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We have just one new disc review for you today (but a lot more are coming next week): Dennis’ look at Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Meanwhile, we have some good announcement news today, so let’s get right to it...

First up this afternoon, our friends at The Warner Archive Collection have just revealed more great new Blu-ray titles that are all due to street on 4/30, including Charles Brabin’s The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story (1959), William Wyler’s Friendly Persuasion (1956), Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People (1969) and You’re a Big Boy Now (1966), and finally a Hanna-Barbera Double Feature of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) and Scooby-Doo: Return to Zombie Island (2019)!

We’ll share all of the cover art and Amazon pre-order links as soon as they go live, but in the meantime you can see The Rain People at left.

Moving on, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just set both Mark DiSalle’s The Perfect Weapon (1991) and Sam Firstenberg’s Revenge of the Ninja (1983) for release on Blu-ray Disc on 5/21. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a few things to share with you today here at The Digital Bits...

First, our own Russell Hammond has completed a major new update of our interactive Release Dates & Cover Artwork section, featuring all kinds of new Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover artwork, with Amazon.com pre-order links! All of the latest title announcements are included and we’re going to be adding more every week to keep the section fully up to date. The section also now features an option to sort the displayed page results by format and even by Criterion titles! And as always, whenever you pre-order literally anything from Amazon after clicking through to them from one of our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we really appreciate it.

Also, before we get to new release news for this afternoon, today marks the 46th anniversary of the theatrical release of George Lucas’ original Star Wars (1977). It’s also the 43rd anniversary of Richard Marquand’s Return of the Jedi (1983) and the 44th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). So to celebrate the occasion, we’d like to call your attention to a few of our own Michael Coate’s History, Legacy & Showmanship retrospectives on these films here at The Bits:

A Force to be Reckoned With: Remembering “Star Wars” on its 40th Anniversary

Remembering “Return of the Jedi” on its 30th Anniversary

Celebrate the Love: Remembering “Return of the Jedi” on its 35th Anniversary

Still Screaming in Space: Remembering “Alien” on its 40th Anniversary

All of these are well worth your reading time and are filled with tremendous detail about the production and original theatrical release of these iconic films. [Read on here...]

We have a little bit more interesting release news for you to check out today (by way of closing out the week)...

First of all, our friends at Arrow Video have just announced their January 2021 slate of home video titles, and it’s pretty terrific. It starts with UK only Blu-ray releases of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s [Rec] and Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy. Oldboy will also be released on 4K Ultra HD (in the UK only), but remember that 4K discs are not region locked.

Next up, Arrow is releasing Park Chan-wook’s JSA: Joint Security Area and Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales on Blu-ray Disc in the UK, US, and Canada.

Finally, those of you who missed out of Arrow’s recent (and fast selling) Gamera box set (reviewed here on The Bits) will be pleased to know that its films are being reissued on Blu-ray (again in the UK, US, and Canada) in a more wide-release configuration. Three SKUs will be available: Gamera: The Heisei Era (3 films plus a documentary and the Gamera the Brave film as a bonus) as both a wide-release box set and as a Steelbook, and Gamera: The Showa Era (8 films) as a wide-release box set. Obviously, you won’t get all the swag their original big box included, but at least this gives more of you access to the films in HD. [Read on here...]

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to like TheDigitalBits.com page on Facebook for breaking news, site updates on the go, discussion with our staff and other readers, giveaways and more!]

First things first today: We’ve updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray and DVD cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, whenever you order anything at all in the same shopping session after clicking to Amazon through any of our links, a portion of your purchase goes to help support our work here at The Bits and it really does make a difference. So we appreciate it!

Also here at The Bits today, we have a new Blu-ray review from our own Joe Marchese, featuring Twilight’s recent Blu-ray release of Stormy Weather, a classic musical from 1943. Do check it out.  [Read on here…]

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to like TheDigitalBits.com page on Facebook for breaking news, site updates on the go, discussion with our staff and other readers, giveaways and more!]

Meanwhile, here’s something awesome: The surviving cast of the classic 1960s Lost in Space TV series have reunited to celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary. They were interviewed on local TV in Los Angeles yesterday (you can watch the interview here). According to actor Bill Mumy (via his Facebook page – see his post here) the complete series is set for BD release is September from Fox. This following word over the last several months that all the original episodes have been remastered in HD from the original negatives. We would expect official word in the weeks and months ahead. If you live in L.A., the cast will be signing autographs at The Hollywood Show this coming weekend (at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel – they’ll also be doing a panel discussion at the show on Sunday – see link here for details).  [Read on here…]

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to like TheDigitalBits.com page on Facebook for breaking news, site updates on the go, discussion with our staff and other readers, giveaways and more!]

All right, it’s a slow day with the MLK holiday here in the States, but we do have some good stuff for you today.

Actually, today big news isn’t specifically Blu-ray-related, but it may have a strong bearing on a future Blu-ray release. Deadline Hollywood revealed over the weekend something we’ve suspected for many months now, which is that Fox is currently in negotiations to bring The X-Files back to TV, with creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson all apparently involved. It now seems likely that a Blu-ray release of the recently HD remastered series is waiting on these developments.  [Read on here…]

[Editor’s Note: Be sure to like TheDigitalBits.com page on Facebook for breaking news, site updates on the go, discussion with our staff and other readers, giveaways and more!]

Today is review day here at The Bits, and we’ve got a fine batch for you. To kick things off, I’ve updated my review of DreamWorks’ first film ever, The Peacemaker, from 2010. We’ve also updated a pair of great 2011 BD reviews from our dear friend Barrie Maxwell on the old Bits website: Warner’s Citizen Kane: 70th Anniversary UCE and Ben-Hur: 50th Anniversary UCE. Finally, we have a pair of new Blu-ray reviews today too from our own Tim Salmons, including Synapse’s fine new Prom Night: Special Edition and a Robert Altman classic that’s now available from our friends at Criterion: Nashville. All these discs are well worth your time and the reviews are pretty fine as well, if we do say so ourselves, so we hope you enjoy reading them!  [Read on here…]

Well… we had a server issue here at The Bits yesterday afternoon that took down the site for most of the day. No worries though: Mr. Scott and the boys down in Engineering got the bugs worked out quickly and all is now well. But it means today’s post is going to be brief.  [Read on here…]

Before we get to this week’s new MOD releases, I’d like to call your attention to a recently launched Kickstarter campaign. I know, I know… I swear I’ll be quick and it’s worthy of your support.

As you know, one of my pet causes here at The Bits is urging studios to release obscure and semi-forgotten movies on DVD via the ongoing JET’s Most Wanted project on the Electric Theatre Facebook page. The folks at Seattle’s Scarecrow Video have been doing that since the long-forgotten pre-internet days. Do you have a copy of Criterion’s spectacular Two-Lane Blacktop? Scarecrow Video is a big reason why it exists.  [Read on here...]