Displaying items by tag: Bluray Disc

All right, we’ve got three new disc reviews for you to finish out the week, plus some more great new title announcements. The reviews first...

Stephen has taken a look at David Twohy’s The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) in 4K Ultra HD, as released by our friends at Arrow Video.

Tim has reviewed the Warner Archive Collection’s new Hanna-Barbera Double Feature of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) and Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019) on Blu-ray.

And Stuart has turned in his thoughts on Francis Ford Coppola’s You’re a Big Boy Now (1996) on Blu-ray, also from the Warner Archive Collection. And how fitting it is that we’re reviewing Coppola’s first feature film, even as what may be his last—Megalopolis (2024)—is now in theaters.

As always, more reviews are on the way, so be sure to watch for them.

Now then... the big news today is all on the classic TV front: First, Paramount Home Entertainment and CBS have officially set I Love Lucy: The Complete Series for release on Blu-ray for the first time ever! Expected on 11/5, the 33-disc set will include all 180 episodes of I Love Lucy (1951-57), plus all episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-60) remastered with long-missing footage restored, plus the newly-colorized episode Lucy and the Loving Cup. In addition, the series’ opening and closing credits have been restored along with many original cast commercials. Three long-lost “flashback” scenes have been remastered. And a portion of the 1959 CBS Fall Preview Special has been included. You’ll also get the original I Love Lucy pilot episode (remastered from original 35mm kinescope), I Love Lucy: The Movie, audio commentaries on select episodes, Lucy on the Radio broadcasts, flubs, slideshows, cast bios, photo galleries, and production notes. You can see the cover artwork at left and also below. [Read on here...]

We start today with two new disc reviews...

Tim has taken a look at Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs (2024) in 4K Ultra HD from Neon and Decal Releasing.

And Stephen has offered his thoughts on Michael Lehmann’s Heathers (1988) as released in 4K UHD in the UK only by the good people of Arrow Video.

Just to let you know, we’ve also updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits and our Release Dates & Artwork section, featuring all kinds of new Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD titles with cover artwork and Amazon pre-order links. Whenever you order titles (or literally anything) from Amazon through our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we appreciate it!

Now then, the big news today is that Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has finally set Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters (2024) for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 10/22, with the Digital release expected next week on 10/8. The 4K disc will include HDR10 only with Dolby Atmos sound. A 4K Steelbook version will also be available. Extras on all SKUs will include audio commentary with the director, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and 6 featurettes (Tracking the Fronts: The Path of Twisters, Into the Eye of the Storm, Glen Powell: All Access, Front Seat to a Chase, Voice of a Villain, and Tricked-Out Trucks). You can see the cover artwork at left and also below the break. [Read on here...]

We’ve got some MAJOR announcement news to share with you all today, we’re starting things off as always with four new disc reviews...

Tim has checked in with his thoughts on Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass’ animated The Last Unicorn (1982) in 4K Ultra HD and 4K Steelbook from Shout! Studios.

And Dennis has weighed in with this take on Norman Z. McLeod’s My Favorite Spy (1951) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, as well as Serge Bourguignon’s Two Weeks in September (1967) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics.

Now then, our friends at Shout! Studios and the Warner Archive Collection have announce major slates of Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD catalog titles for release in November and December!

The Warner Archive Collection has revealed 6 new classic Blu-ray titles for release on 11/26, including Jean Negulesco’s Humoresque (1946)—mastered from a 4K scan of original nitrate camera negative—Jack Haley Jr. That’s Entertainment! (1974)—re-constructed from original negatives and preservation elements—The Complete Thin Man Collection (1934-47)—a 6-disc set mastered from 4K scans of the best surviving elements, featuring WS Van Dyke’s pre-Code The Thin Man (1934), After the Thin Man (1936), Another Thin Man (1939), and Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), as well as Richard Thorpe’s Song of the Thin Man (1944), and Edward Buzzell’s The Thin Man Goes Home (1947)—Hanna-Barbera’s animated Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-74) TV series—featuring 48 episodes on 6 discs—Gary David Goldberg’s Must Love Dogs (2005), and finally the Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice: Volume 4 (1937-64)—including 27 classic Looney Tunes fully restored and remastered shorts, including Friz Freleng’s Streamlined Greta Green (1937), Double Chaser (1942), Meatless Flyday (1944), Peck Up Your Troubles (1945), Along Came Daffy (1947), A Bone for a Bone (1951), Muzzle Tough (1954), Stork Naked (1955), Hyde and Go Tweet (1960), Lighter Than Hare (1960), D’ Fightin’ Ones (1961), Devil’s Feud Cake (1963), and Road to Andalay (1964), Tex Avery’s The Sneezing Weasel (1938) and Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939), Tex Avery and Bob Clampett’s The Cagey Canary (1941), Chuck Jones’ Fox Pop (1942), Mouse-Warming (1952), Double or Mutton (1955), and Hopalong Casualty (1960), Robert McKimson’s The Mouse-Merized Cat (1946), Henhouse Henery (1949), Leghorn Swoggled (1951), Muscle Tussle (1953), and Quack Shot (1954), Arthur Davis’ Holiday for Drumsticks (1949), and Norm McCabe’s The Impatient Patient (1942). Whew! [Read on here...]

We’ve got just a couple more reviews for you today to close out the week...

Tim has reviewed both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment’s new Super Friends: The Complete Collection.

Watch for a bunch more new disc reviews next week—the whole team is working on more, including yours truly!

