Skip to main content

Something to Watch: DVDs

Finally available this week is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Terry Gilliam masterpiece. If you didn’t get to see it in the theater you should watch your copy on the largest HD TV you have access to, because the visuals are truly amazing. The other must-have movie this week is Luc Besson’s Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum, the sequel to District 13. If you missed the original, they are also being released as a 2-DVD set; both of these are non-stop thrill rides in the tradition of The Transporter.

If you are looking for a few laughs, check out Transylmania; the humor is a bit lowbrow (a bit?) but still kind of fun. Probably on a par with Venus Ranger: Complete Collection which also comes out this week.

For TV series, the modern remake of Terry Nations The Survivors, Complete Seasons 1 and 2 becomes available, and if you were wondering how faithful it is to the original 1970’s series, Survivors: The Complete Original Series 1975-77 is also being released. For American TV, Tales from the Darkside: The Third Season is being released both as a stand alone and in a packaged set with the previous two seasons.

In Anime, Gintama – Collection 1, a story about how the lives of Samurai changed in Feudal Japan after the aliens landed and took over. This one looks like a lot of fun, but be aware collection one gets you started with the first 13 episodes, and there are over 200 episodes and counting so far. Also, the Augmented Reality hijacking of the convenience store and high school where Evangelion took place has been canceled due to huge mobs of fans flooding the area. The rest of the promotion for the release of the next Evangelion reboot, You Can Not Advance, will take place as scheduled, and the release itself is next month.

Something to Do: Movies

The film that looks like it could be the most fun this week is The Good, The Bad, The Weird, which looks kind of like a Korean take on Indiana Jones in full-tilt boogie mode. It will be in a limited number of theaters, but it will be available as part of the IFC On Demand service, available through a number of cable companies including Comcast.

If you don’t have access to that film, it looks like The Losers might make an acceptable substitute. It is not quite genre, but still looks like it could be fun.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Avatar; if you only buy one DVD this year, this should be it. Enough said.

Among the imported live action movies, K-20: Fiend With Twenty Faces looks like a fun choice, from the teams that brought out 20th Century Boys and Death Note.

For TV series, Merlin, the Complete First Season hits the shelves this week. Seen in the US on NBC and Syfy, this re-imagining of the Arthur legend was built by the BBC.

Comrades in Dreams was a documentary produced in 2006 about a select few people around the world who bring the magic of movies to people and places that otherwise might not have the opportunity to see them on the big screen. I know it is hard to believe in this age of instant streaming video, but these media activists are serving a vital purpose.

Naruto Shippuden Box Set 2 probably tops the popularity charts for this weeks Anime series. This show just keeps getting better.

Previously released as individual seasons, Otogi Zoshi: Collection of Ages is the full 26 episode series. The story takes place in then-capital Kyoto (Then being around 972 A.D.), where a female Samurai archer takes on a journey in search of a jewel with mystic powers.

One of the stranger anime box sets being released this week is Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan; fans of vigilante style justice for perverts or people who like their ultra violence served up cutesy ought to love this one.

Besson and Brussels

Luc Besson released his new masterpiece Wednesday, Les Aventures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec, pretty much everywhere in the French speaking parts of Europe, and I really hope there is a Subbed or Dubbed English DVD version scheduled for later. This one looks like pure Steampunk fun, and had its world premiere last week at the BIFFF, also known as the 28th Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. I should point out, every other movie at that festival is also on my to-be-watched list, and there are a lot of them. I know I posted this trailer a week or 3 back, but here it is again for anyone who missed it…

Something to Watch: DVDs

The live action feature film selection for this week is Defendor, and no, spelling is not one of his super powers. A comic book super hero (and his shrink) movie that should go very well with this weeks theatrical release, Kick Ass. This was in very limited release in theaters, so this is your chance to see it.

The one that could have been a documentary but wasn’t is Pirate Radio. It also could have been science fiction, but wasn’t, since this kind of radio was a central part of the evolution of Rock-N-Roll in England, accompanied by its US equivalents in the form of Underground Radio during those same years. As a former DJ at one of those stations, I enjoyed every moment of this film, even the painful ones which sometimes had the highest percentage of truth in them.

The one that actually was a documentary is Digital Nation, a PBS special out this week on DVD. Part of an ongoing Frontline report, this one investigates what it means to grow up digital, and presents it in a format that the digitally impaired (predominantly parents) can relate to. Not genre, but definitely geek friendly.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about Sex Galaxy, with some sites reporting it comes out this week. You missed the target, folks, that was last week, but if you don’t have it already it is silly fun you should add to your collection.

Space Ranger: Complete Collection is a live-action offering from Japan that may be on a par with Power Rangers (it is a bit hard to tell, as no one seems to want to talk about them). I won’t be tracking this one down until I learn a bit more about it, and will wait for Venus Ranger later in the month… or perhaps not.

The live action import from the orient I will be tracking down and adding to the permanent collection is Three Kingdoms-Resurrection of the Dragon. The Three Kingdoms period of China’s history generated some of the best sources of heroic struggle known to man, and with the backdrop of such a large canvas (the land the history took place in, and the people who lived there) the epic nature of the tales combined with the wide screen cinematography it takes to tell such epics has produced some wonderful movies.

On the animation front Living for the Day After Tomorrow – Complete Collection also becomes available this week. Fans of Big or Freaky Friday should enjoy this one; a young girl who hates being treated like a child and a young woman who longs for simpler times get to exchange ages.

The rather more mature animation Rei Rei (OAV) also becomes available this week, for the first time in a while.