Displaying items by tag: Krzysztof Kieślowski

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...]

The big news today is that Walt Disney Animation Studios has just officially announced the first title in Disney’s planned 100th anniversary celebration this year. Mickey & Minnie: 10 Classic Shorts – Volume 1 will arrive on Blu-ray/DVD Combo on 2/7. Unfortunately, we don’t have the complete list of shorts yet (it wasn’t included in the press release—we have requested the details) but we do know this much:

“Included is the iconic Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon with synchronized sound, in which the character of Mickey Mouse was first introduced as a deckhand on a riverboat commanded by the tyrannical Captain Pete. Also included are Brave Little Tailor, featuring Mickey as a medieval tailor given a daunting task. In Mickey’s Delayed Date, the tardy mouse relies on his faithful pup Pluto to get him to a dance with Minnie. Hawaiian Holiday finds Mickey and his pals vacationing on a beautiful island. Then along with friends, Mickey and Minnie glide through a romantic date on a frozen river in On Ice. And catch five more delightful stories in this legacy collection.”

[Editor’s Update: Here are the other 5 shorts included in this release: Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip, Figaro and Frankie, Bath Day, Thru the Mirror, and The Little Whirlwind.]

You can see the cover artwork above-left. [Read on here...]

Morning, folks! We’ve got an early update here on The Bits today with a few more new disc reviews, and some interesting release news as well. First, those reviews...

I’ve just completed a look at Universal’s new E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: 40th Anniversary Edition 4K Ultra HD release, which came out a few weeks ago. It’s interesting in that both the 4K and accompanying Blu-ray are completely new discs, each of which carries over all the extras from the previous 35th Anniversary release while adding a couple of new features too. A/V quality is essentially the same as before, though the 4K disc is now a BD-100, presumably to allow for the addition of the special features. You can learn more here.

Tim has also just completed a review of Harry Essex’s I, the Jury (1953) which is now available in 4K from ClassicFlix. The package includes a Blu-ray as well, featuring the film in HD and also 3D. And he’s posted a review of Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980) in 4K from Kino Lorber Studio Classics for your reading enjoyment too.

More reviews are forthcoming soon, including my take on Criterion’s new 4K Ultra HD release of WALL-E from Pixar.

Also here at the site this morning, we’d like to call your attention to Michael Coate’s retrospective look at Steven Spielberg’s sci-if classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which celebrated its 45th anniversary yesterday. Michael shared a great Q&A with film historians on the occasion of its 40th anniversary in 2017, and that discussion is well worth checking out if you missed it then. You’ll also find interesting details on the film’s original theatrical release. Enjoy! [Read on here...]

As promised, we’re checking back in today with another trio of new disc reviews…

First, I’ve just posted my thoughts on Clint Eastwood’s rough yet riveting western High Plains Drifter (1973) in 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Tim has taken a look at Ardman Animations’ A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019), new on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.

And Dennis has delivered his take on George Marshall’s Fancy Pants (1950) on Blu-ray, also from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

More reviews are on the way tomorrow, so be sure to watch for them. [Read on here...]

We’ve got some great Blu-ray and 4K release news to share with you all today...

Let’s start with Paramount... as expected, Paramount Home Entertainment has officially announced the Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release of John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place: Part II later this month on 7/27, with the Digital only release expected tomorrow (on 7/13). You’ll also be able to buy a 2-Movie Collection on Blu-ray and Digital. A Quiet Place: Part II in 4K will include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio.

Extras will include 5 featurettes (Director’s Diary: Filming with John Krasinski, Pulling Back the Curtain, Regan’s Journey, Surviving the Marina, and Detectable Disturbance: Visual Effects and Sound Design). You can see the cover artwork above left and also below (complete with its Amazon pre-order link).

Speaking of Paramount, the studio has announced that it’s releasing Hardball, starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane, on Blu-ray for the first time on 9/21 in honor of the film’s 20th anniversary. Extras will include audio commentary by director Brian Robbins and writer John Gatins, The Making of Hardball, deleted scenes, the Hardball music video, interstitials, and the film’s theatrical trailer. You can see the cover art below. [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…]