Items filtered by date: February 2026

I’ve been fortunate to attend a number of great film industry events over the last thirty years, but I can tell you... none of them is more fun than the Saturn Awards.

While the Oscars, Golden Globes, and SAG awards tend to get all the mainstream media coverage, the Saturns are the sort of nerdy-fun party that Hollywood filmmakers actually like to attend.

Founded in 1972 by the late Dr. Donald A. Reed, a film historian, educator, and longtime scholar of genre entertainment, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror is a non-profit organization that has a single goal: to support and encourage filmed genre entertainment.

What makes the Saturns so great is that there’s no ego—people attend because they love the work they do, and they love each other’s work even more. Things tend to be very relaxed, everyone mixes together before and after the awards—even during dinner—and you can easily find yourself unexpectedly chatting with people you’ve admired for years.

This year’s event was a whopper; in attendance to either present or accept awards were Tom Cruise, George Lucas, James Cameron, William Shatner, Mark Hamill, Christopher McQuarrie, Kathleen Kennedy, Guillermo del Toro, Bryan Fuller, Laurence Fishburne, Terry Matalas, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, and many more. The Star Trek franchise was recognized for its 60th anniversary, as was Aliens for its 40th, and the TV series The Boys was given a Spotlight Award. It was definitely a fun evening. [Read on here...]

This has been a very busy week here at The Bits, tracking upcoming titles, talking with industry sources, and the like, thus the lack of posts.

But we’ve definitely got both new disc reviews for you today as well as some release news worth sharing. Let’s start with the latter first.

Today we’ve got…

Tim’s reviews of Chor Yuen’s The Sentimental Swordsman (1977) on Blu-ray from Arrow’s Shawscope: Volume Three box set, Severin Films’ Saga Erotica: The Emmanuelle Collection in 4K Ultra HD, and Michael Curtiz’s Captain Blood (1935) in 4K Ultra HD from Criterion.

Stephen’s reviews of Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire (1981) on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment, Dario Argento’s Sleepless (2001) in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome, Michael Cacoyannis’ Iphigenia (1977) on Blu-ray from Radiance Films, Corey Yuen’s She Shoots Straight (1990) on Blu-ray from 88 Films, and John Woo’s Once a Thief (1991) in 4K from Shout’s HK Cinema Classics line.

And Dennis’ take on Raoul Walsh’s Manpower (1941) and David Butler’s By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) both on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

Now then… before we get started on news today, I’m going to be joining my friend Tim Millard on his next The Extras podcast to talk about the latest developments in the ongoing Paramount/Skydance, Warner Bros., Netflix saga. Looks like we’re going to be recording the episode this weekend, so be sure to check Tim’s social media for news on the episode drop, and I’ll share the details on my own as well when I have them. [Read on here...]

All right, we have one new disc review for you today, with more coming later this week...

My look at Dan Trachtenberg’s audacious Predator: Badlands (2025) in 4K Ultra HD from 20th Century Studios.

Turns out, it’s pretty damn good! And the 4K disc has a blisteringly excellent Dolby Atmos mix that’s well worth your time.

Now then... we’ve got some new release information for you here at The Bits today, and then we’re going to talk a little bit about that Warner-Paramount-Netflix news from last week.

We’ll start with Warner Bros... the Wachowski’s Speed Racer (2008) is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com and pretty much everywhere else. The street date is expected to be 5/19. And I’ve been able to confirm that the disc will include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio! The official announcement hasn’t yet been made, so we don’t have the final cover art, but I expect that to happen in the next couple of weeks. I also do believe that there will be a regular 4K SKU in addition to the 4K Steelbook, and obviously there’s an even more elaborate 4K version in the UK with swag. Anyway, here’s the US Amazon link.

Also today, our friends at Arrow Video have announced their May Blu-ray and 4K slate, which includes multiple titles that should make catalog fans happy. [Read on here...]