Displaying items by tag: Douglas Trumbull RIP

We’ve got a brand new History, Legacy & Showmanship column from our own Michael Coate for you to enjoy today, and it’s another bonus column originally meant to be posted late last year, but that took longer to complete than expected. In this installment, Michael looks back at Don Seigel’s Dirty Harry (1971) in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary. He’s joined by documentary filmmaker Gary Leva and authors Patrick McGilligan and Lee Pfeiffer, historians all. The piece is well worth your time if you’re a fan of the film.

Also today here at The Bits we have a trio of new Blu-ray reviews from Tim, including his take on the animated The Addams Family (2019) and The Addams Family 2 (2021) from Universal, and also Tom Gries’ Breakheart Pass (1976) from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Enjoy!

The big piece of announcement news today is that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has just officially set Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 3/22, with the Digital release expected on 3/8. The Blu-ray and 4K will include three featurettes (Del Toro’s Neo Noir, Beneath the Tarp, and What Exists in the Fringe). Audio will be Dolby Atmos on the 4K and DTS-HD MA on the Blu-ray SKU. The 4K will also include HDR10 high dynamic range. You can see the cover artwork above left and also below. [Read on here...]

We’ve got some interesting odds and ends to share news-wise here at The Bits today, as well as another big disc review, and some sad news unfortunately. But first, the review...

Tim has just delivered his in-depth look at Sony’s new Ghostbusters Ultimate Collection 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray box set, which includes new 4K editions of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II—now with Dolby Vision HDR—as well as Ghostbusters: Afterlife on disc, and Ghostbusters: Answer the Call on Digital only (though the code redeems for both versions of that film in 4K). Plus the set include no less than two Blu-ray bonus discs with a ton of legacy extras, as well as new material exclusive to this set. And you get a mini replica of Don Shay’s Making Ghostbusters book from 1985.

Unfortunately, the set is a limited edition release from Sony and it’s sold out almost everywhere. (At last check, you could still get it from a few international retailers, but that version may have region issues and will not come with Digital codes.) We have asked the studio whether it might be released in a second printing, or perhaps in a discs-only configuration at some point in the future, and have been told that while it’s possible there’s no news to report at this time. Should that change, we will of course post an update here on The Bits.

In the meantime, we’ve gotten reports from a number of readers that their sets were damaged in shipment, or that the box they received had the wrong discs resulting from a packaging error (for example, they may have gave gotten two copies of Ghostbusters in BD and 4K, but no copies of Ghostbusters II). If that applies to you, Sony has provided us with a customer service email address for you to use to get things sorted. [Read on here...]