Displaying items by tag: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

All right, we’ll have a bit of additional announcement news for the week tomorrow here at The Bits, and I’ll be spending the afternoon working on a review of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran in 4K UHD, which will be posted then as well.

But today, I want to talk about Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE.

I had the opportunity last night to attend one of Warner and Legendary’s IMAX sneak peek events for the film as a member of the press.

A little background first... I would definitely go so far as to call myself an expert on the subject of science fiction cinema. I’ve been reading literary science fiction my entire life (including DUNE many times), I’m known in some circles to be well-versed on the topic human spaceflight, and I’m a life-long student of science in general. I read physics and astronomy research papers like some people read comic books.

So as I noted in my recent review of Voyagers in 4K, I have certain critical expectations of science fiction films and TV series. Is the story and its science setup plausible, or does it require too many contrivances or conveniences? Is the story logically consistent? Is the world-building credible and convincing? And most importantly, is the story entertaining, engaging, or thought-provoking? The vast majority of genre programming fails on one or more of those criteria. In other words, on both the big and small screen, truly great science fiction is rare. [Read on here...]

So um... yeah. Since yesterday morning, when the SRP and final product images first went up on Amazon – and even before we posted our column on the subject yesterday afternoon – we started getting e-mails and private messages from diehard Rings fans asking: “Is Warner’s Middle Earth: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray set really $799.99?!”

I understand the feeling behind that question, believe me, because I feel it too. When I first saw that $799 price listed, I thought surely it was an error. Especially when you consider that the theatrical set was listed at $68.99, and when that price info quickly disappeared.

I figured there was absolutely no way Warner would charge $800 for a Blu-ray release of these films that contained no new disc-based content whatsoever. Had to be a mistake. [Read on here…]

So... yeah. Let’s have today’s good news first.

Remember how we told you late yesterday that Universal was getting reading to release a new The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection – Restored Edition on Blu-ray on 10/18, featuring the recent 4K restorations of The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup. Well, it’s now officially up for pre-order on Amazon.com for $59.98 at this link (and please use our link if you pre-order, because it helps us to keep The Bits going). Here’s what the official cover artwork looks like...  [Read on here…]