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Something to Watch: DVD’s

Topping the list of movies released to DVD this week is Kick-Ass, one of the more violent comics made into a movie for this year. I really do hope they make a sequel for this one, although I am not quite sure where else they could take the story. In the non-fiction department, Dragon Masters looks to be the film to beat.

I have been waiting for a decade or two to be able to add Max Headroom: The Complete Series to my collection. Depending which web site you believe, this will either be available the 3rd or the 10th of August, but that is a small detail compared to the 1984 to 1987 initial programming dates. As near as I can tell, this box set is only the 14 episode US TV series, which was much wimpier than the original BBC TV Movie, and completely different than the BBC TV series. But it is more Max Headroom than has ever been previously available, so it is a great start! Set your TVs for 23 minutes into the future. The other TV release worth noting this week is Heroes: Season 4.

On the Anime front, Naruto Shippuden Box Set 3 becomes available. I personally enjoy Shippuden more than I did the previous series with the younger characters, although the gap between what is out on DVD and what is legally streaming online is fairly large. Since I only started watching the streaming stuff in the last 6 months or so, I think there are still about a hundred episodes between the two segments I haven’t seen yet. The Sola box set is also available this week. This strange little story involves a boy with a secret he does not know and an addiction to photography, and a girl who can not coexist with the sun.

Princess Resurrection: Complete Collection is not one of your more upbeat Animes, what with the protagonist dieing at the start of the series. He is brought back to life, but only for as long as he will be the Princesses servant. This one is Subbed, not Dubbed, so you get to hear the original voice actors. If your aggressive side needs some exercise, the Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny complete box set hits the shelves. This one is a modern day retelling of the Romance of the three kingdoms story, with the high schools battling it out for supremacy.

Something to Watch: DVDs

The leader for fantasy movies this week is Clash of the Titans. While I thought the movie took itself a little too seriously, it was still a fun flic. A much more serious topic is explored in the science fiction film Repo Men, where it doesn’t bode well to be late with your payments for your body parts. For problems of a planetary scale, there is Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis. Based on a short story by the famous author, it explores a theme of ecological catastrophe and human evolution. Out of the foreign films this week, Just Another Pandora’s Box caught my attention by the title alone, but on investigation it looks like this comedy/fantasy has enough laugh power to be worth the ride. Finally, Welcome to Earth made the film fest rounds, and even got mentioned for a few awards, so it should be worth checking out, in a direct-to-DVD kind of way.

SG-U Stargate Universe: 1.5 brings us the second half of season 1. While I have been really enjoying the series, the release style annoys me tremendously, so I will not be adding this to my collection until I can find it on sale. Like Battlestar Galactica before it, they have only released half the season but are asking a full seasons worth of money for it (it lists at $39.95). This is not a trend I am willing to support with my wallet. Both Flash Forward and Eureka also released half season box sets, but with a list of $29.95, most outlets sold them for $20, or half of what a full season goes for; that’s a price scheme I can live with. A 1972 British TV series not previously available in the US also comes out on Tuesday: The Black Arrow. My first thought was a variation on the Green Arrow, but it looks to be a bit more Robin Hoody.

The Machinima legend returns with Red Vs Blue: Reconstruction, season 6 and 7 of the series. After being on opposite sides for so long during the Blood Gulch era (seasons one through five, previously released), they now team up to solve a new problem. For new Anime there is only one real choice this week: Hell Girl Two Mirrors: Collection 2, which finishes up the 2nd season. I look forward to finding out how Hell’s debt collector has her own fate resolved. As usual, there are a few classics being re-released in reduced cost box set editions, like Love Hina and Magic Knight Rayearth

Something to Watch: DVDs

The top choice for this week is the UK hit Being Human: Season 1, seen on this side of the Atlantic on BBC America. The premise sounds like the set up for a bad joke; A Ghost, A Werewolf, and a Vampire get an apartment together. Do not be fooled, this is not a comedy, but a very well done drama exploring some serious questions. Season 2 starts next Saturday in the US, while the UK is gearing up for season 3.

There aren’t any genre movies of note this week unless something snuck by me, but The Runaways film will do nicely to take up the slack. Put another dime in the jukebox, baby.

There are a couple of new releases in the world of Anime, starting with Kurokami: The Animation Part 2. In the second half of the series the Tara Guardian Kuro and the Human Keita form a pact, and go to Okinawa to discover who murdered his mother. You can also watch this on Crunchyroll where they seem to be up to episode 10. The other new program worth noting is My Bride Is A Mermaid: Season 1 Part 1 in which a beautiful mermaid saves the life of the son of a visiting family. But the Mermaid’s dad is a yakuza who give the boy two choices; marry his daughter or sleep with the fishes, and the boys parents are just as dysfunctional if less homicidal. You can watch episodes on Hulu to get an idea of what this series is like.

Something to Watch: DVDs

There is very little of interest being released on DVD this week, although there is one true masterpiece: Saving Grace: The Final Season. This program has been nominated for many awards although it only won once that I know of, but it is an absolutely amazing drama that goes places you would never expect. The four seasons tell one complete story, and while each episode is a self contained police procedural, the core story arc is something else entirely. With the all-star cast and quality production values, this one gets my vote as the best release for this week.

For Movies, Parasomnia is the only real option, and not much of one in my book.

There are a few new Anime collections being released, including Golgo 13, season 1 of the story of an assassin. But the most important Anime release this week has to be Romeo × Juliet, telling the classic tale of love, class war, and tragedy taking place in the city floating in the sky, Neo Verona.

