Displaying items by tag: Barry Lyndon

We’ve been waiting for this for a while now, but as you may know Criterion last week finally teased their Stanley Kubrick 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray box set with a trailer last Wednesday—we shared it here on the site.

Well today, they officially unveiled The Complete Kubrick, a 30-disc collection that includes all thirteen of Stanley Kubrick’s feature films from Fear and Desire (1952) to Eyes Wide Shut (1999), and his three short films as well—Day of the Fight, Flying Padre, and The Seafarers—in both 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray!

The set will include over 25 hours of both newly produced and legacy special features, among them new commentaries with director Lee Unkrich (on The Shining) and author Michael Benson (on 2001: A Space Odyssey). Criterion has also secured “rare films from Graphic Films and computer-animation pioneer John Whitney that inspired the special effects in 2001,” not to mention unseen Lolita screen test footage, and more!

The street date is October 20th, and the SRP is a whopping $599.95. But Criterion is selling it for $479 on their website (click here), and of course there are the usual 30% off and 50% off sales that they do fairly regularly.

At the moment, it doesn’t yet look like Criterion is going to be selling Kubrick’s Lolita (1962)—which is the only one of his films not yet released in 4K—separately, as they did last year with Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch when The Wes Anderson Archive came out. But that’s something that could still happen eventually.

You can see the cover artwork for the set at left, and also below the break. [Read on here...]

Oh man… this is something we’ve known was in the works for a long time now, but we’ve kept quiet in public for not wanting to spoil it for you guys.

But subscribers to our Digital Bits Patreon page know—because we first told them about it months ago—this year’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray box set from The Criterion Collection is all about Stanley Kubrick!

Well, Criterion has finally just teased the release on their social media with the YouTube video below.

This set is expected to include EVERY film. Tons of legacy extras.

And LOTS of new special features too!

Watch for the official details to be officially announced soon by Criterion.

We can’t wait!

- Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter/X, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)

We have two more new disc reviews to share with you today here on The Bits, with more on the way...

Tim has reviewed Walter Colmes’ Woman Who Came Back (1945) on Blu-ray from Imprint Films.

And Stephen has offered his thoughts on Tai Katô’s Eighteen Years in Prison (1967) on Blu-ray from Toei via Radiance Films.

Now then, the big news today is that Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has apparently conducted another of its “A-List” Community surveys asking which of its many catalog titles fans would like to see the studio release in 4K Ultra HD. And of course, as happens every time, the details of that list got leaked immediately online and so it becomes something we have an obligation to report on here at The Bits. In any case, dozens of people have shared the information either privately or widely online. Because of course they’re going to—they’re enthusiasts.

Having said that, it’s probably unreasonable to assume that the studio will get around to every one of these titles any time soon, but if more of them start being released in 4K UHD, that would certainly represent a big improvement in the studio’s 4K catalog release strategy to date. So which titles were on this list? [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve a LOT of ground to cover today: Tons of news and announcements, plus some good stuff here at The Bits for you too. Let’s start with the latter...

Tim has turned in new reviews of Meteor (1979) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber and also Dave Parker’s It Watches on DVD from Uncork’d Entertainment. Both are worth your time. And if you like It Watches, be sure to check out Dave’s Sweet Tooth from Tales of Halloween, as well The Hills Run Red and The Dead Reborn too.

Also today, in honor of the late George Romero, I wanted to share a special feature we did here at The Bits way back in 2001: Telling Tales with John and George. I had the honor of spending an afternoon with George and filmmaker John Harrison (Frank Herbert’s Dune) while they recorded the audio commentary for Paramount’s Tales from the Darkside: The Movie DVD. It really gives you a good sense, I think, of who George was as a person: Truly one of the kindest, warmest, and most engaging people I’ve had the pleasure to meet in my 30+ years in this industry. I hope you’ll enjoy it. [Read on here…]

We’ve got a great new View from the Cheap Seats column today from our own Bud Elder, in which he remembers the late Mickey Rooney. Bud also highlights some great recent releases on Blu-ray and DVD. Don’t miss it.

Also today, the good Dr. Jahnke has turned in a new An Honor to Be Nominated installment of his Jahnke’s Electric Theatre column in which he looks back at Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Be sure to read his thoughts and then check out our review of the film on Blu-ray too. [Read on here...]

If it can be difficult to remember who won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s downright mindbending trying to remember everything else it was up against. In An Honor To Be Nominated, I’ll be taking a look back at some of the movies the Oscar didn’t go to and trying to determine if they were robbed, if the Academy got it right, or if they should ever have been nominated in the first place. [Read on here...]