Displaying items by tag: Flicker Alley
It’s a Bits Review Day: Police Squad!, To Catch a Thief, Rise of Skywalker 3D, 3D Rarities II & D-Day 4K
Today, we’ve got just a very quick My Two Cents update for you, however not with release news.
But as promised, we’ve got a bunch of new disc reviews...
First, our own Tim Salmons has checked out Via Vision Entertainment’s new region-free Blu-ray import version of Police Squad! The Complete Series. (Note that the CBS/Paramount Blu-ray version has also been reviewed here.)
Speaking of Paramount, Dennis has turned in his thoughts on their new Alfred Hitchcock/Paramount Presents title, To Catch a Thief (1955). [Read on here...]
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- Police Squad! The Complete Series BD review
- To Catch Thief: Paramount Presents BD review
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker BD3D review
- 3D Rarities: Volume II BD3D review
- DDay: Normandy 1944 4K UHD review
- Tim Salmons
- Flicker Alley
- Dennis Seuling
- Paramount Home Entertainment
- 3D Film Archive
- Disney
- Lucasfilm
- Bob Furmanek
- Shout! Factory
- Via Vision Entertainment
Major new Shout!, Scream, and Arrow Video announcements, plus Disney/Pixar’s final batch of 4K animated titles on 3/3
All right, we’ve got major new announcements from Shout! Factory and Scream for you today...
For March, the companies have added Jack Smight’s British production of Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) to their 3/24 slate. Shout! is also releasing The Transformers: The Complete Original Series DVD box set on 3/31.
In April, in addition to the Escape from L.A.: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray on 4/28, Shout! and Scream will release Swift and Knives and Skin (for IFC) on 4/7, Homeboy and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter on 4/14, The Spider (1958) and The Curse of the Werewolf: Collector’s Edition (1961) on 4/21, and Underdog: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition (DVD), Shatter (1974), and The Lost Continent (1968) on 4/28. [Read on here...]
- The 4K Ultra HD Release List
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- 4K Ultra HD
- Shout! Factory
- Scream Factory
- Arrow Video
- Disney and Pixar 4K
- Up 4K
- WALLE 4K
- A Bug's Life 4K
- Monsters Inc 4K
- Monsters University 4K
- Flicker Alley
- 3D Film Archive
- 3D Rarities: Volume II
- Frankenstein: The True Story
- Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
- The Curse of the Werewolf: Collector’s Edition
- The Lost Continent
- Underdog: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition
- Idle Hands: Collector’s Edition
- The Good Place: The Complete Series
- Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
- Hammer Films
- The Evil of Frankenstein: Collector’s Edition
- Danger: Diabolik
- Sixteen Candles
- The Current War BD
- Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
- Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukomoto
Darkest Hour announced for 2/27, plus This Is Cinerama: Deluxe Edition, LEGO: The Flash & more
Before we get started today, we’ve posted the latest update of the Release Dates & Artwork section featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, we appreciate it very much when you use our links to order items from Amazon, so thank you for doing so!
Now then, we’ve got more release news for you today…
Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just announced Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour for Blu-ray and DVD release on 2/27, with the Digital release set for 2/6. There is no 4K Ultra HD release currently planned. Extras will include audio commentary by Wright and two featurettes (Into Darkest Hour and Gary Oldman: Becoming Churchill). As some of you know, this film was just nominated for Best Picture in the forthcoming Academy Awards and Oldman was nominated for Best Actor. You can see the cover artwork at left and below. [Read on here…]
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi 4K
- Darkest Hour BD
- Flicker Alley
- This Is Cinerama: Deluxe Edition
- LEGO DC Superheroes: The Flash
- Release Dates & Artwork update
- Lionsgate
- Acts of Violence
- The Vanishing of Sidney Hall
- Small Town Crime
- Hangman
- Highway Dragnet
- The Star Wars Show
- Blade Runner 2049 3D
Here’s What’s Wrong with Movies...
I’ve figured out what’s wrong with movies.
This thesis prevailed on me as I went to see the 3-D Imax version of a new picture called The Great Wall. This picture opened to dismal reviews, but the previews had made it look righteous and the effects, I knew, would be fun, and they were and the whole experience wasn’t bad.
And on the way out, I was thinking of all these feckless movie reviewers who get published and why they would trash this movie. I thought to myself: “Why were they so hard on this movie? It’s just a fun “B” picture?”
And then I figured it out. They all are. 90% of what we see in the theaters are “B” pictures with “A” budgets.
Let’s discuss... [Read on here...]
Rogue One official, plus Passengers, Hell in the Pacific, Lion date change, Twilight’s March slate & MUCH more
Afternoon, folks! We’ve got some great stuff for you here at The Bits today…
First up, Tim has turned in a review of Shout! Factory’s Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume IV, which includes the episodes Space Mutiny, Overdrawn at the Memory Back, Girl in Gold Boots, and Hamlet. The disc is now available, so do give it a look.
Meanwhile, we have a new MOS DEF column from Mark A. Altman as well today, in which he takes a look back at his favorite Blu-ray releases of 2016. We’ll have more from Mark later this week too. Enjoy!
