My Two Cents
Monday, 15 April 2024 17:13

Criterion’s July slate includes Peckinpah, Wenders & Melville in 4K, plus Macbeth (1948), The Persuaders, Aliens Expanded & more!

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To kick off a new week today, we have some interesting release news and a new disc review to share as well. Let’s get to the latter first...

Tim has offered his thoughts on Michele Soavi’s The Church (1989) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Severin Films.

More reviews are forthcoming this week, so be sure to stay tuned for them.

Also today here at The Bits, we’ve expanded our Patreon poll about Lionsgate 4K catalog Steelbooks to our Twitter/X page with just a day and a half left. The question is: Lionsgate Home Entertainment is developing a new line of 4K Ultra HD catalog Steelbooks, including many titles released previously as Best Buy exclusives, and they’d like your opinion: Would you prefer the covers to 1) feature newly-created custom artwork, or 2) the film’s original poster artwork? You can vote right now here on Patreon or here on Twitter/X and please take a moment to do so before the polls end on Wednesday. Thank you!

Now then, the big release news today is that Criterion has just announced its July 2024 slate of Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles, and this batch has some real gems as well as a couple of surprises. [Read on here...]

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Look for the slate to include Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) (Spine #1224 – 4K UHD + Blu-ray & Blu-ray) on 7/2, followed by an upgrade of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le samouraï (1967) (Spine #306 – 4K UHD + Blu-ray) on 7/9, Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days (2023) (Spine #1126 – 4K UHD + Blu-ray, Blu-ray & DVD) and Glauber Rocha’s Black God, White Devil (1964) (Spine #1125 – Blu-ray & DVD) on 7/16, and Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine (1993) (Spine #1228 – 4K UHD + Blu-ray) and Paul Brickman’s Risky Business (1983) (Spine #1227 – 4K UHD + Blu-ray) on 7/23. You can read more about each of these titles here at the Criterion website. And you’ll find cover artwork above left and also below.

In other news today, Via Vision has announced the next Blu-ray release (#7) in its Imprint TV label to be the 1971 British series The Persuaders: The Complete Series, starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. The 12-disc hardbox set will include all 24 remastered episodes, all 8 “feature film” versions, a 120-page booklet, and lots of special features. The set will be limited to just 1500 copies. It’s available for pre-order here (and by clicking on the link below).

Imprint's The Persuaders: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Disc)

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has set Orson Welles’ Macbeth (1948) for Blu-ray release on 6/11. The company has also announced that Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes (1998) is coming soon to 4K Ultra HD, while Bob Logan’s Repossessed (1990) is coming soon to Blu-ray.

Decal and Neon have set Ave DuVernay’s Origin (2023) for Blu-ray and DVD release on 7/11.

Well Go USA will release Kiah Roache-Turner’s Sting (2024) on Blu-ray and DVD on 7/9.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment and DC will release Superman & Lois: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray and DVD on 7/11.

The Cinema Guild has set Shinji Somai’s Typhoon Club (1985) for 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray release on 6/4.

Lionsgate has set Jeff Wadlow’s Imaginary for Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital release on 5/14. They’re also releasing Simon Cellan Jones’s Arthur the King (2024) on Blu-ray and DVD on 5/28.

Paramount has set The Tiger’s Apprentice (2024) for DVD release on 5/28, with the Digital version expected on 5/14.

Speaking of Paramount, it’s come to our attention that Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002) is now available in 4K Digital on Kaleidescape. It seems very likely that the film is coming to physical 4K Ultra HD in the months ahead as well.

And Crunchy Roll has set Vinland Saga: Season 2, Bungo Stray Dogs: Season 4, and In Another World with My Smartphone: Season 2 for Blu-ray release on 7/2, followed by BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense – Season 2, One Piece: Season 13, Voyage 8, and Summoned to Another World for a Second Time: The Complete Season (Sub Only) on Blu-ray on 7/9, Soul Eater: The Complete Series and Tomo-chan Is a Girl!: The Complete Series on Blu-ray on 7/16, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon: Season 1 and Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion: The Complete Season on Blu-ray on 7/23, and finally FLCL: Season 1 on 7/30.

Also today, we wanted to call your attention to a couple of other items of interest from around the Interwebs...

First, Ian Nathan—author of the terrific books Alien Vault and James Cameron: A Retrospective—has launched a website and promo trailer for a new in-depth documentary on the making of James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) called Aliens Expanded. You can pre-order a Limited Edition Digital only version for $49 and a Limited Edition Blu-ray package that includes the disc plus lots of cool swag) for $99 here on the project’s official website. If you do pre-order these versions, you’ll get your name in the credits. The Digital version will be released in June, while the physical version will arrive in July. There’s no word yet on whether these will be widely available via major retailers. Here’s a look at the teaser trailer...

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that.

The other items we wanted to mention today is that our friend Lukas Kendall (of Film Score Monthly) is selling a TON of great and rare soundtrack CDs and DVD titles that he’s collected over the years. There are hundreds of titles in all, and you can find them available for sale here, so be sure to give them a look if there’s any older stuff you’ve been trying to track down.

We’ll leave you with a look at a few titles now available for pre-order on Amazon...

American Gigolo (4K Ultra HD) Typhoon Club (4K Ultra HD) Karate Kid (4K Ultra HD)

And here’s a look at the cover artwork for all of the new July Criterion titles (Amazon pre-order links will be added as soon as they go live)... [Editor’s Note: All of the Amazon links are now live for pre-orders.]

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (4K Ultra HD) Risky Business (4K Ultra HD) Perfect Days (4K Ultra HD)

Farewell, My Concubine (4K Ultra HD) Le Samourai (4K Ultra HD) Black God White Devil (Blu-ray Disc)

Stay tuned!

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

 

 

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