My Two Cents
Evening, folks! We’ve some news plus a few interesting items here at the site for you today...
First up, Adam’s Hell Plaza Oktoberfest review for the day is a little bit of giallo from Italy via Kino Lorber’s Redemption line - none other than Mario Bava’s Hatchet for the Honeymoon on Blu-ray. Adam’s also got a little write-up for you in his Bottom Shelf column about his recent jaunt up to the Lucasfilm Archives at the Skywalker Ranch for the Indiana Jones press event. Some cool pix in there, so do give it a look.
Our own Russell Hammond has also updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover art and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon after clicking through to them from our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we certainly appreciate it!
Now then... the big news today is that Warner Home Video has set Easter Parade for Blu-ray release on 2/19 (SRP $19.98), including commentary by Ava Astaire McKenzie and John Fricke, 2 featurettes (Easter Parade: On the Avenue and American Masters - Judy Garland: By Myself), outtakes and dailies for Mr. Monotony, a radio promo, the Screen Guild Theater broadcast and the theatrical trailer.
Warner has also set Southland: The Complete Second, Third and Fourth Seasons for DVD only release on 2/5/13, followed by Family Matters: The Complete Third Season on DVD on 2/12.
Also, Warner and the BBC have announced The Hour: Season Two for (BD and DVD) release on 1/8/13, followed by Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1997 (on DVD) and Merlin: The Complete Fourth Season (BD and DVD) on 1/15 and Misfits: Season 2 (DVD) on 1/29.
Meanwhile, HBO will release Angry Boys on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/4, along with We Can Be Heroes on DVD only.
Image Entertainment has set the 1999 London/West End stage version of Oklahoma! (starring Hugh Jackman) for release on Blu-ray on 12/4.
Lionsgate has announced some of their January release slate, currently set to include Angelina Ballerina: Dance Around the World, Barney: Let’s Go to the Moon, Dance Moms Season 2: Volume 1, Dance Moms Season 2: Volume 2, The Inbetweeners Movie and Love Notes on 1/8/2013 (all DVD), and Branded (BD and DVD) and Counterpunch on 1/15.
Universal will release Guns, Girls and Gambling on BD and DVD on 1/8.
Shout! Factory has set Paul Newman’s directorial debut, Sometimes a Great Notion, for Blu-ray release on 12/18.
Paramount and Showtime have set Episodes: The Complete First & Second Seasons for DVD release on 1/8 as well.
Virgil Films will release the documentary High Ground on DVD only on 11/6.
And Saltwater Collective has set Minds in the Water for DVD only release on 11/13.
Finally, a quick note: I’ve corrected the text of yesterday’s post to reflect that the recent Warner/Paramount catalog deal EXCLUDES some 100 of Paramount’s key tent pole titles - not includes them as I’d originally written. What can I say, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a while now and that post, which was written at about 5AM, obviously suffered for it. I’ve since had about 14 hours of badly needed sleep, so all’s well. Like the feller says, “Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes, well... he eats you.” Or some such.
Back tomorrow. Stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt
We’ve got a couple more Blu-ray reviews for you today, plus a bit of fascinating recent industry news. Let’s start with the reviews…
First up, Dr. Jahnke’s Hell Plaza Oktoberfest review for the day is a bit of a stinker – a little something called 247°F, newly released on Blu-ray by Anchor Bay. Adam always likes to include at least one “dud” title in the Oktoberfest review mix so you really appreciate the good titles. This one is definitely it. Enjoy!
Also today, our own Joe Marchese has written up his in-depth thoughts on a fascinating Alfred Hitchcock classic, now available on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video – Strangers on a Train. It’s well worth a look.
And now for that industry news I mentioned. It initially broke as we were re-launching the redesigned site earlier this month, but it’s worth mentioning now. Paramount Home Entertainment has agreed to a three-year deal to license some 600 catalog titles to Warner Home Video for distribution on Blu-ray, DVD and digital via Warner’s Flixster service. Not just any catalog titles either, but gems like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Airplane!, Terms of Endearment. It does however, EXCLUDE tent pole titles as the Transformers, Star Trek and Indiana Jones films. New release films will also be included after the initial 26-week release window. The deal starts on 1/1/2013. So in other words, a major Hollywood studio has essentially outsourced much of their catalog home video operation to another major Hollywood studio. Fascinating. And all this is in addition to Warner’s own 90th Anniversary release slate in 2013. Here’s more at the Hollywood Reporter and Variety. [Editor's Note - It appears that the deal excludes 100 key tent pole titles, including all the biggest ones. Just FYI.]
