Displaying items by tag: Universal Studios
Love Actually & Mimic are coming to 4K Ultra HD, plus The Beatles’ Now and Then (via AI) & Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Good afternoon (or evening as the case may be), Bits readers! My wife and I had a houseguest here visiting yesterday, so today’s post is a little later than usual. But we’re starting as always with some new disc reviews...
First of all, on Monday I posted my thoughts on Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) on 4K Ultra HD from Paramount, and just today I added a couple of additional Editor’s Notes discussing one of the film’s key story points as well as the 4K video quality (which I’ve revised downward just a tad from A to A-, the reason for which is explained in my review).
Also, Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Hideaki Anno’s (et al) Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) in 4K from GKids and Shout! Factory, and for those of you who aren’t familiar, he also gives you a good little primer on the topic.
Meanwhile, Stuart has weighed in with looks at William Dieterle’s The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and Richard Brooks’ The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, as well as Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s The Worst Ones (2022) on DVD from Kino Lorber.
Dennis has offered his take on Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls (2000) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive as well as Mark Pellington’s The Severing (2022) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
And finally, Tim has delivered an in-depth review of Kevin Connor’s Motel Hell (1980) in 4K Ultra HD from Scream Factory. [Read on here...]
- The Wandering Earth II BD
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- 20th Century Studios
- Back the Bits
- Support The Digital Bits via Patreon
- Bluray
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Paramount Home Entertainment
- Love Actually 4K
- Mimic 4K
- Universal Studios
- Guillermo del Toro
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One 4K review
- Christopher McQuarrie
- Tom Cruise
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
- The Beatles' Now and Then
- AI
- artificial intelligence
- Peter Jackson
- Motel Hell 4K review
- Tim Salmons
- Dennis Seuling
- Stephen Bjork
- Stuart Galbraith IV
- Scream Factory
- Warner Archive Collection
- The Life of Emile Zola BD review
- Before Night Falls BD review
- Evangelion: Thrice Upon a Time 4K review
- GKids
- Shout! Factory
- The Last Time I Saw Paris BD review
- The Worst Ones DVD review
- The Severing BD review
- The Retirement Plan BD
An LOTR/Hobbit 4K update, new 4K catalog, Shout, Scream & KL Studio Classics titles, Monty Python & more
All right, thanks for your patience while I was away at the end of last week. My father-in-law passed away, so my wife and I flew across the country to attend his memorial and see family.
But there’s a good deal to catch up on today news-wise, so let’s get right to it. First things first...
Yes, we are aware of the rumors that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is planning to bring The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films to 4K Ultra HD. They originated on the excellent 4K Filme.de website, which (I’m told) found the titles briefly listed on a Warner B2B website for German retailers. All six films were indicated for release on UHD (with the Extended Editions included) and with a tentative street date given of June 25, 2020. All right, now let’s put this in context...
First of all, there’s no doubt that Warner Bros. is going to release these films on physical 4K Ultra HD. These are literally their most demanded catalog titles on the format. Also, 2021 is the 20th anniversary of Fellowship of the Ring. And Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings prequel series, which reportedly begins production next month and will apparently be in production for two years, is likely to debut on Amazon Prime in late 2022. So the studio is certainly going to want to get those films ready for 4K release by then. [Read on here...]
- 4K Ultra HD Release List
- 4K Ultra HD
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- Lionsgate
- The Lord of the Rings 4K
- The Hobbit 4K
- Extended Editions
- 4K Filme
- Ready or Not
- Ad Astra
- The Joker
- Ford v Ferrari
- Angel Has Fallen 4K
- Rollerball (1975) 4K
- The Cotton Club 4K
- Rambo: Last Blood 4K
- Gemini Man 4K
- Terminator: Dark Fate 4K
- Top Gun 4K
- Zombieland: Double Tap 4K
- Hustlers 4K
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 4K
- A Bug's Life 4K
- Up 4K
- Pixar
- WALLE 4K
- Monsters Inc 4K
- Monsters University 4K
- Beauty and the Beast (1991) 4K
- Scarface 4K
- Universal Studios
- Monty Python's Flying Circus Norwegian Bluray Edition
- Shout! Factory
- Scream Factory
- Kino Lorber Studio Classics
- Warner Archive Collection
- Robert Foster RIP
- Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters documentary
- Universal Soldier 4K
The UHD Alliance unveils the Filmmaker Mode initiative to ensure 4K TVs display movies properly at home
So I spent a couple hours up in Hollywood yesterday afternoon to cover something pretty interesting…
At a press event at the Screen Actors Guild, members of the UHD Alliance, three major consumer electronics manufacturers, and leading Hollywood filmmakers officially announced a new partnership effort to implement Filmmaker Mode as an extension of the 4K Ultra HD spec.
The idea is to ensure that when you watch a movie at home in 4K on your new Ultra HD display, whether from a disc, stream, or cable/satellite broadcast, it will look exactly as it should. UHD Alliance research suggests that as many as 80% of people who buy 4K TVs never change the settings out of the box. This means irritating features like motion smoothing and unnecessary processing are being applied to the image by default – processing that actually takes the picture away from the filmmakers’ intent.
