Displaying items by tag: Dennis Seuling

We’ve got a big new disc review for you all today here at The Bits, and it’s a title that a lot of you have been waiting for: My look at Tony Gilroy’s Andor: The Complete First Season (2023) in 4K Ultra HD Steelbook from Lucasfilm and Disney! All the details are in the review, but suffice it to say that the release absolutely does not disappoint. The video quality is stunning.

We’ve also got a bunch of recent reviews that our staffers have shared over the last few days that I need to round up here for you guys, including...

Stephen’s reviews of Sergio Martino’s The Great Alligator (1979) in 4K Ultra HD from Severin Films, Rod Lurie’s The Last Castle (2001) in 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, John Ford’s 3 Godfathers (1948) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, and Walter Hill’s The Long Riders (1980) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Tim’s reviews of Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case (1982) in 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video, Michael Laughlin’s Strange Invaders (1983) on Blu-ray from Imprint, and Hanna-Barbera’s animated Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

And finally, Dennis’ review of Nancy Savoca’s Dogfight (1991) on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection.

Meanwhile, we have a couple or housekeeping items to report here at The Bits today... [Read on here...]

Afternoon, folks! We’ve got a few new disc reviews, some great release news, and a fine bit of streaming TV news for you today as well! First as always, those reviews...

Kicking things off, Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Michael Mann’s Ferrari (2023), as released in 4K Ultra HD by Eagle Pictures in Italy. It’s a great little film, and here’s hoping that Neon and Decal will see fit to release it here in the States in 4K soon as well.

Stephen has also reviewed Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (1980) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Arrow Video.

Not to be outdone, Tim has turned in his thoughts on Jesús Franco’s Night of the Blood Monster (1970), aka The Bloody Judge, in 4K Ultra HD from the good people over at Blue Underground.

Dennis has offered his take on Theodore J. Flicker’s The President’s Analyst (1967) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Stuart rounds things out today with his review of Yasuharu Hasebe’s Black Tight Killers (1966) on Blu-ray from the team at Radiance Films.

As always, more reviews are on the way so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them!

Now then, a quick follow up. As many of you know, we’ve been running an interactive poll on our Patreon and Twitter/X pages over the past week on behalf of Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The question was: For the studio’s new 4K catalog Steelbook line, would you prefer new custom artwork or original poster artwork? Nearly three thousand of you voted in all (2,959 to be exact), with 1,166 votes (38.41%) for new custom artwork and 1,793 votes (60.59%) for original poster artwork. [Read on here...]

Before we get to today’s release news, we’ve got a few new disc reviews for you to enjoy here at The Bits...

Tim has reviewed the Looney Tunes: Collector’s Choice – Volume 2 Blu-ray set from the Warner Archive Collection.

Dennis has reviewed R.O. Blechman and Christian Blackwood’s The Soldier’s Tale (1984) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics, along with Jerry London’s Rent-a-Cop (1988) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Stuart has offered his thoughts on Édouard Molinaro’s The Road to Shame (1959) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics, as well as Guy Green’s Diamond Head (1962) on Blu-ray from our friends at Imprint Films.

More reviews are on the way, as always, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them!

Now then... the big news today is that Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has officially set Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two (2024) for release on Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K UHD + Blu-ray Steelbook on 5/14, just as we expected. The Digital release is due on 4/16, which is just a week away.

Look for the 4K disc to include Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos audio. Unfortunately, we’ve confirmed with the studio that the aspect ratio for all of these SKUs will be 2.39:1 only, matching the previous release of Dune: Part One (2021) on disc. These discs will not replicate the variable IMAX aspect ratio in 1.78:1, like the studio’s past 4K releases of Christopher Nolan’s films do (including TENET, Dunkirk, The Dark Knight, etc).

This is something that a LOT of Dune and 4K fans very much want. Since the discs went up for pre-order a few weeks ago, I’ve gotten many hundreds of questions about it. And since I shared the 2.39 confirmation on Twitter yesterday, the post has been seen by more than 1 million people! So there is clearly very keen interest in a disc release that does have the IMAX ratio. Hopefully, Warner is planning an IMAX 4K and BD disc re-release in the future. [Read on here...]

