Displaying items by tag: The Digital Bits

Good morning, everyone. We’ve got two new disc reviews for you to check out this morning...

Stephen has taken an in-depth look at Tony Scott’s True Romance (1993) in 4K Ultra HD, as finally released here in the States by our friends at Arrow Video.

As it happens, Stephen has also checked out the US Blu-ray-only version of True Romance from Arrow, so pick your format and do give the title a look.

Today being a holiday here in the States, there’s not a ton of release news to report. But we do have a couple of quick items for you...

First, Kino Lorber Studio Classics revealed over the weekend that they’re working on a new 4K Ultra HD release of Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal (1993). That’s currently set to street on 9/27, complete with a new Dolby Vision HDR grade supervised by the director. [Read on here...]

We’re closing out the week with a trio of new disc reviews today, including...

Tim’s look at John McNaughton’s Wild Things (1998) in 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video.

Tim’s review of Francesco Barilli’s Hotel Fear (1979) on Blu-ray from Mono Macabro.

And Stephen’s thoughts on Makoto Shinkai’s animated Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) on Blu-ray from GKids via Shout! Factory.

By the way, we’ve also updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List and our Upcoming Cover Artwork sections here at The Bits with lots of new titles and Amazon.com pre-order listings.

In 4K Ultra HD catalog release news this afternoon, Severin Films has set Jess Franco’s Faceless (1978) for release on 8/30. [Read on here...]

We start today with a trio of new disc reviews...

Tim has taken a look at Daniel Espinosa’s Morbius on both Blu-ray Disc and 4K Ultra HD, both from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

And Dennis has offered his thoughts on Nicolas Roeg’s The Witches (1990) as released on Blu-ray by our friends at The Warner Archive Collection in 2019.

The big news today is that the Criterion Collection has announced their September Blu-ray and 4K slate, and it includes some gems as always. Look for an upgrade of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (Spine #462 – 4K Ultra HD) on 9/6, followed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s Take Out (Spine #1149 – Blu-ray) on 9/13, Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (Spine #1150 – Blu-ray and DVD) and an HD upgrade of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau (Spine #227 – Blu-ray) on 9/20, and Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 4 (Spine #1143-48 – includes Sambizanga, Prisioneros de la tierra, Chess of the Wind, Muna moto, Two Girls on the Street, and Kalpana – Blu-ray/DVD Combo) and Sound of Metal (Spine #1151 – 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD) on 9/27. [Read on here...]

We’ve got two more new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternoon...

Tim has turned in his thoughts on Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night (1967) in 4K Ultra HD from our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Tim has also taken a look at Robert Fuest’s The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), which are available in a new Blu-ray double feature also from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

In announcement news today, Universal has officially set Downton Abbey: A New Era for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 7/5. The 4K will include Dolby Atmos audio and Dolby Vision HDR. Extras will include audio commentary with director Simon Curtis, plus 6 featurettes (Good to Be Back, Return to Downton Abbey: The Making of a New Era, A Legendary Character, Creating the Film Within the Film, Spill the Tea (Time), and Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia). [Read on here...]

We’ve got just a quick news update for you today, as there’s one piece of significant release news that’s worth sharing this afternoon. But most of my day has been taken up by working on disc reviews, so I wanted to share some of those with you as well...

First, I’ve taken an in-depth look at Kate and Derek Burbidge’s The Police: Around the World (1983), a fan-favorite music documentary that takes you behind the scenes on the band’s 1979-80 world tour and has never been released on DVD much less Blu-ray until now. It’s been fully scanned and remastered from the original 16 mm negative for this release, complete with an editing polish and a new 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound mix to go with the original LPCM 2.0 stereo. Plus, the Blu-ray includes 17 minutes of never-before-seen concert footage as a bonus, along with a music CD of rare live performances as well. It’s definitely worth a look for fans of the band.

Also available today is Stephen’s review of Makoto Shinkai’s 2007 anime 5 Centimeters per Second, which is now available on Blu-ray from GKids via Shout! Factory. Shinkai is, of course, the filmmaker responsible for the more recent hits Your Name and Weathering with You. The disc also includes Shinkai’s Voices of a Distant Star (2002) as a bonus feature.

And finally, Dennis has offered his thoughts on John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972) which is coming to Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection later this month.

All three titles are well worth your time, so do give them a look. [Read on here...]

