Displaying items by tag: Bill Hunt
Criterion’s September slate includes Blow Out and Sound of Metal in 4K, plus Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K in France & more
We start today with a trio of new disc reviews...
Tim has taken a look at Daniel Espinosa’s Morbius on both Blu-ray Disc and 4K Ultra HD, both from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
And Dennis has offered his thoughts on Nicolas Roeg’s The Witches (1990) as released on Blu-ray by our friends at The Warner Archive Collection in 2019.
The big news today is that the Criterion Collection has announced their September Blu-ray and 4K slate, and it includes some gems as always. Look for an upgrade of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (Spine #462 – 4K Ultra HD) on 9/6, followed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s Take Out (Spine #1149 – Blu-ray) on 9/13, Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (Spine #1150 – Blu-ray and DVD) and an HD upgrade of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau (Spine #227 – Blu-ray) on 9/20, and Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 4 (Spine #1143-48 – includes Sambizanga, Prisioneros de la tierra, Chess of the Wind, Muna moto, Two Girls on the Street, and Kalpana – Blu-ray/DVD Combo) and Sound of Metal (Spine #1151 – 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD) on 9/27. [Read on here...]
- Tim Salmons
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- Dennis Seuling
- Criterion September 2022 slate
- Morbius 4K review
- Morbius BD review
- The Witches BD
- Blow Out 4K
- Sound of Metal 4K
- Take Out BD
- Exotica BD
- Le Corbeau BD
- World Cinema Project No 4 BD
- Lost Highway 4K
- Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K
- Pam & Tommy DVD
- Martin Scorsese
- Brian De Palma
Universal makes Downton Abbey: A New Era official for release on BD, DVD & 4K on 7/5, plus Doctor Strange, Real Genius & Maverick pre-orders
We’ve got two more new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternoon...
Tim has turned in his thoughts on Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night (1967) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
Tim has also taken a look at Robert Fuest’s The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), which are available in a new Blu-ray double feature also from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
In announcement news today, Universal has officially set Downton Abbey: A New Era for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 7/5. The 4K will include Dolby Atmos audio and Dolby Vision HDR. Extras will include audio commentary with director Simon Curtis, plus 6 featurettes (Good to Be Back, Return to Downton Abbey: The Making of a New Era, A Legendary Character, Creating the Film Within the Film, Spill the Tea (Time), and Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia). [Read on here...]
- Bluray
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Downton Abbey: A New Era 4K
- Doom 4K
- Tim Salmons
- Good Burger BD
- In the Heat of the Night 4K review
- The Abominable Dr Phines BD review
- Dr Phibes Rises Again BD review
- Cult Epics
- Naked Over the Fence BD
- Madame Claude BD
- The Last Romantic Lover BD
- The Duke BD
- Offseason
- That Dirty Black Bag: Season One
- The Witch 4K
- Summers with Picasso
- Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness 4K
- Top Gun: Maverick 4K
- Real Genius 4K
- 499 BD
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment sets Real Genius (1985) for 4K Ultra HD release on 9/13!
We’ve got just a quick news update for you today, as there’s one piece of significant release news that’s worth sharing this afternoon. But most of my day has been taken up by working on disc reviews, so I wanted to share some of those with you as well...
First, I’ve taken an in-depth look at Kate and Derek Burbidge’s The Police: Around the World (1983), a fan-favorite music documentary that takes you behind the scenes on the band’s 1979-80 world tour and has never been released on DVD much less Blu-ray until now. It’s been fully scanned and remastered from the original 16 mm negative for this release, complete with an editing polish and a new 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound mix to go with the original LPCM 2.0 stereo. Plus, the Blu-ray includes 17 minutes of never-before-seen concert footage as a bonus, along with a music CD of rare live performances as well. It’s definitely worth a look for fans of the band.
Also available today is Stephen’s review of Makoto Shinkai’s 2007 anime 5 Centimeters per Second, which is now available on Blu-ray from GKids via Shout! Factory. Shinkai is, of course, the filmmaker responsible for the more recent hits Your Name and Weathering with You. The disc also includes Shinkai’s Voices of a Distant Star (2002) as a bonus feature.
And finally, Dennis has offered his thoughts on John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972) which is coming to Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection later this month.
All three titles are well worth your time, so do give them a look. [Read on here...]
For All Mankind returns for a terrific third season on Apple TV+, plus new disc reviews and more!
We’re finishing the week with several new disc reviews today, including my joint review (with our old friend Todd Doogan) of Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss (1955) on 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
Dennis has also turned in his thoughts on George Sidney’s The Three Musketeers (1948) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.
And Stephen has delivered a look at John Ford’s The Horse Soldiers (1959) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, along with a music title: The Prince and the Revolution: Live – Collector’s Edition, a 3-LP, 2-CD, and Blu-ray box set which is exclusive to the Paisley Park Records webstore.
As always, more reviews are on the way next week, so be sure to check back for them.
I also wanted to take a moment this afternoon to talk about For All Mankind, which returns today for the start of its terrific third season on Apple TV+. I’ve talked about the series here at The Bits before. It’s essentially an alternate history of the manned space program, which attempts to answer the question: What if the Soviets had beaten NASA to the Moon in 1969? [Read on here...]
