Displaying items by tag: James Cameron

We’ve got more disc reviews for you today, along with another great film retrospective column, a bit more release news, and some news that... well, I’m not sure what to think of it. But you’ll understand what I mean in a minute. First, those disc reviews...

Tim has checked in over the last couple of days with no less than four new reviews, starting with his thoughts on Mei-Chun Chang’s Revenge of the Shogun Women (1982) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, a disc that includes both polarized 3D and anaglyph 3D presentations (as well 2D) thanks to our friends at The 3-D Film Archive. It’s a good disc and a rare 3D treat for those who love that format, so do give it a look.

Tim has also reviewed Arrow Video’s Giallo Essentials: Red Edition – Volume One and Yellow Edition – Volume Two, each of which includes three classics of the genre on Blu-ray.

And Tim has posted his thoughts on Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Stunt Rock (1978) on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment (#8 in their Ozploitation Classics line-up) ad well. All are worth your time. [Read on here...]

A funny thing happened on the way to yesterday’s My Two Cents post! For some reason, I lost track of a day this week, so I thought yesterday was Friday. Then I wake up and here’s Friday again, much to my surprise. LOL. So anyway, while a bit of yesterday’s post still applies this afternoon, we’ve got some great breaking release news to share with you all today...

First up, the fine Imprint Films (down in Australia) has just announced their March 2022 Blu-ray slate, which is due to street on 3/30/22. It will include Sam Peckinpah’s The Osterman Weekend (1983 – mastered from new 2K scans of the director’s cut negative and the theatrical cut, so it will include both versions), Buzz Kulik’s The Hunter (1980 – starring Steve McQueen), Samuel Fuller’s China Gate (1957), Byron Haskin’s Conquest of Space (1955 – produced by George Pal), John Sturges’ Marooned (1969), Robert Wise’s Audrey Rose (1977), and Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun (1971). Not bad at all!

As usual, all of these Blu-rays should be region free. You’ll find them available here on the Imprint website.

But here’s the whopper today... Arrow Video has just announced its March 2022 slate as well, which includes no less than three new 4K UHD catalog titles! [Read on here...]

We’re wrapping up the week today with another new disc review, a major piece of announcement news, and some very interesting things to check out around the Interwebs. We’ll start with the review...

Tim has posted his thoughts on Alfred E. Green’s The Fabulous Dorseys: Special Edition, which is newly available on Blu-ray from our friends at The Film Detective. The film is essentially a biopic about big band leaders Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, staring themselves along with Janet Blair. Do give it a look if you’re interested.

Now then, the big release news today is that Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution and Marvel have just officially announced the 2/15 release of Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD, with the Digital release expected on 1/12. (Note that I haven’t yet seen any indication of an international Blu-ray 3-D release, but one may appear eventually.)

This film was actually finished as a native 4K Digital Intermediate and should feature HDR10 high dynamic range on UHD, with Dolby Atmos audio (the Blu-ray will feature 7.1 DTS-HD MA). Note that the aspect ratio for both disc and digital on this title will be 2.39:1, though it’s likely to appear as IMAX enhanced at 1.90 as a Disney+ streaming exclusive. Extras will include an audio commentary (with Chloé Zhao, Stephane Ceretti, and Mårten Larsson), 4 deleted scenes, a gag reel, and 2 featurettes (Immortalized and Walks of Life). You can see the cover artwork at left and also below. [Read on here...]

All right, we’re working on FOUR more 4K Ultra HD reviews for the next couple of days, at least of the first of which we hope to have posted later this afternoon.

In the meantime, we’ve just launched our second giveaway on The Digital Bits’ Facebook page, offering readers the chance to win one of Paramount’s three new Tom Cruise 4K Ultra HD titles – Top Gun, Days of Thunder, or War of the Worlds. All you have to do to enter is follow The Bits’ Facebook page and reply to this post (linked here) with your answer to the question you’ll find. Entries will be accepted until 11 AM Pacific tomorrow (Thursday, May 21). The contest is open to US residents only (due to COVID shipping restrictions—sorry!). THREE winners will be selected at random from the list of those who enter and will be announced tomorrow afternoon. Good luck!

