Displaying items by tag: John Carpenter

All right, folks. This will be our last post until Wednesday next week, as it’s not only the long Labor Day weekend here in the States but by wife and I are also celebrating our thirty-second wedding anniversary. So we’re going to take a little time to relax here in sweltering-in-a-heatwave Southern California.

But, we’ve got a TON of release news to talk about, as well as a pair of new disc reviews to start things off today...

Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Gaspar Noe’s intriguing and doubly-experimental Lux Aeterna (2019) on Blu-ray from Yellow Veil Pictures via Vinegar Syndrome.

And Tim has posted his thoughts on Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter’s The Kindred (1987), now available in a new Special Edition Blu-ray release from Synapse Films.

And we’ve got lots more disc reviews coming over the weekend and early next week, so be sure to check back for them.

Meanwhile, our friends at Via Vision Entertainment down under are releasing a Saw: The Ultimate Collection 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray set on 11/9 that’s not only comes in an exclusive “reverse bear trap” replica, but is limited to just 1500 copies. The 13-disc set includes Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, Jigsaw, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, plus a Bonus Disc packed with extras. You can see the packaging at left. Be sure to visit their website here for all the details and to pre-order. [Read on here...]

All right, yesterday was a little crazy here at The Bits, what with Paramount finally dropping their long-awaited Star Trek 4K announcement. That deluxe Complete Adventure 4K package for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition was unexpected and frankly a fantastic surprise. But it’s worth a quick follow up today just to clarify everything...

The Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition: The Complete Adventure Limited Edition is a 3-disc set here in the States that includes the DE in 4K, a newly-authored 4K of the previously-released Theatrical Cut as well as the Special Longer Version (included via seamless branching), and a Blu-ray full of bonus content that I’m told includes basically everything ever created and released for the film on home video. (I’m awaiting confirmation of the exact contents from the studio.) But it does NOT include a Blu-ray of the DE itself, nor are Blu-rays of the Theatrical and SLV versions included. The DE is available separately on Blu-ray, and obviously the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray was included in the original 4-Movie Collection from last year.

To be 100% clear, the Special Longer Version is ONLY going to be available in The Complete Adventure package, and producer David C. Fein has said that it’s a genuine limited edition. Much like Sony’s recent Ghostbusters: Ultimate Collection, it’s very likely to sell out in pre-orders, and it’s NOT going to be re-released. So if you were planning to wait for Black Friday to pick it up at a discount, or you’re expecting some future “ultimate” 4K box that includes the TNG films as well all The Complete Adventure content, you’re likely to be disappointed. The new 4K disc with both the Theatrical Cut and the Special Longer Version on it is exclusive to this set and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Be sure to plan accordingly.

[Editor’s Note: It appears that the UK version of this set MAY be a 5-disc set, which includes the Blu-rays of The Director’s Edition and the Theatrical Cut. And its discs should be all-region.]  [Read on here...]

We’ve got a quick early news update for you here at The Bits this morning featuring a major new disc review and some great breaking title announcement news as well. First the review...

Tim has just weighed in with his thoughts on John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London: Limited Edition in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Arrow Video.

Sounds like it’s a loaded package, with best-ever image and sound quality for this film, so if you’re a fan you won’t want to miss it.

Now then, we’ve learned that Shout! and Scream Factory are just about to announce their May Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD slate, and it includes a trio of great and much-loved catalog titles in 4K Ultra HD. [Read on here...]

All right, it’s been a busy week here at The Bits so far and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover today.

First of all, sorry for the lack of daily updates. The reason is three-fold. First, we’ve been working on reviews here at the website—more on that in a moment. Second, we had 110° heat here in SoCal this past weekend, with which our AC could not keep up. That meant my home theater was close to 90°, which made reviewing unpleasant, plus there was the danger of power outages. The good news is that we’ve made up for it since the heat broke—again, more on that in a moment. (The bad news is that our skies this afternoon are an unnatural shade of apocalyptic yellow-orange due to the California wildfires, but that’s neither here nor there.) The third reason is more complicated.

We’ve been hearing from many of our readers based in the Netherlands that you’re unable to see The Bits website. The cause of this is that—apparently—a very large portion of the Internet’s DDoS attacks and cyber shenanigans either come from, or are routed through—Netherlands IP addresses. So our server team is working on a solution to block the riff-raff while allowing the rest of you actual readers to see the site. Please be patient while we sort it all out. Unfortunately, this kind of thing seems perfectly in keeping with the whole 2020 milieu. [Read on here...]