What the Filmmaker Mode will do is to allow the user – either with one push of a button on the remote, or with a very easy and obvious menu setting – to set the TV’s display parameters to most accurately display the 4K content. This would be a baseline setting for the image – any added adjustments signaled by HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision metadata would happen on top of that setting. [Read on here...]
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- 4K Ultra HD
- Filmmaker Mode
- UHD Alliance
- Rian Johnson
- Mike Fiedler
- Michael Zink
- Annie Chang
- LG
- Panasonic
- James Cameron
- Vizio
- Ron Martin
- Carlos Angulo
- Paul Thomas Anderson
- Ryan Coogler
- Patty Jenkins
- Martin Scorsese
- Christopher Nolan
- Ang Lee
- Christopher McQuarrie
- Ava DuVernay
- M Night Shyamalan
- The Duffer Brothers
- Damien Chazelle
- JJ Abrams
- Reed Morano
- Warner Bros
- Amazon Prime
- Universal Studios
A Digital Bits film review: Damien Chazelle’s First Man (2018)
I had the pleasure last night of attending a press screening of Damien Chazelle’s new Neil Armstrong biopic, First Man. So let me give you my non-spoiler review…
A little background first: As someone who’s been a lifelong supporter and aficionado of the space program, I’ve seen every film there is on the subject, from Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff to the most obscure documentary. I’ve listened to most of the CAPCOM recordings, I have DVDs and Blu-rays containing almost every foot of archival footage shot by NASA and the astronauts during their missions. I’ve been to NASA facilities, I’ve seen launches, and I’m fortunate enough to even know a few astronauts. It’s with that lifetime of experience that I can say this: First Man is the single most realistic dramatic film about the subject yet made.
The level of detail exceeds even Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 and by a good measure. In Howard’s film, great as it is, there are a couple of things that just aren’t quite right. For example, the mission patch plaques on the wall of Mission Control are painted versions of the souvenir patches sold to the public, not the actual patches the astronauts wore. The NASA emblems on characters’ flight suits are modern, not period accurate. They’re little things, sure, but for the knowledgable, they can throw you out of the moment. But Chazelle and his team nail all of those little details, right down to the tiniest stitch. It’s as if First Man was actually shot in the 1960s, a level of verisimilitude and immersion that’s rare, even for a film of this type. [Read on here...]
Suicide Squad & Jason Bourne official, a review of Samsung’s 4K UHD BD player & TCM/Criterion’s FilmStruck streaming service
All right, we’ve been busy here at The Bits these last couple days. Just a quick note first: Tomorrow is my birthday, so I’m not working. I turn 49, if you can believe it, which I can’t. But that’s how these things go. In any case, to make up for it, we’ve got a bunch of good stuff for you all to enjoy today. So let’s get to it...
First, I’ve just spent the last six months putting Samsung’s launch 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the UBD-K8500, through its paces and I have my full review for you to check out today. Suffice it to say that there’s never been a debut player for any format (that I know of) that offers so much quality and performance for such a low price. If you’re thinking about upgrading to 4K Ultra HD and you’re looking for the best value for your dollar, this is the player for you. [Read on here…]
- BD
- Bluray Disc
- Bill Hunt
- The Digital Bits
- My Two Cents
- Bluray
- Tim Salmons
- Suicide Squad: Extended Cut 4K
- Death Race 2050
- Jason Bourne 4K
- Olive Films
- Up from the Depths
- Scream Factory
- Shout! Factory
- Deathstalker I & II
- The Glory Guys
- Twilight Time
- Jim Hemphill
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume III
- Russell Hammond
- Release Dates & Artwork update
- Constantine: The Complete Series
- Roger Corman
- Universal Studios
- Warner Bros
- Southside With You
- Building Star Trek
- Send Chocolate & Marlboros
- Turner Classic Movies
- TCM
- The Criterion Collection
- The Criterion Channel
- FilmStruck
- Samsung UBDK8500 Ultra HD BD Player Review
Blu-ray & DVD News Catch-up – Universal to Restore 15 Silent Films, plus Olive’s July Slate & more
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All right, sorry for the absence there for a couple days. I got hit by some kind of flu on Tuesday night and figured it would pass quickly. Instead it just got worse each day – throbbing headache, fever, body aches, lungs full of muck – the whole smash. I spent all of Wednesday and Thursday in bed in a haze of sleep, cold sweats, and flu meds. Finally, today, I’m functional again and feeling more like a human being. Moral of the story is: Avoid this flu at all costs if you can. It’s no fun. [Read on here…]
- Bluray
- BD
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- Bluray Disc
- Universal Studios
- Silent film restoration
- Olive Films
- Mike & Molly: The Complete Fifth Season
- House of Cards: Season 3
- Rectify: Season Two
- Back to the Jurassic
- Stop the Pounding Heart
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Return to NYC!
- Black Veil Brides
- Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police
- Masterpiece: Poldark