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Somthing to Watch: DVD’s

The best live action film this time around is not genre, but I will be looking for it: The Man from Nowhere, a Korean crime thriller. The one movie collection that looks like fun this week is Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: XX. The original movies may suck, but when the MST3K team is done with them they are a joy to watch. There are a few live action movie choices which I have never heard of and have no ideas about. Matty Hanson and the Invisibility Ray looks to be a family oriented direct to DVD selection, while The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff is a 1973 Spanish movie apparently of a more adult nature.

The clear winner for TV shows this week is The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. Most people had a hard time believing this was a TV show, which is kind of silly. It isn’t on broadcast TV after all, so its creators had the full range of non-regulated choices available to any film maker or premium cable channel producer. I missed it when it originally aired, so I look forward to catching up with it now.

There are a few quality documentary TV shows this week, with the must-have option being Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. This is another one of those true science programs that explores the limits of scientific knowledge, and speculates its way past the borders those limits put up. Since that definition is at the heart of science fiction, you can understand why I love this program. The fact that it is done better than most documentaries, and explains the science it is extrapolating from in an easily understandable way is just bonus points in my book; I already loved this show! Some of the lesser known documentaries coming out now include Moon Race: Volumes 1 & 2 and Space Race: Volumes 1 & 2, I suspect from the same production company.

Tales from Earthsea is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it is from Studio Ghibli, put together in 2006 from the wonderful story written by Ursula K LeGuin. But this one was the first venture by the son, Goro Miyazaki, and not the father, Hayao Miyazaki, and the lack of experience shows. Still, while not up to the masterworks dad cranks out, this version shows some promise, and I enjoyed it. I think that the review that spoke to the heart of the problem came from J-Film Powwow if you want to look into it deeper before making your decision. There are a few other projects by Ursula coming to the big screen soon, including Field of Vision, which looks absolutely amazing. And for true Ghibli fans, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is being released on Blue Ray on the same day.

There are a few re-releases worth noting this week, including the El Cazador de la Bruja – Complete Series, previously only available by season. Another Girls with Guns buddy series in the tradition of Noir (complete with the younger girl with a hole in her memory), this one takes place in the wild west. If you are not sure if this program is for you, you can watch it online before making your decision. Also, one of my favorite Anime’s of 2005, Speed Grapher, is coming out as a complete series SAVE edition, which means you can pick up the entire thing for $20 or so. The various home pages for the series seem to be gone, but if you are over 17 you can still watch it online. The story line is twisty and brutal, with many wealthy people paying for the chance to mutate into monsters with super powers, under the control of an evil mastermind. the animation is world class, the music bed and voice work is quite well done, and there are only two normal people in the entire cast (the protagonist and the victimized young girl he attempts to save). This one is a keeper.

Major Tom Variations

Just as the Space Oddity variations grew, so did the sequel song, Major Tom, again focusing on the intrepid space wanderer. Here are a few of the choices, starting out with the Shiny Toy Guns flavor, from LA, and I love the footage that was pulled together to make up this version.

From Germany we have Peter Schilling’s 1983 version:

And then I Hate Kate‘s style…

Still with me? Then here is your reward, a truly unique version of the audio with a world-class build of the video for this song. Extra points for anyone who can correctly identify the band and the language they are singing in!

And the final entry in this segment…

Geek Out: Every Version of Windows

Kudos to Andrew Tait, who created a virtual machine and used it to install every version of windows*, and then used it to upgrade to the next version. Even better, he screen captured the entire process, and presented it with commentary. This one is just silly geek fun, with the only science fiction aspect being the use of the Doom II game engine to test compatibility from OS to OS.

*: Or at least every version he could find that could be upgraded in sequence. He skipped ME because it could not upgrade to 2000, but only to XP. I agree with his decision, because out of the two OS’s 2000 was real, and ME was a brutal mistake that even Microsoft abandoned as soon as they were able to do so.

New Wonders, 3D Star Wars

I am in the wrong country to watch the trailer for the new show on BBC 2’s web site, Wonders of the Universe, but perhaps you might be able to see it. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic Phil Plait, Mr. Bad Astronomer himself, posted the trailer on the Discovery Channel site from Professor Brian Cox’s previous series, Wonders of the Solar System. That should give you the general idea of what kind of program this will be; hope BBC America ends up picking it up. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter tells us they have announced the release date for Episode 1 of Star Wars in 3D; February 10th, 2012. The plan is to roll out one a year in Episode order rather than release order. Personally, I fell asleep in the theater during The Phantom Menace, so I will be waiting for 2015 to see the first one I care about.

Age of the Dragons trailer

The premise behind Age of the Dragons is a bit unexpected. Dragons are hunted for the napalm-like substance that fuels modern civilization, but Captain Ahab is chasing after the Great White Dragon that slaughtered his family. Yes, this really is Moby Dick done with dragons, and Danny Glover gets to be Ahab in this one. In theaters this Friday (or perhaps a year from this Friday, the release date data is a bit unclear) on a very limited run (along with The Adjustment Bureau and Rango in much wider release), and out on DVD two weeks later, which is where most of us will get to see it.

Also out in extremely limited release this weekend are the Korean film I Saw The Devil and the Thai movie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I find it interesting that both movies have their official home page in Japan, which seems to be turning into a gateway to the rest of the world for Asia. In much wider release, Beastly is a story we have seen before, involving a callas guy who earns the curse laid upon him, and must now achieve a goal previously unthinkable to him to get his body back. Even though it is a bit derivative, I suspect I will be attending Beastly this weekend. I should have posted about all of these with my normal Monday Movie post, but here they are before they hit the big screen at least.

Doilaks, P.K. Dick, and a non-special DVD rant

The image of the Doilak just cracked me up, so I had to share it here. Charlie Jane over at io9 has put together a great list of Philip K. Dick Stories that Hollywood Hasn’t Filmed Yet but really, really should. Finally, there were a few unscheduled DVD releases this week… or rather, scheduled in an unusual way. Previously special editions of them had been released, complete with some collector item, such as a figurine or pencil board. Once the special editions were sold out, they then released the regular versions. I suppose they were hoping that people who could not wait to see it would be willing to pay the inflated prices that collector items bring to the table, thereby increasing their up-front profit. I consider this a bit cheesy; I have to see a series before I know if I like it enough to pay an extra $10 to $25 to get the version with $1.29 worth of paint and extruded plastic to proudly mount on my shelf. The bit I find embarrassing is I had not noticed they were doing this until they released the regular ones; I just assumed the initial releases were over priced and didn’t bother. The titles being released this way this way this week include Chrome Shelled Regios and The Sacred Blacksmith. They are referring to it as a First Press Edition, much like the First Edition books have had for centuries, but with tangible value added items.