Criterion’s April slate includes Chungking Express in 4K, plus The Third Man & You’re Next from Lionsgate Limited, Imprint’s March Blu-ray slate & more!

Friday, 17 January 2025 18:47

Criterion’s April slate includes Chungking Express in 4K, plus The Third Man & You’re Next from Lionsgate Limited, Imprint’s March Blu-ray slate & more!

by Bill Hunt

We’ve got a bunch of release news to catch you all up on today here at The Bits, but first—as always—we’re closing out the week with a bunch of new and recent disc reviews…

I’ve turned in my thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s long awaited Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) 4K Steelbooks from Lionsgate Limited, as well as their reissue of his Reservoir Dogs (1992) in 4K Steelbook. (And don’t forget my review of Lionsgate Limited’s Jackie Brown 4K Steelbook from earlier this week as well.)

Tim has offered his take on Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her (1992) and Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (2009) both in 4K UHD from Shout!/Scream Factory, as well as Warner Archive’s new Blu-ray Double Feature of William A. Wellman’s The Boob (1926) and William A. Seiter’s Why Be Good? (1929), and Jackson Publick’s The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (2023) on Blu-ray also from Warner Bros.

Stuart’s look at Sidney Gilliat’s Left Right and Centre (1959) on Blu-ray from Indicator, as well as The Persuaders!: The Complete Series (1971-72) on Blu-ray from Imprint, Fernando Di Leo’s The Italian Connection (1972) on Blu-ray from Raro Video, Jean Aurel’s Les Femmes (1969) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics, and Terence Young’s Bloodline (1979) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Dennis’ thoughts on Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (2007) and Stephen Frears’ The Grifters (1990) each on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection, and Gary David Goldberg’s Must Love Dogs (2005) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive.

More reviews are on the way next week, so be sure to check back for them! Also, we’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits, as well as our Release Dates & Artwork section—the latter with all the latest 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD cover art and Amazon.com pre-order links. And The Bits is an Amazon Affiliate, so anything you order from them after clicking through one of our links goes to help support our work here at the site and we appreciate it!

Now then, let’s get to that breaking announcement news… [Read on here...]

First up, our friends at The Criterion Collection have unveiled their April slate of Blu-ray and 4K titles, which is officially set to include Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (1953) (Spine #309 – 4K + Blu-ray) on 4/1, followed by Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) (Spine #950 – 4K + Blu-ray) on 4/8, Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express (1994) (Spine #45 – 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) on 4/15, Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring: Two Films by Claude Berri (1986) (Spine #1257 – 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) on 4/22, and Sean Baker’s Anora (2024) (Spine #1259 – 4K + Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD) and Prince of Broadway (2008) (Spine #1258 – Blu-ray), and Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat (1996) (Spine #1260 – 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) all on 4/29. Note that the 4K of Anora will include HDR, Some Like It Hot and Basquiat will include Dolby Vision HDR (presumably the other 4Ks are SDR only).

You can read more on each of them here, and we’ve updated our Criterion Spines Project pages here at The Bits accordingly.

Speaking of Lionsgate Limited, the studio has just announced new 4K + Blu-ray Steelbook editions of Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1950) and Adam Wingard’s You’re Next (2011) for release on 2/25. The former includes StudioCanal’s new restoration, while the latter will include both the legacy Lionsgate features as well as Second Sight’s 2024 features. You’re Next will also include Dolby Vision HDR. Here’s what they look like (click on the images to pre-order each)…

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has set Howard Zieff’s My Girl (1991) for 4K UHD on 2/25.

Imprint has announced a great new batch of Blu-ray titles for release in March, including Lo Wei’s Vengeance of a Snow Girl (1971), Lo Chen’s The Snake Prince (1976), and Meng Hua Ho’s The Monkey Goes West (1966) for their Imprint Asia label. They’ve also set UFO: The Complete S.H.A.D.O. Files (1970) and TV Movie of the Week: Collection 2—featuring Terror Among Us (1981), Fallen Angel (1981), and Shattered Spirits (1986)—for Blu-ray via their Imprint Television label, the former with new and archival features, a 120-page book, and new A/V fixes of errors in the original HD restoration. And don’t forget that their March slate also includes Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde’s Man Bites Dog (1992), Predrag Antonijević’s Savior (1998),Katheryn Bigelow’s The Weight of Water (2000), Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass (2003), Todd Field’s In the Bedroom (2001), and George Hickenlooper’s Factory Girl (2006). All of these are expected to ship around 3/26.

Here’s a trailer for that UFO box set…

Meanwhile, our friends at Celluloid Dreams have set Aldo Lado’s Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) for 4K + Blu-ray release on 4/29.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has set Jake Kasden’s Red One (2024) for Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD release on 3/4, with the animated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024) coming on both formats on 2/18.

And finally, our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics have announced the Blu-ray release of Zoltan Korda’s Cry, the Beloved Country (1952) and Robert Day’s Two Way Stretch (1960) on 3/11, followed by Gabrielle Beaumont’s Godsend (1979) and Albert Zugsmith’s College Confidential (1960) on 3/18, and Elio Petri’s The 10th Victim (1965) on 3/25.

Now then… the new Criterion titles aren’t yet up for pre-order on Amazon, but here’s the cover artwork for some new or recently-announced 4K and Blu-ray titles that are…

That’s all for now. See you back here on Monday!

Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt

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

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Criterion’s April slate includes Chungking Express in 4K, plus The Third Man & You’re Next from Lionsgate Limited, Imprint’s March Blu-ray slate & more!

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