Displaying items by tag: Scream Factory

We’re checking in today with a rare weekend My Two Cents update to bring you a little bit of new Blu-ray and 4K UHD release news that broke on Friday afternoon.

First though, a reminder... if you haven’t seen our New Year’s Eve post, I spent a little bit of time reflecting back on 25 Years of The Digital Bits, a landmark we officially crossed last month. So whether you’re a longtime reader who’s been with us from the start, or a newcomer to the site who’s curious about how we got started and where we came from, I think you’ll find it a quick and enjoyable read.

And once again, let me just say that I’m very glad to have all of you as readers of The Digital Bits. We appreciate all your support and thanks for sticking with us for two and a half decades now. Here’s to more great years ahead!

Now then, our friends at Shout! and Scream Factory have officially announced their March catalog release slate, and there are some gems in there for both Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD fans alike. [Read on here...]

Welcome to the first full week of December, Bits readers!

We’ve got a couple interesting items to report here today, but first a pair of new disc reviews:

I’ve turned in my thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) in 4K Ultra HD from Miramax, via Paramount. The good news is, whether you buy the Steelbook or the regular Amaray version, the 4K remastering is fantastic. Fans should be very pleased.

I’ve also reviewed Andrew Stanton’s CG-animated classic WALL•E (2008) in 4K UHD from Pixar via the Criterion Collection. The highlight here is that it’s a terrific package and the film looks and sounds great, but the new 4K presentation isn’t really dramatically different than the previous Disney 4K edition—it simply now adds HDR10+ and Dolby Vision metadata. But some of the new special features are wonderful.

More new Blu-ray and 4K UHD reviews are coming soon, as always, so please keep checking back for them! [Read on here...]

Yes, it’s true!

This is information I first heard from industry insiders about six months ago, but was asked to keep quiet about to allow the work to be completed. But retailers are just now starting to catch wind of it, so I can unofficially confirm it here:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is planning to release Superman II, Superman III, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 4K Ultra HD in early 2023!

Superman II will include both the original theatrical version and the Richard Donner Cut.

Our sources suggest that—like Superman: The Movie in 4K—all three of these will feature Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Street date is still TBA on these officially, however we’ve been hearing Q2 2023, and Amazon UK has just leaked a 3 April street date for Superman III on their website (click here for that).

Do keep in mind that none of this should be considered 100% kosher and official until the studio makes their actual announcements in the weeks and months ahead. But Superman fans should be very happy around April of next year. [Read on here...]

We have four new disc reviews for you to enjoy today, along with some release news...

First, I’ve taken a look at the long-awaited physical 4K Ultra HD release of Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick from Paramount. You’ll be glad to know that the disc’s A/V quality is demo worthy, though the extras are somewhat wanting and you have to buy the Blu-ray version separately.

Stephen has offered up a review of Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist, also in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. And he’s got a review of Rob Zombie’s The Munsters on regular Blu-ray as well from Universal.

Finally, Tim has reviewed a film that was thought to be lost but has now been re-discovered and restored for Blu-ray release: George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park (1975) from Shudder and RLJ Entertainment.

More reviews are definitely on the way, so be sure to watch for them.

And we’ve also posted a major update of our Release Dates & Artwork section here at The Bits (listed as Cover Art in the navigation bar above), featuring a ton of new Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover images and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, anytime you 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! (Thanks to our own Russell Hammond for his work on that section.) [Read on here...]

We’re starting things off this week with several more new disc reviews and LOTS of announcement news! First up, those reviews...

Stephen has taken an in-depth look at John Carpenter’s supernatural horror classic The Fog (1980) in 4K Ultra HD from Scream Factory, and we have separate reviews for both the wide-release Collector’s Edition and the Steelbook version as well.

Stephen has also offered his thoughts on Taika Waititi’s latest MCU installment, Thor: Love and Thunder, in 4K Ultra HD from Marvel and Disney.

Meanwhile, Dennis has turned in his take on a pair of classic films on Blu-ray, including Sydney Salkow’s Twice Told Tales (1963) starring Vincent Price from Kino Lorber Studio Classics and also John Cromwell’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) from the Warner Archive Collection.

And Tim has delivered a look at Warner and DC’s long-awaited Deluxe Edition of the animated Batman: The Long Halloween (2021) as well as Random Space Media’s import 4K/Blu-ray 3D double feature of Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017).

As always, more reviews are on the way for tomorrow and all this week, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them. [Read on here...]

Welcome to Monday, Bits readers!

I’ve been hard at work all weekend going through all of the content on the new Star Trek 4K titles, which street on 9/6, and as such I now have three in-depth reviews for you all to enjoy...

Available now on The Bits are my thoughts on William Shatner’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and Robert Wise’s long awaited 4K upgrade of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition as found in the new 3-disc The Complete Adventure Limited Edition box set. All three releases are terrific and should please the veteran Star Trek diehards among you. Paramount has really done right by these films.

