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Something to Do: Movies

I have been waiting quite a while for this one; the 800 pound gorilla in the movie theaters this weekend will be Clash of the Titans. A remake of the original 1981 Ray Harryhausen classic, the changes in technology between then and now promises good things for the movie going experience. I do have to say though that watching the Owl in the original on the big screen brought the kind of sense of wonder that is rare (and it also helped solidify an already strong life long addiction to robotics that I still haven’t outgrown).

In more limited release (NY and LA the first weekend, expanding out over the following several weeks) is the epic period piece The Warlords, in the tradition of Hero and the House of Flying Daggers. Staring Jet Li, it will be available on VOD (Video On Demand), Amazon, and X-Box Live on the 4th, so everyone will have access.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

The main entry for this weeks list has to be Sherlock Holmes; with Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes, Jude Law as Watson, and Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, this was the Steampunk treat of the holiday season. If you happen to pick up your copy on Blu-Ray and have a BD-Ready player online and a web browser connected to the internet (so you can ask questions), you can join the live event on April 1st and hear Downey answer your questions about the movie.

On the Anime front, Negima? Season 2 appears to be a bit different than season 1, which to my mind expands the range of the show. It still has all the magic, but not as many sneezes.

There is a new entry in the US-released Lupin the 3rd collection, Lupin the 3rd Episode 0: First Contact. It has been a while since the last new episode we have gotten, and the fact that it is Subbed rather than Dubbed indicates the new North American distributor may be an independent operation.

And then there are Strike Witches, an elite aerial combat team that blasts aliens out of the sky, wearing propeller boots and wielding weapons, but with one rather noticeable missing item.

Other releases worth noting include Neo Angelique: Abyss and Six Strange Tales of Liao Zhai 2. There are also a few Complete Collection releases that had previously released each season as a box set, like Aquarion, Kannon, and Otogi Zoshi.

Confessions of Fumiko

If you are a fan of animation, one program you should try to catch every week is Digista, or in English the Digital Stadium. Each week they have a guest who is a professional in the digital arts field, usually but not always animation. That guest, referred to as the Curator, nominates four works by unknown new talent for the panel and the audience to review and judge. One piece each week is declared the winner and goes into the permanent collection of the Digital Stadium Hall of Fame. Once a year all the entrants to the stadium become part of the annual competition, at which the DIGISTA Awards are handed out.

This program is a wonderful showcase for new animation talent, giving them world wide exposure. You can watch each weeks program anywhere NHK World is available. If your local cable company does not carry them (mine does, if yours doesn’t start calling and writing them to tell them to add it, or you can get them off a satellite), you can watch the animations online from the hall of fame page. Other NHK programs I never miss are Imagine-Nation for the weekly Anime, Gaming, and Manga news and features, and J-Melo for news and performances from the Japan music scene. The animation that won this weeks Digital Stadium entry is called Confessions of Fumiko; enjoy.

Things to Do: Movies

There are two new genre selections to choose from this weekend. The first is Hot Tub Time Machine, which looks to be silly fun requiring no mental straining at all. The main sense of Deja Vu generated in this one just might be that we have seen these jokes before. If you are more in the mood for animated fun, How To Train Your Dragon could be just the ticket. It is built by the same team who did Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, so expect more of the same great humor and animation quality.

And there is a third choice: Waking Sleeping Beauty. I don’t normally recommend documentaries, but this one tells a behind-the-scenes story about the rebirth of the Disney animation studios that received a lot of attention on the Film Fest circuit.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

Bringing Psychic Warriors to the big screen for the first time, The Men Who Stare At Goats hits the shelves Tuesday. This amusing fictionalization has more truth in it than the government wants you to know about, or certainly any senate budgetary oversight committee.

From AMC, the 2009 miniseries remake of The Prisoner keeps some of the original referents and redevelops others from the ground up. I don’t think it quite lived up to the 17 episode 1967 series, but I am going to watch them both back-to-back before I decide for sure.

For the young female segment of the audience, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is also being released this week. The second film in this series, it is packed with more brooding stares than ever before.

For fans of a much more classic vampire tradition, Orlock the Vampire 3D becomes accessible to the general public. This 1922 silent masterpiece was originally titled Murnau’s Nosferatu, but it was believed all full length versions of it were destroyed. Keith Carter took this one surviving example and processed it for the complete 3D experience, and then Lloyd Kaufman of Troma does the whole introduction thing to round out the package. As a person who has actually paid cash money to sit in a movie theater on Halloween and listen to a live synthesizer player and percussionist create the audio accompaniment for the truncated version of the film, I can’t wait to add this one to my permanent collection.

There are a few quality western animation coming out this week, starting with The Fantastic Mr Fox. This twisted little movie is fairly true to the book it’s based on, and it has a great voice cast. Also, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 Blu-Ray Special Editions (2 disk sets) become available on Tuesday. If you want the standard definition (regular DVD) versions of these releases, you will have to wait until May 11th.

On the Anime front, Darker than Black is accessible, but from the reviews I have seen somewhat disappointing. I need to see it for myself before I can voice a real opinion. I can voice an opinion on Trinity Blood: The Complete Series: it is worth your time to watch. Yet another tale about humans and vampires, but taking a slightly different approach than you might expect. The Standard Edition was released back in December, this is the Blu Ray version. Finally, there is Nabari No Ou – The Complete Series Part 2. In this story line, Ninja’s beat on each other for the right to rule the world, but the primary character, Miharu Rokujou, just want’s to run his restaurant.

Hyperland: Douglas and Baker

In 1990, Douglas Adams got together with Tom Baker, and they made a program for the BBC called Hyperland, a documentary about the Web. The Internet had been around for decades at that point, and even became common among early adapters around 1984 through dedicated client services like AOL and Compuserve. But the modern version of the Web was being invented as this program was being made, and only came into being two years later, around 1992. So here is a bit of history; you can find more here. By the way, did you see the Doctor and Romana hawking computers in the early ’80s? How about Captain Kirk?