There are actually a few good movies being released on DVD this week. In the just for fun category we have the Sorcerers Apprentice from Disney, starring Nicolas Cage. While I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for this to win any awards, it has a blend of humor and adventure that makes it worth your time to watch. In a noticeably more serious vein, Valhalla Rising has won an assortment of awards at film festivals around the world. It is a story of slavery, escape, and loyalty in 1000 AD, although it seems to have something to say about religious violence as well.
Then we have a couple of silly movies related to each other. I am sure I don’t have to explain what The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is about, but the one I will be adding to my collection is its companion piece, Vampires Suck, the extended Bite Me Edition. Strangely enough, the Twilight flic doesn’t seem to be targeting Tuesday for its release.
I didn’t see much in the way of US TV releases this week, but China’s Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils appears to be worth a look. It is based on the Buddhist 8 non-human races for the make up of its cast, and the novel was serialized monthly for years before this rather complex story line was rendered for television.
There are two anime releases this week, each of which completes the season for its show. Hell Girl: Three Vessels – Collection 2 is the final 13 episodes of season 3, in which we learn Ai wasn’t as dead as she seemed to be at the end of season 2 (and just exactly where do ghosts and spirits go when they die, and how do they come back from there?). Her assistants had been having a peaceful afterlife until her return, and she has taken up possession of a schoolgirl (in the exorcist meaning of the word) to stage her Earthly operations from.
The other release is Birdy the Mighty: Decode 02, continuing the new adventures of Birdy the Mighty, a lethal interstellar federation agent who is more dangerous to innocent bystanders than the extraterrestrial terrorists who’s stolen weapon threatens to destroy all life on Earth. If you saw the OVA series from the previous century, you know what I am talking about. If you missed it, watching any episode of Dirty Pair will give you the general idea; some people just need to pay a little more attention to keep the collateral damage down to a reasonable body count.