Welcome to a new week, Bits-ers! Hope you all had a good one, including all those of you who attended WonderCon in Anaheim this weekend.

Today is obviously April Fool’s Day, but rest assured we aren’t going to waste time with such tomfoolery here at the site this afternoon because we’ve got more new disc reviews for you, as well as some really great actual news too.

Let’s get to those reviews first. Today we have...

Stephen’s review of Ted Kotcheff’s North Dallas Forty (1979) in 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, as well as his take on György Kovásznai’s Bubble Bath (1980) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

And Stuart’s look at William Grefé’s Impulse (1974) on Blu-ray from Grindhouse Releasing, as well as Emmanuel Carrère’s Between Two Worlds (2021) on Blu-ray from Cohen Media Group.

Late last week, we also posted Tim’s reviews of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (2009) in both regular and limited edition Blu-ray, as well as his reviews of Quentin Tarantino (etc)’s Grindhouse (2007) in both regular and limited edition Blu-ray, all from Via Vision’s Imprint Films.

And not to be outdone, Dennis has also reviewed Peter Yates’ The Dresser (1983) on Blu-ray from Imprint as well. [Read on here...]

We have just one new disc review for you today (but a lot more are coming next week): Dennis’ look at Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Meanwhile, we have some good announcement news today, so let’s get right to it...

First up this afternoon, our friends at The Warner Archive Collection have just revealed more great new Blu-ray titles that are all due to street on 4/30, including Charles Brabin’s The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story (1959), William Wyler’s Friendly Persuasion (1956), Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People (1969) and You’re a Big Boy Now (1966), and finally a Hanna-Barbera Double Feature of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) and Scooby-Doo: Return to Zombie Island (2019)!

We’ll share all of the cover art and Amazon pre-order links as soon as they go live, but in the meantime you can see The Rain People at left.

Moving on, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just set both Mark DiSalle’s The Perfect Weapon (1991) and Sam Firstenberg’s Revenge of the Ninja (1983) for release on Blu-ray Disc on 5/21. [Read on here...]

We have six new disc reviews for all of you to enjoy today, including...

Stuart’s look at Denys Arcand’s Dirty Money (1972) and Paul Vecchiali’s The Strangler (1970) both on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Dennis’ take on Norman Jewison’s The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics

And Stephen’s look at Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) in 4K from Sony’s Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 4 box set, as well as Michael Mann’s Ferrari (2023) in Blu-ray from Neon via Decal Releasing.

All are well worth a look, so we hope you enjoy them. And more are forthcoming.

Before we get to announcement news today, Amazon has finally made Andor: The Complete First Season and Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series available for pre-order in 4K Ultra HD Steelbook format. (The Blu-ray Steelbook pre-orders should soon be live as well.) We’ve included the links and cover art below. [Read on here...]

Today’s new disc reviews here at The Bits include...

Stuart’s look at Edward Dmytryk’s The Carpetbaggers (1964) on Blu-ray from Paramount via Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis’ take on William Dieterle’s All That Money Can Buy (1941) on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

And Stephen’s thoughts on Saul Bass’s Phase IV (1974) on 4K Ultra HD from Paramount via Vinegar Syndrome.

Also, today on our Patreon page we’ve invited our supporters to offers their two cents on catalog films they would most like to see released on 4K Ultra HD. We’re going to compile those lists and pass them on to the relevant studios, so do consider joining is there and offering your take!

In announcement news today, Paramount has officially set Bob Marley: One Love for Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K Steelbook release on 5/28. Extras will include multiple featurettes (Join Kingsley B, Becoming Bob Marley, The Story, The Cast, On Location: Jamaica and England, and The Band), plus extended and deleted scenes. You can see the cover art at left and also below. [Read on here...]

