My Two Cents
As I mentioned at the end of today’s early My Two Cents update here at The Bits, I wanted to take a few moments this afternoon to talk about Star Trek: Picard – Season Three.
I had the good fortunate and great pleasure of attending Paramount’s official premiere screening event (last Thursday evening) for the new season at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Nearly the entire cast of the series was on hand, along with many crew members, Star Trek luminaries, and frankly scores of industry-insider Trekkies, many of whom I’m known for twenty-five years. At this event—following in-person introductions by Patrick Stewart, series co-creator Alex Kurtzman, and Season Three showrunner Terry Matalas—the first two episodes of the new season were shown to an overwhelmingly positive reaction. This was followed by an off-the-hook after party at the Roosevelt Hotel, where everyone got well-lubed while discussing what they’d just seen.
My original plan, after taking in all of this, was to come back here on The Bits the following morning to tell you all about it. But the experience of seeing those two episodes on the big screen was frankly kind of overwhelming. And I really needed to process what I’d seen for a bit first. Then, I was offered press access to screen more episodes and naturally I dropped everything to do just that. So not only have I now seen six of the season’s ten episodes, I have a much better handle on the quality of this new season, and what it means for Star Trek fans. [Read on here...]
We’ve got several new disc reviews for you to kick things off this morning...
Tim has taken a look at Daniel Haller’s HP Lovecraft adaptation The Dunwich Horror (1970), which is new on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
Stuart has checked out Hugo Fregonese and Piero Pierotti’s Marco Polo (1962) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
Dennis has reviewed Richard Wilson’s Raw Wind in Eden (1958) on Blu-ray, also from KLSC.
And Stephen has offered his thoughts on Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges (2008) on 4K Ultra HD from KLSC, as well as Robert Eggers’ The Northman (2022) in 4K UHD from Universal.
We’ve also got some great release news for you today, starting with this: The good folks at the Criterion Collection have just unveiled their May release slate, which is set to include upgrades of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (Spine #490 – 4K UHD) on 5/2 and Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill (Spine #39 – 4K UHD) on 5/9, Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets (Spine #1179 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/18, Céline Sciamma’s Petite maman (Spine #1181 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/23, and Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (Spine #1180 – 4K UHD and Blu-ray) on 5/30.
You can read more about all these here, and you can see the cover art below. Our Criterion Spines Project pages here at The Bits have been updated accordingly. [Read on here...]
All right, we’ve got a bunch of interesting release news to report here at The Bits this afternoon...
First, CBS and Paramount Home Entertainment have set Cheers: The Complete Series for release on Blu-ray Disc on 4/25 (SRP $129.99). This will be a 33-disc box set that includes all 270 episode of the series’ 11 seasons. You can see the cover artwork at left and also below.
While we’re on the subject of Paramount, retail and distributor sources are confirming that the studio will be releasing Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (1998) on 4K Ultra HD in the coming months. This is in addition to The Italian Job (2003) and Shooter (2007), which we’ve mentioned previously. We believe the street date for Deep Impact will be sometime in May, but that’s still TBD.
Fans of classic Western TV series will also be pleased to know that CBS and Paramount are finally planning to release Bonanza: The Complete Twelfth Season and a Bonanza: The Complete Series box set soon, all on DVD. Street dates for those are TBA as well, but both are already listed in some online retailer databases. We would assume that The Complete Thirteenth Season and The Complete Fourteenth Season will follow on DVD eventually too. [Read on here...]
Morning, everyone! We’re kicking off the new week with some great news here at The Digital Bits...
We’re very pleased today to welcome a new member to our coterie of film and disc reviewers—the acclaimed film historian, essayist, and author Stuart Galbraith IV!
If you’re a cinephile, no doubt you’re well acquainted with Stuart’s work already, but here’s a little background.
After graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, Stuart worked as an archivist for the USC-Warner Bros. Archives and eventually MGM.
In 2002, he published the first English-language biography of director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune entitled The Emperor and the Wolf, a book that’s been a part of my own library here at The Bits for years, and one that I can’t recommend more highly.
This of course is one of several books Stuart has written about Japanese cinema, which include Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films (1994) and Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films (1998) among others. [Read on here...]
We’ve got no less than four new disc reviews for you today, starting with...
Stephen’s looks at Valerio Zurlini’s Le Soldatesse (1965) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber and Raro Video, Robert Siodmak’s The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics, and Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield: 15th Anniversary Limited Edition in 4K Ultra HD Steelbook from Paramount.
And our old friend Dr. Adam Jahnke and yours truly have taken a look at John Sturges’ classic Western, The Magnificent Seven (1960), coming soon on 4K Ultra HD from Shout! Factory.
Be sure to watch for more new disc reviews over the coming days.
Now then, it seems to be a rather slow day in terms of title announcements and new disc release news, but we do have one interesting item for you... [Read on here...]