My Two Cents
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 16:45

Thunderheart arrives on Blu-ray at last, plus the results of our Lionsgate 4K Steelbook poll, Umbrella’s August slate & Apple TV+ renews For All Mankind for Season 5!

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Afternoon, folks! We’ve got a few new disc reviews, some great release news, and a fine bit of streaming TV news for you today as well! First as always, those reviews...

Kicking things off, Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Michael Mann’s Ferrari (2023), as released in 4K Ultra HD by Eagle Pictures in Italy. It’s a great little film, and here’s hoping that Neon and Decal will see fit to release it here in the States in 4K soon as well.

Stephen has also reviewed Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (1980) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Arrow Video.

Not to be outdone, Tim has turned in his thoughts on Jesús Franco’s Night of the Blood Monster (1970), aka The Bloody Judge, in 4K Ultra HD from the good people over at Blue Underground.

Dennis has offered his take on Theodore J. Flicker’s The President’s Analyst (1967) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And Stuart rounds things out today with his review of Yasuharu Hasebe’s Black Tight Killers (1966) on Blu-ray from the team at Radiance Films.

As always, more reviews are on the way so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them!

Now then, a quick follow up. As many of you know, we’ve been running an interactive poll on our Patreon and Twitter/X pages over the past week on behalf of Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The question was: For the studio’s new 4K catalog Steelbook line, would you prefer new custom artwork or original poster artwork? Nearly three thousand of you voted in all (2,959 to be exact), with 1,166 votes (38.41%) for new custom artwork and 1,793 votes (60.59%) for original poster artwork. [Read on here...]

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But drilling down a bit on the numbers, a lot of you who voted for new custom artwork also indicated that your interest in original poster artwork would depend a lot on the particular film and poster artwork. And a number of people—including our friend Matt Ferguson (who is a pretty terrific poster artist in his own right)—suggested that a good compromise might be to include new custom art on a library slipcase, and then have the inner Steelbook art be the original poster design. That sounds like a pretty great idea to us, and rest assured that Lionsgate has been following the poll closely. So thanks to everyone who participated.

Note that we expect to do more of these kinds of interactive polls in the future, because our readers clearly appreciate the opportunity to weigh in. And the good news is that some of the studios and indie labels appreciate the chance to solict the opinion of their best customers as well.

In release news today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has informed us that their new Blu-ray debut of Michael Apted’s Thunderheart (1992) is officially expected to street on 5/21. Not only is this presentation mastered from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, the disc will feature a new audio commentary by screenwriter John Fusco as well! You can see the cover artwork above left and also below, which includes the Amazon pre-order link.

Speaking of Sony, they’ve also announced that Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is being released as a stand-alone 4K Ultra HD Steelbook on 6/25 with Dolby Vision HDR. Up until now, the title has only been available in 4K in Sony’s Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 2 box set released back in 2021. All the previous extras will carry over. Audio will include English 5.1 DTS-HD MA and the original English mono in DTS-HD MA. Again, the cover artwork is available below.

Meanwhile, Lionsgate is releasing Danny Boyle’s Pistol limited series on Digital on 5/13. They also have Son of a Critch: Season 2 coming on Digital only on 5/27.

Universal and DreamWorks are going to be releasing Shrek Forever After (2010) and a Shrek 4-Movie Collection in 4K Ultra HD on 6/11.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has officially set Stephen Hopkins’ Blown Away (1994) for release on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on 6/18.

Neon is releasing Michael Mohan and Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate on Digital on 4/16, with a Blu-ray and DVD release set to follow on 6/11.

And Umbrella Entertainment has announced a new slate of Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles for release in August, including John Schlesinger’s Darling (1965), Megan Simpson Huberman’s Dating the Enemy (1996), Emma-Kate Croghan’s Love and Other Catastrophes (1996), Jee-woon Kim’s The Quiet Family (1998) and David Allen’s The Primevals (2023) all on Blu-ray on 8/7, followed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (2024) on Blu-ray on 8/17. Park Chan-wook’s JSA: Joint Security Area (2000) is also coming in 4K Ultra HD from the company on 8/7.

Finally today, this is a bit of breaking streaming TV news, but it makes me very happy indeed: Apple TV+ has just officially renewed Sony Pictures Television’s For All Mankind for Season Five! What’s more, they’ve also green-lit a new spin-off series from the same producing team—Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi—called Star City. This go back to the start of the For All Mankind timeline in the late 1960s to show how things developed on the Soviet side of the space race, which means some of the original show’s characters can return (including Sergei Nikulov and more). I am absolutely elated at this news, so congrats to everyone involved! I can wait to see what you guys cook up for Season Five and beyond. You can read more on this here, here, and here.

For All Mankind

All right, we’ll leave you with a look at the cover artwork for some of the titles mentioned above and more, with Amazon pre-order links if available.

Thunderheart (Blu-ray Disc) Taxi Driver (4K Ultra HD Steelbook) Karate Kid (4K Ultra HD)

Stay tuned!

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

 

 

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