My Two Cents
Thursday, 26 July 2018 16:05

Ocean’s 8, a Predator 4K update, Kino’s Trilogy of Terror, 2 new Talking Blus, BD reviews & RIP Jon Schnepp

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We’ve got three new Blu-ray reviews for you to enjoy today, including David Steigman’s look at Eli Roth’s Death Wish remake and Phillipe de Broca’s 1966 French drama King of Hearts. We’ve also got Dennis Sueling’s thoughts on Jonas Carpignano’s Italian drama A Ciambra. All three are new or recently released on Blu-ray and are worth a look.

In announcement news today, 20th Century Fox has finally officially announced their Predator and Predator 3-Movie Collection on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on 8/7. A limited edition Steelbook version of the collection will be available at Best Buy and FYE stores. Extras on the Predator will include audio commentary by director John McTiernan, a text commentary by film historian Eric Lichtenfeld, Predator: Evolution of a Species-Hunters of Extreme Perfection, If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: The Making of Predator, multiple Special Effects and Inside the Predator featurettes, Short Takes with the Filmmakers, deleted scenes and outtakes, a photo gallery, and a Predator Profile.

Audio on all of these films will be in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Predator and Predator 2 were finished on film and should be new 4K film scans, while Predators is a 2K DI upsample. We suspect the HDR format will be HDR10. Note that we’re awaiting official confirmation from the studio on the tech specs (aside from the audio, which is confirmed). [Read on here...]

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In other news today, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has revealed that Ocean’s 8 will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 9/11, with the Digital release due on 8/21. The 4K disc will feature Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision HDR. Extras on the Blu-rays will include 3 featurettes (A Heist in Heels, Ocean’s Team 3.0, and Reimagining the Met Gala) and deleted scenes. You can see the cover artwork above left.

Also, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced the 4K Ultra HD release Step Brothers on 10/2. Because we know how much you’ve all been waiting for it in 4K.

We’ve updated the 4K Ultra HD Release List accordingly.

By the way, we’ve also posted the weekly update of the Release Dates & Cover Art section here at The Bits with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, 3D, and 4K Ultra HD cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, any time you order literally anything from Amazon after clicking to them from any of our links (like this one), you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it. So thank you!

Back to Fox for a moment... the studio has revealed the DVD release of Get Shorty: Season One on 8/7, followed by the Blu-ray and DVD release of Vikings: Season Five, Part One on 10/2.

And let’s talk about Kino Lorber Studio Classics... no sooner did they announce Dan Curtis’ The Night Stalker (1972) for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/2, they’ve also announced that they’re bringing his sequel, The Night Strangler (1973) to Blu-ray and DVD as well, that same day. But that’s not all... look for The DePatie/Freleng Collection Volume 2 (1972-78) on Blu-ray on 9/25 (including Crazylegs Crane, The Dogfather, Sheriff Hoot Kloot, Misterjaw, and The Blue Racer). They’re also distributing I Heard the Owl Call My Name (1973 TV Movie) on Blu-ray on 10/2, along with Lady Ice (1973) on Blu-ray on 10/23, both for Scorpion Releasing. And here’s the biggie... Kino will also release Dan Curtis’ Trilogy of Terror (1975) on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/16, mastered from a new 4K restoration.

Also this afternoon, Tim Salmons has released two more episodes of Talking Blu with Digital Bits, our webcast collaboration with Midnight’s Edge. They include this review of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left on Blu-ray from Arrow Films...

... as well as the second part of his conversation about upcoming catalog releases from Shout! Factory, Scream Factory, Kino Lorber, and the Warner Archive. You can view that here...

And finally today, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of director and geek media jack-of-all-trades Jon Schnepp, the filmmaker behind the documentary The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?, the director of episodes of Metalocalypse and The Venture Bros, and the host of Collider Heroes. As you will all no doubt be aware by now, Jon passed away last week after a suffering from a massive stroke. Though I’ve met him on a number of occasions, I certainly didn’t know him as well as some of you. But Jon was good people and his love of, and enthusiasm for, genre media was undeniable. He will certainly be missed by the geek community and we salute his memory today. A Go Fund Me has been established to help his surviving family and we encourage you to contribute if you’d like to honor him. Rest in peace, Jon.

Jon Schnepp (photo by Albert L. Ortega)

That’s all for now. Stay tuned…

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