We’re closing out the week here at The Bits with a bunch of release news and more new disc reviews as well. The reviews include...

Tim’s take on Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel’s Super Mario Bros. (1993) in 4K Ultra HD from Umbrella Entertainment—the deluxe Trust the Fungus edition.

Stuart’s look at Hal Ashby’s Coming Home (1978) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, as well as his review of Kino Lorber’s Homicide Hills: The Complete Series on DVD.

And Dennis’ reviews of Frank Lloyd’s Blood on the Sun (1945) and Alfred L. Werker and Anthony Mann’s He Walked by Night (1948), both on Blu-ray also from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Also, just to let you know, we’ve been sharing some additional content for our supporters over on Patreon, including essays on Godzilla Minus One’s visual effects Oscar win and the difficulty in creating or evaluating home video transfers for film, along with an exclusive tease about a trio of forthcoming 4K Ultra HD catalog titles that are in the works for later this year, my in-depth film review of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, and a little behind-the-scenes on a visit with some friends of The Bits who just so happen to have been involved with the Star Trek franchise for over 38 years.

Supporting The Bits on Patreon is a really great way to help us keep the site going, and doing so makes it possible for us to continue our work in support of physical media and disc fans everywhere. So please consider joining us there! [Read on here...]

We have several new disc reviews to begin the week here at The Bits, starting with...

Stuart’s take on Raoul Walsh’s Gentleman Jim (1942) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

Dennis thoughts on Michael Epstein’s LennonNYC (2010) on Blu-ray from Via Vision Entertainment and Peter Yates’ Murphy’s War (1971) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

Stephen’s look at Bill Plympton’s The Tune (1992) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

And finally, Tim’s review of Ardman Animations’ Shaun the Sheep: The Complete Series on Blu-ray from Shout! Studios.

We also have a bunch of new announcement news for you today, but first this: Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has listed Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two for Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K Steelbook pre-order on Amazon. The street date is TBA, but is likely due in May or June. There will also be a 2-Film Collection in both 4K UHD and Blu-ray.

Now, a lot of you have asked what aspect ratio Dune: Part Two will be in on disc. As many of you know, Dune: Part One was shot mostly in 2.39:1 but about an hour was in full 1.90:1. Yet Warner’s Blu-ray and 4K release were both in 2.39 only. Meanwhile, most of Dune: Part Two was shot in 1.90:1, with about forty minutes in the full 1.43:1 IMAX ratio. So people are wondering if the Blu-ray and 4K will preserve that variable IMAX ratio, and if Part One will ever be re-released on both formats with the variable ratio as well. I’ve asked Warner for clarification on this and will share it here when they reply. Meanwhile, you can find the studio’s temp cover art (with Amazon links) below the break. [Read on here...]

Happy Leap Day, Bits readers! February 29th only comes around once every four years, so enjoy it while you can.

I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your patience. We haven’t done a news update here for a couple days, and the reason is that I’ve been doing a lot more digging about that Disney and Sony physical media distribution deal, and I have in fact learned a little bit more information that will put the deal in better context. So after having a few last conversations with sources tonight, I’ll have a bit more to share on that front in tomorrow’s news update here at The Bits.

In the meantime, we’ve posted a bunch more new disc reviews here at the site as follows...

Dennis has posted his thoughts on Raoul Walsh’s The Roaring Twenties (1939) on Blu-ray from our friends at The Criterion Collection, as well as Ralph Murphy’s The Man in Half Moon Street (1945) on Blu-ray from Imprint, Robin Spry’s One Man (1977) and Elly Kenner and Norman Thaddeus Vane’s The Black Room (1982) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, and Damien LeVeck’s A Creature Was Stirring (2023) on Blu-ray from Well Go USA.

Stewart has taken a look at Norman Jewison’s The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Nigel Cole’s Saving Grace (2000) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, and Alan Rudolph’s Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) on Blu-ray from Imprint.

And finally, Stephen has check in with his take on David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999) on 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome. All are well worth a look (both the films and the discs). [Read on here...]