Displaying items by tag: Jahnke's Electric Theatre

[Editor’s Note: This interview was originally posted on The Digital Bits on 9/17/02, coinciding with the Columbia TriStar Home Video DVD release of Enough and Enigma. We would like to dedicate it to the memory of Michael Apted.]

There are some directors who find a genre they’re particularly comfortable with or adept at and make an entire career out of it. Think Wes Craven with horror movies or the Farrelly brothers in comedy. Michael Apted is not one of these directors. Apted is a jumper, having tackled everything from courtroom dramas to comedy to rock and roll. When you look at his filmography, the phrase you are most likely to repeat over and over is, “He directed that, too?”

Apted began his career as a researcher and director for British television. In the 1970’s, he crossed over to theatrical films with movies like Stardust, a terrific, criminally underrated movie that traces the rise and fall of a rock group (note to the studios: Stardust needs to be released on DVD and the sooner the better). His major American breakthrough came in 1980 with Coal Miner’s Daughter, for which Sissy Spacek won the Oscar as Best Actress. Since that time, Apted has worked with some of the best actors in recent memory, including Sigourney Weaver (also Oscar nominated for her work in Apted’s Gorillas in the Mist), Jodie Foster (Nell), Val Kilmer (Thunderheart), and Gene Hackman (Class Action and Extreme Measures). Oh yeah, he also helmed one of the most recent adventures of some guy named James Bond (The World is Not Enough). [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got another quick one for you today, as I’m still working on reviews. My look at Warner’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 4K Ultra HD review will be up shortly and I’ll update this link when it’s posted (update: here it is). Meanwhile, we also have a new review from Tim Salmons, who looks at Scream Factory’s new Firestarter: Collector’s Edition on regular Blu-ray.

Also today, we have a couple of great new feature columns... Bud Elder has chimed in with a new View from the Cheap Seats and he’s pretty sure he’s figured out what’s wrong with movies these days. Do give it a look. Not to be outdone, our old friend Dr. Adam Jahnke has turned in new Jahnke’s Electric Theatre Special column today here at The Bits, in which he says something that’s badly needed saying for a while now. You’ll find that in Open Along Edge: Netflix’s DVD Problem. Enjoy! [Read on here…]

In the fall of 2015, Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation debuted at the Venice International Film Festival where it was acquired for distribution by Netflix for a whopping $12 million. The film went on to rack up an impressive list of awards and nominations, many singling out Idris Elba’s powerful supporting performance as the Commandant of a battalion of child soldiers. It appeared on several critics’ year-end top ten lists, including, among others, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, Drew McWeeny (then at HitFix), and Erin Whitney of ScreenCrush. It is “certified fresh” by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with an enviable 91% standing on Ye Olde TomatoMeter. It also made less than a million dollars at the box office, received zero Academy Award nominations, and, as of spring 2017, is not available on Blu-ray or DVD. You probably haven’t thought of it at all in at least a year. [Read on here...]

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All right, we’ve got a great piece of release news for you today, but first… we face the end of an era…

I’m sad to say that our dear friend and family member, Dr. Adam Jahnke, the inventor of the peanut butter-based scratch proof coating himself, is officially retiring from The Bits. [Read on here…]

On April 7, 2000, we posted my very first piece for The Digital Bits. It was a review of Joe Dante’s Piranha on DVD from New Concorde Home Entertainment. I don’t have that disc today. It’s been upgraded and replaced by Shout! Factory’s Blu-ray. New Concorde’s not even around anymore. Now it’s New Horizons and they’re not in the home entertainment business themselves. Things change. [Read on here...]

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We’re pleased today to present the final review of Adam’s month-long Hell Plaza Oktoberfest 8 here at The Bits: It’s none other than the 1977 zombie/Nazi classic Shock Waves, directed by Ken Wiederhorn and presented on Blu-ray by Blue Underground! Congrats to Adam on another great Oktoberfest. We trust you all enjoyed it. If you did, be sure to send a little thanks and appreciation to Adam over on his Jahnke’s Electric Theater Facebook page.

Also here at The Bits today, we’ve got Bud Elder’s new View from the Cheap Seats column. This month, Bud asks the question: “What Movies Changed the Way You Look at Life?” He posts his own answer to this question, and challenges each of you to share your own lists too.  [Read on here…]

(If it can be difficult to remember who won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s downright mindbending 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...]

(If it can be difficult to remember who won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s downright mindbending 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...]

(If it can be difficult to remember who won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s downright mindbending 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...]

All right, just a couple things for you today…

First up here at The Bits this afternoon, the good Doctor Jahnke has turned in his weekly An Honor to Be Nominated installment of Jahnke’s Electric Theatre, this time looking back at the release of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Enjoy!

In announcement news today, Scream Factory has just confirmed the Blu-ray Combo release of The Legend of Hell House on 8/26. Extras will include a new interview with director John Hough, a new audio commentary with actress Pamela Franklin, and the theatrical trailer. [Read on here…]