Movie Review and Industry NewsMovie Review and Industry News Whirlwinds (2024) Review Lee Isaac Chung’s Whirlwinds has impressed critics for its balance between honoring the original film while updating it for modern audiences. The cast and script are praised for their effectiveness, and the film’s Atmos mix is noteworthy. Murder: Life on the Street Coming to Peacock NBC’s popular crime series Murder: Life on the Street will soon be available to stream in HD and 4K on Peacock. A music rights issue that previously prevented a Blu-ray release has been resolved. Physical Media Sales on the Rise HMV reports an increase in physical media sales, with 4K and Blu-ray experiencing strong demand. However, a concern arises as many titles are selling out quickly due to limited stock. Inventory Issues with 4K Releases Studios are facing challenges in meeting the demand for 4K Ultra HD releases, leading to inventory shortages and delays. Industry insiders urge studios to increase replication capacity to avoid consumer frustration. Upcoming 4K Releases Sneak peeks at cover illustrations for upcoming 4K releases include: * Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 5 Box Set * The Hitcher: Limited Edition (4K Ultra HD) * The Ring (Steelbook 4K Ultra HD) * Sleepy Hollow (Steelbook 4K Ultra HD)
This past weekend I had the chance to attend an IMAX screening of Lee Isaac Chung’s Whirlwinds (2024) and I have to say I actually quite enjoyed it. Just like Top Gun: MaverickThe film toes the line between honoring the original (reviewed here in 4K) and updating the material for the times, while also injecting a few fresh elements. The cast is excellent, and the script (by Mark L. Smith, from a story by Joseph Kosinski) doesn’t miss a trick. There’s a moment early in the film where one character explains to another how he plans to study a tornado with 3D radar, and he demonstrates this by taking a glass of water and stirring it with a spoon — it’s very clever and effective. In short: if you liked the original film, you’ll like this one. Plus, the Atmos mix was great. I’m really looking forward to the eventual 4K release (it’s available for pre-order here on Amazon , street date TBA).
Meanwhile, here’s something exciting: The trade papers are reporting today that Peacock will stream NBC’s popular 1990s crime series Murder: Life on the Street in HD and 4K on 8/19! The series starred Andre Braugher, Richard Belzer, Yaphet Kotto, and many more. Apparently, a deal has been struck to sort out the music rights, which has thus far prevented the show from being released on Blu-ray. We don’t yet know if a physical media release is planned, but if the show Actually remastered in 4K, or at least a Blu-ray seems likely eventually. The show is based on a book by David Simon, who was the first to reveal (here on X last week) that NBC had finally acquired the music. Like many shows of the era, Murder was shot on film (specifically Super 16), but post was often done on SD video. With any luck, that original film has been scanned and this isn’t just an upsampling. We’ll know more soon. You can read more here at Variety.
Even today the BBC There was a great story yesterday that Phil Halliday, managing director of UK retailer HMV, said that his chain’s physical media sales have actually been increasing recently, with 4K and Blu-ray doing particularly well recently. HMV’s video disc sales are apparently up 5% in the first half of the year. You can read more here .
This is actually something we’ve been hearing a lot lately, that there’s been a real uptick in physical media sales over the last year or two. And while that’s certainly a good thing for physical media, and particularly Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, there’s also a frustrating side to it…
Hollywood studios need to copy more disc products!
So many of these titles, especially on 4K Ultra HD, but also Blu-ray, are being replicated in batch runs of 1500, 2000, or 5000. And they sell out quickly in pre-orders, and often before the street date! So when the street date actually rolls around, a lot of people who pre-ordered the title are getting messages saying it will be another week or two before their copy arrives. I’ve heard from a lot of Bits and pieces readers who have reserved a CD, but their order is cancelled by the seller of their choice, simply because there is not enough in stock!
Examples? Paramount’s recent 4K Ultra HDs Chinatown (1974) and Once upon a Time in the West (1968) are currently sold out everywhere. Many people who recently purchased Disney and Lucasfilm’s Andor: Season One also tried to pick up in 4K Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 4K at once and couldn’t because it was sold out (although it recently went back on sale). But many other Disney 4Ks are now sold out too, especially recently Ratatouille And Inside outAs many of you know, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had huge inventory issues in the first few weeks after release. This also applied to Dune: Part Two And Top Gun: Maverick.
Title after title has these problems. So of course, Bits and pieces Readers keep asking us what’s going on. And when we try to contact the studios in question to find out when and if more product is coming, we often get a response that we can’t answer. Seriously, for the past month I’ve been asking four Several major studios have reported issues with 4K disc deliveries – often multiple times – and I only got one answer.
This is a problem.
If disc fans want to buy a 4K title and they have the money in hand, then they should be able to do so. I can certainly understand small replicas of Limited Edition titles, but when major new releases or catalog titles are impossible for consumers to find on the street, then that’s a problem. Making matters worse is the fact that unscrupulous secondary market sellers – knowing that a title is a Limited Edition – will buy up every copy they can get their hands on and then sell them on eBay for triple the price.
The home entertainment industry needs to do something about this. And what they can do is find a way to get the replication capacity back up. It’s certainly not going to be back to its former glory, but the studios should be able to replicate and ship enough product to meet demand, and right now they can’t.
Okay, that’s a short soapbox rant that I hope I don’t have to repeat again. We’ll see.
Below is a sneak peek at the cover illustrations of some recently announced titles that you can pre-order now (or soon) on Amazon.com…
Stay tuned…
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