Displaying items by tag: Criterion

The big news today is that Criterion has just announced their February slate of Blu-ray and DVD releases. It begins with Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson (Cat #853 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/7. Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Cat #854 – Blu-ray and DVD) follows on 2/14. Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (licensed from Sony – Cat #855 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Michael Curtiz’s noir masterpiece Mildred Pierce (licensed from Warner – Cat #860 – Blu-ray and DVD) arrive on 2/21. And I’m very pleased to say that the slate ends with Richard Linklater’s The Before Trilogy (also licensed from Warner and Sony – includes Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight – Cat #856 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 2/28. Each will have a significant assortment of bonus features, that you can read more about here. Our Criterion Spines Project page has been updated accordingly, and we’ve got a look at the cover artwork that’s available so far below.  [Read on here…]

We’re kicking the new week off today with Tim’s review of Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller on Blu-ray, now available from our friends at The Criterion Collection. And it appears they’ve done a terrific job, as you’d expect. Do give it a look.

It’s a slow news day today, but Sony has started taking pre-orders (via Amazon) for the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Inferno. Street date is TBA.  [Read on here…]

All right, we’ve got a couple interesting things for you today. First up, Sony unveiled its first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X1000ES, at the CEDIA Expo recently. It’s an ES Series reference unit that supports the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, BD-ROM, DVD Video, DVD Audio, CD, and SACD formats, as well as numerous video codecs compatible with Amazon Video, YouTube, etc. It can upscale content to 4K, features HDR compatibility and offers “a dedicated picture mode for HDR content – when playing 4K HDR content on a 4K SDR television the X1000ES utilizes a unique Sony algorithm to reproduce the proper brightness and color gradations to provide the best picture possible.” It’s compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS-X, plus has a “32-bit processing DAC compatible with both native DSD (at up to 11.2 MHz) and LPCM (at up to 192kHz) Hi-Res Music files, which are available in a number of different formats.”  [Read on here…]

Afternoon, folks. Hope you had a fine weekend. I’m been busy working on new Blu-ray and 4K reviews, the first of which I’m pleased to offer you now...

Here are my thoughts on Universal’s new Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection and The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection, which streeted last week and are now available. Both are good upgrades of the previous DVD box sets of the same name, but the value proposition for each is a little complicated. I should note that in order to review these sets, I had to purchase them at my own expense. Universal chose not to make them available for review. Meanwhile, I’m working on additional reviews for posting later and tomorrow, so stay tuned for those.  [Read on here…]

We’ve got three new Blu-ray reviews for you all to check out today, starting with Tim’s look at The Film Movement’s new Dementia 13, one of the first films directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It was also produced by Roger Corman. Do check it out. Also, I’ve turned in in-depth reviews of Criterion’s new Blu-ray edition of Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, as well as the first entry in Shout! Factory’s new Shout Selects line, The Adventure of Buckaroo Bandai Across the 8th Dimension. Both titles are well worth your time and money, so do give them a look.  [Read on here…]

All right, it’s been a crazy few days here at The Bits, so I’m just going to post a quick update today.

First up, I was down at San Diego Comic-Con last night for the premiere of Star Trek Beyond. Paramount put on a great event, and I really quite liked the film. It’s definitely better than Star Trek Into Darkness, and it’s very different in tone to either of the first two films. Think of it this way: It’s the biggest, most action-filled episode of The Original Series you’ve ever seen, for all the good and bad that implies. The key thing is that it’s fun. It has a decent (and novel) sci-fi concept for a change, the action is imaginative, all of the cast gets involved, and there are a ton of great character moments. Karl Urban’s Bones gets his biggest part yet and he really makes the most of it.  [Read on here…]

In announcement news today, Warner Home Video has set Shane Black’s The Nice Guys for Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 8/23, with the Digital HD release due 8/9. Extras will include a pair of featurettes (Always Bet on Black and Worst. Detectives. Ever.: Making The Nice Guys).

Universal has set Free State of Jones for Blu-ray, DVD, and On-Demand release on 9/20, with a Digital HD release due on 9/6. The only extras will be The History of Jones County featurette.  [Read on here…]

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We’ve got a pair of new reviews for you to start off the week: Our own Tim Salmons has turned in his thoughts on Universal’s Krampus and Jim Hemphill has taken a look at Shout! Factory’s Bad Influence, both of them on regular Blu-ray. Tim’s review also kicks off a new edition of Pick-Ups, in which he’ll have a new review for you each day this week. Do give them all a look.

Meanwhile today, we have a few new announcements...  [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.]

Welcome to a new week here at The Bits!  You may have noticed that we didn’t have a My Two Cents post on Friday and there was a very good reason for that, which I’ll good into in a moment. We did, however, post a pair of new disc reviews for you in case you missed them.

First, I offered my thoughts on Warner’s San Andreas in 4K UHD Blu-ray format. Also, Tim posted his thoughts on Arrow Video’s Society: Special Edition on regular Blu-ray Disc. And just today, our own Jim Hemphill has tuned in his two cents on the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, a magnificent film that I appreciate a little more every time I watch it, as delivered to Blu-ray by the fine folks at The Criterion Collection. All three titles are worth a look, so do check them out.  [Read on here…]

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We’ll be back later with our regular post, but this is just a quick heads-up: Amazon’s Blu-ray Deal of the Day is terrific one – none other than Criterion’s amazing 25-film Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Blu-ray/DVD box set! As you know if you’ve read our review here, this set is one of our all-time favorite releases on either format. And now you can get your hands on a copy for just $97.99 – 56% off the regular SRP! That's a great deal for a whole bunch of great films, so act fast if you want to take advantage. Today only! Click on title above, here, or on the image below to order on Amazon…  [Read on here…]