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Something to Do: Movies

There are several interesting choices this week, with The Darkest Hour leading the pack. An alien race has invaded Moscow and is consuming the power grid and using it as a weapon against us, while five young people are heading up the opposition. Also out, The Adventures of Tintin brings the Belgian adventure hero to life on the big screen. With Steven Spielberg directing from a script written by Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright, this one promises to be something special. It doesn’t hurt any that the cast includes the likes of Daniel Craig, Simon Peg, and Nick Frost.

Daniel Craig is also in this week’s Americanized remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, while Simon Peg shows up in this weeks Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. If I was going to see a movie that wasn’t in the first paragraph this time around though it would have to be Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which sounds like it has the potential to be an Oscar contender for multiple awards.

Something to Watch: DVDs

I was rather surprised to find there isn’t much new coming out this week for last minute x-mas gifting, but there is one masterpiece: Futurama: Volume 6. I have always loved this show, and it continues to be high quality sci-fi humor.

Another show worth looking into is Rosario + Vampire: Season One, and Rosario + Vampire: Capu2, which means you can collect the entire series up at the same time. The basic plot is a normal human kid gets accidentally enrolled in a high school for monsters, and ends up with a vampire girlfriend. Plenty of comedy and fan service in this one, as there is in the other new anime for the week: Heaven’s Lost Property – Season 1 Complete. In that one a girl crazy high school boy has a wish granting winged girl fall out of the sky and into his life. She interprets his wishes in some bizarre ways not being used to humans, with pretty comedic results.

Strangely enough, I found no live action releases this week; I think that is the first time that has ever happened.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu songs

This may be one of the most surreal young musical artists to come out of Japan for a long time: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Her songs have one hell of a lot of energy and are very upbeat (at least musically; I don’t speak enough of the language to know if that holds up lyrically) and perhaps the most kaiwaii live action sequences every filmed. After the two songs, a brief interview to give you an idea of what else she is up to.

Fullmetal Alchemist trailer

There is a new feature length film coming out in the Elric family saga, Fullmetal Alchemist : The Sacred Star of Milos. The video is more of a tease than a trailer, and the film will have a limited theatrical run, but this is still exciting news. If you don’t already know all about this modern classic, stop by their official Funimation site to watch some episodes and bring yourself up to speed on this paratime/steampunk romp. Thanks to Crunchyroll for the heads up on this one.

Nerd of the Year Award: Upload Your Video Today

Chris Hardwick is using the platform given him by BBC America to host a two way competition for the Nerd of the Year Award, where you submit a video with your vote embedded in it. What makes it a two way competition is the fact that three of the best videos (best as defined by a combined criteria of most convincing argument and overall geekery) will be featured on BBC America before the special airs. Which pretty much means this weekend, so build and upload your videos now; deadline for entry is 11:59PM EST on Sunday, the 18th. The actual winner of the award will be announced during the Nerdist Year In Review special on x-mas eve. The show also features Wil Wheaton, David Tennant, Simon Pegg, Nathan Fillion, and Neil Gaimon covering topics ranging from Doctor Who to Firefly.

Red Dwarf 10

Dave TV has announced that it has signed off on producing season 10 of Red Dwarf, which in fact the Red Dwarf web site has also posted. This is not the total shock and surprise that it could be since Craig Charles (Dave Lister) sort of leaked the information a few months ago at a con. Here is the video Dave is running as evidence that this really is happening.