Meanwhile, the big news today is that Arrow Video has just revealed its December Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD release slate. Look for John Sturges’ The Great Escape (1963) in 4K and Blu-ray (UK only) and the Critters: A Four Course Feast! Blu-ray box set (UK only)—which includes Stephen Herek’s Critters (1986), Mick Garris’ Critters 2: The Main Course (1988), Kristine Peterson’s Critters 3 (1991), and Rupert Harvey’s Critters 4 (1992)—on 12/2, followed by Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction (1995) in 4K (UK, US, and Canada), Marco Brambilla’s Demolition Man (1993) in 4K and Blu-ray (UK, US, and Canada), Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) in 4K and Blu-ray (UK only), and Cody Kennedy and Tim Rutherford’s The Last Video Store (2023) on Blu-ray (UK and US) all on 12/9. [Read on here...]

[Editor’s Note: Since the original publication of this column back in 2016, a new book on 2001 has been published that deserves to be mentioned here—Michael Benson’s Space Odyssey. I’ve added a new section at the end to address it. There is also an excellent 2018 Michael Coate retrospective on the film here at The Bits that we’ve included as well.]

–Originally published on The Digital Bits on 9/28/2016–

I decided that I wanted to do something a little different with today’s My Two Cents column on The Digital Bits, so I thought I’d review a few new and/or recent books that may be of interest to cinephiles, especially those of you who are fans of Stanley Kubrick’s legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey.

As many of you would agree, I’m sure, 2001 is a landmark of filmed science fiction. Based loosely on a short story by visionary author Arthur C. Clarke, it depicts an AI-guided but manned journey through deep space, first to Earth orbit, then the Moon, and eventually out to the distant gas giant Jupiter and beyond, in response to the discovery of an alien artifact on the Moon’s surface, apparently having been buried there millions of years ago.

Not only was Kubrick’s film notable for its realistic depiction of the Moon’s surface fully a year before NASA’s Apollo astronauts actually landed there, it’s been lauded ever since for its realistic approach to depicting future spaceflight technology. Indeed, some of those who contributed designs to the project were actually involved in the space program. [Read on here…]

All right, we have a new update on the health of the home entertainment market from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) for the first half of 2020. And the numbers are not entirely unexpected...

According to the DEG, total home entertainment spending (all categories) was up about 26% for the first half of 2020 (through the end of June) compared to the same period last year.

Total digital spending was up 36% during that period (the specific breakdown was +33% for electronic sales, +33% for VOD, and +37% for subscription streaming). That’s the good news.

The bad news—which by now should not be unexpected—is that packaged goods (read: discs) were down 17.2% in the first half of this year from the same period in 2019. Specifically, Q2 2020 was down 11.11% from Q2 2019, this after a 22.4% decline in Q1 2020 (as we reported here back in early July). [Read on here...]

So... a friend of mine asked me last night on social media what impact the pandemic was having on physical media sales so far this year. Specifically, he wanted to know if there had been any kind of a bump in disc sales resulting from all of the coronavirus lockdowns, what with so many people suddenly forced to stay at home.

I knew, of course, what we’ve been seeing here at The Digital Bits in terms of those trends—also what we’ve been hearing from you guys, our readers, as well as our retail sources. But the question got me thinking. And then I really wanted to know: Do the actual sales numbers reflect our assumptions? Or might something be happening because of the pandemic that’s surprising in terms of physical media sales?

With that in mind, I started digging. Before long, I found myself neck deep in data—actually a pretty good place to be if you really want to get to the bottom of questions like this.

I turned to a pair of sources that are always reliable: The Digital Entertainment Group’s excellent (and quarterly) Home Entertainment Reports, and also Media Play News’ in-house home entertainment market research. [Read on here...]

(As I am writing this month’s column, word spread that the world had lost Nick Redman, a man of incomparable vision and love of classic films. He was a friend of mine and this entire website. I’ll write more next time.)

Maybe it was the mustache. Or the unscripted quips. Or the genteel Southern manner.

Or just maybe it was that laugh, a bombastic cackle delivered by one comfortable in his own skin – inviting his audience gut bust with him, as though they were all in a private joke.

That’s our Burt. And he’s, unbelievably, gone. [Read on here...]

[What follows is a feature I wrote for The Daily Oklahoman about one of the greatest movie stars and human beings ever… Burt Reynolds]

Maybe it was the mustache. Or the unscripted quips. Or the genteel Southern manner.

Or just maybe it was that laugh, a cackle delivered by one comfortable in his own skin – inviting his audience gut bust with him, as though they were all in a private joke.

That’s our Burt. And he’s, unbelievably, gone.

Fame, according to Jeanine Bissinger, is “often conferred or withheld just as is love, for reasons and on grounds other than merits.” Burt Reynolds earned his fame with raw boned talent and insight into the business of filmed diversion. [Read on here...]

First things first today...

No sooner did we post word from retail sources yesterday that Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom is expected to street on Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D, and 4K Ultra HD on 9/18 (pending Universal’s official announcement), we learned this...

20th Century Fox Home Entetainment is now expected to release John McTiernan’s original Predator (1987) on 4K Ultra HD on 8/7. And we know this because the title is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com for that date (SRP $39.99, but Amazon has it for $34.19). You can see the official cover artwork at left and also below the break.

We’re awaiting Fox’s official announcement, which we expect at any time now, but this should be a full new native 4K film scan and restoration from the original camera negative and it should finally rid the film of the godawful DNR scrubbing it’s been given on past Blu-ray editions.

The disc will also include a Blu-ray copy in the package, and we suspect that this will be mastered from the same 4K scan too (but we’ll have to wait for the press release to confirm that officially, along with other details). [Read on here...]