columbia

Robert Harris submitted a new blog post A few words about...™ Christine -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

Sony has a new line of Blu-rays, about to be made available, and they're being represented as MOD product. The first is George Schaefer's Pendulum (1969), with George Peppard, Jean Seberg and Richard Kiley, in the leads. MOD releases have gotten a bad rep, as early on, some were problematic...

Scream Factory is releasing two beautiful black & white William Castle productions, released by Columbia in 1959 (Tingler) and 1964 (S-J). While neither are films to which I'd normally gravitate, each have a myriad of fans, and thus, their quality needs to be reported here. Let's begin with...

Continue reading...

I have very little to say about this film, except that those who have never heard of it, should immediately jump on this release. Those who do know, will already have it on pre-order. Powell Pressburger Cardiff Technicolor An absolutely magnificent Blu-ray from a new 4k restoration by...

Richard Quine, a Columbia staple during this period, directed My Sister Eileen, based upon the stage play, in 1955. The color production, filmed in CinemaScope by Charles Lawton, Jr. (The Lady from Shanghai), has made its way to Twilight Time, and the wait has been worthwhile. Derived from a...

The Patriot, directed by Roland Emmerich, in 2000, is in many ways like Braveheart, directed by its lead, Mel Gibson in 1995. Both are tales of nationalism, somehow based upon a horrific personal event, leading to a desire for revenge. Both are fine films, and both have now received splendid...

Columbia's 1937 The Awful Truth, is to my mind, one of the finest screwball comedies to come out of Hollywood. Ever! Irene Dunne and Cary Grant are perfect, as a warring couple, that give us a myriad of delights. For astute cinephiles, it's also the first film to feature a reasonably fully...

Sam Fuller began his film career as a writer in the 1930s, with his first directorial gig (he also wrote) I Shot Jesse James in 1949. The films for which he is probably best known are Steel Helmet (1951), Pickup on South Street (1953) House of Bamboo (1955), Run of the Arrow (1957) Underworld...

I'd never seen Joe Johnston's original Jumanji until viewing it via Columbia's new 4k UHD release. While I'd like to presume that it may have been a better film 20+ years ago, I have my doubts. What is in no way problematic, are the tech specs of the release. In typical Columbia fashion...

Woody Allen has probably made more films than John Ford, D.W. Griffith and Terrence Malick put together. Twilight Time recently released a meticulously transferred edition of his Husbands and Wives (1992), and has now quickly followed with Manhattan ɹǝpɹnW Mystery, which I believe was his 168th...

Husbands and Wives (1992), was Mr. Allen's 167th film, and fits in his CV between Shadows and Fog and Manhattan Murder Mystery, and belongs within the group of films from his Columbia / Tri-Star period. Similar to another Allen film, it involves analysis, dating, breaking up, dating and...

Paul Mazursky's 1969, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, is definitely a film of its era. Before the invention of death-defining sexually transmitted diseases... swapping? Why not? For a film that lives in a certain time, BCTA stands the test of time well. Two beautiful couples, all of whom had...

With over two hundred films now in release in 4k format, I'd often wondered why the very first to come to mind, as the quintessential 4k release had not yet appeared. Now, thanks to the wonderful folks at Columbia, it has. Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell can now be yours, exclusively from Best...

The L-Shaped Room, directed by Bryan Forbes, is quintessential English "kitchen sink" cinema, which existed in the early 1960s. Shot gorgeously in black & white by the great Douglas Slocombe, who we lost last year, at the age of 103. If you've seen The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White...

Robert Harris A few words about...™ Spider-Man Limited Edition Collection -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray I've got to be honest. As someone who normally doesn't track the comings and goings of comic book characters in cinema, I found the latest 4k offerings from Sony to be extremely confusing...

Robert Harris A few words about...™ Gidget -- in Blu-ray "If you ever need a friend you can depend on..." Had Gidget not turned Sandra Dee into a Hollywood sensation, it probably would have been Imitation of Life, or A Summer Place, or one of the Tammy films. But way back in 1959, Sandra...

While Jack Nicholson has given us some wonderful performances, for me, it comes down to the top two. And some may debate, as in "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin," whether the pinnacle is A Few Good Men or Chinatown, or possibly something else. For me it's a tie of those two...

This lavish 68-CD box, due on December 8 just in time for the holidays, features: 62 original Columbia albums that have been remastered (13 of which are available on CD for the very first time – and many more of which have never appeared on CD in the United States) plus Mathis' news album; Two...

Delving back into the vaults, Columbia has licensed Frank (R.) Capra's 1932 The Bitter Tea of General Yen, to Amazon, who are supplying orders with burned copies. The fact that the discs are burned should be of no relevance to consumers. They're fine. Get one that's problematic, it will be...

Finally, thanks to Columbia (Sony), we get the real back-story on the beginnings of Spider-Man, something that has eluded fans for decades. Who is Peter Parker? Where did he come from? Why is he living with Marisa Tomei? Why does Gwyneth Paltrow receive sixth billing for half a day's work...

Frank Capra's brilliant Lost Horizon, based upon the novel by James Hilton, is eighty years old. Early on, the film's elements were subjected to re-cutting, both after previews, and for re-issue, and the search for missing footage has been an ongoing holy grail in the archival community...

Difficult to believe, but I had never seen the original Starship Troopers, although it's a DVD that sat on my shelf for a decade. As an initial exposure, Columbia's new 4k UHD with HDR, is a mind-boggling affair. With an image harvest from the original camera negative, and 4k from beginning to...

Back in the early days of Blu-ray, there were enough threads discussing precisely what Mr. Coppola's Dracula should look like. I'll not re-visit. The bottom line on Columbia's new 4k release of the film, is that it has the appearance of a veil being lifted from previous releases, that we never...

This is an extremely simple few words to impart. Within the home video reproduction universe, film grain, smoke... basically anything tiny that obscures the image, must be eradicated. Take a 1080i transfer, soften it to remove every bit of grain, then sharpen, and out comes a decent looking...

Filmmaker Joseph Mankiewicz is known for the literary value, and intelligence of his films, and his 1959 production of Tennessee Williiams' Suddenly, Last Summer, with a screenplay aided and abetted by Gore Vidal, is another winner. It's also an oddity, which in some strange ways reminds me of...

The Fifth Element, one of two Luc Besson films, recently released by Columbia / Sony in 4k UHD (the other is Leon: The Professional), is another telling example of precisely what 4k presentations can achieve. While both productions were shot on film -- Leon in 35/4 scope, and Fifth in S35 --...

Luc Besson's Leon The Professional, is one of my favorite films of the 1990s. Far more than a simple crime drama, it's one of the strangest "buddy" pictures ever devised. Starring a superb Jean Reno, and a kid who I thought gave a terrific performance for her age, it's a taught tale, that goes...

After a single production at M-G-M in 1933, Mr. Astaire spent the next the next seven years at RKO, starring in some of what remain today, as the finest musicals ever created. After that period, and while he would spend quality back at M-G-M, and Paramount, he made two films for Columbia, under...

If there ever was an odd couple, it might be Noel Coward and Ernie Kovacs, who appear together here, for their first (and only) time. The cast of Our Man in Havana, beyond Sir Noel and Mr. Kovacs, reads like a dream cast for a normal filmmaker, but Carol Reed was generally able to get anyone he...