Andrew Niccol has built some very intelligent films already, including Gattica and The Trueman Show. This trailer is from his new one, In Time, which will be hitting the big screens on October 28th. Science has learned how to turn off biologic aging, and now time is used as the currency of the culture, with the rich living forever and the poor dying young. This is true science fiction, extrapolating one advancement in the way the world works, and then exploring the different implications that grow naturally from that change.
Cowboys & Aliens is the major release this weekend, and you can believe I will be there to see it on the big screen. Not since the days of the Radio Ranch (1935, Gene Autry versus the aliens living underground and hiding from the cowboys) have we seen a story like this. If you are not already familiar with it, check out the Phantom Empire series, which you can watch online. It is nice to see these classic stories coming around again to entertain us all.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D is an animated movie built from the Machinema underpinnings of a world class game, much as Final Fantasy was. You get one shot at seeing it on the big screen, on Tuesday, the 26th of July (yes, that would be tomorrow) at 7:30PM local time. It is being presented as a one time movie event, part of the Fathom Events package, where a live presentation happens in one location, and gets broadcast via satellite to movie theaters across North America. They also use this for Opera, Sporting Competitions, Business Meetings, and church services, so it is nice to know they are using it for something worth the bandwidth.
I had not managed to catch The Clone Returns Home at any of the film fests in my part of the country since its release in January of 2009, so I am happy to report it is finally being released on DVD. This Japanese movie about a cloned astronaut who returns home to find his family is all about the human heart, and has won a number of festival awards including being nominated for World Cinema – Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at 2009’s Sundance Film Festival. If this film wasn’t coming out this week, Source Code would get me vote as the top movie released on disk this time around, but as it stands they are tied for first place. I can not really recommend Dylan Dog: Dead of Night as a quality movie, but if you are looking for some campy silliness it fits the bill nicely. Finally, Zokkomon is a Bollywood film about an orphan who was abused and abandoned, thought to be dead and therefore a ghost when he returned, and ends up a bit of a superhero.
In TV, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe is a feature film length presentation starring Bruce Campbell, giving the story of how his character came to be the way he is today. Yes, I do know this isn’t quite genre, but it has Bruce Campbell; he is kind of a genre unto himself. Plus, I just love the series, so there it is.
In western animation this week we get yet another volume of Shaun the Sheep: Animal Antics for good silly fun. One of the things I like about this series is all the humor is visual, so you don’t have to speak English to enjoy them.
From Madhouse, we get Supernatural: The Anime Series, which might just be the first ever live action TV series turned into an Anime. I know it has been done before with things like Witchblade, but both the TV series of 2001 and the Anime series of a few years ago were base on a comic book of the same name. Here, the anime is directly based on the TV show, and even has the same actors voicing their characters for the English version.
In Anime, Angel Beats: Complete Collection tells the story of some dead teens being attacked by some angels, some angels rebelling against a god or two, and some other dead folks using supernatural powers against the angels, all staged around the student council for the world after death. This is noticeably different than High School of the Dead even if it should sound similar. Being re-released this week, One Piece – Collection 1 is the first 26 episodes of this long running Anime based on the Shonen Manga of the same name. And I do mean long running; there are already 508 episodes released in Japan not including the multiple movies, and they are still making them. This is an adventures on the high seas, pirates after the legendary One Piece to earn their fortunes, but the long term core of the story is the way the characters work together to protect each other. After a while you realize these are the people you want all of your friends to be like. If you shop around, you can pick this one up for as little as $20, so it is a good value as well.
We are only abut 3 episodes in to Kamisama Dolls, which you can watch online on Crunchyroll either an hour or a week after it airs in Tokyo, depending on your account type (the free accounts wait a week, the paid an hour). The opening song is sung by Chiaki Ishikawa, and her record label Flying Dog has released the full length song for streaming on their YouTube channel, so I am posting it here. God Dolls (yes, Kamisama means “God”) battle at the behest of their Noble Shrine Doll User, some of which have more of a clue than others. The animation is a bit old school, but not that old; maybe 8 to 12 years ago stylistically. A few of the characters I care about and the plot has been interesting so far, so I will be watching this one for at least a few more episodes.
Tomorrow, on July 22nd,the Cartoon Network will be presenting their Lego Star Wars TV Special, and it should be a lot of fun. Thanks to SFX for the heads up on this one. Called Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace, it has characters from every incarnation of Star Wars built so far, is written by the folks who do The Simpsons, and animated b the team who created Happy Feet. Nice to know that the franchise continues to evolve and perhaps even be a bit silly on occasion.
Captain America: the First Avenger brings the WWII origin of the early Marvel superhero to the big screen, and sets us up for next years Avengers group film. I have enjoyed every movie in this series, and I am probably going to opt for the 3D version of this one. It is not alone in the theaters this weekend, because Another Earth also is opening, although a bit more limited screen count wise. This one is true science fiction the way Moon, Silent Running, and Cold Souls were, telling a unique story from the human perspective, and exploring the implications. It won Sundance this year, and I am going to have to try to make both of these movies this weekend if the latter is opening anywhere near me.