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Something to Watch: DVDs

Top choice of the week has to go to Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy), a live oratorio based on The Life of Brian. And yes, most of the surviving Pythons are there for the event. So far I have only seen the trailer (at the bottom of this post), but it is hysterical; this is on my Must Have list for the week. You might enjoy reading the Eric Idle interview about it at the IFC.

San suk si gin, in English the Shinjuku Incident, is a return to the classic Jackie Chan Crime/Drama/Thriller venue that originally made him a star in China. But this time he is not one of the good guys, and the movie tells a more complex and twisted story than any fans of his US movies are used to seeing. If you liked the Police Story series, you will love this one. Fans only of Jackie’s comedy work should skip this and perhaps pick up his other release this week, Jackie Chan & The Karate Kids 8 Film Set. I am sure some marketing person scrambled to find enough old (in this case, 1980 to 1989) Jackie Chan movies with kids doing Kung-Fu to release together in a package, with an eye to cashing in on the new Karate Kid movie hype. But if only two of these films are good, that’s two decent Jackie Chan movies for 10 bucks each, and what if 4 of them are good? And what a surprise, it looks like the new version of Karate Kid hits the big screen Friday.

Somebody decided to release 2008’s Metal Man on DVD, most likely in the hopes that people world confuse it with Iron Man and accidentally buy it. I disagree with the reviewer at IMDB though; I think the SyFy channel would air this movie, probably right after Mansquito, but even they would show it well after midnight but before the infomercials kick in.

A real gem, and my other Must Have recommendation is Animation Express from the National Film Board of Canada. The short films in this collection have between them won 99 awards (and one Academy Award nomination). Some of these have aired on the IFC, and most of them have been making the Film Festival rounds, so I was a bit surprised to find I am already familiar with a number of them. Because of that, I am going to do something I have not previously done, and recommend the Blu-Ray edition of this disk if you have the tech to support playing it. The additional animations include one of the best I have ever seen, Ryan, a groundbreaking animation about a broken former groundbreaking animator; all by itself it is worth the price point difference. Judge for yourself, the animation is at the bottom of this entry.

In Anime, Tuesday has the US DVD release of the Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 5 and that season brings us up to episode 109 by the time it finishes. As I mentioned a few days ago, Tuesday is also when you can watch the latest episode of Bleach an hour after it airs in Tokyo on Crunchyroll, because that is when they start simulcasting it. There is a definite lag between episodes aired in Japan and the DVD releases in the US, since the current season starts with episode 266 and the one airing this week will be episode 274.

Simulcast Bleach!

Yes, that is correct! You can watch the latest episode of Bleach an hour after it airs in Tokyo on Crunchyroll, and not only is it legal but TV Tokyo, Shueisha, and Studio Pierrot actually make money off of the streaming distribution model. Crunchyroll has been doing this for a number of quality Anime programs, including Naruto Shippuden, for quite a while, as they gradually become The place for streaming Anime online. And hey, they even have some live action programming from Japan, Korea, and China. Don’t be fooled by the Drama header on the page, there is plenty of comedy and action available as well.

Here’s how it works. If you are a Premium Member of Crunchyroll (and if you’re not, please use the link below if you want to sign up; I think they give me an extra 4 hours on my premium membership for referring someone) you can watch the simulcast stream of the episode one hour after it airs in Tokyo. That gives Viz time to bolt the subtitles onto it, but still make it as close to realtime as possible, and you can watch it at 480p and 720p resolutions. If you are not a premium member all is not lost; you have access to stream the new episode a week after it airs, at slightly reduced resolution. Either way beats waiting the months it takes for the episodes to be dubbed and released on Disk in the US, although I still find myself buying the boxed sets as they come out.

