My Two Cents
The big news today is going to make some of you very happy. The Criterion Collection has just unveiled its full July slate of Blu-ray titles, and it’s set to include the classic War of the Worlds! The full slate is as follows...
Look for Byron Haskin’s War of the Worlds (Spine #1037 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 7/7, the previously-announced Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits box set (Spine #1036 – includes The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death – Blu-ray only) and Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve (Spine #103 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 7/14, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (Spine #1038 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry (Spine #45 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 7/21. [Read on here...]
It’s kind of a slow news day today, but we do have some more disc reviews for you to check out...
Dennis has posted his thoughts on Franklin Gollings’ Connecting Rooms (1970) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. The film stars Bette Davis and Michael Redgrave.
Also, Tim has taken a look at Ovidio G. Assonitis’ Beyond the Door (1974) on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
In announcement news today, Fox has set Chris Sanders’ The Call of the Wild for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 5/12. The 4K will include English Dolby Atmos, while the Blu-ray will feature DTS-HD MA. Extras on both will include 4 featurettes (Origins, The On-Set Experience, State of the Art, and The World of the Wild), along with a Digital-only featurette (A Man and His Dog). [Read on here...]
We’ve got a bit of fun news today, some release news and some other...
First up though, we also have a new disc review. Dennis has just turned in a look at director George Marshall’s classic Destry Rides Again (1939) now on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. It’s a classic western starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich that’s well worth your time.
And while we’re speaking of Criterion, that brings us to our first bit of release news, which is that Criterion has just announced a Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits Blu-ray box set (Spine# 1036), which is set to include The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), Enter the Dragon (1973), and Game of Death (1978). [Read on here...]
All right, we’re closing out another week in pandemic isolation with some new reviews and a bit more announcement news...
First up those reviews... Tim has checked in with a look at FIVE recent Blu-ray titles from our friends at Severin Films—running the gamut from Eurosleaze to erotic to the rarely-seen and undervalued—so here are his thoughts on Just Jaeckin’s Gwendoline (1984 – aka The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak), the Russian genre film Viy (1967), Jess Franco’s Cries of Pleasure (1983) and Night of Open Sex (1983), and Leopoldo Savona’s Byleth: The Demon of Incest (1972).
And yes, we recognize that some of these aren’t for the faint of heart or for mainstream audiences (particularly those titles we had to blank out the cover art on or Google advertising will flag it), but the range of cinema on disc is wide and far-reaching. There’s something for everyone. And they can’t all be Star Wars or Marvel films. So there you go. [Read on here...]
All right, we’ve got one more new Blu-ray review for you today, which is Dennis’ look at JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker from Disney. You can find that here. [A warning though: The review contains major spoilers for the film. Proceed with caution.]
Now then, our friends at Kino Lorber have announced a tons of great new Blu-ray catalog titles coming over the next few months. So let’s get right to it...
Starting on 5/5, look for Guy Hamilton’s An Inspector Calls (1954), Fred Coe’s A Thousand Clowns (1965) and Me, Natalie (1969), John Boulting’s Brighton Rock (1948), and Basil Dearden’s Pool of London (1951).
Following on 5/12, look for the Barbara Stanwyck Collection (including Internes Can’t Take Money (1937), The Great Man’s Lady (1942), and The Bride Wore Boots (1946) in a box set), the Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II (including Thunder on the Hill (1951), The Price of Fear (1956), and The Female Animal (1958) in a box set). [Read on here...]