Displaying items by tag: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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While I’m gathering my final thoughts on my experience of Ultra HD Blu-ray at CES 2016 last week (to wrap up our coverage of the convention), I wanted to jump in quickly today to take care of a couple important pieces of business here at The Bits.

First, our own Tim Salmons has turned in his thoughts on Arrow Video’s new Blood Rage: Special Edition Blu-ray.

I’ve also just posted my in-depth review of Ridley Scott’s The Martian, which streets tomorrow on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD. The film just took home the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical Film of all things. Don’t miss it.  [Read on here…]

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Our own Michael Coate has just posted a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here on The Bits, featuring a great look back at the Bond classic Thunderball on the film’s 50th anniversary! Thunderball is certainly one of our favorite films of the series around here, and to celebrate the occasion Michael has moderated a great roundtable discussion of film historians, including Jon Burlingame, Robert A. Caplen, James Chapman, John Cork, Lee Pfeiffer, Steven Jay Rubin, Graham Rye, and Bruce Scivally. It’s a fine piece, as always, so be sure to give it a look this afternoon.  [Read on here…]

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All right, Tim’s just posted his thoughts on Shout!’s recent Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special Blu-ray. And I’m making good progress on the X-Files review. Christmas has intruded on my time over the past week, but I’ve finally gotten through all the extra content on the set and so I’m getting there. I can’t stress enough what a mammoth task it is to review this set – there’s just SO much material to go through and check. But I’m working on it. Watch for it soon-ish. I will just quickly say that, given Amazon.com’s current pricing (see here), it probably makes more sense to buy the seasons individually. There’s nothing in the box that you wouldn’t get that way, other than the box itself, and you’ll pay significantly less.  [Read on here…]

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The early update is going to be a quick one, as I really want to finish the X-Files Blu-ray review today if possible. So let’s start with a quick rundown of release news...

The following recent films are now all available for Blu-ray and DVD pre-order on Amazon.com (street dates TBA): Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney), The Big Short (Universal), Creed (Warner), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Lionsgate). Just click on the titles (or on the temp art below) to pre-order.  [Read on here…]

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So... did you enjoy Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Well, guess what? You can already pre-order Disney’s Blu-ray on Amazon. Because of course you can. There’s no street date listed and only 2D is indicated at the moment, but don’t read into that. There will almost certainly be a Blu-ray 3D Combo as well. The SRP is $39.99 but Amazon has it up for just $24.99 (or 38% off). Click here or on the image below to pre-order.  [Read on here…]

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So... as planned, I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night in Hollywood, at the Arclight’s iconic Cinerama Dome with a great group of friends. Among them were names you’ve heard before here at The Bits (filmmakers, special edition producers, etc), including the likes of Robert Meyer Burnett, Alec Peters, Charles de Lauzirika, Chris Gore, Mary Forrest, Kevin Rubio, Daren Dochterman, Cliff Stephenson (and his fine young mini-Cliff), Dennis Przywara, Diana Kingsbury, my lovely wife Sarah, of course, and various spouses, partners, friends, etc. We gathered for dinner and drinks beforehand, saw the film, then regrouped for more drinks and discussion afterwards, as alpha-geeks are want to do.

First, let me offer you my thoughts on the film itself, 100% without spoilers...  [Read on here…]

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All right, today is Star Wars Day here at The Bits! I spent last night watching a marathon of Harmy’s Despecialized version of the Original Trilogy (click here and here for more on that), which I hadn’t done in years so that was a treat. And tonight, my wife and I are joining a group of friends both old and new for a screening of The Force Awakens in Hollywood – the first show at the glorious Cinerama Dome.

So let’s just give you a quick rundown of the release news today…  [Read on here…]

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Today’s update is later than usual (and it’s also Wednesday’s update too), but you’ll see why in a moment...

We’ve just spent the whole day working on a brand new History, Legacy & Showmanship column from our own Michael Coate, featuring a look back at the original 1977 theatrical release of Star Wars, in anticipation of this week’s long-anticipated release of The Force Awakens. Michael has produced an exhaustively-researched chronicle of the film’s debut theatrical run, featuring trivia, period review quotes, and a listing of all the original theatrical engagements around North America. He even rounds the column out with a great roundtable interview featuring historian and author Marcus Hearn (The Cinema of George Lucas), filmmaker Patrick Read Johnson (5-25-77), filmmaker and special edition producer Charles de Lauzirika (Crave, and most recently documentary content for Disney’s Star Wars Launch Bay exhibit), and filmmaker Kevin Rubio (Troops). It’s a great read, so do give it a look and enjoy!  [Read on here…]

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I am very hard at work on my review of The X-Files: The Complete Series on Blu-ray, so today’s update will be brief.

But our own Tim Salmons has turned in his Pick-Ups thoughts on Lionsgate’s outstanding Hannibal: Season Three on Blu-ray, complete with a superb batch of special features produced by our own friend Cliff Stephenson. Don’t miss it!  [Read on here…]

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Let’s close out the week here at The Bits with a couple of additional Blu-ray reviews, shall we?

I’ve offered my own thoughts on Warner’s recent The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Blu-ray, and Tim has posted a look at Anchor Bay’s Goodnight Mommy.

We’ll be back with more reviews next week, including my in-depth take of Fox’s new The X-Files: The Complete Series Blu-ray box set, which the little green men of UPS have just dropped off on my doorstep. So be sure to watch for that.  [Read on here…]