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- Stephen Bjork
- Dennis Seuling
- The Three Musketeers BD review
- The Horse Soldiers BD review
- The Prince and the Revolution: Live BD review
- For All Mankind
- Apple TV+
- For All Mankind: Season Three
- Killer's Kiss 4K review
- Todd Doogan
- Ron Moore
- Battlestar Galactica
- Outlander
- Prince
- Paisley Park Studios
Disney & Marvel set Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for Blu-ray & 4K on 7/26, plus Flatliners, Paths of Glory & more
I’m about to dive back into disc reviewing here this afternoon, but before I do we have two new reviews for you this morning and a major piece of release news as well. First those reviews...
Stephen has checked in with his thoughts on a fascinating Russian fantasy film from 1956, Aleksandr Ptushko’s Ilya Muromets, which also happens to be the first Russian film in both anamorphic widescreen and color. Russian cinema is fascinating, and this film is no exception, so it’s definitely worth a look on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
Stephen has also given Cy Endfield, Roger Corman, and Gordon Hessler’s De Sade (1969) a look on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, also a fascinating film from American International Pictures.
Now for that news... Marvel and Disney have just officially set Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release on 7/26, with the Digital release anticipated for 6/22. [Read on here...]
- Adventures of Don Juan BD
- The Frisco Kid BD
- The Warner Archive Collection
- Stephen Bjork
- Heat 4K
- Disney
- Michael Mann
- Bluray
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Ilya Muromets BD review
- De Sade BD review
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 4K
- Marvel Studios
- 20th Century Studios
- James Cameron
- The Abyss 4K
- Avatar 4K
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- Quiet Days in Clichy 4K
- Blue Underground
- Paths of Glory 4K
- Flatliners 4K
- Arrow Video
- When Tomorrow Comes BD
- Mercenary Fighters BD
- The A Team: The Complete Series BD
Disney finally makes Heat official for 4K Ultra HD in August, plus Everything Everywhere All at Once, Lost Highway, Firestarter (2022) and more!
We’ve got a pair of new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternon, starting with Stephen’s look at Makoto Shinkai’s The Place Promised n Our Early Days (2004) on Blu-ray from GKids via Shout! Factory
Also, Dennis has delivered his thoughts on Sony’s standard Blu-ray release of Jon Watts’ recent Spider-Man: No Way Home.
More reviews are on the way this week, so be sure to stay tuned for them.
Speaking of which, I wanted to take a moment to address the lack of reviews from yours truly in recent weeks. The reason is two-fold. First, I’ve been very focused on the upgrade to the Bits website, which has been long overdue and much needed. There’s a little more of that to go, but what’s been done already has resulted in a significant improvement in the site’s speed and functionality. [Read on here...]
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- Michael Mann
- Disney
- Heat 4K
- Everything Everywhere All at Once 4K
- Lost Highway 4K
- Criterion
- David Lynch
- Stephen Bjork
- GKids
- Shout! Factory
- Dennis Seuling
- Spider Man: No Way Home BD review
- The Place Promised in Our Early Days BD review
- Lionsgate
- The Kid 4K
- Gamer 4K
- Primal 4K
- Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar 4K
- Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World BD
- Mata Hari BD
- Summer Heat BD
- The Tenth Man BD
- The Warner Archive Collection
- The Frisco Kid BD
- Adventures of Don Juan BD
- The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2 DVD
- Firestarter (2022) BD
Raiders, Bridge & Lawrence reviewed in Steelbook 4K, plus new Blu-ray reviews & KLSC reveals Escape from Alcatraz in Ultra HD
Morning, folks! We’re checking in early here at The Bits today with some new disc reviews.
Over the weekend, I managed to turn out reviews of three new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook releases, including Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) from Paramount, and David Lean’s Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
It should be noted that the 4K Steelbook edition of Bridge on the River Kwai now includes Dolby Vision HDR and the original theatrical mono mix, both of which were missing from the 2017 4K release.
And this marks the first time Lawrence of Arabia has been available in 4K outside of Sony’s expensive (and long out-of-print) Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 1 box set from 2020, so this will likely be the first time many of you get to experience the film in 4K UHD at home (and let me tell you, that experience is terrific). [Read on here...]
- Imprint Films
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- Tim Salmons
- Stephen Bjork
- Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K Steelbook review
- Bridge on the River Kwai 4K Steelbook review
- Lawrence of Arabia 4K Steelbook review
- Treasure of the Four Crowns 3D review
- Across 110th Street BD review
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Paramount Home Entertainment
- David Lean
- Steven Spielberg
- 3D Film Archive
- Escape from Alcatraz 4K
- Don Siegel
Tons of new 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray announcements, including Red Dawn, Child’s Play, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape & The Bionic Woman
Now it’s time to run down some of the major announcement news that’s broken over the past few days, and we have some real gems to report for you. Let’s start with 4K Ultra HD catalog news...