Finally this morning, Marvel and Disney have just released the first trailer for the forthcoming Iron Man 3, due in theatres on 5/3/2013. Check it out here:
That’s all for now. Stay tuned...
- Bill Hunt
All right, there’s some good stuff here at The Bits today, kicking off a week of new reviews and the like here at the site. First up, Dr. Jahnke kicks off the last full week of his annual Hell Plaza Oktoberfest with a review of John Carpenter’s They Live, as newly delivered in high-definition from our friends at Shout! Factory. Do give it a look!
Also today, Tim Salmons checks in with a review of one of my favorite films of the year so far: Wes Anderson’s quirky and utterly charming Moonrise Kingdom. Don’t miss it.
In release news today, Amazon now has AMC and Anchor Bay’s The Walking Dead: The Complete Third Season available for pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD (SRP $69.99 and $59.98, minus Amazon’s discount). Street date and features are still TBA.
Anchor Bay has also set a DVD double feature of Silent Night, Deadly Night and Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 for release on 12/4 (SRP $14.98). That same day you’ll also get the Blu-ray and DVD release of the recent Silent Night remake (SRP $29.99 and $24.98).
Sony has set Premium Rush for Blu-ray and DVD release on 12/21 (SRP $35.99 and $30.99). Extras will include 2 featurettes (The Starting Line and Behind the Wheels).
Sony has also announced a number of new MOD DVD-R titles for release on 12/4, including Full of Life, East of Sudan, ATF (1999), The Fighting Frontiersman, Legend of the Golden Gun, Bridget Loves Bernie: The Complete Series, Boy in the Plastic Bubble, UltraViolet: Code 44 - The Complete First Season, Kurozuka: The Complete First Season, Viper’s Creed: The Complete First Season and the Film Noir Collection (The Case Against Brooklyn, The Shadow on the Window, Criminal Lawyer, Escape from San Quentin and The Crooked Web).
Meanwhile, Lionsgate has set the sci-fi action film Branded for Blu-ray and DVD release on 1/15/2013.
Shout! Factory has announced Death Valley and The Island for Blu-ray release on 12/11, followed by Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing: Collector’s Edition, The 7% Solution and The Nest on 1/22/13.
Entertainment One has set Wolf Lake: The Complete Series for DVD only release on 11/6 (SRP $39.98), followed Inside John Lennon on 11/20.
Magnolia Home Entertainment has set 2 Days in New York for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/13. The film is written and directed by Julie Delpy and stars Delphy and Chris Rock. The company has also set The Queen of Versailles for release on both formats the same day.
Well Go USA Entertainment will release the martial arts/action flick Kill ‘Em All on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/11.
And Music Box Films has announced the Blu-ray re-release of a 2008 French film I’ve really come to love: Guillaume Canet’s Tell No One. It arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/4 (SRP $19.95 and $14.95). This is a great little crime thriller about a doctor (played by Francois Cluzet) who is wrongly accused of murdering his wife and moves heaven and earth to find out what really happened. I highly recommend it. Extras will include deleted scenes, outtakes and the Tell No One: The B-Side featurette. The disc was first released in 2009, but has been out of print recently.
Here’s a look at the Blu-ray cover artwork for Sony’s Premium Rush (due 12/21), as well as final art for both Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D versions of Universal’s ParaNorman (due 11/27)…
Stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt
Well folks… with all this talk of 4K and 8K high-definition televisions over the past year, this was probably inevitable. But the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has just officially “Ultra High-Definition” or “Ultra HD” as the new standard for display technology in the home. The term was approved yesterday by a vote of the organization’s Board of Industry Leaders.
The standard technically refers to displays with a minimum of 4K resolution (“at least” 3,840 x 2,160 pixel resolution) but may also be used to refer to 8K displays as well – the term “UHDTV” is used for both resolutions in Japan. One can also expect that displays with ever higher refresh rates and autostereoscopic capabilities at 4K and 8K resolution will also likely be covered by this term. You can read more on this here via CEA’s official press release.
So are you ready for Ultra HD? The potential is certainly exciting. However, I would expect the rollout and adoption of Ultra HD displays to be very, very slow. You have to remember that the first HDTV displays appeared in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until the last 5-10 years that displays with 1080 pixel resolution finally went mainstream with consumers. Many TV stations in the U.S. still don’t broadcast in high-definition resolution, because of the high cost of upgrading cameras and other studio production equipment. There’s also the question of whether Ultra HD content can and will be delivered to consumers via Blu-ray or some other hypothetical future physical media format… or whether studios and content producers will simply choose to bypass physical media entirely in favor of direct digital distribution via satellite or the Internet. In any case, it seems that just when you thought you’d finally caught up to the state of the art in home entertainment technology… the goal posts have moved once again.
