Items filtered by date: September 2016

Today is just a quick post given the Halloween holiday we all know and love. But, we do have a couple things for you today...

First up, our own Tim Salmons has turned in a review of Epic Picture’s Tales of Halloween anthology on Blu-ray! Sounds like it’s pretty terrific, so do check it out.

Also today, Michael Coate has turned in another new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Bits, and this is a fun one: He’s looking back in celebration of Willard Huyck’s Howard the Duck on its 30th Anniversary! The column features release details and trivia, as well as a listing of first-run theaters, and even a roundtable discussion with film historians Caseen Gaines, Scott Mendelson, and John Wilson. Don’t miss it!  [Read on here…]

“It’s hard to tell who the movie is for. It’s too childish for adults and too provocative and snarky for kids.” — Film historian/author Caseen Gaines

The History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Digital Bits typically celebrates popular and significant motion pictures and TV series. Periodically, though, we will look back at unpopular or maligned productions to examine if the passage of time warrants a reevaluation. So with this in mind, The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective for Howard the Duck on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

Howard the Duck, based upon the 1970s Marvel comic book series, starred Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, All the Right Moves), Tim Robbins (Bull Durham, The Shawshank Redemption) and Jeffrey Jones (Amadeus, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and featured a talking, cigar-chomping duck from another planet that is zapped across the galaxy to Cleveland where he meets a musician who attempts to help him return home.  [Read on here...]

All right, in case you thought we missed posting content yesterday…

There was no Friday news post, but we did post no less than four Blu-ray reviews, including my detailed thoughts on Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray 3D format! The short of it is that the 3D presentation is pretty good, the J.J. Abrams commentary is pretty great, and the set definitely better than the original release. But I do wish that they’d create a truly comprehensive special edition look at the making of this film.  [Read on here…]

Welcome to a new edition of Pick-Ups!

I hope you’re all enjoying your various Halloween marathons, parties, and other activities. I’ve been busy getting a lot of reviews ready as this has been a heavy couple of months for horror releases, as I’m sure you already know. I know I won’t get to all of it before the month is out, but I’ll get to as many of them as I can. I have some good titles lined up for the rest of this week and, hopefully, we won’t have a repeat of Friday and we can stay on schedule.

Anyways, let’s move on to some reviews. [Read on here…]

We have two more reviews for you to enjoy today, including Jim’s take on Guy Hamilton’s Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins from Twilight Time and Tim’s thoughts on Waxwork/Waxwork II: Lost in Time from Lionsgate’s new Vestron Video Collector’s Series. Both are well worth a look, so be sure to check out the reviews.

Meanwhile, know that I’m going to be spending the next few days working my way through a stack of new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and regular Blu-rays in order to post reviews here on The Bits, including some major 3rd and 4th quarter releases. And yes… you can expect that Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D – Collector’s Edition will be among them. So keep checking back for those as I knock them out. [Read on here…]

We’ve got just a quick update for you today, as we’re busy working on site upgrades...

First up, we have a pair of new Blu-ray reviews for you this afternoon. Tim has checked out Scream’s outstanding The Exorcist III: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and found it more than worth the wait. Also, Jim Hemphill offers his thoughts on Abel Ferrara’s Napoli Napoli Napoli from Raro Video. Do give them both a look.  [Read on here…]

Morning, folks!

After Friday’s web issues (which continued yesterday), we’re back with a normal daily news post here at The Bits and also some new disc reviews. But we’re going to be doing some additional work all this week to try and make some improvements to the server. So updates over the next few days may be a little spotty. However, we’re working on lots of new disc reviews, including Independence Day: Resurgence and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on 4K Ultra HD which we hope to post later this week.  [Read on here…]

Welcome to a new edition of Pick-Ups!

More Halloween goodness on the way. This past week, we finally managed to get up all of our decorations, which was a huge job, both inside and outside the house. We’ve also been watching a ton of Halloween-related movies, like I’m sure most of you have. It’s certainly more appealing than keeping up with the current election, that’s for sure.

Anyways, don’t forget that both Turner Classic Movies and IFC are showing a ton of great horror movies this month. Not to be outdone, you may want to check out what AMC is doing this month as well. There’s certainly plenty of options in the horror department.

Anyways, let’s move on to some reviews. [Read on here…]

We’ve got another trio of disc reviews for you today, including my take on Sony’s Ghostbusters (2016) on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format and Shout! Factory’s new Nighthawks: Collector’s Edition (1981) on Blu-ray, which is one of the company’s new Shout Select titles. Whatever else you think of the Ghostbusters remake, Sony has included Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and Digital HD versions in the same package with the 4K without increasing the price - I wish more studios would do this. And fans of Nighthawks will be pleased to learn that the film’s soundtrack has been restored to include both The Rolling Stone’s Brown Sugar and Keith Emerson’s I’m a Man during the club scene. Meanwhile, Tim Salmons has also reviewed Entertainment One’s WNUF Halloween Special on good old DVD. Don’t miss them.  [Read on here…]

Today’s update is quick one, as we’re doing a lot of disc review work here this week.

To wit... our own Tim Salmons has just checked in with his thoughts on Shout! and Scream Factory’s new limited edition Blu-ray titles, including Message from Space, The Velvet Vampire, and Time Walker. They’re only available from the Shout! website and are limited to 1,000 copies each. Do give the reviews a look. Message from Space in particularly is worth your time.  [Read on here…]