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Something to Do: Movies

There aren’t any US Sci-Fi or Fantasy movies coming out this weekend, but there is a Bollywood film that will hit the screens this week or next: It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, about an Indian mother who takes her obsession with marriage into the serial killer zone. This one is a romantic comedy horror movie, another genre mix you don’t see too often from India, although there are a lot of them from Japan. When you combine that with Robot which hit the big screen this past Friday and Action Replay coming out on November 5th, this is a great month for Bollywood Sci-Fi.

There is another movie that looks like fun this weekend; Nowhere Boy is the story of John Lennon as a teenager, and what drove him into music. The official web site is in the UK, so the release date mentioned on the page is the UK release, with the US release only coming now. I also need to let you know that the Avengers web site has gone live!

Something to Watch: DVD’s

Genetic engineering gone wrong at its finest, Splice will be on the shelves this Tuesday. It caused quite a stir on the Film Fest circuit, but didn’t do as well at the box office, in part because it was released on a very limited number of screens. While Splice is a thriller, the other feature film releases this week are out-and-out horror, including the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

TV did much better than movies this week. Continuing the tales of the Battlestar Galactica universe, Caprica: Season 1.0 shows how the Cylon’s were developed and sets everything up for the Cylon-Human wars. The tech base for their development is only a few years in advance of ours own, which helps remind us we need to get ready for the Robot Uprising. Also out this week, the complete first season of Star Gate Universe, previously available as parts 1 and 2, also from Syfy and also bearing a resemblance to Battlestar Galactica. In a completely different genre, Medium comes out with Season 6, as well as Seasons 1 through 6 in a single box set.

For western animations, we have Dr. Who: Dreamland, with David Tennant doing the voice-over work for the Doctor. This story was previously available to watch online, but only if you live in the UK. From Dreamworks comes another in the Penguin series, Penguins of Madagascar: I Was A Penguin Zombie.

Several gems from the Anime realm, starting with Linebarrels of Iron part 2 and the Linebarrels of Iron OVA collection (all two episodes of it). Being re-released in more affordable form, Jinki:Extend – The Complete Series comes out in a S.A.V.E. Edition for more giant mecha fun. There was a series I saw some time ago I thought was called Super Gals that involved the three lead girls growing to 7 stories tall and fighting off alien invasions and giant monsters, but the Super Gals complete series being released this week seems to have a completely different plot description; I thought I would link it here anyways, in case it does turn out to be the one I was thinking of.

Bollywood SciFi

We just had the most expensive Bollywood Sci-Fi film of all time, Robot, kicked loose to the big screen this past weekend. I have to wait until I go off call before I get to see it (that bit about turning off your cell phone in the movie theater means I have to wait until I can turn mine off), but there is another film that will be coming out on 5Nov10 I need to mention: Action Replay. Depending on who’s reviews you read and believe, this flic should be somewhere between Back To The Future and Hot Tub Time Machine, which were each variants on the same theme anyways. I do appreciate how each of these movies have the Grandfather Paradox at their core, bringing the concept out to the public in a format that makes sense to them. Once Upon A Time In Mumbai has some of the same flavor to it.

Something to Do: Movies

Sadly, the best bet this weekend is an American remake of a movie that was perfect to start with. Let Me In can only have been made for people who can not read, because the films being in Swedish and therefore needing subtitles was the only drawback to Let The Right One In for English speakers. I expect the US remake to be very disappointing, since the original was brilliant and riveting even with the subtitles; you might as well try to remake the first film in that other world-class Swedish film trilogy Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Oh, wait, I think they are…

Something to Watch: DVDs

The winner in the movie category this week is obviously Iron Man 2, a film that built on the premise of the first one and ran with it. Of particular interest is the way it fleshed out more of the Avengers arc and back story, and introduced several new characters with Black Widow being the best represented. The other movie this week is no slouch, even if nowhere near as well known: Suck is a rock-and-roll vampire film with some real bite, and a cast that includes Malcolm McDowell as Eddie Van Helsig, Nicole de Boer, Rob Stefaniuk, Jessica Paré, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Moby, Henry Rollins, and more. It picked up at least seven awards including ones from the Toronto IFF, SXSW, and Fantasia.

Live Action TV series include Legend of the Seeker: The Complete Second Season, based on the Terry Goodkind novels, and not much else that I have seen.

In the field of western animations, the important releases are the final two seasons of Red VS. Blue, Red vs. Blue: Recollection which is season 7, and Red vs. Blue: Revelation, season 8. With these, the entire run of Red VS. Blue is available to play even on TVs with no web interfaces.

There are several Anime releases this week, including Bleach Box Set 6, another season of our favorite Soul Reapers in action. If you want to watch some of these online, including the latest episodes as they air in Japan, you have a couple of choices; Crunchyroll, where a premium membership allows you to watch the latest episode an hour after it airs in Japan, and Viz Anime, where you can see the released in the US episodes as well as the current season only a week or two after they played in Tokyo.

Also out, Hell Girl: Three Vessels Collection 1 does not let go of the pressure generated in seasons 1 and 2, but continues to build on it. Season 3 collection 2 of Hell Girl will be available at the end of November, if you were wondering, and I can’t say I am very surprised to learn there is conflict in Hell. Kaze No Stigma: Season 1 is the story of a family of Fire Users who banished one member who later returned as a very powerful Wind Spirit controller to challenge them all. Nabari No Ou: The Complete Series gives you a taste of what it is to be a Ninja with a hijutsu (hidden technique) that can control all other Ninja’s, much in the spirit of One Ring to Rule Them All. All three of these tales fit in here because they are fantasies from my perspective, but in terms of the cultures which created each of these stories (and yes, like the US, Japan is not a monolithic society, no matter how much the multinational corps try to homogenize us all into one big consumer culture) is told from a world view considered the core reality by its society members.