Afternoon, folks. We’re starting off the new week with a pair of new Blu-ray reviews for you to enjoy. Tim Salmons has turned in his look at Scream Factory’s The Legend of Hell House and longtime Bits veteran Todd Doogan has returned with a look at Kino Lorber’s terrific new One Million Years B.C. Blu-ray. Both are well worth your time, so be sure to check them out.

In release news today, first up a biggie: 20th Century Fox’s Logan is now available for Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD pre-order on Amazon (via the links in this sentence and also the temp cover artwork below). We hear it’s pretty damn good, so go check it out in theaters and use our links to pre-order (we appreciate it!) if you enjoy the film. [Read on here…]

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We’ve got a couple things for you today...

First up, our own Michael Coate has just posted a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column featuring a look back at Disney’s animated classic Fantasia on the occasion of the film’s 75th anniversary. It includes a new interview with film historian Jeff Kurtti. Do give it a look.

Also today, we have a pair of new Blu-ray reviews: my thoughts on Lionsgate’s new Mr. Holmes, directed by Bill Condon and starring Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes. And we have Doogan’s thoughts on Akira Kurosawa’s terrific Ikiru, in honor of Criterion’s new Blu-ray release which streets on 11/24. Both films are terrific and the discs are well worth your attention. Enjoy the reviews.  [Read on here…]

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We have just a quick update for you this afternoon, as we’re doing a little server work here today.

We’re pleased to present a pair of new Blu-ray reviews for you all to enjoy. First, our own Joe Marchese has turned in a look at Kino Lorber’s recent BD edition of Hal Walker’s At War with the Army (1950), starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Also today, Doogan has taken a nice deep dive into P.T. Anderson’s fascinating Inherent Vice – now on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video – and found it worthy of your time. Enjoy the reviews!  [Read on here…]

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Well... we’re kicking off a new week here today and this is a big one: The first full trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII is going to be unveiled at Star Wars Celebration on Thursday, ahead of its public debut attached to Avengers: Age of Ultron later this month. We don’t know if the trailer will be released online before then, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Here at The Bits today, we’ve got a new Blu-ray review for you. Todd Doogan has given Grindhouse Releasing’s new 3-disc Blu-ray edition of Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981) a look for you. Sounds like the set is absolutely loaded with great content. Also, our own Joe Marchese turned in a look at Twilight Time’s new BD of Stormy Weather (1943) on Friday, in case you missed it. We’re working on more BD reviews over the next few days, so be sure to check back.  [Read on here…]

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We’ve got a pair of new Blu-ray reviews for you to enjoy today. First up, Todd Doogan has given Grindhouse Releasing’s new 3-disc Blu-ray edition of Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981) an epic look. Also our own Joe Marchese has taken turned in his thoughts on Andrew Stone’s 1943 musical Stormy Weather, which was one of the early Hollywood films to feature an all-black cast. Both BD sets (and the films they contain) are well worth a look, so enjoy the reviews!

- Bill Hunt

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All right, sorry for the lack of a news post yesterday, but I’ve been wrapped up in Blu-ray review work. Some big titles are coming out over the next few weeks and a number of them are well worth diving into.

Speaking of which, though it took all day yesterday to go through everything, I’ve posted my in-depth review of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar on Blu-ray from Paramount. The disc streets on 3/31. For those of you who experienced problems (in theaters) with the sound mix making lots of the dialogue unintelligible amid the sound effects and music, I can report that’s much less of a problem here. The mix is still pushed toward the low end, and there are still one or two lines where you have to listen more closely than normal, but this does seem to be a deliberate artistic choice. Still, I can attest that this is a much better audio experience than the one I had at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. And the extras are pretty terrific. Do check it out.  [Read on here…]

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We have a pair of new Blu-ray Disc reviews for you today. Doogan has checked out a bit of an Japanese live-action oddball from Drafthouse Films called R100 (2013). And Tim has given Scream Factory’s Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture (1989) a look too. Both reviews are well worth your time.

Speaking of reviews, Warner’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Paramount’s Interstellar are both now in hand, so watch for my own reviews of them in the next few days.  [Read on here…]

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Here at the site today, our own Michael Coate has posted another great History, Legacy & Showmanship column featuring a look back at Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music, celebrating the 50th anniversay of the film. The piece includes details of its original roadshow release and a new interview with film historians too. Don’t miss it.

All right, we’ve got a bunch of announcement news for you today, so let’s get right to it…

First up, the BIG catalog news is that HBO is releasing The Wire: The Complete Series on Blu-ray Disc on 6/2 (SRP $199.99). Extras on the 20-disc set will include 12 audio commentaries, 3 prequel videos, a gag reel, Q&A with series creator David Simon and the creative team, and multiple behind-the-scenes documentaries and featurettes. As many of you know, the show has been reformatted from 4x3 to 16x9 for its HD release, but this has been done in consultation with Simon himself, who views it as a “valid alternate version of the series” (you can read his in-depth thoughts about this here on his blog).  [Read on here…]

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All right, as I work to catch up on release news here at the site, we’ve got no less than four Blu-ray Disc reviews for you today.

First up, Tim has taken a look at Disney’s new 101 Dalmatians: Diamond Edition and Scream’s New Year’s Evil on Blu-ray. Both titles are now available.

Also, Doogan has also weighed in this afternoon with his thoughts on Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, which streets on Blu-ray tomorrow in a departure from the usual Tuesday release date. Unfortunately, as Amazon is currently engaged in another of its irritating pissing matches with a Hollywood studio, in this case Lionsgate, the title is not available for pre-order on Amazon. (More on that in a minute.) But you should be able to find it at your local Best Buy, Target or Walmart tomorrow morning.  [Read on here…]

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We’re back… rested, recouped, and ready to get back to business! For the record, my wife and I had a great time celebrating our anniversary early. So thanks for your patience.

It’s going to take a few days to get caught up on all the release news and whatnot, so I’ll get started with that in a moment.

First though, Tim Salmons has checked in with his thoughts on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) on Blu-ray. As you know, the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture while we were away. Just as a heads-up, we’ve got many more new BD reviews coming over the next several days, so be sure stay tuned for them.  [Read on here…]