I live on the wrong continent to have been able to watch the latest Terry Pratchett story to be turned into a TV Movie, Going Postal. It aired this past weekend on Sky1 with an amazing all star cast. The previous two Pratchett specials from this production team were Hogfather and The Color of Magic, also with all star casts. If this one follows their pattern, in about 6 months it should become available in the US from RHI; if you haven’t seen them already, track down and watch the first two now.
After a year or so making the Film Fest circuit, Splice is finally in general release! Demonstrating exactly why you do not want to buy your kid a genetic engineering tool set (around $20 worth of chemicals, enzymes, and glassware if you get the raw materials yourself, or about $150 if you pick up the pre-made kit), this movie looks to have enough of the basics right to be a quality morality tale with a scientific grounding. I have been waiting a while for this one, and that may be warping my focus this week, so lets look at the other films coming out.
The other wide release film is, of course, Killers, your basic spy comedy. While I am looking forward to seeing Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl play off each other, I really don’t know if that will be enough to carry this film. I expect this will be silly fun, but not memorable in the long term. I will be happy to be proved wrong, as I was by Mr and Mrs Smith.
The other movies hitting the big screen this weekend are all in EXTREMELY limited release, but they really do look like the films to pay attention to. On the documentary front, Whiz Kids introduces you to a few of the people that make up our only real hope for the future; those children who understand enough of the science and math to make the world work.
And then there is Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, where the classic Hamlet is re-written by a vampire. I would be poking fun at this one, except I found it very entertaining, and thought I should pass it on. Especially once I realized Dracula was the vampire who did the re-writing.
The movie that may be the best one for the week is Ondine, a Brit film with serious heart. With actors Colin Farrell, Stephen Rea, and Alicja Bachleda, it is telling a story about True Love, and how the non-human might regard it.
The pick of the week for mixed media films (combining live action with animation) is the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. This twisted little tail continues a long film making tradition of using the Lewis Carrol source material to tell a morality tale; what the moral of the story is changes with each director, of course. I am not a fan of Burton’s visual style and found Depp’s character in particular somewhat grotesque, but I still consider this version a must-have addition to the collection. The other film of note this week is the recent remake of The Wolfman, with Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro. Despite the star power this one fell just a little flat for me, but fans of the Gothic may have a better opinion of it.
My pick for number one imported live action film this week absolutely has to be 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption. While there is enough exposition at the front of the film to catch you up on the story so far, I am setting this one aside for Saturday, so I can watch all three films back to back. This has a very original story, and great characters that you follow through most of their lives, watching them grow and develop.
New in the live action TV category this week is Burn Notice, Season 3. Yes, I know it’s not science fiction, but I think everyone would agree that it is a bit of a fantasy. Plus it is just too much fun to miss. As usual, they have the previous season DVD release just before the new season starts; in this case two days before, as season 4 kicks off Thursday night.
In the world of animation, he’s Baa-aa-aack! Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind is another half dozen episodes from the team that brought us Wallace and Grommet. Very few language skills are needed to enjoy these, as dialog is not a core component of the tales they tell.
For anime proper, Brighter than the Dawning Blue: Complete Collection is a story of diplomatic fence mending between the Earth and the Moon, with the Lunar Princess exchange student running into some romantic complications along the way. Also out this week, Slayers Evolution-R season 5. As usual when the Slayers are involved, they nearly destroy the world in the process of saving it, and magical mayhem abounds. Also out this week another S.A.V.E. edition re-release of a complete series, this time Beck.
After watching how brutally American TV trashed and tanked the brilliant British Life on Mars, not to mention how the US version of Red Dwarf was made into pilots twice, both times so bad they were never optioned into a series, I am a bit concerned about the coming rebuild of Being Human. The folks at Broadcast Magazine have the basic details, but SFX has the questions about how this might turn out. The good news is it is a Syfy Channel TV series, with a solid budget, and with TV shows like the various Stargate series, Eureka, Sanctuary, and Warehouse 13, as well as miniseries like Alice and Riverworld, they have shown a solid level of production quality (sadly not shared by their made for TV movies). So this one could go either way; here’s hoping they get it right.
If you haven’t had a chance to see the new Doctor yet, tomorrow night BBC America is running a Doctor Who Marathon. They will be playing all 6 of the so-far released Matt Smith/Karen Gillian episodes in order starting at 8/7C.
The main movie for this weekend has to be Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. If the film is half as good as the trailer, it is going to be a blast. And it looks like you don’t have to be a master of the game to enjoy it, unlike some movies built from games.
If you are a George A. Romero fan, then you might want to go to George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, which is something like the 6th Dead movie he has made.
The number one TV release this week is obvious: True Blood: The Complete Second Season. If you thought the first season was good, fasten your seat belts and get ready to be blown away. You already know this if you have HBO, but now is your chance to add it to your permanent collection. Unlike certain movie series, this story is strictly for the adults in the audience, and delivers on every level. And as usual, the timing on the DVD release is because Season 3 is about to happen; it hits your screen on June 13th.
On the Movie side, The Road becomes available on DVD. I can’t speak one way or the other about this movie, since I haven’t seen it yet. I can certainly speak up for Season 3 of The Guild; I consider this a must-have for every person who has ever sat down at a computer, and doubly so if you are a gamer. This is geek humor at its finest, and word is there are all kinds of extras on the DVD that did not appear online.
In anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 1 brings back that good old Steampunk Alchemy we loved so much the last time around. Likewise, Hell Girl – Two Mirrors returns us to that rather dark universe, where the second season starts off showing us that things are changing for Ai and her companions. In addition, the Hell Girl Complete First Season is being re-released in a S.A.V.E. Edition, so you can add it to your collection at a good price.
Also in anime, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has part two of season two being released, as well as the re-release of season 1 in a single box set, for the Martial Arts fans. While I normally only mention boxed sets here (predominately because I can go nuts waiting for the next volume to be released), I decided I should mention Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Wolf, because it just looks like silly fun; a high school boy has a pretty female fox deity and a wolf goddess vying for his attention, with all the expected mayhem that would entail.