We’re kicking things off today with a new Blu-ray review from Dennis...

He’s taken a look at Jon Avnet’s Three Christs (2017) now on disc from IFC Films and Shout! Factory. The film stars Richard Gere, Peter Dinklage, Bradley Whitford, and Walton Goggins. Do give it a look.

Meanwhile today, Arrow Video US has announced its June 2020 Blu-ray slate, which is set to include François Reichenbach’s American as Seen by a Frenchman on 6/2, Harley Cokeliss’ Dream Demon and Tomu Uchida’s The Mad Fox on 6/23, and a new Limited Edition of Sergio Corbucci’s Django on 6/30.

From Arrow’s announcement: “The film is presented here in an exclusive new restoration with a wealth of extras including the newly restored bonus feature Texas Adios, which also stars Franco Nero, and was released as Django 2 in several territories.” [Read on here...]

We’ve got three more Blu-rays for you today, including...

Tim’s look at Stewart Raffill’s Mac and Me: Collector’s Edition (1988) from Shout! Factory.

David Steigman’s take on Albert Pynn’s Blast (1997) from MVD.

And Dennis Seuling’s thoughts on Desmond Davis’ British comedy Smashing Time (1967) from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

I’m also working on several new 4K Ultra HD reviews, which should start appearing later this afternoon, so do check back for those.

In announcement news, we have details on Liongate’s next Vestron Video Collector’s Series Blu-ray title, Maximum Overdrive. [Read on here...]

We’re kicking off the week with a pair of new Blu-ray reviews...

We start with David Steigman’s take on the William Castle classic The Tingler (1959), starring Vincent Price, now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.

We’ve also got David Seuling’s look at Robert M. Young’s The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982), as newly released on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

Both are worth a look, so check out the reviews and give them a shot.

Now then... in announcement news, we have a couple interesting things for you... [Read on here...]

We’re kicking off the new week with a new Blu-ray review and some announcement news too. First up, that review...

Our own Tim Salmons has checked in with his thoughts on Scream Factory’s new Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray release of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. Do check it out and watch for more reviews tomorrow.

Speaking of Scream Factory, the company has officially announced the extras you’ll find on their Of Unknown Origin Blu-ray on 5/22. Look for a new 2K scan from the interpositive, 3 new featurettes (The Origins of Unknown Origin, That Rat Movie, and Hey, Weren’t You in Scanners?), audio commentary director George P. Cosmatos and actor Peter Weller, theatrical trailers, and a still gallery.

In announcement news today, Paramount has revealed that they’re re-releasing Trading Places on Blu-ray on 6/12 in honor of its 35th anniversary. The same day, they’re also re-issuing Coming to America on the format in honor of its 30th anniversary. All the legacy extras will carry over and this time the discs will include a Digital Copy as well. [Read on here...]

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to follow us on Twitter @thedigitalbits @BillHuntBits and on Facebook here and here. And you can help support The Bits by pre-ordering Blu-rays and other items from Amazon through this link.]

All right... yesterday’s editorial column on the new 4K Ultra HD format was a lot of work as you can imagine, but I’ve been very gratified at the positive reaction to it. If you missed it, you can find it here. I’m going to have more 4K coverage and reviews soon, but I’m just trying to balance it all out with the regular Blu-ray news and whatnot.

On that score, we have a pair of new Blu-ray reviews for you to check out today, including Tim Salmons’ thoughts on The Zero Boys from Arrow Video, as well as Jim Hemphill’s take on In the French Style from Twilight Time. Both titles are now available and are well worth a look.

Also today, in case you missed it when we posted it earlier this week, our own Mario Boucher has delivered a great new Inside Cinema column on the subject of “Duelity” in modern cinema. I think you’ll find it well worth a read, so do check it out here.  [Read on here…]

Welcome to a new edition of Pick-Ups!

Thanks for joining me. This week I’m going to catch up on some horror/sci-fi/comedy releases that we’ve missed along the way.

It should be an interesting lot of titles to check out.

As usual, we’ll be rolling each review out one at a time all week, so be sure to check back for new ones.  [Read on here…]