Displaying items by tag: Bluray

Just a quick update for you today, as we’re working on new Blu-ray and 4K UHD reviews for you...

First up, Scream Factory has just announced the list of extras you’ll find on their 2-disc The Exorcist III: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray, which streets on 10/25. Disc One will include The Exorcist III: Theatrical Cut via new 2K IP scan, with a vintage featurette, vintage interviews, a delete scene, alternate takes, bloopers, a deleted prologue, theatrical trailers, TV spots, and photo galleries. Disc Two will include Legion (the Original Director’s Cut) with all-new extras including an audio interview with writer/director William Peter Blatty and 5 featurettes (A “Wonderfull” Time, Signs of the Gemini, The Devil in the Details, Music for a Padded Cell, and All This Bleeding). You can see the cover artwork at right and below.  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

The big news today is that Sony is bringing Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver back to theaters (on 10/16 and 10/19) for its 40th Anniversary, and will re-issue the film on Blu-ray in a new Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Edition that’s mastered from the film’s 4K restoration (which was supervised by Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman). The 2-disc set, which streets on 11/8, will include much legacy bonus material along with a new 40-minute Q&A with Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster and more, recorded live at the Beacon Theatre in New York City at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

The specific list of extras includes: Disc One – Taxi Driver Q&AInteractive Script to Screen, original 1986 commentary with Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader (recorded by The Criterion Collection), additional commentaries by Schrader and by Professor Robert Kolker, 6 featurettes (Martin Scorsese on Taxi DriverProducing Taxi DriverGod’s Lonely ManTaxi Driver StoriesTravis’ New York, and Travis’ New York Locations), and the film’s theatrical trailer; Disc Two – The Making of Taxi Driver documentary, Storyboard to Film Comparisons (with Scorsese introduction), and Animated Photo Galleries. You can see the cover artwork above left and below.  [Read on here…] 

Published in My Two Cents
Published in My Two Cents

All right, as many of you know, Thursday marks the official 50th Anniversary of the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: The Original Series debuted on NBC TV way back on September 8, 1966.

As is probably true for many of you, Star Trek’s played an enormous role in my life. It was my first favorite TV show as a very young child, certainly my first exposure to science fiction of any kind, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that my moral compass – the very principles I believe in (a more optimistic future, the idea that we’re stronger working together, that exploration is one of the most noble things Humanity can do, that it’s our differences that make us greater, etc) – all come from classic Star Trek. The series certainly fostered my curious nature and lifelong interests in science, astronomy, writing, and spaceflight technology. Over the past decade, my love of the franchise led to the discovery of Patrick O’Brian’s “Aubrey-Maturin” series of historical novels, which begin with Master and Commander (upon which the 2003 Russell Crowe film was based) – they’re essentially Star Trek stories set in the 19th Century.  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

We’re closing out the week here at The Bits with another quick column, but we have some great stuff for you to check out...

First, I’ve turned in an in-depth review of Warner’s The Iron Giant: Signature Edition on Blu-ray. Trust me, the disc is not to be missed. It includes both the theatrical and Signature versions of the film, plus new extras, and nearly all of the legacy DVD special features too. The disc streets next Tuesday (9/6). Check out my review here.

Also today, our old friend Jack Jameson weighs in this afternoon on Arrow Video’s new Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection Blu-ray box set, which includes the films Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable, and Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song, plus extras. The series stars Meiko Kaji of Lady Snowblood fame, who was the inspiration for Uma Thurman’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films.  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents
Friday, 02 September 2016 12:00

Pick-Ups for the Week of August 29, 2016

Welcome to a new edition of Pick-Ups!

Back this week with more reviews. Not a lot happening movie-wise, although I am pleased that the new horror movie Don’t Breathe is doing well at the box office. Perhaps I’ll be able to catch it at some point. We’re also starting to break out the Halloween decorations, and if anybody knows us, we go all out. Hopefully I can share a couple of pictures with you when we get it all up. If nothing else, they’ll definitely pop up on social media at some point.

Anyways, let’s move on to some reviews. [Read on here…]

Published in Dailies

All right, today’s post is going to be a quick one, as I’m celebrating my 26th wedding anniversary with my lovely wife, Sarah. But we do have a couple bits of very good news for you…

The first big announcement today is that CBS, Paramount, and the estate of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry are officially releasing a 3-disc Blu-ray collection on 12/13 called Star Trek: The Original Series – The Roddenberry Vault. Produced by our old friend Roger Lay, Jr., who created many of the amazing features for the recent Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-rays, this set will contain 12 classic Original Series episodes (specifically The Corbomite Maneuver, Arena, Space Seed, This Side of Paradise, The Devil in the Dark, The City on the Edge of Forever, Operation – Annihilate!, Metamorphosis, Who Mourns for Adonais?, Mirror, Mirror, The Trouble with Tribbles, and Return to Tomorrow) along with 3 new documentaries, including Inside the Roddenberry Vault (featuring Rod Roddenberry looking at long-lost film reels), Star Trek: Revisiting a Classic (a retrospective look at back at the making of the series), and Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic (a look at the series’ visual effects and futuristic technology).  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents
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