We’re finishing the week with several new disc reviews today, including my joint review (with our old friend Todd Doogan) of Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss (1955) on 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis has also turned in his thoughts on George Sidney’s The Three Musketeers (1948) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

And Stephen has delivered a look at John Ford’s The Horse Soldiers (1959) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, along with a music title: The Prince and the Revolution: Live – Collector’s Edition, a 3-LP, 2-CD, and Blu-ray box set which is exclusive to the Paisley Park Records webstore.

As always, more reviews are on the way next week, so be sure to check back for them.

I also wanted to take a moment this afternoon to talk about For All Mankind, which returns today for the start of its terrific third season on Apple TV+. I’ve talked about the series here at The Bits before. It’s essentially an alternate history of the manned space program, which attempts to answer the question: What if the Soviets had beaten NASA to the Moon in 1969? [Read on here...]

I’m about to dive back into disc reviewing here this afternoon, but before I do we have two new reviews for you this morning and a major piece of release news as well. First those reviews...

Stephen has checked in with his thoughts on a fascinating Russian fantasy film from 1956, Aleksandr Ptushko’s Ilya Muromets, which also happens to be the first Russian film in both anamorphic widescreen and color. Russian cinema is fascinating, and this film is no exception, so it’s definitely worth a look on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Stephen has also given Cy Endfield, Roger Corman, and Gordon Hessler’s De Sade (1969) a look on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, also a fascinating film from American International Pictures.

Now for that news... Marvel and Disney have just officially set Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release on 7/26, with the Digital release anticipated for 6/22. [Read on here...]

We’ve got a pair of new disc reviews for you to enjoy this afternon, starting with Stephen’s look at Makoto Shinkai’s The Place Promised n Our Early Days (2004) on Blu-ray from GKids via Shout! Factory

Also, Dennis has delivered his thoughts on Sony’s standard Blu-ray release of Jon Watts’ recent Spider-Man: No Way Home.

More reviews are on the way this week, so be sure to stay tuned for them.

Speaking of which, I wanted to take a moment to address the lack of reviews from yours truly in recent weeks. The reason is two-fold. First, I’ve been very focused on the upgrade to the Bits website, which has been long overdue and much needed. There’s a little more of that to go, but what’s been done already has resulted in a significant improvement in the site’s speed and functionality. [Read on here...]

Morning, folks! We’re checking in early here at The Bits today with some new disc reviews.

Over the weekend, I managed to turn out reviews of three new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook releases, including Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) from Paramount, and David Lean’s Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

It should be noted that the 4K Steelbook edition of Bridge on the River Kwai now includes Dolby Vision HDR and the original theatrical mono mix, both of which were missing from the 2017 4K release.

And this marks the first time Lawrence of Arabia has been available in 4K outside of Sony’s expensive (and long out-of-print) Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 1 box set from 2020, so this will likely be the first time many of you get to experience the film in 4K UHD at home (and let me tell you, that experience is terrific). [Read on here...]

Now it’s time to run down some of the major announcement news that’s broken over the past few days, and we have some real gems to report for you. Let’s start with 4K Ultra HD catalog news...

First up, our friends at Shout! and Scream Factory have just unveiled a great batch of new 4K Ultra HD titles for August release, including John Milius’ Red Dawn (1984) as a Shout Select 4K UHD release (a Collector’s Edition box with exclusive pins and a poster will also be available directly from the Shout! website) and new 4K UHD Collector’s Editions of Child’s Play, Child’s Play 2, and Child’s Play 3 on 8/16, followed by Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE on 4K Ultra HD on 8/30. You can see the cover artwork for these at left and below the break. Note that the release of Scream’s 4Ks of Cat People and The Funhouse have also been pushed back to 8/2 and 8/9 respectively (from 7/19 and 7/26).

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has now teased new 4K UHD releases of George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan (1989) and Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder (2008). Both are listed as “coming soon.” That last one is particularly interesting, as it’s part of a new content distribution deal the company has signed with Paramount Home Entertainment. The deal apparently includes some 65 titles in all on Blu-ray (8 of which are being released on disc for the first time), including 16 on 4K Ultra HD. Among these are old Republic titles, though reportedly none released previously by Olive Films. Given KLSC’s recent focus on Sergio Leone westerns, we think it’s a good bet that Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) will be among the 4K titles. [Read on here...]