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Something to Watch: DVDs

In movies the best bet looks to be Legendary Amazons, based on the historical Yang family of the Song Dynasty. There have been a number of previous movies made about this group of 11th century women generals, of which the most well known is probably 1972’s 14 Amazons from The Shaw Brothers. Like the Shaw Brothers, the action in this latest incarnation is a bit over the top, relying heavily on wire work and springboards, but it looks to be quite a fun movie. On the other hand, the less said about Alien Dawn the better; it is every bit as campy, but this one they were trying to be serious.

I still can’t believe Fox cancelled it, but because they did we have Alcatraz: The Complete Series coming out this week, instead of just season 1. In fact, while Fox still maintains the Alcatraz home page, when you go there all you get are New Girl videos with a paragraph at the bottom of the page about the show. Hence the alternate link to a fan site. Touch got renewed though, so for that one we do get Touch: The Complete First Season as well as an actual web site. A documentary series worth noting that comes out this week is Stephen Hawking: Brave New World, a UK science series that is really good.

For western animation, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted hits the shelves, with quite a good voice cast. And lets face it, Dreamworks animation projects are usually some of the best.

In anime, Someday’s Dreamers II Sora returns to a Japan where you need both training and an official license to practice magic. The next generation of Suzuki magic users, Sora, has no problem with the spells but is completely confused by some of her fellow students, because the people in Tokyo are nothing like the folks in the small village she grew up in. Ga-Rei-Zero: The Complete Collection is also from 2008, and also about magic users, but this time it is two sisters who battle evil as part of an elite anti-demon task force. This one was made by the people who did Full Metal Panic, and considering how much I loved that series (3 series in total, actually), I am really looking forward to this one.

In IDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia season 1, the moon was shattered into thousands of large rocks a hundred years ago, but they don’t fall onto the Earth so most folks don’t think about it. When a young aspiring singer gets taken on by an IDOL company with visions of advancing her career she has no idea that in this case I.D.O.L. is an acronym for the giant robot she will be piloting to defend Earth from those rocks.

The rest of the Anime titles coming out this week are re-releases of some classic works of earlier years. My favorite of these selection has to be Tenchi Universe, the entire 26 episodes in a single box set. This series was not season two or three of the original, they retold the entire Tenchi story in an alternate universe. What didn’t change? The names, the back stories (the space pirate girl is still a space pirate) and appearances of the characters, and the fact that Tenchi has only bad luck whatever the situation. Other re-releases this time around include Casshan: Robot Hunter Casshern about the guy trying to stop his dad’s killer robots, Hellsing Ultimate: Volumes 1-4, yes, any time you see the name Hellsing with or without the Von you can expect Vampires, and Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy.

Good Day To Die Hard trailer

Yep, this franchise continues, and continues to kick ass in the process. While I am sure everyone knows the story so far, and what they have in mind for next, I just have to comment on how much I have enjoyed it. The Die Hard series of films is some of my favorite escapist fantasy, and I hope they keep cranking them out.

Newton: Best Idea Ever

Or was it? Arpan Jolly of Sheridan college built this wonderful little video animation of the moment Sir Issac Newton figured out how gravity worked, and gave it a little twist. This was created in 2010, and is a wonderful example of what you can do with a good story and some animation skills.

Something to Do: Movies

There are two interesting choices this week. The genre film is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: Part II, continuing the story begun with part 1 last year. This is in somewhat limited release, so you may have to hunt around for it, but trust me, it will be worth it, especially if you managed to see part one. And if you missed part 1, no worries; you can pick it up as a DVD or BluRay for $10 or less and watch it before seeing Part II in the theater. The story did not get stale with age since it was written, the conflicts embedded here are as alive as they were when she first wrote the book in 1957. I can not believe how many amazing actors are involved in this project, since it’s 10 million dollar budget could normally only pay for one or two of them, let alone the production costs of the entire film. My guess is it was a labor of love.

The other film worth mentioning will be playing everywhere, and while it isn’t genre I am so ready for this one! Seven Psychopaths is a twisted comedy in which a struggling screenwriter’s strange friends kidnap the beloved pet of a mobster, who then puts out contracts on everyone involved. Just like this weeks other winner, the cast is an amazing ensemble and the trailer tells me there is enough strangeness to make it quite a hoot.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Starting the movies list this week is The Raven, starring John Cusack as Edgar Alan Poe. I loved it when I saw it on the big screen, but a lot of people did not. My best guess for why is that Cusack was going in a totally different direction with his performance than he has ever previously gone, and most folk were expecting the kind of movie they were used to seeing him in. I enjoy seeing an actor go outside his comfort zone and growing with the effort, plus it was as twisty as one could have wished for, so I liked this movie a lot. Also out this week, Prometheus was an interesting little Aliens prequel. While an oldie but goodie rather than a new release, Steven Chow’s A Chinese Odyssey from 1994 may be the best pair of films out this week. Classic Wuxia Romantic Comedy/Slapstick as only Steven can do it.

I did not find any live action TV worth noting this week, which probably means it managed to escape my notice more than there wasn’t any. The same goes for western animation.

Live action movie from an Anime TV show based on the manga’s… you get the idea. Boogiepop and Others is almost at Miniseries length and a bit sillier than the thriller/horror of the anime, but still packs plenty of punch. Did you know that Jackie Chan did a live action movie from an anime? If you get the chance, check out his 1993 City Hunter, it is funny as hell. The 2011 City Hunter live action film is based on a different story from the manga, and is not a comedy.

There are several good Anime titles coming out this week. Deadman Wonderland: The Complete Series, starts with a classroom full of teens being murdered, and the only survivor gets framed for the crime. The prison they put him in hosts a gladiator style combat event for TV, where prisoners fight each other to the death while the warden rakes in some major profit. Our protagonist would have died in the first round, but he has teamed up with a mysterious female prisoner and discovered he has a rather amazing power to help him. His goal now is to stay alive long enough to prove his innocence and gain his release… and maybe his revenge. This was one of my favorite shows from 2011, one of the few I made sure to log in to watch the day a new episode became available (thank you, Crunchyroll).

Occult Academy: The Complete Series has a school full of students of the supernatural, a principle who died suddenly under mysterious circumstances, his daughter who does not believe in the paranormal, and a time traveler who has been sent back to the academy to try to prevent the alien invasion that destroyed the world. While there is quite a bit of humor in this series at its heart it is a serious tale, and I was rather surprised at the way one of the characters grew and changed between the beginning and the end of the series. This one also sucked me right in back in 2010, I even set my alarm to watch each new episode as soon as it became available.

Heaven’s Memo Pad: The Complete Collection has a NEET (Not Employed, being Educated or in Training) hacker girl/private detective who has gathered a team of strange folks with unique skills, including high school student Narumi who never expected to have his life change like this. Natsume’s Book of Friends is about a boy who can see Yokai (Ghosts/Monsters/Evil Spirits), and inherited a book from his grandmother about all the Yokai she defeated and imprisoned. It came complete with instructions about how to control the enslaved spirits, and now every monster for miles around is out to make Natsume into The Late Natsume.

Naruto Shippūden has box set 12 coming out this time, bringing us episodes 141 through 153.