Displaying items by tag: My Two Cents

All right, we’re starting a new week here at The Bits and it’s going to be an interesting one. And we do have a little bit of release news to report.

Before we get to that though, we have three new Blu-ray reviews for you to enjoy today...

Dennis has turned in his thoughts on René Clair’s The Flame of New Orleans (1941) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis has also turned in his own thoughts on Sam Mendes’ 1917 on Blu-ray from Universal (I reviewed the 4K Ultra HD disc here at The Bits last week).

And Tim has checked in with a look at John Waters’ Polyester (1981), which was released on Blu-ray by Criterion late last year. So enjoy all three! [Read on here...]

All right, we’ll be back in just a little bit with a link to Michael Coate’s new History, Legacy & Showmanship film retrospective in a little bit.

[Editor’s Note: Here’s the link to Michael’s new retrospective of the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, in honor of the film’s 45th anniversary. Note that this piece was unavoidably delayed from late last year, but we think you’ll find the wait was worth it. Michael is joined by historians Jon Burlingame, John Cork, and Lee Pfeiffer for a great roundtable discussion. Enjoy!]

In the meantime, Tim has posted a new Blu-ray review today, this one of Fred Walton’s 1986 April Fool’s Day: Collector’s Edition from Scream Factory. The disc streets on 3/24.

And we do have some new announcement news for you... [Read on here...]

All right, with all of these coronavirus lockdowns happening, it seems as if Hollywood is slowing its roll on home video announcements. Most of our studio contacts are now working from home, like the rest of us. So we don’t have a lot of news to talk about today, but we’re adjusting by working on more new disc reviews for you to enjoy.

And we’re starting today with a BIG one: I’ve just posted my in-depth look at JJ Abrams’ new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on 4K Ultra HD from Disney and Lucasfilm. The disc offers tremendous A/V quality and limited—but really good—extras, including a terrific feature length documentary on the making of the film. The disc streets on 3/31, and the film is actually available now (a week early) on all the usual digital services. Though I should caution you, if you really care about maximum A/V quality, this disc blows the streams away. Of course, your individual needs and requirements will vary. [Read on here...]

All right, we’re here at The Bits today closing out what I must say is one of the more interesting weeks I’ve experienced in my 52 years on this planet.

But we’ve got a new review to keep you amused this afternoon: I’ve just turned in my thoughts on Sam Mendes’ Best Picture-nominated 1917 in 4K Ultra HD. It’s an impressive A/V experience with a native 4K digital intermediate, Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+ high dynamic range, a fine Dolby Atmos sound mix, and dazzling Oscar-winning cinematography by Roger Deakins. There are even a couple of fine audio commentaries on the disc too. Don’t miss it.

Also today, our friends at The Warner Archive Collection have just officially announced no less than SEVEN great new catalog Blu-ray titles that are coming in April. [Read on here...]

All right, I’m currently working on a review of Universal’s 1917 in 4K Ultra HD, which I hope to have up here on the site later today.

In the meantime, I’ve officially confirmed with the studio that Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is indeed coming to the 4K Ultra HD format here in the States on 6/2.

However, some of the cover artwork that you may have seen floating around the Internet is incorrect. The official final cover artwork for the title is visible on the left there.

Audio should be the usual DTS:X, and the extras will be the same as those found on the previously released Blu-ray version (reviewed here on The Bits). More details should follow soon. [Read on here...]

I’ve spent (and continue to spend) most of the afternoon today chasing down interesting leads regarding upcoming Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases. As a result, we’ve got a couple of good items for you today...

First though, we’ve got another new BD review from Tim, who checks in with his thoughts on Fred Wolf’s animated The Point (1971), now on Blu-ray from the MVD Rewind Collection. Be sure to give it a look.

Also today, we’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List (with some new UHD titles I’m about to mention) and also our Release Dates & Artwork section with all of the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K cover art and Amazon.com pre-order links. By the way, if you find that the section is missing some titles, it’s due to issues on Amazon’s side, not our end. They’re just making it very difficult for some titles to be found in their database for whatever reason. But we do appreciate your support when you order titles from them though our links—it matters, and we’re grateful for it. [Read on here...]

Checking in today with some great release news...

First, Paramount has just announced the launch of a new label designed to highlight marquee catalog titles on Blu-ray beginning on 4/21. Paramount Presents will debut with Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction, the 1958 Elvis Presley drama King Creole, and Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (which celebrates its 65th anniversary this year). Each title will be remastered and will include new bonus content focused on the film and the filmmakers, hosted by historian Leonard Maltin. Each will also include foldout movie poster artwork. You can see what they look like at left and also below.

Very good news indeed—it’s great to see Paramount finally starting to get more aggressive with their catalog releases on disc. In fact, the idea of creating a premium Paramount label for their classic catalog is actually something I’ve been suggesting to them privately for a while now, so it’s great to see it beginning to happen. Now let’s have a few more marquee catalog titles on 4K. We know that the original Top Gun is coming, along with Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, and Days of Thunder. And you can bet that if a new Indiana Jones sequel starts filming this year for release next year, you can almost certainly expect the classic Indy films on 4K in 2021. Let’s go ahead with the classic Star Trek films in 4K, folks! [Read on here...]

All right, we’re working on a bunch of things today, but we wanted to chime in quickly with this...

Universal is officially bringing The Blues Brothers, Jaws, and Back to the Future to 4K Ultra HD this year. We’ve been saying that the titles were coming for a while now (because we knew that from our industry sources) and we’ve had the titles listed in our 4K Ultra HD Release List for months.

But I’ve now gotten the studio to confirm on the record that Jaws and Blues Brothers are indeed coming to the format this year (BTTF was confirmed last year). Street date is still TBA, but expect them likely this summer.

I’ve also gotten the studio to confirm that what you see at left is indeed the final 4K cover artwork for John Landis’ The Blues Brothers on the format. [Read on here...]

All right, there’s not a whole lot going on today news-wise, so we’re busy working on new disc reviews.

But we did want to check in briefly with a new interesting odds and ends.

To start with, we have a sneak peek at temp cover artwork from our retail sources (in Europe in this case) for Universal’s Spartacus and Jaws on 4K Ultra HD, which are expected to street widely in June or July (street date TBA). You can see Jaws at left and both of them below. This should be close to final, but know that it’s not actually final until the studio officially announces the titles.

Also coming from Universal on 6/2 (only at Best Buy stores in the US) is a new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook version of Ron Howard’s Apollo 13. You also can see that below. [Read on here...]

The big release news today is that Universal has officially set Dolittle for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 4/7, with the Digital release expected on 3/24. It appears that the 4K will include both HDR10 and HDR10+, plus Dolby Atmos audio. Extras on all versions will include 6 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Talk to the Animals, Robert Downey Jr. & Harry: Mentor and Mentee, Becoming the Good Doctor, Antionio Banderas: Pirate King, The Wicked Dr. Mudfly, and A Most Unusual House.

Universal has also set Francis Annan’s Escape from Pretoria for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/7.

Meanwhile, Lionsgate has set The Last Full Measure for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/21, with the Digital release due on 4/7. [Read on here...]