My Two Cents
Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:38

Sony sets Snatch for 4K, KL Studio Classics’ replacement program, vote in Media Play News’ Home Entertainment Awards, and Yaphet Kotto RIP

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Today I’m diving into work on more disc reviews here at The Bits, especially new 4K titles. So today’s update will be fairly quick. However, we do have some interesting odds and ends to report after yesterday’s flood of major news, and we have Amazon pre-order links for a bunch of newly-announced titles to share with you too.

First, some Blu-ray reviews... Tim has taken a look at Don Siegel’s The Beguiled (1971), which was released late last year on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics. He’s also given one of the last Hammer Films titles a spin on Blu-ray from Scream Factory, Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974). Both discs are worth your time.

A quick note on the subject of Kino Lorber Studio Classic: It appears that they inadvertently used the wrong master for their recent Blu-ray of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (reviewed here on The Bits). The company is correcting this by replicating new replacement discs that use the proper 2017 4K restoration and you can request a copy by filling out this form on the Kino Lorber website.

Now then... the big announcement news today is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially set Guy Ritchie’s Snatch for release on 4K Ultra HD on 6/1. [Read on here...]

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The title has been newly-remastered in 4K from the original camera negative and will include HDR10 high dynamic range, along with all new Dolby Atmos tracks (both for the US and original UK audio). You’ll also get the original theatrical US and UK 5.1 mixes. Extras will include the previous director and producer commentary, deleted scenes with optional commentary, the Making Snatch featurette, storyboard comparisons, a video photo gallery, and more. You can see the cover artwork above left and also below.

Also today, our friends at Media Play News have kicked off the voting for their annual Home Entertainment Awards. I’m honored to be a judge for the effort again this year, and we’d like your help too! Click this link (or the logo below) and follow the instructions provided to submit your picks in each category. Do take note of the fact that the disc nominees are submitted by studios and are domestic releases only (which is why some titles fans might want to see aren’t listed). But the online ballot has an option in each category for a write in, if you’d like to use it. The voting ends on April 9, so get your votes in now!

Media Play News Home Entertainment Awards

Finally this morning, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of the great actor Yaphet Kotto. Genre fans will know him for his work in Ridley Scott’s Alien and of course the classic Bond film Live and Let Die, but that’s only scratching the surface. He played Idi Amin in the TV film Raid on Entebbe (1976), was a regular on the 90s hit series Homicide: Life on the Street, and he co-starred in Brubaker (1980) with Robert Redford, Midnight Run (1988) with Robert De Niro, and The Running Man (1987) with Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others. Kotto was 81. We hope he finally got the full share he deserved (you Alien fans will get that reference). You can read more on him here at The New York Times.

All right, we’ll leave you today with a look at the cover artwork for The Indiana Jones 4-Film Collection and Snatch in 4K, as well as Explorers and all the June Criterion titles (announced yesterday) on Blu-ray. All are now available for pre-order on Amazon.com by clicking on the cover links...

Indiana Jones 4-Film Collection (4K Ultra HD) Snatch (4K Ultra HD) Explorers (Blu-ray Disc)

The Human Condition (Blu-ray Disc) Pickup on South Street (Blu-ray Disc) The Signifyin' Work of Marlon Riggs (Blu-ray Disc)

Visions of Eight (Blu-ray Disc) Pariah (Blu-ray Disc) Streetwise/Tiny (Blu-ray Disc)

Stay tuned...

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

 

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