Displaying items by tag: Paramount

Morning folks! We’ve got some good release news for you today, along with more new disc reviews as always. The reviews include…

Tim’s take on Jonathan Liebesman’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) in 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video, as well as Jim Stenstrum’s animated Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) on Blu-ray from Hanna-Barbera via Warner Bros. “Terror Time” line.

Also today, we’ve just posted our latest update of the Release Dates & Cover Art section featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD covers with Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, whenever you purchase literally anything from Amazon after clicking to them through one of our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we appreciate it!

Now then, we’ve been talking about this next title on our Patreon page for subscribers for a few months at this point, but here’s some great news: William Wyler’s epic Ben-Hur (1959) is officially coming to 4K Ultra HD disc from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment! [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a bunch of new disc reviews for you today, including…

Tim’s looks at Marcus Nispel’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Michael Gornick’s Creepshow 2 (1987) both in 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video, as well as Mike Hodges’ Get Carter (1971) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at the Warner Archive Collection.

Stephen’s thoughts on Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues (1986) in 4K Ultra HD from Shout! Studios’ new Hong Kong Cinema Classics line.

Dennis’s take on Daniel Petrie’s Lifeguard (1976) on Blu-ray from Paramount via Imprint Films, as well as Ryan Archibald’s Screamityville (2025) on Blu-ray from MVD Entertainment.

And finally, Stuart’s review of Peter Fleischmann’s Weak Spot (1975) on Blu-ray from Gaumont Distribution via Radiance Films.

Trust me when I say this next bit: We have a LOTN more reviews in the works from the entire Bits review team, so definitely be sure to keep checking back over the coming days.

Now then… my apologies for not sharing a My Two Cents post here on the site yesterday. I’d fully intended to have one up, and suddenly a bunch of calls, emails, and messages came in from sources and I found myself going down a rabbit hole of chasing down some really interesting bits of industry news and title release rumors. You’ll see the result of that effort here over the next couple of weeks.

In terms of today’s news items, here’s the big one: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has just finally officially announced the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital release of the animated The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) on 12/9, just as we expected and have been reporting for a few months now. [Read on here...]

More news and more reviews are the order of the day today here at The Bits. Starting with the latter first, as always, we’re pleased to bring you…

Stephen’s take on Ken Russell’s Altered States (1980) in 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from our friends at the Criterion Collection.

And Tim’s look at Glen A. Larson’s classic Knight Rider: The Complete Series (1982-1991) on 4K Ultra HD from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment!

Also, yesterday we posted the following as well…

Stuart’s look at Anthony Asquith’s French Without Tears (1939) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Tim’s reviews of Severin Films’ High Tension: Four Films by Lamberto Bava Blu-ray box set and also the final films in Arrow Video’s Shawccope: Volume Two Blu-ray box set.

More reviews are definitely on the way, so be sure to keep checking back.

Also today, speaking of the Criterion Collection, they’re holding a quick 24-hour flash sale today that runs for about the next 19 hours as of the time of this writing. The sale is good for 50% off all in-stock titles on their website here. So if there’s something you’ve been looking for, now might be a good time to pick it up if you act fast! [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a bunch of great announcement news to start the week, but as always we begin first with new disc reviews. Today we have for you…

My reviews of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1953) in 4K Ultra HD from Criterion, as well as Steve Lisberger’s TRON (1982) and Joseph Kosinski’s TRON: Legacy (2010) in 4K Steelbook from Disney via Sony.

Tim’s review of DC Studios and HBO Max’s The Penguin (2024) spin-off limited series in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Dennis’ look at John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser’s Hellbender (2021) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video and Sydney Pollack’s This Property is Condemned (1966) on Blu-ray from Imprint Films.

Stuart’s thoughts on Elliott Nugent’s The Great Gatsby (1949) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Stephen’s take on Savage Steve Holland’s Better of Dead: 40th Anniversary Edition (1985) in 4K Ultra HD from Paramount.

As always, more disc reviews are forthcoming, so be sure to stay tuned for them!

Now then, the big news today is that our friends at The Criterion Collection have officially announced their complete December slate, which is set to include Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray (2023) (Spine #2191 – Blu-ray only) and Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940) (Spine #849 – 4K + Blu-ray) on 12/2, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988) (Spine #1292 – 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going (1945) (Spine #94 – 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) on 12/9, and Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) (Spine #1293 – 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) and Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia (2020) (Spine #1294 – 4K + Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD). [Read on here...]

We have three new reviews for you to enjoy today…

Stephen’s look at Michael Mann’s Thief (1981) in 4K UHD from Arrow Video in the UK.

And Stuart’s thoughts on Valerio Zurlini’s Girl with a Suitcase (1961) on Blu-ray from Radiance Films, as well as Yasuzô Masumura’s Play It Cool (1970) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

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

All right, in announcements today, the big news is something we broke on Saturday: Disney has officially set Steven Lisberger’s TRON (1980) and Joseph Kosinski’s TRON: Legacy (2010) for 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release on 9/16. Both gave been carefully remastered under the filmmakers’ supervision by The Walt Disney Film Restoration team to include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. Our sources are telling us that some of the early “de-aging” VFX in the latter film have been redone to modern standards. [Read on here...]

We’ve got three new disc reviews for you today, including…

Stephen’s look at Tonino Ricci’s Night of the Sharks (1988) on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

Stuart’s take on Kinji Fukasaku’s Jakoman and Tetsu (1964) on Blu-ray from 88 Films.

And Tim’s review of Chang Cheh’s Magnificent Ruffians (1979) on Blu-ray from Arrow’s excellent Shawscope: Volume Two box set.

