Displaying items by tag: Shout! Factory

All right, I trust you all had a fine and long Memorial Day weekend—those of you here in the States at least. We’ve got some good Blu-ray and 4K news to report today, but first more new disc reviews...

Tim has posted his thoughts on John Guillerman’s King Kong (1976), now available as a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory.

He’s also weighed in on Vincent Robert’s The Fear (1995) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Meanwhile, Dennis has turned in a look at George Abbott and Stanley Donen’s Damn Yankees (1958) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

And Stephen has weighed in as well with a look Michael Ritchie’s Smile (1975) on Blu-ray from Fun City Editions. [Read on here...]

We’re starting off the new week with a brand new review... and a brand new reviewer!

We’re very pleased to welcome Stephen Bjork to The Digital Bits team. Like many of us, Stephen is a lifelong student of film, who worked for many years as a district manager for the Video Update brick-and-mortar movie rental chain, back in the VHS, Beta, Laserdisc and early DVD days, before moving into sales. In that capacity, he attended many industry events—I probably bumped into him without realizing it at the old Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) trade shows. Stephen knows film, and he’s more than fluent with the state-of-the-art in home video technology, up to and including Digital and 4K Ultra HD. He’s also been a Digital Bits reader for many years, and a friend on social media into the bargain. So we’re confident he’s going to fit right in around here.

Stephen will be reviewing both Blu-ray and 4K titles for us, and he’s kicking that work off with his thoughts on an import 4K title that might be new to some of you: Robert D. Krzykowski’s The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (2018). It’s a surprisingly great little drama starring Sam Elliott that a lot of you might have overlooked a I did. There was a US release of the film on Blu-ray and DVD from RLJE back in 2019, but our friends at Capelight Pictures in Germany actually did a proper physical Ultra HD release. And it turns out, it’s pretty damn good. You can import it from Amazon Germany and a few copies are available on US Amazon as well. The 4K works on all players, but note that the Blu-ray and DVD disc in the package are region locked. In any case, we hope you enjoy the review! And you can look forward to more from Stephen in the weeks and months ahead.

Welcome aboard, Stephen! [Read on here...]

We’re starting today’s news update here at The Bits with another new disc review. This one features Tim’s thoughts on Alex de la Iglesia’s Perdita Durango (1997), as newly released on 4K Ultra HD from the good people at Severin Films. Sounds like the transfer is pretty terrific, so do give it a look here.

In announcement news today, here’s something welcome: Screen Media will be releasing the forthcoming Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street documentary on Blu-ray and DVD on 7/6. We’ve got what looks like temp art for the title at left and you can pre-order the Blu-ray below.

Lionsgate will release Dominic Cooke’s historical espionage drama The Courier (2020) on 6/1. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, and Rachel Brosnahan. Extras will include the On the Brink: Making The Courier featurette. [Read on here...]

Afternoon, folks! We hope you all had a lovely weekend.

We’ve got just a very quick update today here at The Bits, as there’s not a ton of news to report on this afternoon.

First though, Tim has turned in a review of a new Blu-ray 3D release from Classic Flix and our friends at the 3-D Film Archive: The Africa Screams: Special Limited Edition, the 1949 Universal comedy featuring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

It’s a great disc, so do check out Tim’s thoughts on it here. [Read on here...]

Welcome to a new week, folks. We’ve got some ground to cover here at The Bits today, so let’s get right to it...

First, we start with a new Blu-ray review from our own Tim Salmons, a look at Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon (1997) as newly released on disc by our friends at Scream Factory. Do give it a look.

While we’re talking Scream (and Shout! Factory), that’s a perfect place to start with today’s release news. The company has just announced a slate of great Blu-ray and DVD titles for July, including The Pianist: Shout Select (BD), No Man’s Land (BD and DVD), The Night (BD and DVD), House of Wax: Collector’s Edition (BD), and Ernest & Celestine (BD and DVD) on 7/13, followed by A Stranger is Watching (BD), Little Big League: Shout Select (BD), Fire (BD and DVD), and Eight Legged Freaks (BD) on 7/20, and State and Main: Shout Select (BD), The Dead Zone: Collector’s Edition (BD), Chamber of Horrors (BD), and Brotherhood of the Wolf: Collector’s Edition (BD) on 7/27. Extras on all of these are still TBA. You can see the cover art for The Dead Zone at left, with more covers visible below the break. [Read on here...]

Okay, we’ve got some serious ground to cover in today’s My Two Cents update, so let’s get right to it...

First, we’ve just posted Michael Coate’s brand new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Bits, featuring a terrific new retrospective of George Lucas’ THX 1138 in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary (which was last week on 3/11 – the piece was delayed due to a technical issue). The column takes an in-depth look back at the original theatrical release and also features a great roundtable discussion with film historian Chris Barsanti, documentary filmmaker Gary Leva, and original Director of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Craig Miller. I think you’ll really enjoy it. So you’ll find that here.

