My Two Cents
Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:58

Todd Doogan rejoins The Bits’ review team, plus Sony’s Talladega Nights 4K & more announcement news!

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Good afternoon, disc fans!

After yesterday’s big release news of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair in 4K from Lionsgate, it’s time to start catching up on news that dropped while we were grappling with our AI bot-scraping issue.

To start with today, we’ve got a number of new disc reviews to share with you, and—on that very note—we also have a nice surprise announcement as well…

Our old friend Todd Doogan is returning to The Digital Bits as a review contributor!

Longtime Bits readers will know that Doogan was a founding member of The Bits team, not only reviewing DVD and Blu-ray discs here for many years, but also writing his own Doogan’s Views and Gripe Soda columns here at the site.

Since we have so many great disc releases that need covering, Doogan has offered to revive Doogan’s Views as a new “quick” review format—these will feature the Doogan’s Views banner at the top of the review. And while the reviews won’t be as detailed as our regular review work, they’ll include enough information to highlight discs worth your attention and help you make buying decisions. These are the kinds of titles that would otherwise fall through the cracks, but that deserve some love from fans—indie and boutique deep cuts, genre oddballs, and more.

Todd’s first new Doogan’s Views reviews this afternoon include Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks (2025) on Blu-ray from Decal Releasing and Johannes Roberts’ Primate (2025) on Blu-ray from Paramount via Alliance.

We’re all thrilled here to have Todd on The Bits team again, and I’m personally very happy to have my friend calling videodisc balls and strikes once more as only he can.

So welcome back, Todd, and watch for more Doogan’s Views reviews in the days and weeks ahead!

Meanwhile today, we have a bunch of new disc reviews from the rest of The Bits review team too, including... [Read on here...]

Tim’s thoughts on Joel Anderson’s Lake Mungo (2008) in 4K Ultra HD from Umbrella Entertainment, Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby’s All Star Laff-a-lympics (1977-78) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, and Harry Kümel’s Malpertuis (1972) on Blu-ray from Radiance Films.

Stuart’s take on Richard Quine’s The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) and Henri Verneuil’s The Vultures (1984) both on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, John Ford’s Mogambo (1953) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, and Gerry O’Hara’s Maroc 7 (1967) and Taylor Hackford’s Against All Odds (1984) both on Blu-ray from Imprint Films.

Dennis’ look at Mark Sandrich’s The Gay Divorcee (1934) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

And Stephen’s two cents on Artie and Jim Mitchell’s Behind the Green Door (1972) in 4K Ultra HD from Mélusine and Vinegar Syndrome, as well as Tom Gormican’s Anaconda (2025) in 4K Ultra HD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

More reviews are forthcoming in the days ahead, so be sure to keep checking back.

Now then… speaking of Sony, the studio has recently announced the 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of Adam McKay’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) for 8/4. The 3-disc set will include both the 108-minute theatrical version and the 122-minute unrated editions in 4K with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos (as well as English 5.1 DTS-HD MA). The two Blu-rays in the package will also include both versions of the film, plus all of the legacy special features. You can see the cover artwork above left and you can pre-order it here on Amazon.

Also newly announced by CBS is I Love Lucy: The Complete Series – 75th Anniversary on Blu-ray, featuring all 194 episodes on 33 discs, including all six seasons of I Love Lucy (1951-57) and three seasons of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-60). SRP is $76.29. Street date is 7/28. Note that this is an anniversary reissue of the series at a lower price.

DreamWorks (via SDS) has just announced the 4K Ultra HD release of their animated Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) for release on 7/21.

Universal has set The Office: The Complete Series – Superfan Extended Episodes for release on Blu-ray on 7/14 (SRP $69.99). The series includes over 25 hours of additional footage added back into the episodes for streaming.

Decal and Neon have announced the Blu-ray release of Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers (2026) on 7/14.

And Kino Lorber Studio Classics has set Ronald Neame’s Escape from Zahrain (1962) for Blu-ray release on 7/21, followed by their Italo-Crime Collection (1973-77) in 4K Ultra HD on 8/25, which includes Alberto De Martino’s The Counsellor and Blazing Magnum, as well as Mario Caiano’s Weapons of Death. They’ve also announced that Stweart Raffill’s High Risk (1981) is coming soon to 4K and Blu-ray.

Finally, a quick follow-up on the Rambo 4K Collection: Lionsgate has informed us that due to peculiarities with the way Amazon’s stock system works, pre-orders will reportedly resume for the second replication run of 4000 copies in the next few days. Adjust your plans accordingly. I would start checking the listing on Amazon tomorrow afternoon (click here), and keep checking it regularly over the next few days until it goes live (it could happen at any time). Watch our social media and when we see that they’re live again we’ll blast out a post.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned!

- Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter/X, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)

 

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