My Two Cents
Welcome to the first full week of December, Bits readers!
We’ve got a couple interesting items to report here today, but first a pair of new disc reviews:
I’ve turned in my thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) in 4K Ultra HD from Miramax, via Paramount. The good news is, whether you buy the Steelbook or the regular Amaray version, the 4K remastering is fantastic. Fans should be very pleased.
I’ve also reviewed Andrew Stanton’s CG-animated classic WALL•E (2008) in 4K UHD from Pixar via the Criterion Collection. The highlight here is that it’s a terrific package and the film looks and sounds great, but the new 4K presentation isn’t really dramatically different than the previous Disney 4K edition—it simply now adds HDR10+ and Dolby Vision metadata. But some of the new special features are wonderful.
More new Blu-ray and 4K UHD reviews are coming soon, as always, so please keep checking back for them! [Read on here...]
We’ve got no less than five more new disc reviews for you all to enjoy today...
I’ve just posted my thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) in 4K Ultra HD from Lionsgate.
Stephen has checked in with a look at Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) in 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome.
Dennis has reviewed Julien Temple’s Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), the new Vestron Video Collector’s Series title on Blu-ray from Lionsgate.
And Tim has taken a look at Lewis Gilbert’s Damn the Defiant! (1962) on Blu-ray from Imprint Films, as well as Montgomery Tully and Dennis O’Keefe’s The Diamond Wizard (1954) on Blu-ray 3D from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, via a great new restoration by the 3-D Film Archive.
In announcement news today, Lionsgate has set Hype Williams’ Belly for release on 4K Ultra HD on 1/24/23. There will be a wide release that includes a Blu-ray and Digital copy, along with a Best Buy-exclusive Steelbook package. Look for the package to have a new Dolby Atmos mix, along with the following special features: audio commentary with Williams, Spoken Word, a deleted scene, and the Grand Finale music video. [Read on here...]
Well, today is Cyber Monday, which means there are still a number of good deals to be had on things around the Internet. So rather than repeating my comments from last week about Black Friday, I’ll just remind you that if you go looking for deals on Amazon today, please be sure to use one of our affiliate links (if you’d care to support our work here at The Bits in the process).
Now then, our own holiday was lovely here in SoCal. My wife’s cousin joined us for Thanksgiving, which involved eating some great food (both the usual turkey and stuffing, as well as mighty fine barbecue the day after), watching a lot of football as well as some terrific movies (including revisiting David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water and James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari) and a few TV series too (the season finale of Andor is fantastic—I haven’t enjoyed Star Wars this much since 1983). I also did a little bit of actual shopping, which amounted to picking up a hooded vest to wear in the office when it gets chilly and upgrading my old Pixel 3a phone to a new 6a thanks to an offer from Google that was too good to refuse. Finally, we got our Christmas tree up and decorated. So all in all, it was an enjoyable long weekend. And I certainly hope you all had a good one as well!
We’re starting today with a pair of new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternoon...
Tim has posted his thoughts on the Terry Jones comedy Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983) in 4K Ultra HD from Universal, as well as John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever (1977) in 4K Ultra HD from Paramount. Sadly, that latter is something of a disappointment. But I’ll let Tim explain that to you.
Again, watch for more new disc reviews all this week here on The Digital Bits. [Read on here...]
Well, it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, so I’m sure you all know what that means: There are a HUGE number of Black Friday sales going on at online stores around the Internet and at brick-and-mortar retailers near you. Seemingly everyone is offering 40 or 70% discounts, so be sure to take advantage if there’s something you’re looking for.
Here at The Digital Bits, we’re obviously an Amazon affiliate, so if you are busy shopping for online deals today via that particular retailer, we would certainly appreciate it if you clicked through one of our affiliate links first (like this one for US readers, or these for Canadian, UK, French, Spanish, Japanese, or German readers). Once you click through any of our links, literally anything you purchase in that same shopping session counts in our favor and it makes a big difference in helping to support our work here, so we really do appreciate it.
Of course, we hope all you U.S. readers had a great Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. We certainly did here at The Bits, and—given the holiday—there’s not a ton of release news to report. But we do have a few things of note to talk about, and we have a few new disc reviews as well. So let’s cover those reviews first... [Read on here...]
Well, the big news this week is so big that we’re going to address it right off the top: In a sudden and unexpected move, Disney’s board of directors has ousted CEO Bob Chapek and re-hired Bob Iger. The news came out of the blue on Sunday night and seems to have taken everyone by surprise. Bob Iger of course was the company’s previous CEO, who took over for Michael Eisner—the man who’d served in that role for over two decades at that point—back in 2005. It was under Iger’s watch that Disney acquired Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and the film division of 20th Century Fox. He also laid the groundwork for the launch of Disney+ in 2019.
Chapek was no stranger to Disney, having joined the company in 1993 as the director of marketing for Buena Vista Home Entertainment. In this capacity he helped steer Disney through the “Golden Age” of DVD and eventually the launch of Blu-ray, which is how I came to know him. He was so successful in that capacity that he was promoted to president of Home Entertainment in 2006, and eventually took over at Disney Consumer Products (in 2011) and Parks and Resorts (in 2015), which seemed to make him a natural fit to become CEO of Disney himself when Iger eventually stepped down.
But apparently, Iger and Chapek did not often see eye to eye. Iger, who could (and probably should) have worked more aggressively to groom a clear successor to lead the company in his own image, failed to do so, resulting in Chapek’s elevation to CEO in 2020. But Chapek’s reign was troubled from the very start, stricken first by the COVID-19 pandemic and next by a series of public “self-owns” and media missteps. [Read on here...]