First up, our friends at Shout! and Scream Factory have just unveiled a great batch of new 4K Ultra HD titles for August release, including John Milius’ Red Dawn (1984) as a Shout Select 4K UHD release (a Collector’s Edition box with exclusive pins and a poster will also be available directly from the Shout! website) and new 4K UHD Collector’s Editions of Child’s Play, Child’s Play 2, and Child’s Play 3 on 8/16, followed by Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE on 4K Ultra HD on 8/30. You can see the cover artwork for these at left and below the break. Note that the release of Scream’s 4Ks of Cat People and The Funhouse have also been pushed back to 8/2 and 8/9 respectively (from 7/19 and 7/26).
Kino Lorber Studio Classics has now teased new 4K UHD releases of George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan (1989) and Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder (2008). Both are listed as “coming soon.” That last one is particularly interesting, as it’s part of a new content distribution deal the company has signed with Paramount Home Entertainment. The deal apparently includes some 65 titles in all on Blu-ray (8 of which are being released on disc for the first time), including 16 on 4K Ultra HD. Among these are old Republic titles, though reportedly none released previously by Olive Films. Given KLSC’s recent focus on Sergio Leone westerns, we think it’s a good bet that Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) will be among the 4K titles. [Read on here...]
- Red Dawn 4K
- Child's Play 3 4K
- Child's Play 2 4K
- Child's Play 4K
- Scream Factory 4K
- Shout! Factory 4K
- Website Upgrade
- Bluray
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Imprint Films
- Leviathan 4K
- Kino Lorber Paramount catalog deal
- Tropic Thunder 4K
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 4K
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 4K
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition 4K
- Top Gun: Maverick 4K
- Top Gun 2Movie Collection 4K
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore 4K
- Warner Bros Home Entertainment
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
- Last Days in the Desert
- Learning to Drive
- Ferngully: The Last Rainforest
- A Walk in the Woods
- The Bionic Woman: The Complete Series BD
- The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Series BD
- Outlander: Season Six BD
- Coneheads BD
- What’s Eating Gilbert Grape BD
- What Women Want BD
- Back to the Beach: Paramount Presents BD
- South Park: The Complete TwentyFourth Season BD
- SeaQuest DSV: The Complete Series BD
- The Northman 4K
The Digital Bits website has been upgraded! Plus we run down some recent Blu-ray & 4K reviews (and we’ll be back with a release news update this afternoon)
All right, folks... you are now looking at the new and upgraded Digital Bits website! The cosmetic changes are minimal, but they include more uniform and easy to read font weights across all browsers and devices. Previously, some of you who viewed the site on Apple devices would have difficulty reading certain pages (including reviews) because the text was too light or faint. That should now be corrected. What’s more, the site should be much faster to load, which is no small upgrade. We’re also working on some additional search functionality improvements that will our make older content/reviews easier to find.
And you may notice the “25 Years” icon next to The Bits logo. 2022 is indeed The Digital Bits’ 25th anniversary. The site launched in late 1997 after many months as an email newsletter within the home video industry. We’ve obviously grown over the years to cover new formats and topics, and we’ve had a great bunch of writers and staffers contribute to The Bits during that time—we value each and every one of them. And let it not go unsaid: We also value each and every one of you, our readers! Some of you may be new to the website, while others have been reading since the very beginning. Just know that we’re glad to count you all as part of The Digital Bits family, and we appreciate each of you. Thanks for sticking with us!
We’ve got a lot of catching up to do today, now that this first batch of site upgrades is complete, including reporting on lots of new release news and rumors. But first, we have more new disc reviews to share with you—reviews that have been posted here at The Bits in the last few days while I’ve been focused on the site upgrades. So let’s run down those now, and I’ll check back in an hour or two with that news update.
First up, Tim and I have taken an in-depth look at Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022) in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. [Read on here...]
- Imprint Films
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 4K
- Dennis Seuling
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- Stephen Bjork
- Website Upgrade
- Tim Salmons
- The Batman 4K review
- Other Music BD review
- 8 Diagram Pole Fighter BD review
- Possession BD review
- Man on a Swing BD review
- Flower Drum Song BD review
- Mamba BD review
- Burglar from Hell BD review
- The Year of the Jellyfish BD review
- Dementia BD review
- Shout! Factory 4K
- Scream Factory 4K
- Child's Play 4K
- Child's Play 2 4K
- Child's Play 3 4K
- Red Dawn 4K
- Belle 4K
- Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K Steelbook
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 4K Steelbook
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 4K Steelbook
BREAKING: European retail sources reveal that Star Trek V, VI, and The Motion Picture: Director’s Edition will hit 4K Ultra HD in September
We’ll be back on Tuesday (after the long Memorial Day weekend holiday here in the States) with our usual news and reviews updates, but we’ve got a bit of breaking news that is too important to sit on until then.
Retail sources in Europe have begun dropping pre-order listings for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and the Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition in 4K Ultra HD. The Director’s Edition we already knew was coming in September as announced by Paramount when it debuted on Paramount+.
The European listings suggest that each title will arrive at retail individually, V on 9/12 (which would be 9/13 here in the States), VI on 9/19 (9/20 in the States), and finally The Director’s Edition on 9/26 (9/27 here). Those dates seem entirely consistent with what we would expect here on this side of the Atlantic. [Read on here...]