Items filtered by date: October 2016

Wednesday, 30 November 2016 16:30

Movie Begats and More

I’ve about decided that a full book could be written regarding just about every produced movie – Lord knows there’s always enough behind the scenes drama to fill a daytime soap. But I love it. Who was supposed to be in what? Who wrote the script? That stuff. The success of X movie produced Y.

OLIVE FILMS

And here’s a story about a Robert Redford motorcycle picture called Little Fauss and Big Halsey, recently released for the first time on home video by Olive Films.

Al Ruddy came to Hollywood in the early 60s and as a young pup sold what has become a classic sitcom called Hogan’s Heroes. Ruddy and Charles Eastman wrote the script for Little Fauss and sold it to Paramount with a then hot director named Sidney Furie (who was bankable because of The Ipcress File and The Naked Runner). Redford was brought on board in the process as was my friend and lifelong Ruddy partner Gray Frederickson. [Read on here...]

So did you guys all score your Rogue One: A Star Wars Story tickets? Seems like they sold pretty fast. If you’re a fan of Star Wars and are looking forward to the new film, Wired has a good feature article on the film’s VFX Supervisor, John Knoll, who also came up with the idea for the film. Do give it a look.

We’ve got a new Blu-ray review for you today, and I’m working on several more reviews on both Blu-ray and 4K. Today’s review is from Tim and features Arrow Video USA’s new BD of Dead-End Drive-In, which is now available.  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

All right, there’s still not a ton of news to report so far this week. It’s Cyber Monday, which means most of the Blu-ray powers that be (and retailers) are focused on Cyber Monday sales. As such, if you would kindly use this link when shopping for Cyber Monday deals on Amazon.com, we’d surely appreciate it. It’ll go a long way toward helping us to continue our work here at The Bits and we thank you for the support.

Speaking of Amazon, Paramount’s Allied is now available for Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray pre-order (street date TBA). Also available for pre-order on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format is Warner’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. 20th Century Fox has Keeping Up with the Joneses coming on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format as well. BBC Home Entertainment has set Planet Earth II for Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray pre-order too. Street dates are TBA, but you can click on the format links in this paragraph to pre-order.  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

All right, this is going to be our last regular post until Monday, though we will be back on Friday to let you know about any great Blu-ray or 4K deals worth mentioning. But we do have a few things for you...

First up, Tim has turned in a nice little batch of disc reviews as part of his Scream for a Week column, including his thoughts on David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers and Rabid, as well as The Monkey’s Paw, all from Scream Factory. He’s also turned in a review of the new Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXVII on DVD from Shout! Factory. All are work a look, so enjoy!  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents
Wednesday, 23 November 2016 15:00

Scream for a Week – November 23, 2016

Welcome to our newest column additionScream for a Week!

We here at The Digital Bits are big fans of Shout!’s Scream Factory division and, not unlike Todd Doogan’s Criterion Spines Project, we wanted to cover Scream Factory’s releases by catching up on a bunch that we’ve missed while acknowledging the previous ones. We’ll also be covering new ones here as well. This column will go up on a bi-weekly basis, so be sure to check back in another two weeks for another pile of Scream Factory goodness.

First up is Beneath, a Larry Fessenden giant fish movie that I’m actually a little less hard on than I was when I originally wrote the review. Today, I’d probably give it more of a B or a B- as it’s grown on me since then. New to Blu-ray this week are both Rabid and Dead Ringers, a pair of David Cronenberg movies that are stacked with some great extras worth digging into. Also new, at least as far as catching up with older Scream Factory titles is concerned, is The Monkey’s Paw, a Chiller movie that actually has some merit. And last but not least, Paul Schrader’s terrific remake of Cat People. [Read on here…]

Published in Dailies

The big news today is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has set a Jerry Maguire: 20th Anniversary Edition for release on Blu-ray on 1/3. The film has been remastered in 4K (though strangely, there’s no 4K Ultra HD release currently announced). New material in the set will include nearly 60 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, the 3-part Jerry Maguire: We Meet Again retrospective documentary, a new written introduction by writer/director Cameron Crowe, a photo gallery, and the film’s soundtrack on CD, as well as legacy extras. You can see the packaging below.

Also, Lionsgate has revealed the next pair of entries in their Vestron Video Collector’s Series Blu-ray line, which are due on 1/31. Look for Bob Balaban’s Parents (1989) and Ken Russell’s The Lair of the White Worm (1988). SRP is $34.97 each.  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

Well folks, it’s the Thanksgiving holiday week here in the States... which is also Black Friday Week on the Internet. And that means there probably isn’t going to be a lot of Blu-ray news or announcements to report on over the next few days.

But we do have a couple things for you today. And, as we’re always trying to help you guys get the most of your Blu-ray, DVD, and/or 4K experience, we’re going to point out a few deals each day that might make that easier for you.

First though, here at the website, our own Russell Hammond has posted the weekly update of the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, whenever you order literally anything from Amazon after clicking to them through one of our links, you’re helping to support The Bits and we really do appreciate it. So please remember that as you begin your holiday shopping this week!

Now then, let’s start with that release news... [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

We’re closing out the week with a bit more announcement news, and some more great Amazon Deals. Let’s get those out of the way first, because they’re pretty damn good and you have to act fast on one of them.

The first is a BD Deal of the Day for 20th Century Fox’s The X-Files: Complete Series Collector’s Set + The Event Series for just $119. That’s 60% off the regular SRP and yes, it does include The X-Files: Season Ten (aka “The Event Series”). You can see my review here. That one is for today only, so act fast.

Also, if you’re interested in moving up to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Amazon currently has Samsung’s UBD-K8500 3D/4K UHD Blu-ray Player for just $197 – down the already low $399! As you may know, I’ve reviewed this player in some depth recently here on The Bits (see this link). It was already a good deal at $399 and now at half that price it’s a steal. I’m still using this as my go-to 4K player here. There will be better 4K players available over the next year, but you’re going to pay a lot more than $197 for them. So I definitely recommend the UBD-K8500 at that price. [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

We’ve got a great feature column for you today, along with some announcement news, and a couple more great Amazon Blu-ray deals to mention. Let’s start with that feature...

Our own Michael Coate has just posted a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column, offering a great look back at the James Bond film Casino Royale on its 10th anniversary. The column features another excellent roundtable discussion with film historians John Cork, Bill Desowitz, Lisa Funnell, Lee Pfeiffer, and Bruce Scivally. Don’t miss it!  [Read on here…]

Published in My Two Cents

Casino Royale saved Bond.” — 007 historian and documentarian John Cork

The Digital Bits is pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 10th anniversary of the release of Casino Royale, the 21st (official) cinematic James Bond adventure and, most notably, the first to star Daniel Craig as Agent 007.

As with our previous 007 articles (see For Your Eyes Only, Thunderball, GoldenEye, A View to a Kill, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Goldfinger, and 007… Fifty Years Strong), The Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship continue the series with this retrospective featuring a Q&A with an esteemed group of James Bond scholars, documentarians and historians who discuss the virtues and shortcomings of Casino Royale. [Read on here...]

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