Displaying items by tag: John Frankenheimer

We have two new disc reviews of you to enjoy today...

Stephen has taken a look at Dusty Nelson’s Effects (1979) in 4K Ultra HD, a film that originated from the minds of several Pittsburgh-area collaborators of George A. Romero. It’s now available from Image Works via the American Genre Film Archive and our friends at Vinegar Syndrome.

If you’re interested in this film, you might also enjoy reading a 2005 archived interview we did on the original Bits website about the project with our old friend John Harrison (Takes from the Darkside, Frank Herbert’s Dune). You’ll find that here (and pardon the messy HTML).

Also today, Dennis has taken a look at Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (1996) on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

We don’t have a lot in the way of new announcement news today, but a number of long-awaited 4K Ultra HD catalog titles are finally available for pre-order on Amazon. [Read on here...]

In reviews this morning, Dennis has taken a look at Raphael Sbarge’s 2022 Laemmle Theatres documentary Only in Theaters on DVD from Kino Lorber. The film chronicles the 80+ year history of the family-owned cinema chain, which is based in L.A., and looks at the family’s efforts to see it survive the current challenges facing the industry.

More reviews are coming, so be sure to watch for them.

Now then... the big news today is two-fold: First, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has just revealed that Babylon 5: The Complete Series is coming to Blu-ray Disc for the first time ever on 12/5! Of course, the series was originally produced and finished in SD resolution only. But its live-action footage was shot on film, so that’s been scanned in 4K and downsampled to HD, while the CGI and VFX shots have been upsampled to HD from SD. But if you’ve seen the series recently as it appears on the Max streaming app, you’ll be familiar with the quality. (Note that it’s presented in the original 1.33 broadcast aspect ratio, and will include English SDH subtitles.) All 110 episodes of the show will be included, along with the 1993 pilot film, The Gathering. It appears that this title will be available via online retailers only, so don’t expect to find it at your local brick-and mortar shop. SRP is $99.99. You can see the cover artwork at left and also below. (Oddly, it doesn’t actually include an image of the Babylon 5 space station itself, which.. ahem... seems like very strange marketing choice.)

And second, here’s some exciting news for fans of 1980s animation: The great Ralph Bakshi has announced on his Facebook page that American Pop (1981) is finally coming to Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 8/22! [Read on here...]

We’ve got a few interesting pieces of announcement news for you today...

First, Paramount has revealed new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook editions of the Mission: Impossible films today. Look for Mission: Impossible and Mission: Impossible 2 on 6/27, followed by Mission: Impossible 3 and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on 7/4, and finally Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout on 7/11. You can see the Steelbook artwork for each below the break.

Paramount is also releasing an Amaray/wide-release version of Young Sherlock Holmes on Blu-ray on 6/27 (for those of you who passed on the Blu-ray Steelbook release).

Some of you will recall that we recently mentioned that Mill Creek is releasing The Event: The Complete Series on Blu-ray on 6/6. Well, Universal is also releasing La Brea: The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray that same day.

Allied Vaughn has set Ben Steinbauer and Berndt Mader’s comedy documentary Chop & Steele for Blu-ray and DVD on 7/18.

The BBC is releasing Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee – Complete Season Three on Blu-ray on 7/11. [Read on here...]

Morning, everyone! We start today with no less than three new disc reviews, including...

Stephen’s in-depth look at Stuart Rosenberg’s Cool Hand Luke (1967) in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, as well as his thoughts on John Frankenheimer’s Black Sunday (1977) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

We’ve also got my take on Paramount’s new Star Trek: The Next Generation 4-Movie Collection box set in 4K Ultra HD—just an overall summary to go along with my detailed reviews of each of the individual films in 4K.

Now then, we’ve got a bunch of great announcement news today, and some updates on titles we’ve mentioned previously here at The Bits, starting with news from the Warner Archive Collection!

On the latest installment of Tim Millard’s excellent The Extras podcast, our friend George Feltenstein has revealed more of Warner Archive’s May Blu-ray titles, which will include Rouben Mamoulian’s Queen Christina (1933), Joseph Losey’s The Boy with Green Hair (1948), Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton’s King Solomon’s Mines (1950), Vincente Minnelli’s The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963), and Joseph Barbera and William Hanna’s Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear! (1964). All of these are new negative scans (The Boy with Green Hair and King Solomon’s Mines from the original Technicolor negatives).

Also coming later this year are Howard Hawks’ Land of the Pharaohs (1955) and Robert Wise’s Helen of Troy (1956). [Read on here...]

Today’s update is a quick one, as my Internet provider is apparently upgrading their equipment here in Orange County, and I have a scheduled outage that could knock me offline at any minute. But we do have some very good release news to report for you all today...

But first, Tim has checked in with a look at Brian Trenchard-Smith’s DeathCheaters (1976) on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment.

And Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Clyde Bruckman, W. C. Fields, and Sam Hardy’s Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

We’ve also updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits, along with our Cover Artwork section that features new art for all kinds of upcoming Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD titles with Amazon links, organized by street date. Both of those sections can be used to order and pre-order titles from Amazon, all of which goes to support our work here at The Bits (and we appreciate it!).

Now then, the big news today is that Kino Lorber Studio Classics has confirmed that they’re working on a physical 4K Ultra HD release of the outstanding John Frankenheimer action thriller Ronin (1998), starring Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, and Jonathan Pryce. [Read on here...]

Welcome back to my Dailies feature, Pick-Ups!

It’s designed to feature older Blu-ray releases that we haven’t gotten around to reviewing until now (sorry about that!), as well as select international releases and other unique titles on disc.

I try to do this column on a weekly basis, so be sure to check back regularly for more titles that are worthy of your attention.  [Read on here...]

Here are a couple of other stories from the salt mines of Oklahoma location scouting. There’s many, many more. But I can only bore so much..

Both tales involve the terrific writer, film critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter. In his 1993 novel Point of Impact, Hunter created the character Bob Lee “The Nailer” Swagger, which has now been featured, along with his father, Earl, in some 12 novels, the most recent of which is Sniper’s Honor.  [Read on here...]