Items filtered by date: January 2023

As I mentioned at the end of today’s early My Two Cents update here at The Bits, I wanted to take a few moments this afternoon to talk about Star Trek: Picard – Season Three.

I had the good fortunate and great pleasure of attending Paramount’s official premiere screening event (last Thursday evening) for the new season at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Nearly the entire cast of the series was on hand, along with many crew members, Star Trek luminaries, and frankly scores of industry-insider Trekkies, many of whom I’m known for twenty-five years. At this event—following in-person introductions by Patrick Stewart, series co-creator Alex Kurtzman, and Season Three showrunner Terry Matalas—the first two episodes of the new season were shown to an overwhelmingly positive reaction. This was followed by an off-the-hook after party at the Roosevelt Hotel, where everyone got well-lubed while discussing what they’d just seen.

My original plan, after taking in all of this, was to come back here on The Bits the following morning to tell you all about it. But the experience of seeing those two episodes on the big screen was frankly kind of overwhelming. And I really needed to process what I’d seen for a bit first. Then, I was offered press access to screen more episodes and naturally I dropped everything to do just that. So not only have I now seen six of the season’s ten episodes, I have a much better handle on the quality of this new season, and what it means for Star Trek fans. [Read on here...]

We’ve got several new disc reviews for you to kick things off this morning...

Tim has taken a look at Daniel Haller’s HP Lovecraft adaptation The Dunwich Horror (1970), which is new on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

Stuart has checked out Hugo Fregonese and Piero Pierotti’s Marco Polo (1962) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis has reviewed Richard Wilson’s Raw Wind in Eden (1958) on Blu-ray, also from KLSC.

And Stephen has offered his thoughts on Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges (2008) on 4K Ultra HD from KLSC, as well as Robert Eggers’ The Northman (2022) in 4K UHD from Universal.

We’ve also got some great release news for you today, starting with this: The good folks at the Criterion Collection have just unveiled their May release slate, which is set to include upgrades of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (Spine #490 – 4K UHD) on 5/2 and Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill (Spine #39 – 4K UHD) on 5/9, Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets (Spine #1179 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/18, Céline Sciamma’s Petite maman (Spine #1181 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/23, and Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (Spine #1180 – 4K UHD and Blu-ray) on 5/30.

You can read more about all these here, and you can see the cover art below. Our Criterion Spines Project pages here at The Bits have been updated accordingly. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a bunch of interesting release news to report here at The Bits this afternoon...

First, CBS and Paramount Home Entertainment have set Cheers: The Complete Series for release on Blu-ray Disc on 4/25 (SRP $129.99). This will be a 33-disc box set that includes all 270 episode of the series’ 11 seasons. You can see the cover artwork at left and also below.

While we’re on the subject of Paramount, retail and distributor sources are confirming that the studio will be releasing Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (1998) on 4K Ultra HD in the coming months. This is in addition to The Italian Job (2003) and Shooter (2007), which we’ve mentioned previously. We believe the street date for Deep Impact will be sometime in May, but that’s still TBD.

Fans of classic Western TV series will also be pleased to know that CBS and Paramount are finally planning to release Bonanza: The Complete Twelfth Season and a Bonanza: The Complete Series box set soon, all on DVD. Street dates for those are TBA as well, but both are already listed in some online retailer databases. We would assume that The Complete Thirteenth Season and The Complete Fourteenth Season will follow on DVD eventually too. [Read on here...]

Morning, everyone! We’re kicking off the new week with some great news here at The Digital Bits...

We’re very pleased today to welcome a new member to our coterie of film and disc reviewers—the acclaimed film historian, essayist, and author Stuart Galbraith IV!

If you’re a cinephile, no doubt you’re well acquainted with Stuart’s work already, but here’s a little background.

After graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, Stuart worked as an archivist for the USC-Warner Bros. Archives and eventually MGM.

In 2002, he published the first English-language biography of director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune entitled The Emperor and the Wolf, a book that’s been a part of my own library here at The Bits for years, and one that I can’t recommend more highly.

This of course is one of several books Stuart has written about Japanese cinema, which include Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films (1994) and Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films (1998) among others. [Read on here...]

We’ve got no less than four new disc reviews for you today, starting with...

