A new TV series will start going out on the internet soon, Zimm is about an alien invasion. This looks like it could be real good, with a cast that includes Armin Shimerman, Robyn Hyden of Blood and Roses, Alimi Ballard of Numb3rs and Dark Angel, Michele Boyd of Flash Forward, and Zadi Diaz of Epic Fu. Armin at one time had two full time acting jobs as the principle on Buffy and the bartender on Deep Space Nine, while simultaneously serving as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. The program itself is listed as being 24 with aliens and a Die Hard attitude, and will roll out in Sanctuary style on the web only, at least to begin. Thanks to TrekMovie for the heads up on this one.
There are a number of tasty films coming out in July, with two good ones this weekend. Despicable Me is the feature length animation to see. The villain played by Steve Carrol is out to steal the moon, but three little girls may just end up reforming him. I got an extra grin out of the fact that the villain’s name is Gru; how many here have played that game? If action/adventure is more to your taste, Predators also hits the big screen on Friday. In this next installment on the franchise, a handful of the worlds best killers have been kidnapped to another planet to be prey in a hunt. I am thinking I may have to see both of these.
The following weekend has three films coming out, two of them pretty much everywhere. On the 14th, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by the National Treasure franchise team takes a stab at reproducing that magic with real magic as part of the premise, and yes, that team includes Nick Cage. Two more on the 16th, with Inception in wide release, telling an original tale of dream theft and the thought police that I have been waiting about a year to see. The other film on the 16th is in limited release, The Wild Hunt, originally scheduled for release in May. A man looses his girlfriend to a bunch of guys in a medieval re-enactment game, but it isn’t a game to everyone.
Two more films the week after that, where Valhalla Rising follows a viking with supernatural strength to a mysterious and violent place. There is some discrepancy between various sources on whether Rising will be released the 16th or the 23rd, but it will be both in theaters and on Video On Demand, so it should be accessable to just about everyone. I might not have included Salt as a genre film, except it is vary obviously every Philip K. Dick book ever written, even if he didn’t write this one, so how could I leave it out?
Hands down, this weeks best DVD release has to be Life On Mars (UK): The Complete Collection. If you are only familiar with the US remake, which was unwatchable, you have my condolences, and trust me when I say the UK original was wonderful. If you are a fan of the original, but have been holding off on buying it because each 8-episode season ran around $45, now might be the time to make your move. While the SRP is $79 for the full set, I have found it at a few online sites available for pre-order for around $54, just over half of the original separate season costs. This is one of those Time Travel/Cop Show/Psychotic Break programs any thinking person can’t help but watch over and over (again, unlike the American TV remake), particularly because of the interaction between actors Philip Glenister and John Simm. Did I mention I recommend it?
For the rest of the TV choices, three Sci-Fi selections from classic Doctor Who and two documentaries round out the collection. The first Who release would be the William Hartnell episodes The Space Museum / The Chase. It is worth noting the Space Museum includes the actor who would later become Boba Fett as leader of the Xerons. Next of the Doctor Who releases is The Time Monster, starring Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning. The bit that makes this episode memorable is its redundancy inside a recursion; the Doctor hides his Tardis inside the Master’s Tardis, while the Master’s Tardis is inside the Doctor’s. This is a true Tesseract moment in the history of Dimensional Displacement. The final Who disk is The Horns of Nimon, a Tom Baker/Lalla Ward series episode. The Nimon were the first TV series examples I know of for the Sci-Fi trope of the intelligent interstellar locust species used to such good effect in Independence Day.
The documentaries are comprised of Douglas Adams final book, Last Chance to See, and the NASA/UA behind the scenes look at the Phoenix Mars Mission: Onto The Ice. The Adams film is hosted by Steven Fry, but even with that powerful combination of funny men this one is dead serious about all the species on the edge of extinction.
On the movie front nothing really spectacular leaps out, but a few potential hidden gems are lurking about the edges. Bitten looks like an interesting Vampire horror comedy (the Zombies have gotten too much of that field recently). I am thinking that looks at least worth a Netflix viewing, so I can decide if it needs to be part of the permanent collection. Eyeborgs has been making the Film Fest circuit for a while, and again looks real interesting. With all the reviews I have read about this one, there will not be a wait before I purchase.