There is, of course, a downside or two. First, Bleach starts next Tuesday, June 8th at 5:30AM EDT, 2:30am PDT; likewise, Naruto Shippuden runs on Thursday mornings at 7AM Eastern, 4:00AM Pacific Time. That’s a bit early for me, but I don’t really care. I just watched this weeks Naruto episode when I got home from work yesterday (Streaming is the Video On Demand of the internet), which means I still got to see it the same day as Tokyo, just adjusted to be convenient for my schedule. The other downside is the current season of Bleach consists of episodes #266-#273, going live on the 8th, with 274 being this Tuesdays Simulcast. Why is that a downside? Because the latest US DVD release of the Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 5 also happens this Tuesday, the 8th, and that season ends with episode 109. I think there is going to be a bit of a gap in my understanding of the story arc. Again, I don’t really care, because eventually that gap will be filled, and until then I will have a steady diet of new episodes to watch.

Crunchyroll

Going Postal

I live on the wrong continent to have been able to watch the latest Terry Pratchett story to be turned into a TV Movie, Going Postal. It aired this past weekend on Sky1 with an amazing all star cast. The previous two Pratchett specials from this production team were Hogfather and The Color of Magic, also with all star casts. If this one follows their pattern, in about 6 months it should become available in the US from RHI; if you haven’t seen them already, track down and watch the first two now.

Somethng to Do: Movies

After a year or so making the Film Fest circuit, Splice is finally in general release! Demonstrating exactly why you do not want to buy your kid a genetic engineering tool set (around $20 worth of chemicals, enzymes, and glassware if you get the raw materials yourself, or about $150 if you pick up the pre-made kit), this movie looks to have enough of the basics right to be a quality morality tale with a scientific grounding. I have been waiting a while for this one, and that may be warping my focus this week, so lets look at the other films coming out.

The other wide release film is, of course, Killers, your basic spy comedy. While I am looking forward to seeing Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl play off each other, I really don’t know if that will be enough to carry this film. I expect this will be silly fun, but not memorable in the long term. I will be happy to be proved wrong, as I was by Mr and Mrs Smith.

The other movies hitting the big screen this weekend are all in EXTREMELY limited release, but they really do look like the films to pay attention to. On the documentary front, Whiz Kids introduces you to a few of the people that make up our only real hope for the future; those children who understand enough of the science and math to make the world work.

And then there is Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, where the classic Hamlet is re-written by a vampire. I would be poking fun at this one, except I found it very entertaining, and thought I should pass it on. Especially once I realized Dracula was the vampire who did the re-writing.

The movie that may be the best one for the week is Ondine, a Brit film with serious heart. With actors Colin Farrell, Stephen Rea, and Alicja Bachleda, it is telling a story about True Love, and how the non-human might regard it.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

The pick of the week for mixed media films (combining live action with animation) is the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. This twisted little tail continues a long film making tradition of using the Lewis Carrol source material to tell a morality tale; what the moral of the story is changes with each director, of course. I am not a fan of Burton’s visual style and found Depp’s character in particular somewhat grotesque, but I still consider this version a must-have addition to the collection. The other film of note this week is the recent remake of The Wolfman, with Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro. Despite the star power this one fell just a little flat for me, but fans of the Gothic may have a better opinion of it.

My pick for number one imported live action film this week absolutely has to be 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption. While there is enough exposition at the front of the film to catch you up on the story so far, I am setting this one aside for Saturday, so I can watch all three films back to back. This has a very original story, and great characters that you follow through most of their lives, watching them grow and develop.

New in the live action TV category this week is Burn Notice, Season 3. Yes, I know it’s not science fiction, but I think everyone would agree that it is a bit of a fantasy. Plus it is just too much fun to miss. As usual, they have the previous season DVD release just before the new season starts; in this case two days before, as season 4 kicks off Thursday night.

In the world of animation, he’s Baa-aa-aack! Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind is another half dozen episodes from the team that brought us Wallace and Grommet. Very few language skills are needed to enjoy these, as dialog is not a core component of the tales they tell.

For anime proper, Brighter than the Dawning Blue: Complete Collection is a story of diplomatic fence mending between the Earth and the Moon, with the Lunar Princess exchange student running into some romantic complications along the way. Also out this week, Slayers Evolution-R season 5. As usual when the Slayers are involved, they nearly destroy the world in the process of saving it, and magical mayhem abounds. Also out this week another S.A.V.E. edition re-release of a complete series, this time Beck.