Meanwhile today, we have a bit more announcement news... [Read on here...]

All right, first things first today: Criterion has just announced its February 2020 slate of Blu-ray and DVD titles.

Look for it to include Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma (Spine #1014 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/11, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (Spine #1013 – Blu-ray and DVD) and an updating of Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Antoni Gaudí (Spine #425 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/18, and Jeannie Livingston’s Paris is Burning (Spine #1018 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman (Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/25. That last set includes Journey to the Beginning of Time (Spine #1015), Invention for Destruction (Spine #1016), and The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Spine #1017). You can read more here at the Criterion website.

Those are all fine titles, but Roma is particularly appreciated given that it was a Netflix release last year and hasn’t been available on physical media yet.

Also today, our own Michael Coate has a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Bits—first posted yesterday afternoon—in which he looks back at James Cameron’s The Abyss with historian Matthew Kapell in honor of the film’s 30th anniversary. It’s a great piece, so do give it a look. And who knows? Maybe it will remind the director that he’s got a new 4K HDR grade of the film to approve so we can all watch it on Blu-ray and UHD sooner rather than later. [Read on here...]

“The Abyss does something that every single Cameron film does: explores new frontiers in the technology of film making. And that’s important.” — Matthew Kapell, editor of The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays

The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 30th anniversary of the release of The Abyss, James Cameron’s (The Terminator, Titanic) underwater sci-fi adventure starring Ed Harris (The Right Stuff) and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (The Color of Money).

Also starring Michael Biehn (Aliens) and featuring groundbreaking visual effects, The Abyss opened thirty years ago this past summer. For the occasion The Bits features a package of statistics and box-office data that places the movie’s performance in context, along with passages from vintage film reviews, a reference/historical listing of the movie’s showcase presentations, and, finally, an interview segment with a film historian who reflects on the film three decades after its debut. [Read on here...]

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...]

Okay, this is just a very quick late Friday update to let you all know that director Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel will officially arrive on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 7/23, with the Digital release expected on 7/9.

And the great news is that the 4K Ultra HD package will include a Blu-ray 3D version of the film too. (It appears that the 4K package will be the only way to get the film in 3D in the States, unless there’s a retail exclusive SKU we don’t know about yet.)

This is official from the Fox Movies website, and we would expect the home video press release to go out at any time now.

You can see the 4K cover artwork at left, and we have artwork for all three versions below. [Read on here...]

All right, quick update today...

First of all, I’m going to be finishing my Aquaman 4K review later today, so watch for that sometime before the end of the day.

Meanwhile, Tim has posted a couple more Blu-ray reviews here today, including his look at Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Color Me Blood Red (1965) from Arrow Video and Dennis’ take on Boy Erased from Universal.

And on Friday, Tim posted his thoughts on HGL’s The Wizard of Gore (1970) from Arrow and Geoff Murphy’s The Quiet Earth (1985) from Umbrella Entertainment.

Also here at the site today, Russell Hammond has updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. Anytime you order literally anything from Amazon after clicking through to them from one of our links (like this one), you’re helping to keep The Bits alive and we really, really appreciate it. So thank you! [Read on here...]

We’re starting a new tradition here at The Bits: Every Tuesday and Thursday, we’re officially celebrating Retro Release Day!

Each day, we’ll look back through The Bits’ archives and highlight a classic release on physical media.

Look for lots of DVDs titles, some older Blu-rays, and maybe even Laserdisc release or two. Who knows what we’ll find in the archives!

Longtime Bits readers will definitely remember these discs, and we’ll post pictures so you younger readers can get a look at discs of yore too.

Today’s title is nothing less that James Cameron’s The Abyss: Special Edition, released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on DVD on March 21st, 2000. [Read on here...]