The fun film for this weekend looks to be RED, or Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Like most of the quality films these days it is based on a comic book of the same name, and has an impressive cast.
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This week sees comic book into film Jonah Hex lead the movies onto the shelves, if only for the presence of Selma. The direct to disk Lost Boys: The Thirst was the second attempt to milk some additional box office returns out of the original cult classic. I don’t see how it can hope to cover the original attitude when its immortal vampires have aged so completely; I will not be adding this to my collection, but might Netflix it if they have it streaming. On the other hand, the 1959 classic Hakuôki (Samurai Vendetta in English) does look to be worthy of everyone’s attention, even if some of the sound stage filming is a bit surreal because of the background choices. Also out this week, the feature film animation How To Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks. If you enjoyed the movie and want more, they are also releasing it in a two pack with Legend of Boneknapper for further Dragon/Viking adventures.
Topping the TV choices this week is Dollhouse: The Complete Second Season. This is an amazing series, containing some of the best work of both Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku, and this box completes the set. Also out this week, both the final season and complete box set of Ghost Whisperer.
If you only buy one Warner Brothers classic cartoon collection, make it this one: The Essential Bugs Bunny. This collection includes those musical masterpieces The Rabbit Of Seville and What’s Opera Doc?, and a lot of the top classic Bugs bits, including works with Elmer Fudd and Marvin the Martian. Of course, if you can afford to, you can skip this one and grab the full series of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, which includes everything in this package and a lot more. Whichever way you go, these wonderful shorts never grow old.
Sengoku Basara Samurai Kings: The Complete Series takes you into a brutal world in feudal Japan of the Warring States period. This era was marked by continuous fighting between the various generals and warlords in an environment reminiscent of the city-states of medieval Europe, until the rise of the Devil King, Oda Nobunaga. He proved such a threat to all concerned that there was no choice; everyone else had to band together or be destroyed. And yes, this isn’t quite a pure history; there is enough genre content here to justify its inclusion. The other new Anime release this week is Tytania: Collection 2, finishing up the story of two Galactic Empires that go to war, and the rebel force that battle generates as common people do their best to survive.
Economical re-releases this week include the crossworlds demon combat story Tokyo Majin and the delightfully twisted hikikomori tale Welcome to the NHK, both in S.A.V.E. editions. If you shop around, you can pick up Super Amazing Value Edition complete 26 episode series for less than $20, quite a bargain.
It started life as a tweet from the Flynn Lives movement, with the link http://xdqlrpgmqivgca9tfjcqddnbxt.com/. When you went there, you were faced with a set of puzzles to solve, and according to Coming Soon the folks over at the Unfiction message boards/forum solved them in record time. The results were yet another URL, this time to TRON Night 2010, a site that will let you register to see 20 minutes of TRON Legacy on October 28th for free. Registration opens on Tuesday the 12th at 1PM EST, and there is a link that allows you to see if it will be in your area. It is only granular down to the state level at the moment, but it will also only be at IMAX 3D theaters, so that should give you a rough idea of where it will be relative to you. There can never be too much TRON!
There aren’t any US Sci-Fi or Fantasy movies coming out this weekend, but there is a Bollywood film that will hit the screens this week or next: It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, about an Indian mother who takes her obsession with marriage into the serial killer zone. This one is a romantic comedy horror movie, another genre mix you don’t see too often from India, although there are a lot of them from Japan. When you combine that with Robot which hit the big screen this past Friday and Action Replay coming out on November 5th, this is a great month for Bollywood Sci-Fi.
There is another movie that looks like fun this weekend; Nowhere Boy is the story of John Lennon as a teenager, and what drove him into music. The official web site is in the UK, so the release date mentioned on the page is the UK release, with the US release only coming now. I also need to let you know that the Avengers web site has gone live!
Genetic engineering gone wrong at its finest, Splice will be on the shelves this Tuesday. It caused quite a stir on the Film Fest circuit, but didn’t do as well at the box office, in part because it was released on a very limited number of screens. While Splice is a thriller, the other feature film releases this week are out-and-out horror, including the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
TV did much better than movies this week. Continuing the tales of the Battlestar Galactica universe, Caprica: Season 1.0 shows how the Cylon’s were developed and sets everything up for the Cylon-Human wars. The tech base for their development is only a few years in advance of ours own, which helps remind us we need to get ready for the Robot Uprising. Also out this week, the complete first season of Star Gate Universe, previously available as parts 1 and 2, also from Syfy and also bearing a resemblance to Battlestar Galactica. In a completely different genre, Medium comes out with Season 6, as well as Seasons 1 through 6 in a single box set.
For western animations, we have Dr. Who: Dreamland, with David Tennant doing the voice-over work for the Doctor. This story was previously available to watch online, but only if you live in the UK. From Dreamworks comes another in the Penguin series, Penguins of Madagascar: I Was A Penguin Zombie.
Several gems from the Anime realm, starting with Linebarrels of Iron part 2 and the Linebarrels of Iron OVA collection (all two episodes of it). Being re-released in more affordable form, Jinki:Extend – The Complete Series comes out in a S.A.V.E. Edition for more giant mecha fun. There was a series I saw some time ago I thought was called Super Gals that involved the three lead girls growing to 7 stories tall and fighting off alien invasions and giant monsters, but the Super Gals complete series being released this week seems to have a completely different plot description; I thought I would link it here anyways, in case it does turn out to be the one I was thinking of.
io9 put this video together in honor of Octoberfest, currently under weigh…