Nothing of interest coming out this week, so it is a good time to catch up on something previously released you might have missed. I will be seeing Hugo myself, since life was a bit too hectic to catch it this past weekend what with the holiday and all.
There are several interesting movies this time around, starting with Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, a twisted little comedy starring Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk. Every variation of a Deliverance movie you have ever seen, with the twist that the Good Ole Boys are under attack by suicidal yuppies. The other quality movie for the week is Another Earth. Having a duplicate planet Earth orbiting on the other side of the sun has been done before in 1969’s Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, but this time the premise is used to explore interpersonal relationships rather than political ones. It’s theatrical run was extremely limited, so for some this will be the first chance to see it.
For TV, there are two super choices of the same entry; Smallville: The Complete Series, and Smallville: The 10th Season give you closure on that series, whichever one you need to add to your collection. The other TV show worth noting this week is a bit of a classic, the Six Million Dollar Man: Pilot TV Movies & Season One. We can rebuild you…
If there is a western animation series this week, it snuck right past me. There are a few Eastern animation series, including One Piece: Collection 3, continuing the story of the Straw Hats as the rescue a little girl and her dragon companion. Also released, Star Driver Part 1, where would-be giant mecha riders battle shrine maidens for power. Another new title is Chaos;Head, where a caffeine-addicted gamer suddenly becomes identified as a schizophrenic murder suspect, as his life falls apart overnight. If you are a fan of Welcome To The NHK you will not want to miss this one, and you can watch the first several episodes online at that link.
There is also a stand alone movie this week called Loups=Garous, about life in a world where a virus has wiped out a major percentage of the human race. The survivors communicate online and avoid physical contact, but a group of girls seeking contact must solve a series of murders before they become the victims. SCANDAL does the music for this one, which means at the minimum I have to have the soundtrack, since they are one of my favorite J-Rock bands. They animate up pretty good too.
While not exactly genre, the movie version of Haywire looks like it will be a hoot to experience.
Pixar is setting up to do it again, this time with an animation by the name of Brave from the Disney stable. Here is the first trailer I have been able to find, and I am looking forward to seeing how they manage to pull off Brave, even if it does look a lot like Dreamwork’s How To Train Your Dragon. They are, after all, somewhat related as animation houses go.
The first film out of this weeks collection has to be Hugo from Martin Scorsese about a boy and his robot. This may be one of the best Steampunk movies from this decade, and certainly the best Scorsese film for the last 3. And then we have The Muppets for the Thanksgiving weekend treat. I should also probably mention Arthur Christmas, just for the sake of completeness.
There are some fun movies being released on DVD this week, starting with J.J. Abrams Super 8. That one should work on the small screen just fine, as outside of the train wreck itself and one pan of the battle across the town almost all of the scenes were shot with HDTV in mind, it seemed to me. Also out, Conan the Barbarian, which has noticeably more sex and violence than the Arnie versions. For the younger crowd, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World continues the franchise in its usual somewhat silly way.
From Japan we get Saki the Killer, which tells the twisted tale of the daughter of a Yakuza assassin who teaches art to killers. Finally, Tekken: Blood Vengeance is an entertaining 90 minutes of animated fun straight out of the game. It is being released two ways; as a stand-alone movie, and bundled with the new game Tekken: Hybrid. Looking at this group, it occurs to me it might have made more sense to group them by potential audience rather than list them in box-office results order.
In TV, the primary selection is Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series, but I find myself being aggravated by this one. They broke the airing of the season apart, with a gap in between large enough to run the new Torchwood series, one episode per week. When the first chunk finished running, they released Doctor Who: The Sixth Series – Part 1 on DVD, and if you shopped around you could pick it up for $21 or so. Not a bad deal at all, and lots of folks bought it. Likewise, when the second half was completed, they released Doctor Who: The Sixth Series – Part 2, and dropped the price of the first half to $18, with the stand alone Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol special running $8 or so. If you can buy all of the pieces for $48, why would you need the Complete Sixth Series as well, which costs $54 (again, assuming you shop around for the best deal). Because it includes extras missing from all previous versions, possibly?
Also in TV, Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Season 2 is an excellent science series that explores science fiction concepts the same way all the best authors do: by asking What If. If you haven’t seen this one I highly recommend it.
In western animation, the Marvel Knights Collection will be available in a single box set, if you haven’t already picked up the individual stories.
For Anime, Bakuman – First Issue is about someone driven to become a manga author, but is a bit more realistic than some series about the problems that kind of a goal needs to overcome. This set contains the first seven episodes. Also out, Fairy Tail – Combo Pack Part 1 seems to be about a young combat wizard team in typical quest game mode who may not be up to the challenge. At least, not without causing more harm than good. This box set contains the first 12 episodes of the series, but be warned there are over a hundred episodes already released, so you might want to watch a few online to give you an idea if this series is for you.
You would think a show with a title like Star Driver Part 1 would be about spaceships, but this one actually involves shrine maidens worshiping some giant mecha built for battle (ED: This one actually comes out next week). The most interesting of the animations out this week may be Coicent / Five Numbers!, which is two separate but equally strange OVAs. In one, a time traveling boy chases a deer and meets a girl who is herself pursued. In the other, 5 prisoners get loose from their cells, but the guards have disappeared and there appears to be no way out. Both of these short animations have gotten excellent reviews at various anime fests.