Items filtered by date: February 2014

All right, I’m getting a little bit of a late start today after spending the morning at the dentist. Yeah. One of those days.

Anyway, the big news for today is that Criterion has officially revealed their June BD/DVD slate and, though it’s getting cliché to keep saying it every month, it’s another great list of titles. It starts with new HD updatings of Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows (Spine #95) and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse (Spine #278) on 6/10, followed by an updating of Peter Davis’ Hearts and Minds (Spine #156), the new Georges Franju’s Judex (Spine #710), and an updating of Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (Spine #29) on 6/17. As if that wasn’t great enough, Richard Lester’s The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night (Spine #711) rounds things out on 6/24. SRP for each of them is $39.95. Be sure to visit Criterion.com for a complete list of all the great extras. Meanwhile, you’ll find the cover artwork below.  [Read on here...]

This week, the wild world of MOD brings us new titles from Warner Archive, some returning favorites from Paramount (via Warner Archive) and some highly desired classics from 20th Century Fox. As always, Warner Archive discs are available from Ye Olde Warner Shoppe, just a click away thanks to banner magic, and Fox discs are purchasable from Amazon.com. I’m sure there’s something somewhere on this page that’ll get you there.  [Read on here...]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We’ve got a couple things for you here at The Bits today...

First, our own Tim Salmons has turned in a pair of new Shout! Factory Blu-ray reviews, including The Slumber Party Massacre and the new Darkman: Collector’s Edition. Both are well worth a look. Enjoy the reviews!  [Read on here...]

Welcome back to the Queue. Hope you all had a happy and safe St. Paddy’s Day weekend! This week, we’re look at a mighty fine all.

There’s an Oscar film, a Disney film (two actually, one is new the other is a DTV rerelease), a Troma film, a fabricated bio-pic, two 90s classic TV shows, a Morris doc and a Blu-ray release of one of cinema’s greatest films by one of the greatest filmmakers.

Read on to see which is what!  [Read on here…]

We’re closing out the week with a bit of a slow news day here at The Bits, but we do have a new column for you to enjoy...

Our own Bud Elder has turned in a new View from the Cheap Seats – The Sundance Kid Rides into Town features a good story about a Robert Redford visit to Oklahoma. Bud also talks about some of his favorite books on film, and picks a few great recent catalog DVD and Blu-ray tiles too. Enjoy!

In announcement news today, MGM has set a new Escape from New York (1981) Blu-ray for release on 6/3, along with The Birdcage (1996). We have no other details yet on either, aside from the fact that each will SRP for $19.99. [Read on here...]

I can probably state as fact that many of you reading this are not familiar at all with the general manager of your local cable company – I guess most are bean counters, flesh pressers and empty suits. Oklahoma City, from whence I hail, has been very fortunate with Cox Communications – their company is very community driven and its management staff very public and outgoing.  [Read on here…]

First up today, Dr. Jahnke has turned in a new An Honor to Be Nominated installment of his regular Jahnke’s Electric Theater column here at The Bits, taking a look back at the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man. It’s a good read about a film that we here at The Bits happen to think is one of the Coens’ best. Anyway, Jahnke’s take is definitely worth your time, so do check it out. Enjoy!

We’ve also got more new announcement news today, but first... for those of you interested in the new Cosmos TV series on Fox, the title just went pup for pre-order on Amazon.com. As we first reported last week here in The Bits, 20th Century Fox is currently working on the release, which we expect to be announced for Blu-ray and DVD in the weeks ahead. You’ll find Fox’s preliminary cover art below. [Read on here...]

If it can be difficult to remember who won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s downright mind-bending trying to remember everything else it was up against. In An Honor To Be Nominated, I’ll be taking a look back at some of the movies the Oscar didn’t go to and trying to determine if they were robbed, if the Academy got it right, or if they should ever have been nominated in the first place. [Read on here...]

We’ve got a smattering of new release news for you today...

First up, Warner Home Video has announced the Blu-ray release of Point Blank (the Lee Marvin film) and the original George Pal The Time Machine on 7/8 (SRP $19.98 each).

Warner has also set Afterlife: Series 1 for DVD release on 5/13.

Universal will release Covert Affairs: Season Four and Suits: Season Three on DVD only on 5/27.  [Read on here…]

All right, we’ve got just a couple things for you today, but there’s some interest here...

First up, Dr. Jahnke’s posted his weekly Burnt Offerings column, looking at this week’s new MOD DVD and Blu-ray releases from Warner Archive, including Arthur Hiller’s The Americanization of Emily. Don’t miss it!

Also today, are (or were) any of you fans of HBO’s Deadwood? To celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary, Roger Ebert.com has created a 26-minute video essay looking back at the series, narrated by actor Jim Beaver. It’s called A Lie Agreed Upon and it’s pretty damn great – check it out here on Vimeo. If, after watching, you can refrain from quickly going back and watching an episode or two, you sir are an oak. David Milch created a gem with this series and we sure do miss it.  [Read on here...]