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Monday, 23 March 2020 15:06

Bad Boys for Life, Sonic the Hedgehog, Onward, Bloodshot, Birds of Prey, Goonies 4K art & more

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All right, we’re starting a new week here at The Bits and it’s going to be an interesting one. And we do have a little bit of release news to report.

Before we get to that though, we have three new Blu-ray reviews for you to enjoy today...

Dennis has turned in his thoughts on René Clair’s The Flame of New Orleans (1941) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis has also turned in his own thoughts on Sam Mendes’ 1917 on Blu-ray from Universal (I reviewed the 4K Ultra HD disc here at The Bits last week).

And Tim has checked in with a look at John Waters’ Polyester (1981), which was released on Blu-ray by Criterion late last year. So enjoy all three! [Read on here...]

CLICK HERE to BACK THE BITS in our fight to preserve Physical Media Shopping on Amazon? START HERE!

While we’re the subject of reviews, many of you have asked if we’re going to be reviewing the new Star Wars 4K discs in the next couple of weeks. The answer is 100% yes, each and every disc and in-depth. But here’s the thing: We don’t actually know when we’re going to get our hands on them. The shipment of screener product from the studios has been impacted by the coronavirus lockdowns around the country, so there are likely to be many delays. And I suspect even shipments of final product to retailers is going to be impacted, so it will be interesting to see how many stores actually have discs on street date (3/31).

The bottom line is that our 4K review product may get here tomorrow, or it might get here after street. Regardless, you can be sure that we’re going to review these discs with a fine-tooth comb, talk quality (especially compared to the recent Disney+ streams) and we’re going to let you know exactly what extras are included, what carries over from previous disc releases and what doesn’t.

By the way, this also means that other screener product is likely to be impacted too. But we’re not going to stop reviewing, because we know there are lots of you stuck at home looking for things to read and watch. So we’ll go back through recent titles and maybe even look at a few older ones too. And as always, if you can help support our work by buying literally anything after clicking to Amazon though one of our links (like this one) or supporting us via PayPal (click here for that), we surely appreciate it.

Now then... let’s get to what news there is today...

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially set Bad Boys for Life for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 4/21, with the Digital release coming on 3/31. Audio will be DTS:X on the 4K, with video mastered from a 2K DI with HDR10 high dynamic range. Extras will include extended and alternate scenes (including an alternate ending), outtakes and bloopers, 3 featurettes (Ride or Die: Making Bad Boys for Life, Partners in Crime: Behind-the-Scenes, and It’s About Time), and Easter eggs. You can see the cover artwork above left.

Paramount has set moved Sonic the Hedgehog’s Digital release up to 3/31, with the Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD releases still set for 5/19. The film actually features a native 4K Digital Intermediate and the 4K disc will include Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range with Dolby Atmos audio. Extras on all versions will include commentary by director Jeff Fowler and Ben Schwartz, deleted scenes, bloopers, the Speed Me Up music video, and 5 featurettes (Around the World in 80 Seconds, For the Love of Sonic, Building Robotnik with Jim Carrey, The Blue Blur: Origins of Sonic, and Sonic on Set).

Many of you are already aware that Disney and Pixar have made Onward available for early Digital purchase viewing this past weekend. It will also arrive on Disney+ early next month (4/3 to be exact). The physical disc release is still expected in May or early June (street date is TBA, but tentatively 6/9).

Meanwhile, Sony’s Bloodshot is also likely due on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K on 6/9 per our retail sources.

It appears that Fox’s Call of the Wild will arrive on 5/19.

And Warner’s Birds of Prey and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War for both set for disc release on 5/19.

We’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits with all of this information accordingly.

In other news today, our industry sources have informed us that Vinegar Syndrome has inked a deal with MGM to distribute rare catalog titles on Blu-ray and DVD, including a number of titles that have never been released on Blu-ray before. We expect them to make an official announcement any time now so we’ll let you know when they do.

Finally today, while we’re still awaiting an official street date (reportedly in June per our sources), here’s a look at the final cover artwork for Warner’s forthcoming 4K Ultra HD release of Richard Donner’s The Goonies.

The Goonies (4K Ultra HD)

That’s all for now. Back tomorrow with more. Stay tuned (and stay safe)!

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