Tim has also posted a review of Paul Spurrier’s Dream! (2025) in a rare installment of his Dailies column, so do give it a look!

In announcement news today, MVD Entertainment has revealed that they’re releasing Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks – Volume 3 on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/3. It will feature their a complete 16-track concert from their 2023 Spicy Meatball Tour recorded in London’s O2 Arena, along with the band’s animated film Post Apocalypto and music videos for ...Baby One More Time, Wicked Game, Video Games, Fiber d’Lish, Tenacious D’s The Who Medley, You Never Give Me Your Money/The End, and Time Warp. [Read on here...]

We’ve got three more new disc reviews for all of you to enjoy today, including…

Tim’s thoughts on Jess Franco’s The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) in 4K Ultra HD from Blue Underground as well as David Schmoeller’s Crawlspace (1986) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Stephen’s take on Stephen Sayadian’s Café Flesh (1982) on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro.

Before we get going today, it looks like we finally know what the next two Steven Spielberg films are that are going to be released in 4K Ultra HD: Multiple retail sources are reporting that both Minority Report (2002) and Catch Me If you Can (2002) are coming to the format before the end of the year from Paramount. Street date for each is TBA, but this isn’t entirely surprising—both films have been recently available Digitally in 4K. As more information comes in, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Speaking of Paramount, their long-delayed 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of Karyn Kusama’s Æon Flux (2005) is finally set for 10/7.

Also, we have a street date for Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) on Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K Steelbook. Look for it to arrive on 10/14. [Read on here...]

Hey, Bits readers!

Boy, is it good to be back posting content!

As you may have noticed, The Bits has been down for a few weeks, first as we began to experience website technical issues and more recently has we worked to make the software upgrades needed to get us back to a level of stability that allows us to move forward.

Of course, any time you update software, most things get better but a few things break, so you then have to debug and test everything as much as you can, which we’ve been doing over the last several days.

At any rate, I believe we’re finally at a point now where I can start posting news updates here again—and there’s a lot of release news to catch you up on, as you can imagine.

What’s more, we can also start posting new Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD disc reviews—and rest assured that our review team here has been writing and stockpiling tons of them while we’ve been down. So expect lots of them over the coming days.

In fact, we’re starting that right now with…

Tim’s review of Jeff Rowe’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) in 4K Ultra HD from Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Home Entertainment, as well as the recent region-free import Blu-ray 3D from Turbine Media in Germany.

Stephen’s take on Brian Gibson’s Breaking Glass (1980) on Blu-ray from Fun City Editions.

And Dennis’ thoughts on King Vidor’s The Citadel (1938) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

Again, more reviews are forthcoming, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them! [Read on here...]

Afternoon, folks! I wanted to check in here today with some news, and few more reviews, and an update.

Some of you have probably noticed that The Bits website has been slow this week. We’ve been having some software issues and our tech support team is on it. The good news is, they’ve identified the cause. We’re working on a solution which is going to involve a bunch of software upgrades, but it’s likely to going to take a week or two to sort out. So I just wanted to apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience in the meantime. Rest assured, Scotty and the crew down in Engineering are on the case and we should be back to normal soon!

In the meantime, we have some new disc reviews for you...

Stephen has taken a look at Bill Plympton’s I Married a Strange Person! (1997) on Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile Films, as well as David Allen’s The Primevals (2023) on Blu-ray from Full Moon Features.

Dennis has offered his take on Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German (2006) in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment (with an assist on the 4K side from Tim Salmons), as well as Dougal Wilson’s Paddington in Peru (2024) on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and Charles Walters’ Lili (1953) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

And Tim has reviewed Gordon Flemying’s Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1996) on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

Lots more disc reviews are definitely on the way, so be sure to watch for them. And I also wanted to let you know in advance that if news updates or social media posts are a little light over the next few days, it’s because I just got my hands on Warner and MGM’s new 007: James Bond – Sean Connery 6-Film Collection in 4K Ultra HD. So I’m going to crack that open and start working on detailed reviews of the films therein, but it’s probably going to take me through the weekend to get them all covered.

But if a cursory examination of Dr. No and From Russian with Love is any indication, these new 4K remasters are pretty terrific. They’re on 100GB discs, they feature very high data rates, and the color, detail, and grain are all very nice indeed. Fingers crossed, I think the Warner remastering team has nailed it. These are definitely a big improvement over the old Lowry Digital 4K masters. So watch for more on that in my reviews soon! [Read on here...]

We’ve got a trio of new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternoon, including…

Tim’s take on Russ Meyer’s Motorpsycho (1965) in 4K Ultra HD from Severin Films.

Stuart’s look at John and Roy Boulting’s Heavens Above! (1963) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Dennis’ thoughts on Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass (2003) on Blu-ray from Imprint Films and Via Vision Entertainment.

In release news today, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has begun taking pre-orders on the Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K Steelbook release of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025), which we hear is a pretty solid entry in the franchise. The street date is still TBA, but you should be able to find listings on all the major retail sites.

It appears that the Warner Archive Collection’s recently-announced 4K Ultra HD release of Charles Walters’ VistaVision classic High Society (1956) has been delayed slightly from May until June, though we expect pre-orders for the title to appear soon on Amazon and elsewhere. [Editor’s Note: I’ve just confirmed with WAC that the street date for this title has now shifted from 5/17 to 6/10 to what should be the final date of 6/24. And I’m told the 4K image is a knock-out.]

As we’ve reported previously, the film has been remastered from new 13.5K scans of the original VistaVision negative. The 4K disc will include Dolby Vision HDR on a 100GB disc, with disc authoring and compression by Fidelity in Motion. The remastered film will also be included in the package on Blu-ray, a BD-50. [Read on here...]