For foreign live action this week Battle League Horumo stands out as a humorous (perhaps even downright silly) action adventure. The Battle League games consist of 10 players, each of which controls 100 Oni or small demons, fighting to be the last player standing. Kyoto is the playing field.
Anime gives some good options this time around. D.Gray-man comes out this week with a season 1 box set, as does Ghost Slayers Ayashi. Another full season collection is Gurren Lagann, which is a very warped little program using retro-70s animation styles (even though it was made around 2005 to 2007) to tell a twisted little story about the nature of existence and humanity’s place in it. And season 1 of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is also being released; no word yet on when the ONA, the movie, or the second season of the show might be available. All of these programs were previously released as individual volumes, but this marks their first time available as box sets.
The new Harry Potter trailer is just a bit dark, and the last book is broken into two different films, but it still looks like fun to me. So even though we all saw it this weekend in the Theater, here it is again.
In the land of Authors, I have to endorse this review of Ken MacLeod’s Restoration Game, and encourage anyone who hasn’t read MacLeod to get off their ass and buy and read a copy of everything he has ever written. He comes at the world from directions most of us cannot imagine. I would also like to recommend this weeks favorite Steampunk Romance author, Gail Carriger, who managed to create a wonderful milieu and the characters to populate it. If you can’t afford to buy them, hit your local library and read Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless, and see how the stories and series began.
While I have never been a fan of M. Daze Shamarama, finding all of his previous works yawnworthy, the trailer for the live action version of The Last Airbender looks really good. I also enjoyed the award winning animation series it is based on, Avatar: The Last Airbender. And yes, I do watch select programs on Nickelodeon, and the Cartoon Network as well; I don’t want my inner child to evaporate from lack of sustenance. So I will be parked in front of a 3D big screen this weekend (doesn’t that trailer just scream 3D?) in the belief that they didn’t use up all of the interesting footage just to entice me to buy that ticket. If it really is as good as the trailer indicates it might be, I will even start identifying the director by his actual name, since he may have finally made a movie that doesn’t put me to sleep.
There are a number of good choices this week, starting with one of my favorite TV shows: Eureka Season 3.5. Another good show from the same channel has its season 1 release as well, Warehouse 13. This is just in time to catch up with the previous season before the new seasons launch on July 6th and 9th, but also on the 9th they are launching a new Steven King TV series on Syfy, Haven.
While it wasn’t a traditional TV series but more of a Machinima, I am excited to note that Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles is being released this week as well. This box set DVD includes the complete first 5 seasons of this very funny and combat intensive program.
There are some good selections from the world of live action movies. Kicking off a new franchise that hopes to pull from the ranks of the Harry Potter phenomenon, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was thoroughly enjoyable. Like Potter, the movie was based on the first of a series of books, so there is the promise of more fine adventures to come. Another good film is Hot Tub Time Machine, which surprised me in the theaters. I went in expecting just some silly fun, but there was a bit more depth than the trailer would lead you to believe.
On the Anime front, Gintama 2 continues the story of Edo-era Japan invaded by aliens who installed a spaceport and modern city in the 17th century. They also made it illegal for Samurai to use their swords, and put the majority of the population into sweatshops working for the alien masters. Our protagonists are a Samurai named Sakata Gintoki and his companions in the Yoruzuya Gin-chan odd jobs shop, taking any job from finding lost pets to saving the world to try to pay the rent. Also this week, the re-release of the Basilisk Complete Series box set Viridian Collection, making the classic Ninja Shogunate supernatural martial arts epic affordable again.
Out of the imported live action choices, Nine Girls and a Ghost appears to be a rather uneven high school wish fulfillment presentation that should entertain anyone in that age range. Likewise Samurai Avenger: Blind Wolf is targeting a limited demographic, the Samurai Cowboy Zombie Gorefest crossover fan base. It actually looks like it might just be campy enough to be entertaining, though. I can’t say the same thing for Ultimate Machine Girl, a release so underwhelming that no one at Rotten Tomatoes even bothered to review it.