I am sorry to report the only new genre film I am aware of this week involves vampires who shimmer in the sun, instead of bursting into flames the way they were meant to. They would, taking the cellulose film stock with them, if there was any justice in the world. Yes, I mean The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. This should be a good weekend to see something released in the last few weeks that I missed, though.
The Watch is a comedy about neighborhood patrol types out to protect themselves from an alien invasion, much as we saw in Attack The Block. It does have one particularly good comedic actor, who you will no doubt recognize from IT Crowd. The other live action film this week is Snowmageddon, and it also has a few actors you will recognize.
In TV, Doctor Who: Series Seven, Part One brings us the first half of the latest season, 7 episodes long. The Christmas special and the episodes in 2013 will comprise the second half, but they will have a special treat among them: Neil Gaiman is writing another episode, and after what he did with The Doctors Wife I can’t wait to see it!
The other TV series this time is Lost Girl: The Complete Second Season, and if you haven’t been following it, you really should start soon. This is a very well done series with a bit of a supernatural twist. Pretty much everything else coming out this week is a re-release of a classic or recent series, with the possible exception of Variable Geo Neo. That OVA set was made back in 2004, but I do not know if it was previously released in North America or not.
There are several quality selections in Western Animation this week from Pixar, including their wonderful feature film Brave. If you missed it in the theaters, now is the time to correct that error, and if you didn’t you already know how good it is. They are also releasing the Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2, with still more amazing and intelligent animations for the whole family. A motion comic rather than an animation, Marvel Knights Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable is the fourth installation in this story arc, with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday bringing impeccable storytelling and quality graphics to the table once again.
The Anime feature film this week is Children Who Chase Lost Voices, another excellent story by award winning Makoto Shinkai, who’s previous works include 5 Centimeters Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. His animations have a haunting beauty about them, and his stories always go right for the heart. Pretty much everything else is a re-release of some form, such as Linebarrels of Iron: Complete Series, which is coming out in a S.A.V.E. version (Super Amazing Value Edition). That means if you shop around, you can probably find it for around $20 or so.
A different kind of End Of The World movie, World War Z is based on An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, and the screenplay done by J. Michael Straczynsk (Babylon 5, Jeremiah, Thor, etc.). Brad Pitt liked it enough to be part of the movie project, and when they made the Audiobook the cast included Allen Alda, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, and Mark Hamill. I’m thinking this one could be fun.
A few tunes from an interesting band. The first is Pontiacs doing Cold Fingered Girl, used as the OP for the anime Level E. The second is The Pontiacs song Shinjuku, the third their song about America. I won’t bother to identify the last few; if you keep listening that far you must already know you love this band, you will track down the titles yourself. They sound a bit like what would happen if T-Rex had 10 Years Afters love child, and put it up for adoption in Tokyo.
Someone did a Tokyo/London Comparison probably as an exercise in scale, but the image they ended up with was certainly not something I was expecting. Is this what you thought the two would look like when plopped down on the same terrain?
Sometimes, in the battle between life and death, the right choice is the wrong choice. Or so, at least, it would seem. This wonderful animation again has nothing actually resembling words, but it doesn’t need them. The video tells the story just fine all by itself.