For the record, I will indeed be reviewing the single-film 4K UHD SKUs of Star Trek II, III, IV, and also the movie only Star Trek: TMP – DE when they become available, but I probably will not have those discs until much closer to street date.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to dig into in this first batch of reviews. [Read on here...]

We’ve got only a quick news update for you today, as we’re busy working on more new disc reviews. Speaking of which...

Stephen has just posted his thoughts on Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll (2009) on Blu-ray from Dekanalog via Vinegar Syndrome.

More Blu-ray and 4K UHD reviews are definitely on the way.

Now then, the big news this afternoon is that Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution has officially announced that Taika Waititi’s latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, Thor: Love and Thunder, will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 9/27. The Digital and Disney+ streaming release is set for 9/8. As always, the 4K will feature Dolby Atmos audio and HDR10 high dynamic range. [Read on here...]

All right, sorry for the lack of an update over the last couple of days. We’ve been very busy here at the site, working on reviews, preparing for some big upcoming reviews, and finishing a few more site upgrades. But the major reason is that there’s a ton of breaking and evolving release news to cover, and getting to the bottom of it all—collating all the details, checking in with sources, confirming key pieces of release information—takes a huge amount of time. But I’m always up for a challenge.

Before we get to that, however, let’s share those disc reviews we’ve been working on over the past few days...

First up, I’ve posted my thoughts on John Milius’ Red Dawn (1984) from Shout! Factory and also Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) from Universal, both in 4K Ultra HD.

Tim has delivered a look at Joel Schumacher’s Flatliners (1990) in 4K UHD from Arrow Video, as well as John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) in 4K from Scream Factory.

Dennis has reviewed a number of regular Blu-ray titles in the last few days, including Lon Chaney: Before the Thousand Faces – Volume 2 from Undercrank Productions, Josh and Benny Safdie’s Daddy Longlegs (2009) from Criterion, and Jack Gold’s The Tenth Man (1988) and Ken Hughes’s The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And finally, Stephen has delivered in-depth looks at Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon (1997)—a Steelbook release that’s getting hard to find here in the States—and Jeff Fowler’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) both in 4K Ultra HD from Paramount, along with Michael Findlay’s Shriek of the Mutilated (1974) on Blu-ray from American Films via Vinegar Syndrome.

As always more disc reviews are on the way in the coming days. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got some great catalog 4K Ultra HD news to report today, but first we have one more new review...

I spent some time this weekend looking at Stanley Kubrick’s landmark war film Paths of Glory (1957) thanks to a fine new 4K Ultra HD release from our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics. For the first time, the image has been scanned from the original camera negative in native 4K—Criterion’s 2010 Blu-ray release was only a 2K scan of a fine-grain master positive—so this is unquestionably the best the film has ever looked at home. It’s a beautiful presentation and not to be missed by Kubrick fans and cinephiles.

All right, now for that catalog news... VCI Entertainment has set Bob Clark’s Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972) for release on 4K Ultra HD on 10/11 as a new 50th Anniversary Edition. The release will include a new video introduction and Q&A with actor Alan Ormsby, along with a new 90-minute documentary on Clark’s horror films called Dreaming of Death. You’ll get lots of legacy special features as well. And you can see the cover artwork below the break. [Read on here...]

All right, yesterday was a little crazy here at The Bits, what with Paramount finally dropping their long-awaited Star Trek 4K announcement. That deluxe Complete Adventure 4K package for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition was unexpected and frankly a fantastic surprise. But it’s worth a quick follow up today just to clarify everything...

The Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition: The Complete Adventure Limited Edition is a 3-disc set here in the States that includes the DE in 4K, a newly-authored 4K of the previously-released Theatrical Cut as well as the Special Longer Version (included via seamless branching), and a Blu-ray full of bonus content that I’m told includes basically everything ever created and released for the film on home video. (I’m awaiting confirmation of the exact contents from the studio.) But it does NOT include a Blu-ray of the DE itself, nor are Blu-rays of the Theatrical and SLV versions included. The DE is available separately on Blu-ray, and obviously the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray was included in the original 4-Movie Collection from last year.

To be 100% clear, the Special Longer Version is ONLY going to be available in The Complete Adventure package, and producer David C. Fein has said that it’s a genuine limited edition. Much like Sony’s recent Ghostbusters: Ultimate Collection, it’s very likely to sell out in pre-orders, and it’s NOT going to be re-released. So if you were planning to wait for Black Friday to pick it up at a discount, or you’re expecting some future “ultimate” 4K box that includes the TNG films as well all The Complete Adventure content, you’re likely to be disappointed. The new 4K disc with both the Theatrical Cut and the Special Longer Version on it is exclusive to this set and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Be sure to plan accordingly.

[Editor’s Note: It appears that the UK version of this set MAY be a 5-disc set, which includes the Blu-rays of The Director’s Edition and the Theatrical Cut. And its discs should be all-region.]  [Read on here...]