Displaying items by tag: Spartacus 4K

All right, we’ve got some good announcement news to report here today, but first as always we have a TON of new disc reviews to share with you…

I’ve turned in my looks at Victor Fleming’s Gone with the Wind (1939) in 4K UHD from Warner Bros. (with an assist by the late, great Barrie Maxwell), Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen (1967) in 4K UHD from Arrow Video, and Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025) in 4K UHD from Universal.

Stephen has begun—and is continuing—his epic in-depth reviews of all the films in Criterion’s The Complete Kubrick box set, which so far include Killer’s Kiss (1955), The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960) in 4K Ultra HD.

And let me tell you, as someone who’s recently had the chance to compare Criterion’s 4K disc of 2001: A Space Odyssey (which features encoding by the great David Mackenzie of Fidelity in Motion) to Warner’s 4K release, there’s definitely an upgrade here.

Tim’s offered his take on W. Lee Wilder’s The Snow Creature (1954) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, Sébastien Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn (2026) and Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire (1994) in 4K UHD from Warner Bros., and Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991) in 4K UHD from Criterion.

Dennis’ has delivered his thoughts on John Huston’s We Were Strangers (1949) on Blu-ray from Imprint Films and John Guillerman’s Death on the Nile (1978) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics (with an assist by Tim).

And Todd have taken a look at Ting Shan-His’s Blood Reincarnation (1974) and Julie Pacino’s I Live Here Now (2025) both on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, as well as Chris Noonan’s Babe (1995) and George Miller’s Babe: Pig in the City (1998) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

More reviews are definitely forthcoming, including additional titles from Stephen’s exploration of The Complete Kubrick box, my joint review of Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949) in 4K UHD from Criterion with Todd Doogan, and more. So be sure to keep checking back. [Read on here...]

Well... what a fu@%ing year the last week has been here in the States. Here’s hoping the new week fares a little better.

We begin it with a little bit of 4K Ultra HD release news, and some new reviews too.

Let’s get to the reviews first...

Our very own Tim Salmons has checked out Michael Curtiz’s King Creole (1958), a classic Elvis title now on Blu-ray from Paramount. Sounds like this one is a little better than To Catch a Thief was, but it does seem that the Paramount Presents line is off to a bit of a rough start. Here’s hoping the studio gets it together on these.

Tim has also posted reviews of John Hughes’ Sixteen Candles (1984) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video and Norman Z. McLeod’s Alice in Wonderland (1933) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Do give them a look. [Read on here...]

All right, we’re working on a bunch of things today, but we wanted to chime in quickly with this...

Universal is officially bringing The Blues Brothers, Jaws, and Back to the Future to 4K Ultra HD this year. We’ve been saying that the titles were coming for a while now (because we knew that from our industry sources) and we’ve had the titles listed in our 4K Ultra HD Release List for months.

But I’ve now gotten the studio to confirm on the record that Jaws and Blues Brothers are indeed coming to the format this year (BTTF was confirmed last year). Street date is still TBA, but expect them likely this summer.

I’ve also gotten the studio to confirm that what you see at left is indeed the final 4K cover artwork for John Landis’ The Blues Brothers on the format. [Read on here...]

All right, there’s not a whole lot going on today news-wise, so we’re busy working on new disc reviews.

But we did want to check in briefly with a new interesting odds and ends.

To start with, we have a sneak peek at temp cover artwork from our retail sources (in Europe in this case) for Universal’s Spartacus and Jaws on 4K Ultra HD, which are expected to street widely in June or July (street date TBA). You can see Jaws at left and both of them below. This should be close to final, but know that it’s not actually final until the studio officially announces the titles.

Also coming from Universal on 6/2 (only at Best Buy stores in the US) is a new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook version of Ron Howard’s Apollo 13. You also can see that below. [Read on here...]

All right, many of you have asked about (or otherwise understandably bemoaned) the lack of big or significant announcements relating to catalog films on 4K Ultra HD lately. So today’s update here at The Digital Bits is about addressing that concern.

And while we still have little in the way of official announcements at the moment, I can confidently report that at least some of titles you’re waiting for are on the way in 2020.

The information in today’s post should be considered unofficial until the studios in question make their actual announcements. But we believe it to be a reliable gauge of titles currently in the production pipeline or planning stages.

First, we know for sure that Disney is going to be releasing Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on 4K coinciding with the Blu-ray and 4K release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, likely in March. [Read on here...]