My Two Cents
Well, folks... it’s a new year and time to get right back into the thick of things in terms of physical media news. And we have a bunch to catch you up on here at The Bits today.
Before we get started though, I wanted to call your attention to Michael Coate’s latest History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Bits, which we posted on New Year’s Eve. It features a great retrospective and roundtable interview with film historians celebrating the 50th anniversary of George Lucas’ classic American Graffiti (1973). Its 9 pages and 17 chapters are packed with great reading, so do be sure to check it out.
I’d also like to start the new year by with another quick Patreon pitch: If you believe in the work we do here at The Bits in support of physical media, we’d like to ask you to consider becoming a supporter of the site on Patreon. I’ve been sharing exclusive blog posts there, and it’s becoming a great little community—a fun and welcoming place to share your love of Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD with fellow enthusiasts. You can join for as low as $6 a month (or as much as you’d like to contribute) and it really makes a difference in helping us to grow and continue our work here at the site. So thank you!
Now then, the big news item this afternoon is that Lionsgate has just officially set Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes for Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release on 2/13, with the Digital release due on 1/30. There will also be a Walmart-exclusive 4K Steelbook release on 2/13. The 4K and Blu-ray will include the following special features: audio commentary with Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson, the 8-part Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes documentary (note that both the commentary and documentary are exclusive to the physical release), Rachel Zegler’s The Hanging Tree music video, the A Letter to the Fans featurette, and the theatrical trailer. You can see the 4K cover art at left and also below.
FYI, Lionsgate is also releasing John Woo’s Silent Night (2023) on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/30. The film stars Joel Kinnaman (of For All Mankind fame). [Read on here...]
Our Ten* Favorite Discs of 2023 & Happy New Year from All of Us at The Digital Bits! (*Give or Take)
Welcome to 2024, Bits readers!
So this exercise started out as an effort to compile Ten Favorite Discs of 2023 lists from each member of The Digital Bits team. But one thing led to another… and how do you pick just ten?
What we have instead is essentially just our individual picks for our favorite titles of the year that was in 2023. And with so many great titles to choose from—many of them all arriving at once—it’s almost certain that we’ve overlooked worthy titles.
But what follows is at least a great start for discussion. There are lists from each of us, along with any comments our team members felt like including with them.
And if you can think of great titles we’re missing here, please share them with us on social media! [Read on here...]
Afternoon, folks! I certainly hope that those of you who celebrate it have had a great Christmas holiday, and that the rest of you are enjoying the holiday season.
I’ve got just a quick update here for you today and I’ll post a little more as the week goes on. This time of year there’s typically very little news-wise worth reporting, but there are some odds and ends to cover.
First though, I want to catch you up on the latest disc reviews we’ve posted here at The Bits since our last news post last week. Now available for your reading pleasure here are...
My reviews of James Cameron’s Avatar: Collector’s Edition (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water – Collector’s Edition (2022) in 4K Ultra HD from Lightstorm and 20th Century Studios.
Tim’s thoughts on Richard Donner’s Scrooged: 35th Anniversary Edition (1988) in 4K from Sony and George Mihalka’s My Bloody Valentine: Collector’s Edition (1981) in 4K from Scream Factory.
Dennis’ takes on David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: The Believer (2023) in both Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD from Universal, as well as Oren Rudavsky’s The Treatment (2006) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, and Richard Attenborough’s In Love and War (1996) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.
Stephen’s reviews of Charles Kaufman’s Mother’s Day (1980) in 4K from Troma via Vinegar Syndrome, Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s in 4K from Universal, and Ti West’s Pearl (2022) in 4K from A24 via Turbine Media.
And finally Stuart’s look at Succession: The Complete Series on DVD from HBO, Alain Resnais’ La Guerre est finie (1966) on Blu-ray from The Film Desk and Vinegar Syndrome, and Paul Lynch’s The Hard Part Begins (1973) on Blu-ray from Canadian International Pictures via Vinegar Syndrome. [Read on here...]
Good afternoon, everyone! We’re well into the week before Christmas now and—as seems to be true every year—the period right around the holiday tend to be packed with review work, as all of the big fourth quarter titles keep rolling in. Last week was certainly that way, and this week is proving to be no different. So with that in mind, here’s a look at...
Stephen’s review of Gareth Edwards’ terrific sci-fi tale The Creator (2023) in 4K Ultra HD from 20th Century Studios via Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
Tim’s look at Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad (1987) in 4K Ultra HD form Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession: Collector’s Edition (1981) in 4K Ultra HD from Umbrella Entertainment, and ALF: The Complete Series on DVD from Shout! Factory.
Dennis’ take on Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel’s Deadgirl: 15th Anniversary Edition (2008) on Blu-ray from Dark Sky Films via Unearthed Films.
And Stuart’s thoughts on Georg Fenady’s Arnold (1973) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
Of course, that’s not all. We’re still working on several more new disc reviews that we hope to share before the Christmas holiday. For my own part, I’m currently checking out Umbrella Entertainment’s new Frank Herbert’s Dune & Children of Dune: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray box set, and I expect any time now have the new Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water – Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HDs in hand for review. So watch for those and more in the days ahead. [Read on here...]
All right, as you’ve probably seen here on The Digital Bits, I’ve now shared my thoughts on the 4K Digital remasters of James Cameron’s The Abyss, True Lies, and Aliens. These reviews have been shared after looking at each of the remasters as they currently appear on Vudu, Movies Anywhere, and Apple TV/iTunes, allowing for streaming quality variations in each. So if you’re interested in those, you’ll find my take on each via the title links provided in this paragraph.
Rest assured, I will also be reviewing the forthcoming 4K Ultra HD disc versions of those films, and the forthcoming Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water collector’s editions when they arrive. And the rest of The Bits team is working on a whole slate of disc reviews for next week and beyond… allowing of course for the usual holiday season distractions of family and the like.
Based on some of the interesting… I’ll generously call them conversations (but they’re more like angry bitch-fests)… on social media over the past couple weeks about some of these 4K titles, I’m also written a essay entitled A Word About Screenshots, Reviewing, and Trusting Opinions on the Internet that you can find over on The Digital Bits’ new Patreon page.
Not only is subscribing to our Patreon page a great way to support our work here at The Digital Bits—if you believe in it and find that it brings your enjoyment of physical media some value—it’s also becoming a great place to respectfully share your thoughts and ideas about these topics with like-minded people without risking getting attacked or worrying about having snark and scorn heaped upon you… and there’s definitely some value in that too. So please consider check it out, and know that we appreciate each and every one of you, our readers, regardless. [Read on here...]