cut (1980). The street date for these is 7/3 as well.

Finally today, all of Disney and Marvel’s new 4/30 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray sets—Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Moon Knight, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier—are appearing for pre-order on Amazon.com. So I’ll include the cover art and Amazon links for those below. (The Marvel titles are already available for pre-order, but the Star Wars titles aren’t yet live.) We’ve also included a few more titles as well…