The big announcement news today is that Universal has officially set The Bourne Legacy for Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 12/11 (SRP $34.98 and $29.98). Both will include feature commentary (with director/co-writer Tony Gilroy, co-writer Dan Gilroy, editor John Gilroy, director of photography Robert Elswit, second unit director Dan Bradley and production designer Kevin Thompson), deleted scenes and 2 featurettes (Re-Bourne and Capturing Chaos: The Motorbike Chase). To this, the Blu-ray will exclusively add 5 more featurettes (Enter Aaron Cross, Crossing Continents: Legacy on Location, Man vs. Wolf, Wolf Sequence Test and Moving Targets: Aaron and Marta) plus all the usual interactive features.
Warner Home Video will release The Apparition on Blu-ray Combo and DVD on 11/27 (SRP $29.98 and $22.97). Extras will include 4 featurettes (The Dark Realm of Paranormal, Haunted Asheville, The Experiment of The Apparition and The Apparition: A Cinematic Specter).
Well Go USA Entertainment has set the Korean anthology film Doomsday Book for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/11 (SRP $29.98 and $24.98). It offers viewers three short films with different takes on the apocalypse – New World, Heavenly Creature and Happy Birthday – directed by filmmakers Kim Ji-woon and Yim Pil-sung.
Lionsgate has set the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection for release as a 23-disc DVD box set on 11/13 (SRP $99.98). All 193 original episodes will be included along with all the bonus content that was found in the individual season DVD sets. The Collection will come packaged in a replica of the “Party Van”.
And Shout! Factory has set Ultra Seven: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition for release as a 6-disc DVD set on 12/11 (SRP $49.97).
Don’t forget that Dr. Jahnke’s posted his latest Hell Plaza Oktoberfest review for the day: Warner’s new Little Shop of Horrors Blu-ray Book!
And our own Mario Boucher has posted an interview with actress Dee Wallace about her work on Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, now available on Blu-ray Disc from Universal (read our review of the disc here).
Here’s a look at the Blu-ray box art for Lionsgate’s Killer Joe (due 12/21), Well Go’s Doomsday Book and Universal’s The Bourne Legacy, as well as Lionsgate’s open packaging for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection…
Stay tuned...
- Bill Hunt
All right, here at the site today’s the good Doctor’s latest Hell Plaza Oktoberfest review of the day is Paramount’s big screen version of Steven King’s Pet Sematary on Blu-ray. And fans of director Frank Oz will enjoy tomorrow’s review, having a little something to do with a very large and very carnivorous plant. Be sure to check back tomorrow for that.
More release news updates today...
As you can see, we've posted cover artwork for 20th Century Fox's Beasts of the Southern Wild, due on Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 12/4 (SRP $39.99 and $29.98). They also have Ice Age: Continental Drift due for Blu-ray 3D release on 12/11 (SRP $49.99), followed by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/18.
Shout! Factory has set Transformers Prime: Season Two for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/27, including all 26 episodes, interviews with the creative team and footage of the Comic-Con 2012 panel.
Shout! has also set What Happened to Kerouac? for release as a 2-disc DVD on 11/6, including The Beat Goes On documentary.
Magnolia Home Entertainment will release I Wish on DVD on 11/6, along with 360 on Blu-ray and DVD the same day.
Also, New Yorker Films has set The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye for DVD only release on 10/30.
First Run Features will release The Island President, The Raw and the Cooked: A Culinary Journey Through Taiwan and Culinary Masterpieces: Four Great Foodie Films (Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven, Kings of Pastry, Guy Martin: Portrait of a Grand Chef and A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt) on DVD on 11/13.
And Eagle Rock Entertainment has set Patti Smith: Live at Montreux 2005 for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/13.
In other news today, Disney’s Movie Club (for members) apparently now lists the Peter Pan: Diamond Edition as “Available to own on 2/5/2013”. Thanks to Bits reader Gavin C. for the heads-up!
Also, Milestone Film and Video is asking for your help in restoring a “great American independent documentary”, Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason. They’ve launched a Kickstarter to fund the restoration and a release of the film back into theatres and on Blu-ray and DVD. More here.
Stay tuned...
- Bill Hunt