In announcement news today, the BIG news is that Disney and Lucasfilm have just officially set Rogue One: A Star Wars Story for Blu-ray Combo, DVD, and On Demand release on 4/4, with a Digital HD release set for 3/24. There’s no word yet of a 4K version, but it appears that Target and Best Buy will have retail-exclusive Blu-ray 3D versions on 4/4 (per Star Wars.com). The Target package appears to match the Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D Collector’s Edition. The Best Buy package comes in a Steelbook. Walmart will also have exclusive packaging. Extras on the Blu-rays will include 11 behind-the-scenes featurettes (A Rogue Idea, Jyn: The Rebel, Cassian: The Spy, K-2SO: The Droid, Baze & Chirrut: Guardians of the Whills, Bodhi & Saw: The Pilot & The Revolutionary, The Empire, Visions of Hope: The Look of Rogue One, The Princess & The Governor, Epilogue: The Story Continues, and Rogue Connections). Note that the lack of deleted scenes – and we know there are many – or audio commentary suggests that a more elaborate Collector’s Edition BD release is coming later this year. You can see the cover artwork at the left and below. [Read on here…]
- Tim Salmons
- Release Dates & Artwork
- Silence
- Bluray Disc
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Bluray
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- MOS DEF
- Mark A Altman
- The Best BDs of 2016
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume IV review
- Passengers official
- Lion street date change
- Hell in the Pacific
- Twilight Time March slate
- Patriot's Day
- Hidden Figures
- Baby Boom
- How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
- Peyton Place
- Our Man in Havana
- Flicker Alley
- Blackhawk Films
- Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology
- Speed Racer: The Complete Series official
- FUNimation
- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
Movie Begats and More
I’ve about decided that a full book could be written regarding just about every produced movie – Lord knows there’s always enough behind the scenes drama to fill a daytime soap. But I love it. Who was supposed to be in what? Who wrote the script? That stuff. The success of X movie produced Y.
OLIVE FILMS
And here’s a story about a Robert Redford motorcycle picture called Little Fauss and Big Halsey, recently released for the first time on home video by Olive Films.
Al Ruddy came to Hollywood in the early 60s and as a young pup sold what has become a classic sitcom called Hogan’s Heroes. Ruddy and Charles Eastman wrote the script for Little Fauss and sold it to Paramount with a then hot director named Sidney Furie (who was bankable because of The Ipcress File and The Naked Runner). Redford was brought on board in the process as was my friend and lifelong Ruddy partner Gray Frederickson. [Read on here...]
Savoring Great Film Scores, Catching Up on Classic Blu-rays & George Hamilton
I think it’s time we caught up. Walking outside during this Oklahoma summer is like tasting something after it’s been in the microwave about eight minutes. The heat and stupidity started even before Memorial Day and has not abated. It’s like we’re living on Mars – I’ve been pricing those spacesuits which protected Matt Damon.
But thank goodness for the movies. Especially the kind one watches in the comfort of one’s own home. Let’s discuss.
Here’s a serious complaint – as I learned over the years, watching a great film is a multi-sensory experience – you see, you listen, you emote. And for me, always a major component of that experience is the music score. For those who pay attention, music is usually the heart of the movie – name a classic up through about 1990 or so for which you can’t hum a main theme. Or name a dud or two with a score that is better than the picture. [Read on here...]
On the Pleasures of Film Noir & Bud and the “Bs”
I’m trying to remember when I put it all together, when it dawned on me that there were these wonderful movies, shown, at the time, when there were only three local stations and local guys programmed the movies, after the last late show. They were cheap, even I could see that, but there was just something about these black and whites that kept me fascinated and many a long night I would suffer through local commercials just to see either justice done or perverted.
And the titles – Private Hell 36, Shack Out on 101, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands and Five Against the House. And the actors, has-beens and wanna-bes, but they were just terrific. Tom Neal and Ann Savage and Dennis O’Keefe and Preston Foster and Lawrence Tierney. And this was the “B” list. [Read on here...]
Blu-ray & DVD News – New Flicker Alley film noir, Ip Man 3, Carpenter’s Lost Themes II, Muppet Show SEs & more
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to follow us on Twitter @thedigitalbits @BillHuntBits and on Facebook here and here.]
First up today, Tim Salmons has posted a new Pick-Ups edition of his Dailies column which will offer up a few more reviews of recent Blu-ray titles. The first of those for this week is Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, now available on Blu-ray from Sony. Do give it a look. It’s a much better film than we were expecting. [Read on here…]
- Bluray Disc
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- BD
- Bluray
- Woman on the Run
- lost film noir
- Flicker Alley
- Ip Man 3
- Too Late for Tears
- I Saw What You Did
- You'll Like My Mother
- Justice League vs Teen Titans
- The Club
- And Then There Were None
- Eleni
- The Midnight Man
- John Carpenter's Lost Themes II
- The Muppet Show: Special Editions
- Vincent Price Collection III
- I Confess
- The Wrong Man
- Hitchcock
- Little House on the Prairie: Season 8
On Robert Altman (and a New Biography on his Life and Work)
(Photo by Robin Holland Photography)
Robert Altman said his last “that’s a wrap,” can you believe it, some eight or nine years ago and it seems as though any hope of mainstream studio films with emotional weight, sharp characters, social satire and natural, cliché free dialogue was buried right next to him.
Every Hollywood director since the beginning of the medium owes a debt to Robert Altman. His style was so distinctive, so fresh and so natural that people would say to themselves, “Oh that’s what directors do.” [Read on here...]
- 1
- 2