Displaying items by tag: Tim Salmons

Well, today is Cyber Monday, which means there are still a number of good deals to be had on things around the Internet. So rather than repeating my comments from last week about Black Friday, I’ll just remind you that if you go looking for deals on Amazon today, please be sure to use one of our affiliate links (if you’d care to support our work here at The Bits in the process).

Now then, our own holiday was lovely here in SoCal. My wife’s cousin joined us for Thanksgiving, which involved eating some great food (both the usual turkey and stuffing, as well as mighty fine barbecue the day after), watching a lot of football as well as some terrific movies (including revisiting David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water and James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari) and a few TV series too (the season finale of Andor is fantastic—I haven’t enjoyed Star Wars this much since 1983). I also did a little bit of actual shopping, which amounted to picking up a hooded vest to wear in the office when it gets chilly and upgrading my old Pixel 3a phone to a new 6a thanks to an offer from Google that was too good to refuse. Finally, we got our Christmas tree up and decorated. So all in all, it was an enjoyable long weekend. And I certainly hope you all had a good one as well!

We’re starting today with a pair of new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternoon...

Tim has posted his thoughts on the Terry Jones comedy Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983) in 4K Ultra HD from Universal, as well as John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever (1977) in 4K Ultra HD from Paramount. Sadly, that latter is something of a disappointment. But I’ll let Tim explain that to you.

Again, watch for more new disc reviews all this week here on The Digital Bits. [Read on here...]

Well, it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, so I’m sure you all know what that means: There are a HUGE number of Black Friday sales going on at online stores around the Internet and at brick-and-mortar retailers near you. Seemingly everyone is offering 40 or 70% discounts, so be sure to take advantage if there’s something you’re looking for.

Here at The Digital Bits, we’re obviously an Amazon affiliate, so if you are busy shopping for online deals today via that particular retailer, we would certainly appreciate it if you clicked through one of our affiliate links first (like this one for US readers, or these for Canadian, UK, French, Spanish, Japanese, or German readers). Once you click through any of our links, literally anything you purchase in that same shopping session counts in our favor and it makes a big difference in helping to support our work here, so we really do appreciate it.

Of course, we hope all you U.S. readers had a great Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. We certainly did here at The Bits, and—given the holiday—there’s not a ton of release news to report. But we do have a few things of note to talk about, and we have a few new disc reviews as well. So let’s cover those reviews first... [Read on here...]

All right, I’m still working on that Criterion WALL-E 4K review and hope to have it up this weekend. Real life got in the way a little bit here over the last couple of days, not to mention some necessary behind-the-scenes work here at the site. But I will say this: Both the 4K presentation and the accompanying Blu-ray presentation, are absolutely fantastic. As in best-ever image quality for this film.

In the meantime, Tim has posted his thoughts on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Season Three on Blu-ray from our friends over at Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Sounds like it’s another fabulous set with more great extras.

And we do have several good pieces of release news to report here at the site today...

First, Turbine Media in Germany has finally announced their planned 6-Disc 4K Ultra HD Ultimate Edition of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners (1996) for release on 12/2 (Yes, that is a Friday—keep in mind, this is a German release). The film has been fully remastered from the original camera negative and graded for high dynamic range (including Dolby Vision) in a process supervised by the director. [Read on here...]

Morning, folks! We’ve got an early update here on The Bits today with a few more new disc reviews, and some interesting release news as well. First, those reviews...

I’ve just completed a look at Universal’s new E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: 40th Anniversary Edition 4K Ultra HD release, which came out a few weeks ago. It’s interesting in that both the 4K and accompanying Blu-ray are completely new discs, each of which carries over all the extras from the previous 35th Anniversary release while adding a couple of new features too. A/V quality is essentially the same as before, though the 4K disc is now a BD-100, presumably to allow for the addition of the special features. You can learn more here.

Tim has also just completed a review of Harry Essex’s I, the Jury (1953) which is now available in 4K from ClassicFlix. The package includes a Blu-ray as well, featuring the film in HD and also 3D. And he’s posted a review of Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980) in 4K from Kino Lorber Studio Classics for your reading enjoyment too.

More reviews are forthcoming soon, including my take on Criterion’s new 4K Ultra HD release of WALL-E from Pixar.

Also here at the site this morning, we’d like to call your attention to Michael Coate’s retrospective look at Steven Spielberg’s sci-if classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which celebrated its 45th anniversary yesterday. Michael shared a great Q&A with film historians on the occasion of its 40th anniversary in 2017, and that discussion is well worth checking out if you missed it then. You’ll also find interesting details on the film’s original theatrical release. Enjoy! [Read on here...]

As promised, we’re checking back in today with another trio of new disc reviews…

First, I’ve just posted my thoughts on Clint Eastwood’s rough yet riveting western High Plains Drifter (1973) in 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Tim has taken a look at Ardman Animations’ A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019), new on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.

And Dennis has delivered his take on George Marshall’s Fancy Pants (1950) on Blu-ray, also from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

More reviews are on the way tomorrow, so be sure to watch for them. [Read on here...]

