Displaying items by tag: Jess Franco

We’ve got more new disc reviews from The Bits’ team for you this evening...

They start with Stephen’s look at Richard Lester’s Juggernaut (1974) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis has offered his thoughts on Tod Browning’s The Devil Doll (1936) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, along with Jagoda Szelc’s Tower. A Bright Day. and Monument (2018) on Blu-ray from Yellow Veil Pictures via Vinegar Syndrome.

And Stuart has checked in with a look at Dušan Vukotić’s Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy (1981) on Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile via Vinegar Syndrome, as well as Imprint’s excellent Directed by Sidney J. Furie Blu-ray box set, which includes The Lawyer, Little Fauss and Big Halsy (both 1970), Hit! (1973), Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975), and The Boys in Company C (1978).

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

Speaking of reviews... I had the chance this week to talk directly with Lightstorm about the remastering work done for James Cameron’s Titanic on 4K Ultra HD, a disc which should now be in all your of hands. If that’s the case, you’ll know for yourselves that the film looks and sounds fantastic. When I reviewed the title here at The Bits last week, I promised that I would soon be updating that review with details on exactly how the film was remastered for UHD release. And indeed, I’ll be doing exactly that here at the site tomorrow afternoon. But if you subscribe to The Digital Bits’ new Patreon, you can read those details right now. And hey—it’s a great way to help us in our work here at the website if you believe, as we do, in supporting cause of physical media. [Read on here...]

We have three more new disc reviews for you today…

First up, Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Lucio Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery (1981) on 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video in the UK.

Also, Tim has posted his thoughts on Jess Franco’s Lorna the Exorcist (1974) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classic via their new Kino Cult line.

And finally, Stuart has weighed in with a review of Jack Smight’s Number One with a Bullet (1987), starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, a Cannon title on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

There’s not a lot in the way of announcement news to report today, but we do have this: Paramount is releasing Lindsey Anderson Beer’s Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023) on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 12/19. Extras will include 5 featurettes (among them Origins, Fresh Blood, Death’s Design, Method to the Madness, and War Comes Home). You can see the 4K cover artwork at left.

CBS and Paramount are also preparing to release Star Trek: Lower Decks – Season Four on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/19. We don’t have the final cover artwork yet, but you can now pre-order the title on Amazon here. [Read on here...]

All right, as mentioned earlier, we’ve got more release news to cover today here at The Bits. But first some new disc reviews...

Stephen has checked out Paul Verhoeven’s cult classic Showgirls (1995) on 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome, which features the film in 4K UHD and Blu-ray, along with an additional Blu-ray full of special features. Stephen has also reviewed Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982) on Blu-ray from Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber.

Also today, Dennis has offered his thoughts on George Cukor’s Little Women (1955) and Abe Levitow’s animated Gay Purr-ee (1962), both new on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

And Stuart has taken a look at the Norwegian legal drama Aber Bergen: Complete Series from MHz Networks and Kino Lorber, as well as Inés Toharia Terán’s Film: The Living Record of Our Memory (2021) documentary from Kino Lorber, both of them on DVD, along with the Warner Archive Collection’s Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961) and Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964) double feature Blu-ray.

Now then, speaking of Warner, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment and DC Studios have announced the Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release of the Netflix original series The Sandman: The Complete First Season on 11/18, with a Digital release expected on 9/18. Note that a second season of the series is already on the way from Netflix. The set will include all 11 episodes, along with a pair of featurettes (The Sandman: Behind the Scenes Sneak Peek and The World of The Endless). You can see the cover artwork at left and also below. [Read on here...]

We have just a quick update for you today here at The Bits with some interesting release news, plus a few odds and ends related to titles we’ve learned from our industry sources are likely forthcoming in the months ahead.

First of all, the big news: Paramount has officially set Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (1998) for 4K Ultra HD release on 7/4 in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary. The disc is mastered from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative approved by the director and it will feature Dolby Vision HDR, as well as a new Dolby Atmos sound mix.

Extras will include the previous legacy features, among them the 2-part How’s It Going to End? The Making of The Truman Show documentary, the Faux Finishing: The Visual Effects of The Truman Show featurette, deleted scenes, a photo gallery, theatrical trailers, and TV spots. You can see the cover artwork at left and also below. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a few good bits of news and such to wrap up the week...

First up though, we’ve just updated our Release Dates & Artwork section with tons of new Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, whenever you pre-order literally anything from our links here at The Bits, you’re helping to support our work and we surely do appreciate it.

Now then, we have word that Mamoru Oshii’s much-loved 1995 anime Ghost in the Shell will indeed street on 4K Ultra HD from Lionsgate on 9/8 (though do keep in mind that this date—while leaked by multiple retail sources now—is not yet officially announced by the studio). What’s more, it’s now available for pre-order on Amazon (here and also by clicking on the art below the break).

Also up for pre-order in 4K from Lionsgate is Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. No street date is yet listed, but sources tell us it’s likely to arrive on 10/13. Again, you can see the cover artwork below. [Read on here...]

When it comes to the depths of obscurity, few companies manage to put out consistently under the radar material like Severin Films, as well as Intervision Pictures. While the former deals primarily in everything from cult horror oddities to lost exploitation classics, the latter tackles many shot-on-video features from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although both companies also occasionally do contemporary titles, little known and underappreciated cinema is their bread and butter. Some of each company’s most notable releases include Bloody Moon, Hardware, BMX Bandits, Santa Sangre, The Other Hell, Cathy’s Curse, Things, Murderlust, Phobe, and Sledgehammer, just to name a few.

Today, I’m going to cover some of their more recent releases, but I’ll start off with one we haven’t managed to include on The Bits before. [Read on here...]

All right, the big news today is that Network Distributing Ltd. in the U.K. has announced the Region B release of Gerry Anderson’s UFO: The Complete Series on Blu-ray on 11/14 (SRP £69.99). The series is restored in high-definition and includes all 26 episodes with audio in the original mono as well as new 5.1 mixes, and a ton of new and legacy special features. Among them is a brand new feature-length documentary called From Earth to the Moon, featuring interviews, archive video, audio, and stills (some never-before-seen). There’s also the new The Women of UFO documentary, a newly-produced SHADO “briefing film” called Identified: SHADO New Recruits Briefing, textless episode title backgrounds, textless end titles, stock footage, TV spots, extra footage for Identified and Exposed, unused footage from Timelash and The Long Sleep, Italian trailers, audio commentaries on Identified (with Gerry Anderson) and Sub-Smash (with Ed Bishop), S.I.D. Computer Voice Session and audio outtakes for these sessions and Kill Straker!, an archive Ed Bishop audio interview from 1996, the Tomorrow Today: Future Fashions with Sylvia Anderson featurette, extensive image galleries (with previously unseen images), and an exclusive 600-page book on the making of the series by archive television historian Andrew Pixley.  [Read on here…]

All right… yesterday’s My Two Cents was a quickie so we’re making it up to you today with a nice long post and lots of news, given that this is (almost) our last post before Memorial Day weekend.  More in a minute.

First up this morning, some disc reviews…

The good Dr. Jahnke has turned in new musings on Twilight Time’s Philadelphia and Scream Factory’s The Town that Dreaded Sundown, both on Blu-ray Disc.  Philadelphia is a limited release of just 3,000 copies, available as always here through Screen Archives Entertainment (SRP $29.95).

Also today, we’ve upgraded more of Tim’s Blu-ray reviews from the old Bits website including Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, the Dumbo: 70th Anniversary Edition, Super, The Host: Collector’s Edition, Brooklyn’s Finest and the American Graffiti: Special Edition.  Enjoy!

Next up… some release news…