MGM came up with a new RoboCop App for the iPhone and iPad. It started life as a Soundboard, but since they have been done to death (and MGM had already released a free RoboCop Soundboard App, so they needed a reason to get people to pay 99 cents for this one) they threw in some extra stuff. They added some video clips, in a logical extension of the soundboard, but that obviously was not enough. So they added the RoboMouth, a visual lip set you could hold in front of your mouth while it did some favorite Murphy quotes; that became the RoboFace for the iPad. Finally, they added audio input and processing, so you could speak your own quotes and have them delivered in a RoboCop-like monotone. Nothing fancy here, but a nice App none the less.
On Friday, the 28th, IP Man 2 hits the screens, more of a historical martial arts film than anything else, but with amazing action sequences. Scream of the Banshee is also released that day, a horror flic with a hot archeologist digging up supernatural beings best left undisturbed. And
Kaboom claims it is Sci-Fi when you check it out at IMDB, but this American movie’s web site lives in France, and the trailers it shows have no science fiction in them, not even a flying saucer. Bottom line is I do not see any actual Science Fiction or Fantasy movies being released this week but there is one coming next week; The Adjustment Bureau, written by Philip K. Dick…
There are a couple of excellent movies coming out on disk this week, although their genre status is debatable. RED, or Retired, Extremely Dangerous, was my favorite action comedy not based on a comic book for 2010. Nothing deep or surprising, just good silly fun. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest completes the Millennium trilogy by author Stieg Larsson, a rather gritty and brutal tale of government corruption and the brilliant hacker girl who fought for her life against them, and the dogged investigative reporter who helped her. And Nowhere Boy is the story of the young John Lennon. All good movies, but where is the science fiction, you ask? Here it is: Enter the Void is the story of a murdered Tokyo drug dealer who’s ghost watches over his little sister.
TV shows didn’t do as well this week, with no real live action choices available. In western animation, Shaun the Sheep: Spring Shena-a-anigans out of the UK is a good silly choice.
There are a number of new Anime titles this week. Ghost Sweeper Mikami – Collection 2 continues the story of a beautiful but greedy ghost hunter out to get rich off the misfortune of others, and her perverted (therefor easily controllable) sidekick. Pandora Hearts – Premium Edition (Sub.DVD box 2) likewise continues its storyline, about an heir to the throne who is tossed into prison on his 15th birthday for no apparent reason. The series has some resemblance to Alice in Wonderland on several different levels, and is worth following.
The Sacred Blacksmith – Complete Series gives you the entire package with no waiting, unlike the previously mentioned programs. The Sacred Blacksmith has the power to forge powerful swords capable of defeating the demons who threaten his world, and teach people like Knight Guard Cecily Campbell how to use them. If you are not sure if this is for you, you can watch it online before you make your decision. Vampire Knight – Complete Series also has that instant gratification thing going for it, the whole story at once. In this one, Yuki Cross has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, in a twisty tale where nothing is what you thought it was, and again you can watch it online before you choose whether to bring it home with you.
Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 5 is not the kind of series you are going to be able to bring home in a single box, no matter how much you want to. There are already a boatload of episodes, with another handful of seasons available in Japan beyond what we have access to here. Disgaea has similar problems…
There are also a few classic anime’s being re-released this week. The reason for the Gantz reissue are obvious; the feature length live action film makes its US debut last Thursday. Not so obvious is the reason for the Armitage: Movie re-release, but I don’t really care; this story is a total classic with world class animation that everyone should see. The robot revolution on Earth didn’t go so well and they were all destroyed. But many survive on Mars, living amongst humans just fine, often undetected. Armitage is one of them, a tough cop who’s partner has been shot up so many times he is now more machine than flesh with computer controlled prostheses. Behind the police procedural, murder mystery, and government conspiracy, this one is a love story; and it works on every level.
This is the second time in 72 hours I am posting a second entry for the day, and like the previous one, Tv Ratings Explained, it is touching on one aspect of how the business of distributing intellectual property works, specifically of the Sci-Fi TV and Movie programs we all love so much. This time around the factor being examined is Territory Rights, which are the licensing contracts that set up who can distribute a given property in each part of the world. What makes this article timely is the fact that it is an official response from US distributor Funimation about the situation that forced them to shut down their simulcast of Fractale, as I reported yesterday. What makes me want to endorse their position is the fact they are explaining how the business model and industry works in a way that makes intuitive sense, and telling people how they can support it if they want to continue to enjoy streaming video. There are too many companies that have legal teams running wild trying to change laws unreasonably and suing everyone on the planet just to fill their own pockets; companies that actually treat their customers as intelligent partners rather than victims should be appreciated when you find them.