Next up, as some of you may have noticed over the weekend, we posted word on Saturday (see here) that video distributors had begun listing a 4-film Indiana Jones Collection for release on 4K Ultra HD on 6/8. This is still not to be considered official until Paramount and Lucasfilm make their actual announcement, however be aware that I’ve now confirmed it with multiple film industry sources in addition to retail and distribution sources. And it’s really not all that surprising given that 6/12 is marks the 40th anniversary of the original film’s theatrical release. We expect the set to include all four existing films in 4K with HDR10 high dynamic range and the previous DTS-HD Master Audio lossless sound mixes (but that’s still subject to change). [Editor’s Note: We’ve just confirmed that the set WILL include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. Details to follow shortly.] The 5-disc set will also include a disc of bonus features that are TBA. Of course, we’ll post more information on this as it comes in.

The other big news today is that our friends at The Criterion Collection have just unveiled their June slate of titles. [Read on here...]

We’ve got some new release news to report today...

We’ll start with Shout! and Scream Factory, who have begun to announce their June Blu-ray and DVD release slate. Look for it to include Embattled on 6/1, The Unhealer (2020) and Sesame Street: Cool Counting Collection (DVD only) on 6/8, Sphinx (1981), Kindred (2020), and The Awakening (1980) on 6/15, The Wind Rises (Steelbook), The Secret World of Arrietty (Steelbook), Hunter Hunter, Human Nature: Shout Select (2001), and When Calls the Heart: What The Heart Wants & Before My Very Eyes (DVD only) on 6/22, and Stardust, Just a Gigolo (1978), and Battle Beyond the Stars (Steelbook) on 6/29. You’ll also be able to get a NECA figure of Battle Beyond the Stars’ Saint-Exmin on 6/29 by ordering directly from the Shout website.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will release Adam Mason’s Songbird on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on 3/16. Extras will include audio commentary with Mason and co-writer Simon Boyes, deleted scenes with commentary, The Story of Songbird, the Kingdom promo video, and The Making of Kingdom. [Read on here...]

All right, I’ve had a pretty steady stream of plumbers and carpenters here the last couple days as my wife and I work get our water leak sorted out. On top of which, yesterday was our annual visit to the tax man. LOL. So I appreciate your patience with the lack of an update yesterday.

We did at least get Tim’s Facebook problems resolved today. He’s back up and able to access his account there. Turns out it being disabled was just an error on Facebook’s part, so special thanks to a friend of the site who helped us to sort it all out.

While he was off the Book, Tim completed work on a new Blu-ray review for Arrow’s excellent He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefe Collection box set, which includes Sting of Death (1965), Death Curse of Tartu (1966), The Hooked Generation (1968), The Psychedelic Priest (1969), The Naked Zoo (1970), Mako: Jaws of Death (1976), and Whiskey Mountain (1977). You can find that here.

In announcement news today, HBO has set His Dark Materials: Season Two for Blu-ray and DVD release on 12/31, presumably not long before the BBC and HBO debut of Season Three in very early 2022. The second season has been available in the UK since December of last year. [Read on here...]

There’s not a lot of release news to report today, given the President’s Day holiday here in the States, so we’re spending our time working on those new disc reviews.

But we do have a couple quick items to report for you...

First, Paramount is now expected to release both George Cukor’s My Fair Lady (1964) and J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 (2011) on 4K Ultra HD on 5/25. We have cover artwork for My Fair Lady which you can see at left. Meanwhile, both titles have just been added to Amazon.com. They aren’t yet available for pre-order, but we expect that to change shortly. For now, you can find My Fair Lady linked here and Super 8 here. We expect the official announcement to happen in the next couple of days, so be sure to stay tuned. [Read on here...]

We’ve got a couple odds and ends for you today...

First, the big news... Shout! Factory has just reached a multi-year distribution agreement with the Portland-based Laika animation studio. The deal gives Shout! the U.S. packaged media distribution rights to the studio’s first four films: Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), The Boxtrolls (2014), ParaNorman (2012), and Coraline (2009). According to the report on The Hollywood Reporter, new bonus content is already in development for these films. Not only are new Blu-rays obviously in the offing, we can’t help thinking how great these titles would look again on Blu-ray 3D and for the first time on 4K Ultra HD as well.

Also today, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has just announced Supernatural: The Fifteenth and Final Season and Supernatural: The Complete Series for Blu-ray and DVD release on 5/25. The Fifteenth Season set includes 2 new featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and more (SRP $49.99 for Blu-ray and $44.98 for DVD). The Complete Series set includes all 327 episodes and all the previous bonus content, plus a 68-page book (SRP $359.99 for Blu-ray and $329.99 for DVD). [Read on here...]