Displaying items by tag: The Producers, Mel Brooks, Shout! Factory, Kentucky Fried Movie, Dark Skies, The Allow Orchestra, TCM Classic Film Festival, The General, MST3K, Le Joli Mai

Judging by the overwhelming response to yesterday’s home video industry rant, it seems as if a LOT of you guys out there are also feeling as we are – specifically, that Hollywood’s gotten out of touch with regard to their home video and Blu-ray release decisions.  It remains to be seen if they industry is listening, but rest assured it’s a topic we’ll be continuing to discuss in the days and weeks ahead.  Many years ago, back even before what became the “Golden Age of DVD,” I said something here on The Bits that remains as true today as it ever was:  Home video is one of the few industries on the planet where consumers actually have to BEG for the product they want to buy… and all too often they still don’t get it.  More and more, this industry just doesn’t seem to understand its product and its own consumers.  It’s little wonder that sales are declining and jobs are being shed.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Anyway, here at The Bits today, our own Joe Marchese has turned in a review of Paramount’s new Cirque due Soleil: Worlds Away on Blu-ray.  We’ve also added three more retro BD reviews from the original Bits site for you to check out:  Tim Salmon’s take on Warner’s The Searchers, Summit’s The Hurt Locker and Criterion’s Repulsion.

In announcement news today, Shout! Factory has revealed new Blu-ray/DVD Combos of Kentucky Fried Movie and Mel Brooks’ The Producers!  Kentucky Fried Movie arrives on 7/2 – details to follow.  The Producers: Collector’s Edition will arrive on 7/2 as well, featuring the documentary The Making of The Producers, the 2012 video interview Mel and His Movies: The Producers, the film’s theatrical trailer and a photo gallery.

Shout! Factory has also set Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXVII for DVD release on 7/23, set to include The Slime People, Rocket Attack USA, Village of the Giants and The Deadly Mantis.

Meanwhile, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Dimension Films have set the alien abduction thriller Dark Skies for Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 5/28.  Extras will include feature commentary with writer/director Scott Stewart, producer Jason Blum, executive producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and editor Peter Gvozdas, plus alternate and deleted scenes.

Fox has set Safe Haven for Blu-ray and DVD release on 5/7.  Extras will include deleted and extended scenes, an alternate ending and 3 featurettes (Igniting the Romance in Safe Haven, Set Tour and Josh Duhamel’s Lessons in Crabbing).

Image Entertainment has set Home Sweet Home for DVD only release on 6/4.

FilmWorks Entertainment has set Love, Concord for DVD only release on 6/18.

Icarus Films has announced that they’ve acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme’s landmark 1963 film Le Joli Mai.  It will be released on 2-disc DVD sometime in November, with an official announcement TBD.

Virgil Films has set Shelter Me for DVD release on 4/30.

Well Go USA Entertainment has set Sadako 3D for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 6/4.

Monarch Home Entertainment has set the horror/thriller It’s in the Blood for DVD release on 4/23.

And Universal will release Frankie Go Boom on Blu-ray and DVD on 5/13.

And in other news from around the Net, are any of you guys silent film fans?  Do you live in the L.A. area?  Well, our friend Roger Miller e-mailed us yesterday to let us know that The Alloy Orchestra is going to be performing their scores for Buster Keaton’s The General (live on 4/28 at the TCM Classic Film Festival) and both Phantom of the Opera (the Lon Chaney classic) and From Morning to Midnight (live on 4/29 at The Silent Movie Theatre).  For more information on these performances, be sure to check out their website.  I highly recommend going if you’re even remotely interested.  The movies are obviously well worth seeing and The Alloy Orchestra puts on a heck of a great show.  Dr. Jahnke and I had the pleasure of seeing them do the score to the restored Metropolis live at the TCM Festival a few years ago and it remains one of the great movie-going experiences either of us have ever had.

All right, we’ll leave you with a look at the Blu-ray cover artwork for Shout!’s Kentucky Fried Movie, as well as Anchor Bay/Dimension’s Dark Skies and Fox’s Safe Haven…

Stay tuned!

- Bill Hunt