As has happened many times before, and always on a Friday, this Friday is Mars Day at the National Air and Space Museum. Started in 1996 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Viking Landing on Mars on July 20th, 1976, the museum hosts a public gathering of their planetary sciences team. This means you can meet and ask questions of the people who plan the missions to Mars and other planets surrounded by the exhibits, up to and including the director of NASA’s planetary science division, Jim Green. They also have a number of special events, exhibits, and presentations on tap for all age groups, infotainment at its finest.
This isn’t very Sci-Fi or Space Cadet, but it was a wonderful stunt and I just had to include the video; Jewel doing Undercover Karaoke! Thanks to @feliciaday for the heads up on this one!
This weekend has three films coming out, two of them pretty much everywhere. They kick off on the 14th, with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a film by the National Treasure franchise team. It takes a stab at reproducing that magic with real magic as part of the premise, and yes, that team includes Nick Cage. This is particularly anticipated because it is not a remake of another film, which seems a bit rare these days.
Two more films roll out on the 16th, with Inception in wide release, telling an original tale of dream theft and the thought police that I have been waiting about a year to see. With an all star cast and deep pockets production money, as well as a concept that has NOT been done to death by Hollywood copycat studios, this makes the second original work in a single weekend. While I am looking forwards to Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a feel-good film, Inception bodes well to becoming a movie with a permanent impact on the genre. I have already started to consider the best films to group it with for a marathon of twisted flicks, with Dark City and Blade Runner leading the pack.
The other film on the 16th is in limited release, The Wild Hunt, originally scheduled for release in May. A man looses his girlfriend to a bunch of guys in a medieval re-enactment game, but it isn’t a game to everyone. In fact, some get downright intense about how they wish to proceed.
There is very little of interest being released on DVD this week, although there is one true masterpiece: Saving Grace: The Final Season. This program has been nominated for many awards although it only won once that I know of, but it is an absolutely amazing drama that goes places you would never expect. The four seasons tell one complete story, and while each episode is a self contained police procedural, the core story arc is something else entirely. With the all-star cast and quality production values, this one gets my vote as the best release for this week.
For Movies, Parasomnia is the only real option, and not much of one in my book.
There are a few new Anime collections being released, including Golgo 13, season 1 of the story of an assassin. But the most important Anime release this week has to be Romeo × Juliet, telling the classic tale of love, class war, and tragedy taking place in the city floating in the sky, Neo Verona.
There are also a few re-releases in a more affordable package, including 009-1 – Complete Collection [S.A.V.E] edition, a tasty Bond-style sexy spy story in a parallel universe, Black Cat, another assassin who learns the error of his ways, and my personal favorite for the week, Magikano, about a magical boy bludgeoned into unawareness by his equally magical sisters.
On the American animation front, the Superhero Squad is a kids-friendly version of The Avengers, and is also released on Tuesday. Not something I will be adding, but worth noting. In a related Marvel project, here is the Shadowland Music Video…
Hopefully, next week will have a lot more choices for us, but a few of this weeks limited selections are quite worth the effort.
The new Resident Evil trailer is out, and looks quite good. I am not a horror movie fan, or a fan of movies based on games, but the Resident franchise is done very well, and looks more like an Aliens-style action adventure to me. The Elvis on Black Velvet speed painting video may not be genre, but William Gibson sent out the link, and it was too much fun sad to share.
A new TV series will start going out on the internet soon, Zimm is about an alien invasion. This looks like it could be real good, with a cast that includes Armin Shimerman, Robyn Hyden of Blood and Roses, Alimi Ballard of Numb3rs and Dark Angel, Michele Boyd of Flash Forward, and Zadi Diaz of Epic Fu. Armin at one time had two full time acting jobs as the principle on Buffy and the bartender on Deep Space Nine, while simultaneously serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. The program itself is listed as being 24 with aliens and a Die Hard attitude, and will roll out in Sanctuary style on the web only, at least to begin. Thanks to TrekMovie for the heads up on this one.