The movie Red Riding Hood trailer makes me think the tag line should be “it’s The Company Of Wolves meets Twilight“, and it’s directed by the original Twilight movie’s Catherine Hardwicke. Hopefully that does NOT mean this one is as bad as that series of films, because it does have a lot of good story potential. There are some more pictures here, and the film itself will hit the big screen in just a few weeks, on March 11th.
The movie Love looks amazing based on this trailer supplied by Angels and Airwaves and former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge. Release date is set for 14 February 2011, according to Geeks of Doom, as a combined CD and DVD.
ANGELS & AIRWAVES presents “LOVE” MOVIE TRAILER from Mark Eaton on Vimeo.
My apologies to the 99% of the audience that already knows this, but it is in my Master of the Obvious contract that I have to get the word out to that final 1% that haven’t heard yet. I should also mention before we get started that the US Version of Being Human pilot episode is available as a free download from iTunes right now…
If you missed this past Monday’s episode of Chuck, you can of course watch it directly from its NBC website for free. This is something more and more networks are doing, making their programing available on multiple platforms to build their audience, a process known as convergence in the industry; making any show available to watch any time on any device. So if you didn’t catch The Cape when it was broadcast over the airwaves, you could watch it from that web page, pull it up from the NBC Video On Demand folder from your cable companies set top box, or pull down one of several viewing Apps for your phone or tablet, and see it free. The links I used in this example are NBC, but all the networks are doing it now; if you can’t watch a program on the network web site directly, they probably house it over at Hulu, iTunes, or YouTube. If you wanted it for your permanent collection you have the option of purchasing many of them from a number of distributors for download, Amazon and Apple being the largest and best established operations.
Cable TV companies have also been rebuilding their networks for convergence, for the same reason; they want the largest audience for their products they can get. So they now also have webpages for watching shows and Apps you can download to make their programming portable for no additional cost. The links I included were for Comcast, but all the cable companies are doing it. I used my login and the hotel WiFi to my laptop while half way across the country to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special, and it worked great. The Comcast App allows you to control your cable boxes remotely, check your voicemail, and so forth, with being able to watch the videos on your phone or tablet coming shortly.
Just announced, the Anime Network starts their free simulcast of Infinite Stratos this Sunday at 8:30 PM CST. They are getting a bit of a late start, so this Sunday’s simulcast will be episode 3, but they will also post episodes 1 and 2 at the same time so you don’t miss anything. This one is Mecha combat comedy judging by the description.
I wanted to mention that Fractale is finally available for viewing! This twisted little show stars a boy with virtual parents, a girl in a world with mostly guys, a villein class of bad guys that show evil promise, and an escapee from deep in the past whom only the boy can protect. With only one episode to extrapolate from all of my conclusions may be wrong, but I am enjoying the way this is starting out.
UPDATE: Soapbox Mode On: Thanks to pirates, it now appears only the first episode of Fractale will be simulcast unless the illegal sites are shut down. According to Anime News Network, the Fractale Production Committee has forced Funimation to cease the simulcast until such time as the illegal streaming and file sharing sites are under control. The question that confuses me the most is what sense does it make to pirate something that you can watch for free, especially when doing so means you might make it no longer available for legal viewing, possibly for years until the DVDs come out? Which is not to say there are not serious issues of abuse in the other direction, as best personified by the companies that want to censure the internet, and claim they are trying to protect against piracy when they are really trying to destroy the structure of the internet because they cannot get oppressive and invasive anti-piracy laws passed. There is already a body of laws in place, a courtroom adversarial response structure that allows for due process when piracy is suspected. You don’t need to install spyware/virus sotware on peoples computers to delete files without the users permission, and you don’t need to break the router paths so the internet doesn’t work properly. This is the core of why we have a judicial system, to keep idiots from either side from destroying what we have spent decades building. Soapbox Mode Off
From Anime News Network, The Sacred Blacksmith and Vampire Knights are both newly launched programs you can watch online from the Fall 2010 season. After watching the first episode of each, I will be watching the Sacred Blacksmith to the end of its run.