H+ The Digital Series launched this week online, and it looks like a very interesting project. The stage is globe-spanning, the cast includes a few old favorites, and the plot is intriguing. You can upgrade yourself by getting a chip implant called HPlus, which gives you internet access just by thinking about it. But then a virus is released and one third of the H+ users (which is most of humanity by that point) die overnight. Some of the survivors go offline, some stay online, and some were never part of the network, but they all try to put their world back together. Besides the web site they are also running a You Tube Channel, and you can watch the first six episodes now by subscribing to it. There is a good interview over at Tor you might like to read as well.
Animated romantic musical comedy horror is a lot of fun, and the latest entry in this admittedly rather tiny niche market is Hotel Transylvania. Target date for release is September 28th, and I for one intend to be there to see it.
The British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf has been a favorite of mine for quite a while, and I am happy Dave TV decided to pick it up for some new seasons. They are posting a new special update every Friday leading up to the launch of season 10
While there aren’t any pure genre films this week, The Bourne Legacy comes awfully close, and it is the one I will be seeing. Robert Ludlum wrote some amazing books, and this is my favorite series of movies made from those books.
Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale tells the true story of the aboriginal Seediq tribes who rebelled and almost drove the conquering Japanese army off the island in 1930s Taiwan. Their initial attack succeeded, taking the invaders by surprise and killing most of their primary targets; but knives and bows only win for so long against aircraft and poison gas. The other movie worth checking out is an animated Doctor Seuss story, The Lorax. I was particularly impressed with Danny DeVito, who played the title character in the English, Spanish, and Russian versions of the film.
In TV we have Grimm: Season One, one of the better supernatural police procedural programs to come down the pike in many a year. The writing is very intelligent, so of course I expected it to be cancelled half way through its first season and was quite happy to find out we will get a second one. They also picked an excellent cast who jell together quite well onscreen, and base the series on a very interesting premise. This one will definitely be joining my permanent collection.
There are several new and interesting collections in Anime this time around, starting with Rental Magica: Collection 1. A company of wizards and witches have misplaced the company president, and immediately put his son in charge. The problem is the son doesn’t have a lot of knowledge about magic himself, and is also something of a coward in a near combat situation. So the monsters and evildoers the company is up against become much more dangerous to the magicians in the ranks, and the son is in danger of destroying the family business if he can’t get his act together. The 12 episodes in this box set are the first half of the story so far.
In The World God Only Knows: Season Two the champion dating sim player and his demon tormentor continue to free girls from the lost souls who posses them. When a giant lost soul takes over a large portion of the school and turns them into love starved zombies, they will need to recruit another demon to help them win. Also continuing, One Piece comes out with season 4 part 1, continuing the effort to become King of All Pirates.
It is the 25th anniversary of Spaceballs, and in honor of that it is getting time on the big screen at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland (D.C burbs). The folks over at Think Geek are also from the D.C. burbs, and they will be making the showing on Saturday the 4th (yes, that is tomorrow), and they are planning to hold a raffle. Prizes may include a pre-release copy of Spaceballs on Blu-ray, and/or two Force FX lightsabers, and maybe some edible stuff. Although if you are hungry the theater has its own cafe, and has a dozen excellent restaurants within the block it lives on.