Displaying items by tag: The Digital Bits

We’re closing out the week with a bit more announcement news, and some more great Amazon Deals. Let’s get those out of the way first, because they’re pretty damn good and you have to act fast on one of them.

The first is a BD Deal of the Day for 20th Century Fox’s The X-Files: Complete Series Collector’s Set + The Event Series for just $119. That’s 60% off the regular SRP and yes, it does include The X-Files: Season Ten (aka “The Event Series”). You can see my review here. That one is for today only, so act fast.

Also, if you’re interested in moving up to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Amazon currently has Samsung’s UBD-K8500 3D/4K UHD Blu-ray Player for just $197 – down the already low $399! As you may know, I’ve reviewed this player in some depth recently here on The Bits (see this link). It was already a good deal at $399 and now at half that price it’s a steal. I’m still using this as my go-to 4K player here. There will be better 4K players available over the next year, but you’re going to pay a lot more than $197 for them. So I definitely recommend the UBD-K8500 at that price. [Read on here…]

We’ve got a great feature column for you today, along with some announcement news, and a couple more great Amazon Blu-ray deals to mention. Let’s start with that feature...

Our own Michael Coate has just posted a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column, offering a great look back at the James Bond film Casino Royale on its 10th anniversary. The column features another excellent roundtable discussion with film historians John Cork, Bill Desowitz, Lisa Funnell, Lee Pfeiffer, and Bruce Scivally. Don’t miss it!  [Read on here…]

“Casino Royale saved Bond.” — 007 historian and documentarian John Cork

The Digital Bits is pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 10th anniversary of the release of Casino Royale, the 21st (official) cinematic James Bond adventure and, most notably, the first to star Daniel Craig as Agent 007.

As with our previous 007 articles (see For Your Eyes Only, Thunderball, GoldenEye, A View to a Kill, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Goldfinger, and 007… Fifty Years Strong), The Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship continue the series with this retrospective featuring a Q&A with an esteemed group of James Bond scholars, documentarians and historians who discuss the virtues and shortcomings of Casino Royale. [Read on here...]

All right, we have two more Blu-ray Disc reviews for you this afternoon. Tim has checked out Theatre of Blood (1973) with Vincent Price, new on Blu-ray from Twilight Time. And Jim has looked at another new Twilight release in the form of Richard Marquand’s WWII spy thriller Eye of the Needle (1981). Both are pretty great releases and well worth a look if you’re interested.

In announcement news today, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has set The Girl on the Train for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on 1/17, with a Digital HD release due on 1/3. Bonus features will include audio commentary with director Tate Taylor, deleted and extended scenes, and 2 documentary featurettes (The Women Behind the Girl and On Board the Train).  [Read on here…]

The big news today is that Criterion has just announced their February slate of Blu-ray and DVD releases. It begins with Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson (Cat #853 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/7. Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Cat #854 – Blu-ray and DVD) follows on 2/14. Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (licensed from Sony – Cat #855 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Michael Curtiz’s noir masterpiece Mildred Pierce (licensed from Warner – Cat #860 – Blu-ray and DVD) arrive on 2/21. And I’m very pleased to say that the slate ends with Richard Linklater’s The Before Trilogy (also licensed from Warner and Sony – includes Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight – Cat #856 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/28. Each will have a significant assortment of bonus features, that you can read more about here. Our Criterion Spines Project page has been updated accordingly, and we’ve got a look at the cover artwork that’s available so far below.  [Read on here…]

We’re kicking the new week off today with Tim’s review of Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller on Blu-ray, now available from our friends at The Criterion Collection. And it appears they’ve done a terrific job, as you’d expect. Do give it a look.

It’s a slow news day today, but Sony has started taking pre-orders (via Amazon) for the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Inferno. Street date is TBA.  [Read on here…]

First up today, we’d like to send our warmest wishes to all you veterans out there on this Veterans Day 2016, whether you’re on duty now or have been in the past. From all of us here at The Bits, to you and your families, thank you for your service. Know that it’s appreciated.

All right, we’re closing out the week here at The Bits with my review of Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, which is about to be released on Blu-ray Disc by Criterion. Look for it in stores next Tuesday. Let me tell you... it’s well worth your time and money. The film has quite simply never looked this good before and the Criterion team has once again assembled a wonderful batch of special features for Kurosawa fans. Don’t miss it.  [Read on here…]

Well, folks... there’s not much in the way of news to report this afternoon, apart from the obvious o’course. But we do have a few odds and ends for you today. And we’re working on a bunch of new Blu-ray and 4K reviews, two of which I’ve got for you now.

I’ve posted reviews of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games and Warner’s Pacific Rim, each in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. Both look great. Pacific Rim is a real HDR stunner, though The Hunger Games is the better value in terms of content and extras. But both are well worth a look if you’re a fan of the format.  [Read on here…]

All right, first up today... we have a new feature here at The Digital Bits. Tim has just added a new wrinkle to his already good column, called Scream for a Week. Therein, about every other week, he’ll be reviewing a few new Scream Factory titles and calling attention to some we’ve reviewed in the past that you may have missed. To kick the feature off this week, he’s posted new reviews of Scream’s Blacula/Scream Blacula Scream and Bubba Ho-Tep: Collector’s Edition. Do give them a look!

Also today, our own Jim Hemphill has turned in his thoughts on Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha from Twilight Time – also well worth a look.  [Read on here…]

Welcome to our newest column addition Scream for a Week!

We here at The Digital Bits are big fans of Shout!’s Scream Factory division and, not unlike Todd Doogan’s Criterion Spines Project, we wanted to cover Scream Factory’s releases by catching up on a bunch that we’ve missed while acknowledging the previous ones. We’ll also be covering new ones here as well. This column will go up on a bi-weekly basis, so be sure to check back in another two weeks for another pile of Scream Factory goodness.

First up is Escape from New York, a title that Bill covered sometime ago. It’s a solid release with a great transfer and extras, and just happens to be one of my favorite movies. New to Blu-ray this week is Bubba Ho-Tep, another personal favorite of mine, with a barrage of terrific extras to check out. Following that up is the great Amityville Horror Trilogy boxed set, which is another older review, but this time from good old Dr. Jahnke. Also new to the chopping block is the Blacula/Scream Blacula Scream double feature Blu-ray release. And last but not least, Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing, one of Scream Factory’s very first releases. [Read on here…]