All right, it’s been a week since we’ve had a news update here at the site, and the reason is two-fold: First, there just hasn’t been a lot of news to report. And second, given that fact, we’ve all been working hard on a TON of new disc reviews here at The Bits. In fact, I’ve personally pledged to post a new 4K Ultra HD review each day all this week here at The Bits. So we’ll start today with the ones I’ve completed so far...

Now available for your reading enjoyment are my reviews of Paramount’s Halo: Season One – Limited Edition Steelbook, Kino Lorber Studio Classics’ Mystery Men, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Elf and A Christmas Story, all in 4K Ultra HD. But the guys have been busy too...

To this, Tim has added his thoughts on Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running (4K UHD) and The Count Yorga Collection (Blu-ray) from Arrow Video, the Species: Collector’s Edition (4K UHD) from Scream Factory, and Quiet Days in Clichy (4K UHD) from Blue Underground.

Stephen has contributed his takes on Married to the Mob (Blu-ray), Vortex (Blu-ray), and The Iceman Cometh (Blu-ray) from Vinegar Syndrome, Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (4K UHD) from Warner, Golden Boy (Blu-ray) from Imprint, X (4K UHD) from Capelight Pictures, and The Sporting Club (Blu-ray) from Kino Lorber.

And Dennis has offered his take on the Barfly: Limited Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray) and Storm Center (Blu-ray) both from Imprint.

As I said a moment ago, still more reviews are on the way all this week, so be sure to keep checking back for them. [Read on here...]

All right, Halloween is here at long last, so we’ve got the remainder of our new Halloween Bag-o-Tricks disc reviews for you all to enjoy today! Since we last posted here on Friday, we’ve added:

Stephen’s thoughts on Le Binh Giang’s KFC (2016) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, the Italian-import version of Joe Dante’s The Hole (2009) on Blu-ray from Medusa, Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D on Blu-ray 3D from IFC Midnight, and Simon Nuchtern’s Silent Madness (1984) on Blu-ray 3D from Vinegar Syndrome.

Tim’s take on Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13: Director’s Cut (1963) on Blu-ray from the Vestron Video Collector’s Series, Amando de Ossorio’s Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) on Blu-ray from Synapse Films, Chris LaMartina’s WNUF Halloween Special (2013) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, the Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6 on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, The Halloween 4K Collection: 1995-2002 in 4K Ultra HD from Scream Factory, and Dan O’Bannon’s The Return of the Living Dead (1985) in 4K Ultra HD from Scream Factory.

Dennis’ look at Sean Donohue’s Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida Blu-ray box set from Vinegar Syndrome and Tim Kincaid’s Mutant Hunt (1987) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

My own review of Jordan Peele’s Nope (2002) in 4K Ultra HD from Universal. [Read on here...]

The final week of October has arrived at last and so we’re celebrating the occasion here at The Digital Bits by kicking off our Halloween Bag-o-Tricks!

Each day all week and through the weekend, leading up to Halloween itself next Monday, we’ll be posting new suspense, horror, thriller, and chiller title reviews—great Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles that are perfect for sharing the mood of the season!

The whole Bits review team is pitching in with a mix of titles that includes more recent films, genuinely offbeat selections, and all-time classics as well.

As we progress through the week, we’ll list the available titles here on this page (below the break), and we’ll add new review links every day. So be sure to keep checking back. You can always click on our Halloween Bag-o-Tricks banner on the home page to access all the new entries. [Read on here...]

Today’s news update is a quick one here at The Bits today, but also a very good one for fans of a certain WB catalog film. More on that in a moment. First, we’ve got a bunch of new Halloween Bag-o-Tricks reviews for you to enjoy...

Tim has reviewed Tom Holland’s Fright Night (1985) in 4K Ultra HD from Sony, as well as the Universal Horror Collection: Volume 5 on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, the Suspiria: 45th Anniversary Soundtrack – Prog Rock Version on CD from Rustblade Records, and the Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror box set on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

And Stephen has chimed in with his thoughts on Shin’ichiro Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead: Hollywood Edition (2017) on Blu-ray from Third Window Films and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not (2019) on Blu-ray from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

We’ll have more Bag-o-Tricks reviews tomorrow, Sunday, and of course Halloween Monday, so be sure to check back for them. [Read on here...]

Today’s round of Halloween Bag-o-Tricks title reviews kicks off My Two Cents here at The Bits today, including...

Stephen’s look at Shin’ichiro Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead on Blu-ray from RLJE Entertainment.

His review of David Schmoeller’s Tourist Trap: VHS Retro Big Box Collection on Blu-ray from Full Moon Features.

And Tim’s take on the 1980 British TV entry Hammer House of Horror: The Complete Series on Blu-ray from Imprint Films. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, the big news this morning—though it’s not yet official in the form of an actual press release/announcement—is that HBO will definitely be releasing its excellent House of the Dragon: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on 12/20.

Extras on the set will feature “over one hour of bonus content” including two exclusive featurettes: Return to the Seven Kingdoms and Welcome to Westeros (with Ryan Condal, Miguel Sapochnik, and George R.R. Martin).

The 4K/Blu-ray combo set will be available in two different wide-release product SKUs, one in regular packaging and the other in Steelbook packaging. You can see the wide release version at left and both below. Both will feature Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10, as well as Dolby Atmos audio. [Read on here...]