Displaying items by tag: The Digital Bits

The big news today is going to make some of you very happy. The Criterion Collection has just unveiled its full July slate of Blu-ray titles, and it’s set to include the classic War of the Worlds! The full slate is as follows...

Look for Byron Haskin’s War of the Worlds (Spine #1037 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 7/7, the previously-announced Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits box set (Spine #1036 – includes The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death – Blu-ray only) and Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve (Spine #103 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 7/14, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (Spine #1038 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry (Spine #45 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 7/21. [Read on here...]

It’s kind of a slow news day today, but we do have some more disc reviews for you to check out...

Dennis has posted his thoughts on Franklin Gollings’ Connecting Rooms (1970) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. The film stars Bette Davis and Michael Redgrave.

Also, Tim has taken a look at Ovidio G. Assonitis’ Beyond the Door (1974) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

In announcement news today, Fox has set Chris Sanders’ The Call of the Wild for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 5/12. The 4K will include English Dolby Atmos, while the Blu-ray will feature DTS-HD MA. Extras on both will include 4 featurettes (Origins, The On-Set Experience, State of the Art, and The World of the Wild), along with a Digital-only featurette (A Man and His Dog). [Read on here...]

We’ve got a bit of fun news today, some release news and some other...

First up though, we also have a new disc review. Dennis has just turned in a look at director George Marshall’s classic Destry Rides Again (1939) now on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. It’s a classic western starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich that’s well worth your time.

And while we’re speaking of Criterion, that brings us to our first bit of release news, which is that Criterion has just announced a Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits Blu-ray box set (Spine# 1036), which is set to include The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), Enter the Dragon (1973), and Game of Death (1978). [Read on here...]

All right, we’re closing out another week in pandemic isolation with some new reviews and a bit more announcement news...

First up those reviews... Tim has checked in with a look at FIVE recent Blu-ray titles from our friends at Severin Films—running the gamut from Eurosleaze to erotic to the rarely-seen and undervalued—so here are his thoughts on Just Jaeckin’s Gwendoline (1984 – aka The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak), the Russian genre film Viy (1967), Jess Franco’s Cries of Pleasure (1983) and Night of Open Sex (1983), and Leopoldo Savona’s Byleth: The Demon of Incest (1972).

And yes, we recognize that some of these aren’t for the faint of heart or for mainstream audiences (particularly those titles we had to blank out the cover art on or Google advertising will flag it), but the range of cinema on disc is wide and far-reaching. There’s something for everyone. And they can’t all be Star Wars or Marvel films. So there you go. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got one more new Blu-ray review for you today, which is Dennis’ look at JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker from Disney. You can find that here. [A warning though: The review contains major spoilers for the film. Proceed with caution.]

Now then, our friends at Kino Lorber have announced a tons of great new Blu-ray catalog titles coming over the next few months. So let’s get right to it...

Starting on 5/5, look for Guy Hamilton’s An Inspector Calls (1954), Fred Coe’s A Thousand Clowns (1965) and Me, Natalie (1969), John Boulting’s Brighton Rock (1948), and Basil Dearden’s Pool of London (1951).

Following on 5/12, look for the Barbara Stanwyck Collection (including Internes Can’t Take Money (1937), The Great Man’s Lady (1942), and The Bride Wore Boots (1946) in a box set), the Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II (including Thunder on the Hill (1951), The Price of Fear (1956), and The Female Animal (1958) in a box set). [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got some more release news today and a follow-up on recent news as well...

First though, Tim has turned in his thoughts on Andrew Lane’s Jake Speed (1986), recently released on Blu-ray by Arrow Video.

Now them, first up today: I’ve officially confirmed with Universal Studios Home Entertainment that they have not officially announced the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws on 4K Ultra HD yet. HOWEVER... they will be doing so soon. So we’ll have the officially details for you when they do.

I guess this is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, or more likely there are simply a LOT of people who need to weigh in and approve such things before they get officially announced. Which we expect to happen soonish. [Read on here...]

The news today is brief, but we’ve got a couple things to report today...

First though, Tim has reviewed a couple of Blu-ray titles for you, including Universal’s Munster, Go Home! (1966) from Scream Factory and Bone Tomahawk (2015), a kind of western horror film from RLJ Entertainment starring Kurt Russell.

But the big news today is that Universal is releasing Steven Spielberg’s Jaws as a 45th Anniversary Edition on 4K Ultra HD on 6/2.

Of course, we first mentioned this title was coming many weeks ago here at The Bits. You can now consider the release almost—but not quite—official. [Read on here...]

The big news today is just breaking: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release a Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection of 6 films on 6/16.

Included will be Lawrence of Arabia, Ghandi, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Dr. Strangelove, Jerry Maguire, and A League of Their Own. They’ll come in a limited edition box set (only 8,000 unites) with a hardbound 80-book and lots of extras (over 30 hours in fact). Jerry Maguire and A League of Their Own were actually chosen by a poll of online consumers.

You can see the studio’s official promotional trailer for the release below... [Read on here...]

Well, last night I finished the Star Wars—all 11 films in 4K. Pretty good, I have to say. I guess the thing I was most surprised by, now that we know it’s a larger narrative—and that some of the films are admittedly better than others—is that it all works together so well. The larger narrative does fit together pretty nicely. Admittedly, the sequel films feel a little more distant from the original trilogy than the prequels do, but visually and tonally they’re actually closer in spirit. Anyway, it’s an interesting experience and one I’m glad I waited for 4K to have. The films have never looked or sounded better, imperfect though some of them are.

All right, let’s have a news post, shall we?

First up here today, Tim has just turned in a review of Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space on 4K Ultra HD from RLJ Entertainment. It’s an interesting film (and a solid disc) that’s worth a look. You’ll find that here. [Read on here...]

Afternoon, folks! I hope you’re all well (and staying safe from the zombie plague and whatnot).

This is just a quick update to say that we’ll be back with our normal news posts, reviews, and regular site business tomorrow.

You may have seen that I finished my in-depth review of the complete Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga 4K Ultra HD box set yesterday here at The Bits—every film, every disc, and every extra.

The lack of news updates is due to the fact that—having finally completed my review—I’ve now begun a multi-day marathon of all 11 films. Because that’s really what this is all about, isn’t it? [Read on here...]