Displaying items by tag: Shout! Factory

All right, we’ve got a screaming new server for The Bits now – just a few little DNS issues here and there need to be worked out and we’ll be completely back to normal.  Let us know on The Bits Facebook page if you notice anything amiss.  And thanks again for your patience.

First up here at The Bits today, we’ve got a pair of new Blu-ray Disc reviews for you:  Tim Salmons has checked in with his thoughts on Disney’s disappointing new The Sword and the Stone: 50th Anniversary Edition.  Sadly, it looks like the studio dropped the ball on the remastering.  And our own Todd Doogan has turned in his two cents on Michael Bay’s new Pain & Gain on Blu-ray from Paramount.  As with the case with Star Trek Into Darkness, it appears you get great A/V quality and bupkis for extras – in this case (given the apparent lack of retail exclusive versions) it probably means a double-dip is in the offing.  Anyway, enjoy the reviews.  [Read on here…]

Quick important note:  Because of all the extra traffic this week, we’re going to be upgrading our server this evening to be able to handle these kinds of traffic spikes more easily.  We may be down for a couple hours later tonight but we should be back up by tomorrow morning better than ever.  Certainly by Monday, Scotty tells us that the warp core should be purring like a kitten again.  So thanks for your patience and know that things will be much better soon.

Now then, there’s big release news today…

Our friends at Kino Lorber have announced their November Blu-ray and DVD release slate and there are some real gems, including a Nosferatu: 2-Disc Deluxe Remastered Edition (DVD & Blu-ray) and a Russian Ark: Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray and DVD) on 11/19!  F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu will include two versions of the 1922 classic, the original German Intertitles (with optional English subs) or English Intertitles, Hans Erdmann’s original 1922 score in 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Stereo, the 53-minute The Language of Shadows documentary chronicling Murnau’s early career, clips and highlights from other Murnau films and a photo gallery.  Features on Russian Ark are still TBA.  [Read on here…]

Well... I guess it’s been a while since we went on a good old fashioned Blu-ray or DVD related rant, so yesterday’s post here at the site was probably going to happen sooner or later.  As longtime readers know, it wouldn’t be The Digital Bits without such rants every once in a while – we’ve been doing it since 1997.  But I still think what I said needed saying.  Whenever we go on rants here at The Bits, it’s for a good reason – because in our experienced point of view, something is amiss.  And after more than 16 years of working in and around the home video industry (not to mention having correctly predicted and advised our readers through two format wars), we certainly have that experience.  [Read on here…]

Our topic today was prompted by a conversation I had after my dear friend Bill Thrash’s funeral a couple of weeks ago.  His surviving sister told me that when my pal, about whom I thought I knew everything, was 16, around 1954, in the small southeastern Oklahoma town of Ada, he commandeered a shitload of dimes and tried, to the very best of his ability, to call his hero, Frank Sinatra.

I started thinking then about how many of us have attempted to be in touch with our favorite movie star, director, producer, writer, composer or author?  I used to do that very thing a lot when I was single and bored.

Here are two stories that are so personal that I’ve never written about them before...  [...]

All right, first up today, our own Russell Hammond has posted the Release Dates & Artwork update for this week, including all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links.  As always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon after clicking through to them from our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we surely do appreciate it.  We’d also like to send out a special nod to Russell this afternoon, as he became a proud papa again last night.  Congratulations to the whole family!

Also here at The Bits today, our own Dr. Adam Jahnke has turned in a new installment of Burnt Offerings covering all the latest MOD DVD-R release news for the week.  As part of the fun, he’s also reviewed Warner Archive’s awesome new DVD release, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels: The Complete Series – classic Saturday morning fare if ever there was such.  I can hear his club-raised battle cry now.  Enjoy!

Now then, in announcement news today…  […]

Afternoon, folks!  Let’s run down some today’s announcement news...

Lionsgate has officially announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of Mad Men: Season Six on 11/5 (SRP $49.97 and $49.98).  Extras will include 6 featurettes (Design of a Decade, Recreating an Era, Gay Power!, Gay Pride!, Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out and Summer of Love Archives) and more TBA.  Love the cover artwork – you can see it below.

Also CBS has announced that they’ll release Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Five on Blu-ray Disc on 11/19 (SRP $129.99).  It will include all 26 episodes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, episode promos and all the previous DVD features, another multi-part documentary (Requiem: A Remembrance of Star Trek: The Next Generation) and the In Conversation: The Klingons and What He Left Behind: The Roddenberry Legacy featurettes.

Also coming from CBS on 11/19 is Star Trek: The Next Generation – Unification (SRP $28.28), which (as was the case with The Best of Both Worlds and Redemption) will feature the 2-part episode edited into a movie version along with a new exclusive documentary called From One Generation to the Next.  You’ll find the cover art for both of these titles below as well.  [...]

The Only Game In Town

Here’s the first time I ever stumbled upon a film set – my family and my eight year old bad self had driven from Purcell, Oklahoma to San Antonio, Texas to attend the HemisFair ’68, a wing ding of a World’s Fair (do those still exist?) which featured H.R. Pufnstuf as its mascot and the Tower of the Americas as its symbol of both American and Texas ingenuity and, as I remember, a heck of a place to eat while slowly spinning above the earth.

All right, we’ve got a couple things for you today.  First though, we promised you details on our Comic-Con panel next week, so here goes…

Next Thursday afternoon (7/18 – from 4-5 PM in Room 5AB of the San Diego Convention Center), The Digital Bits crew will return to Comic-Com to host our annual Blu-ray/DVD Producers panel event!  Here’s the most updated description of the panel (as it would be featured in the Comic-Con catalog – except that this is the latest and correct list of panelists):

<<4-5  The Digital Bits Presents Blu-ray Producers 2013 – Join Bill Hunt, Adam Jahnke and Todd Doogan of The Digital Bits.com as they host a panel discussion with leading independent and indie studio producers of Blu-ray extras.   Panelists will include Brian Ward and Cliff MacMillan (from Shout! and Scream Factory), Charles de Lauzirika (Pain & Gain, Prometheus, The Amazing Spider-Man), Robert Meyer Burnett (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Cliff Stephenson (Escape Plan, The Vatican Tapes, The Hunger Games).  We’ll be talking about great upcoming and unannounced titles, we may show teaser clips and we really want to get a lively Q&A session going with the audience, so be sure to bring lots of BD & DVD-related questions!  Room 5AB>>

Seriously, is there anything more gloriously American than the singing cowboy?  A white hat-wearing, square-jawed male specimen equipped with a sharp aim, a stout heart and a dramatic tenor, the performance of which would cause even a tone deaf villain to tip his hat?

We seem to have the singing cowboy on our minds here in Oklahoma – Roy and Dale were actually married in Davis, and Ol’ Gene has an entire town that bears his moniker – the only such in America named for a movie star. 

But today it is not of the first team we speak – no, our long legged guitar pickin’ men also enjoyed “B” picture status and played for teams bearing names such as Monogram.  We speak today of Oklahoma born Jimmy Wakely, whose cinematic exploits have recently been released in wonderful box sets from Warner Archive.