Earlier this year, The Digital Bits celebrated the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi with this retrospective article.  Now, we continue our anniversary coverage of Jedi, the concluding chapter of George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy, with this Q&A with author J.W. Rinzler regarding his new book, The Making of Return of the Jedi, which is due out this week from Del Rey/LucasBooks.  [Read on here…]

All right, as you can probably see... The Hell Plaza Oktoberfest Se7en is here!  Doc Jahnke and I kicked things off early this morning with the official Fest page and Adam’s first review: Scream Factory’s The Amityville Horror Collection on Blu-ray!  Every weekday, all this month, Adam will offer up another Halloween-themed movie review on Blu-ray and DVD for your reading (and creepy viewing) pleasure!

Also, we strongly recommend that you guys head on over to Facebook and give both The Digital Bits and Jahnke’s Electric Theater pages there a “like” because all month long we’re going to be giving away (on both Facebook pages) a bunch of great Blu-rays from Shout! Factory, Scream Factory and Anchor Bay, as well as one each of those badass Universal Monsters prop replicas from our friends at Factory Entertainment, including the Dracula Medallion, the Dracula Ring, the Fossil Creature Hand and the Frankenstein Bust!  We’ll have more details on the giveaways very soon.  Oktoberfest is one of our favorite times of year and it’s going to be a great month, so we hope you all enjoy it!  [Read on here...]

About a month ago, I received an anonymous package.  Well, anonymous except for The Digital Bits logo in the return address and a single word scrawled across the side: “GLUTTONY”.

“What’s in the box?” I yelled out loud to nobody in particular.  I opened it and was horrified by its contents.  It was full of DVDs and Blu-rays, all horror movies.  Oh, and Gwyneth Paltrow’s severed head, which I thought was kind of odd.  [...]

Afternoon, folks!  We trust you all had a great weekend?  Your NFL team did well, you enjoyed the finale of Breaking Bad, etc.  We’ve got a big week planned for you guys, with Dr. Adam Jahnke’s annual Hell Plaza Oktoberfest officially kicking off here at The Bits tomorrow!  Meanwhile, give your coffee a warm up because we’ve got some big announcement news to start your afternoon...

The big news is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has set Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium for release on Blu-ray Combo and DVD on 12/17 (SRP $40.99 and $30.99).  We don’t think this is the complete list of extras, but the Blu-ray will at least include 8 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Visions of 2154, The Journey to Elysium: Envisioning Elysium, The Journey to Elysium: Capturing Elysium, The Journey to Elysium: Enhancing Elysium, Collaboration: Crafting the Performances in Elysium, The Technology of 2154, In Support of Story: The Visual Effects of Elysium and Engineering Utopia: Creating a Society in the Sky).  You can see the BD cover artwork below.  [Read on here...]

Okay, let’s close out the week with a couple of reviews and some new announcement news.  First the reviews...

Our own Todd Doogan has checked in with his thoughts on Criterion’s excellent recent edition of Ishirô Honda’s classic Godzilla on Blu-ray.  Enjoy!

And I’ve weighed in with a look at Magnet’s new Blu-ray edition of Europa Report – a modestly impressive little space exploration thriller that arrives in stores on 10/8.

Now for some announcement news... [Read on here...]

As promised, we’ve got some good stuff here at The Bits for you today…

First up, our own Bud Elder has checked in with a new View from the Cheap Seats column in which he muses on alternate film casting and also runs down some of the more interesting home video releases on Blu-ray, DVD and DVD-R.  Don’t miss it!

I’ve turned in a combo review of 20th Century Fox’s Homeland: Seasons One and Two on Blu-ray.  It’s one of my favorite series currently on TV – a brilliantly cast, acted and written spy drama that won last year’s Emmy for Best Drama Series – and its third season debuts this coming Sunday night on Showtime.  If you’re not watching it already, I strongly encourage you to give it a look.  [Read on here…]

I’ve never been one to go to a movie solely based on casting because, let’s face it, actors sometimes aren’t the best judge of script or director material.  The exceptions these days might be, for me, Leo DiCaprio, Nicholson or Redford or Clint or Woody Allen or, if he should ever work again, Warren Beatty.  People like that.  It’s sad, but so many great stars have lost goodwill with their audiences – remember when you looked forward to a Robert De Niro movie?  An Al Pacino move?  Those actors have to do what they have to do in order to pay their bills, but De Niro’s latest movie The Killing Season, also starring another dud as of late, John Travolta, went straight to DVD.  [Read on here…]

So I had this whole news update post planned for today, along with Bud’s new View from the Cheap Seats column and a new Blu-ray review or two as well, and I was deep in the process of getting it all ready to go live on the site, when something happened that completely distracted me.

I figured I’d share it with you guys this afternoon, because it goes right to my cinema geek credibility.  And I knew that some of you would appreciate it as much as I do.  [Read on here...]

All right, first up today, our own Joe Marchese has posted a review of Criterion’s The Blob on Blu-ray!  Nothing like a B-movie classic given A-list special edition treatment.  Read on and enjoy!

Also, our own Russell Hammond has just updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links.  As always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon after clicking through our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we greatly appreciate it.

In announcement news today, Well Go USA Entertainment has just set IP Man: The Final Fight for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/12 (SRP $29.98 and $24.98).  Extras will include a making of featurette, 11 cast and crew interviews and both the U.S. and international trailers.  [Read on here...]

All right, we’re starting the new week with a bunch of odds and ends to report in terms of announcement news...

First up, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has set The Simpsons: The Sixteenth Season for Blu-ray and DVD release on 12/3 (SRP $59.99 and $49.98).  See the cover artwork below.

Warner Home Video has set Shameless: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray and DVD on 12/17 (SRP $49.99 and $39.98).  [Read on here…]