Stephen’s looks at Valerio Zurlini’s Le Soldatesse (1965) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber and Raro Video, Robert Siodmak’s The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics, and Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield: 15th Anniversary Limited Edition in 4K Ultra HD Steelbook from Paramount.

And our old friend Dr. Adam Jahnke and yours truly have taken a look at John Sturges’ classic Western, The Magnificent Seven (1960), coming soon on 4K Ultra HD from Shout! Factory.

Be sure to watch for more new disc reviews over the coming days.

Now then, it seems to be a rather slow day in terms of title announcements and new disc release news, but we do have one interesting item for you... [Read on here...]

Well! Only a few days after sharing your first look at the cover artwork for Paramount’s forthcoming 4K Ultra HD releases of the Star Trek: The Next Generation feature films, we’ve got another piece of Star Trek 4K news to share with you, but this time on the TV front…

Paramount has just officially set Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season One for 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release on 5/16!

Keep in mind, Season One of the series is already set to street on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/21. That Blu-ray release is expected to include over 90 minutes of special features.

Among them will be a trio of documentary featurettes (Pike’s Peak, World Building, and Exploring New Worlds), audio commentary on the pilot episode by Anson Mount and Akiva Goldsman, deleted scenes, and a gag reel. [Read on here...]

We start today with a new disc review: Stephen’s look at Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night (2022) on Blu-ray from Universal Pictures.

We’re all working on more new disc reviews here at The Bits, including myself and including 4K titles. But of course, there’s been quite a lot of release news to cover recently, which tends to derail my own review efforts a bit.

Still, the good news is: I’m excited to say that we’re adding a terrific new staff reviewer here at The Digital Bits, and I’ll have a lot more to say about that in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, we have a bit of new release news to report on today, starting with this: Lionsgate has officially set Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on 3/14. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a LOT of ground to cover today for you 4K Ultra HD catalog fans, especially those of you who like new cover artwork (because we’ve got a bunch for it for you). But first as always, we’ve got a couple more new disc reviews for you to check out...

First, Dennis has checked out Sidney Lanfield’s Sorrowful Jones (1949) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Tim has also reviewed Rafael Romero Marchent’s Santo vs Dr. Death (1973) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Now then, let’s get to come 4K catalog news. We’ll start with a quickie: Our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics have confirmed over the weekend that they’re working on a 4K UHD release of Stephen King’s Cujo (1983), as directed by Lewis Teague. As usual, look for the new master to include a Dolby Vision HDR grade.

Any Star Trek fans in the house? Well, we have your first look at the 4K Ultra HD cover artwork for Paramount’s forthcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation catalog films: Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998), and Nemesis (2002). [Read on here...]

We’re finishing the week off with a trio of new disc reviews here at The Bits...

Tim has reviewed another film in Arrow’s Shawscope: Volume One Blu-ray box set, specifically Chang Cheh and Hsueh Li Pao’s The Boxer from Shantung (1972).

Stephen has taken a look at Todd Haynes’ music documentary The Velvet Underground (2021) on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

And Stephen and yours truly have given Ryan Coogler’s latest MCU installment Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) a spin on 4K Ultra HD from Marvel and Disney.

In terms of catalog release news today, our retail sources are reporting that Paramount will be bringing F. Gary Gray’s The Italian Job (2003) remake and Antoine Fuqua’s Shooter (2007)—a wide-release Amaray, as the film was released as a 4K Steelbook last year—to Ultra HD likely on 5/16. We’ve confirmed that Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (1998) is coming to 4K as well in the next few months (street date is TBD). [Read on here...]

All right, Bits-ers... we’re checking in early this morning with more breaking news. But first as always, we have some new disc reviews for you...

First, Stephen has taken a look at Yves Boisset’s The Cop (1970) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Stephen has also taken a deep-dive into Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow (2014 – aka Live Die Repeat) in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

As always, more reviews are forthcoming, so be sure to stay tuned for them.

Now then, let’s get to that news: As we first reported here at The Digital Bits back on 12/6 (with follow ups on 12/20 and 1/4, not to mention the first hint way back in 2020), Paramount Home Entertainment has just officially announced the Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD, and Limited Edition 4K UHD Steelbook release of Matthew Robbins’ Dragonslayer (1981) on 3/21! [Read on here...]