There are also a few re-releases in a more affordable package, including 009-1 – Complete Collection [S.A.V.E] edition, a tasty Bond-style sexy spy story in a parallel universe, Black Cat, another assassin who learns the error of his ways, and my personal favorite for the week, Magikano, about a magical boy bludgeoned into unawareness by his equally magical sisters.

On the American animation front, the Superhero Squad is a kids-friendly version of The Avengers, and is also released on Tuesday. Not something I will be adding, but worth noting. In a related Marvel project, here is the Shadowland Music Video…

Hopefully, next week will have a lot more choices for us, but a few of this weeks limited selections are quite worth the effort.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

Hands down, this weeks best DVD release has to be Life On Mars (UK): The Complete Collection. If you are only familiar with the US remake, which was unwatchable, you have my condolences, and trust me when I say the UK original was wonderful. If you are a fan of the original, but have been holding off on buying it because each 8-episode season ran around $45, now might be the time to make your move. While the SRP is $79 for the full set, I have found it at a few online sites available for pre-order for around $54, just over half of the original separate season costs. This is one of those Time Travel/Cop Show/Psychotic Break programs any thinking person can’t help but watch over and over (again, unlike the American TV remake), particularly because of the interaction between actors Philip Glenister and John Simm. Did I mention I recommend it?

For the rest of the TV choices, three Sci-Fi selections from classic Doctor Who and two documentaries round out the collection. The first Who release would be the William Hartnell episodes The Space Museum / The Chase. It is worth noting the Space Museum includes the actor who would later become Boba Fett as leader of the Xerons. Next of the Doctor Who releases is The Time Monster, starring Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning. The bit that makes this episode memorable is its redundancy inside a recursion; the Doctor hides his Tardis inside the Master’s Tardis, while the Master’s Tardis is inside the Doctor’s. This is a true Tesseract moment in the history of Dimensional Displacement. The final Who disk is The Horns of Nimon, a Tom Baker/Lalla Ward series episode. The Nimon were the first TV series examples I know of for the Sci-Fi trope of the intelligent interstellar locust species used to such good effect in Independence Day.

The documentaries are comprised of Douglas Adams final book, Last Chance to See, and the NASA/UA behind the scenes look at the Phoenix Mars Mission: Onto The Ice. The Adams film is hosted by Steven Fry, but even with that powerful combination of funny men this one is dead serious about all the species on the edge of extinction.

On the movie front nothing really spectacular leaps out, but a few potential hidden gems are lurking about the edges. Bitten looks like an interesting Vampire horror comedy (the Zombies have gotten too much of that field recently). I am thinking that looks at least worth a Netflix viewing, so I can decide if it needs to be part of the permanent collection. Eyeborgs has been making the Film Fest circuit for a while, and again looks real interesting. With all the reviews I have read about this one, there will not be a wait before I purchase.

For foreign live action this week Battle League Horumo stands out as a humorous (perhaps even downright silly) action adventure. The Battle League games consist of 10 players, each of which controls 100 Oni or small demons, fighting to be the last player standing. Kyoto is the playing field.

Anime gives some good options this time around. D.Gray-man comes out this week with a season 1 box set, as does Ghost Slayers Ayashi. Another full season collection is Gurren Lagann, which is a very warped little program using retro-70s animation styles (even though it was made around 2005 to 2007) to tell a twisted little story about the nature of existence and humanity’s place in it. And season 1 of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is also being released; no word yet on when the ONA, the movie, or the second season of the show might be available. All of these programs were previously released as individual volumes, but this marks their first time available as box sets.

Something to Watch: DVDs

There are a number of good choices this week, starting with one of my favorite TV shows: Eureka Season 3.5. Another good show from the same channel has its season 1 release as well, Warehouse 13. This is just in time to catch up with the previous season before the new seasons launch on July 6th and 9th, but also on the 9th they are launching a new Steven King TV series on Syfy, Haven.

While it wasn’t a traditional TV series but more of a Machinima, I am excited to note that Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles is being released this week as well. This box set DVD includes the complete first 5 seasons of this very funny and combat intensive program.

There are some good selections from the world of live action movies. Kicking off a new franchise that hopes to pull from the ranks of the Harry Potter phenomenon, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was thoroughly enjoyable. Like Potter, the movie was based on the first of a series of books, so there is the promise of more fine adventures to come. Another good film is Hot Tub Time Machine, which surprised me in the theaters. I went in expecting just some silly fun, but there was a bit more depth than the trailer would lead you to believe.

On the Anime front, Gintama 2 continues the story of Edo-era Japan invaded by aliens who installed a spaceport and modern city in the 17th century. They also made it illegal for Samurai to use their swords, and put the majority of the population into sweatshops working for the alien masters. Our protagonists are a Samurai named Sakata Gintoki and his companions in the Yoruzuya Gin-chan odd jobs shop, taking any job from finding lost pets to saving the world to try to pay the rent. Also this week, the re-release of the Basilisk Complete Series box set Viridian Collection, making the classic Ninja Shogunate supernatural martial arts epic affordable again.

Out of the imported live action choices, Nine Girls and a Ghost appears to be a rather uneven high school wish fulfillment presentation that should entertain anyone in that age range. Likewise Samurai Avenger: Blind Wolf is targeting a limited demographic, the Samurai Cowboy Zombie Gorefest crossover fan base. It actually looks like it might just be campy enough to be entertaining, though. I can’t say the same thing for Ultimate Machine Girl, a release so underwhelming that no one at Rotten Tomatoes even bothered to review it.