We have a good one for Wednesday, in the form of the re-release of Monsters, Inc: 3D, a Pixar favorite of mine that has never before been available in a 3D format. I am afraid I am going to have to go see it, if for no other reason than to get ready for the new Monsters University. Although not quite genre, Jack Reacher is quite a twisty little murder mystery based on a great series of books. There are a boatload of other films this week, hopefully you will find the one you want to see in a theater near you.
If you are in the mood for twisted comedy, Ted has to be top of your list this week. If its action/adventure, The Bourne Legacy is a great choice (yes, it is genre, genetically engineering humans is still science fiction, although barely). If you enjoy quirky foreign sci-fi/horror/comedy, Doomsday Book is a Korean film about the end of the world, and includes a zombie apocalypse and a Robot Buddhist among the three tales that make up the film. No, it is not based on the award winning book of the same name written by Connie Willis, but it has won a number of awards itself, including the top prize at the Fantasia International Film Festival. If cheesy B movies with no understanding of basic science in their science fiction premiss is your favorite, then Collision Earth is the movie for you. Apparently the company that made Collision was too embarrassed to put up a web page for it, as well they should be. If you are looking for sexy spy spoofs then The Girl From B.I.K.I.N.I. may be for you, but be warned the rating on that one is somewhere between a hard R and soft porn.
TV this week seems to consist of Futurama: Volume 7, which is fine by me since it is a favorite show of mine. The other western animation choice is the feature film Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth in the Ice Age franchise.
A while back I posted the Level E OP song by Chiaki Kuriyama in its original live action music video format, and this week you can finally pick up Level E: The Complete Series for your own. Earth is home to a lot of aliens, and one boys life is turned upside down by an alien prince with amnesia and a bad attitude. Also new this week, Letter Bee: Collection 1 takes place on a dark world where a single artificial sun lights a small portion of the planet, and there are monsters waiting in the darkness. The Letter Bees keep the scattered human settlements in communication with each other, at great personal risk.
In returning series, Bleach – Season 15 is coming out in an uncut box set. Also, the classic Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is being re-released, so if you have not already seen it, now is your chance. It is a wonderful little tour through the multiverse, all while staying inside a shopping mall that seems to be located in Tokyo, Texas.
There are several choices this weekend, although none of them are the action/adventure I tend to look forward to at this time of year. Bad Kids Go to Hell is The Breakfast Club meets The Ring, and there is something about the trailer that makes me think that was exactly how it was pitched to get the funding to make it. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, this is a comedy/thriller.
Dino Time is a time travel jaunt into the world of T-Rex and friends, and the kids who make the ride don’t have much time to figure out how to get home again. The animation looks quite good in this joint US/Korean production, with CJ Entertainment doing the art and story, and the US supplying some quality voice talent. I have found at least one source that believes the release date will be January 1st and another from a few days ago listed as Unknown, but most everybody else is pointing to this Friday.
The only genre I could find this week was Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, the fourth outing for this franchise. I thought the original film had a unique premise and was quite well done, but every entry since seems to be a formula driven way to take home a pay check for the core cast and crew. This is probably a good weekend to see something you may have missed in recent weeks, like Wreck It Ralph or Rise of the Guardians, both of which have now been short listed for an Oscar nomination.
21 animated films in different categories have been submitted for Oscar consideration, according to an article in the Hollywood Reporter. The offerings include computer generated, hand drawn, and stop motion productions from a variety of sources, which pretty much covers your choices of how to create animations. The Short Animated Films category alone had 56 works being looked at, which was narrowed down to a short list 10 films long, and will probably be trimmed further to result in 3 to 5 actual nominees in that category. I haven’t seen many of them at all, except for John Kahrs’ Paperman which impressed me no end. It was the short piece just before Wreck-It Ralph in the theaters, which is itself under consideration. Other contenders include Studio Ghibli’s Up on Poppy Hill, Disney’s Brave, and Peter Ramsey’s Rise of the Guardians. The number of quality animation pieces just keeps growing year after year, and there are some wonderful films in the race this time around; I can’t wait to see who gets to take home the statues.
The movie is now in theaters in Tokyo, and while it will be a while before they put together an English version and release it in North America, the extended trailer is still fun to watch even in Japanese. Thanks to the folks at Otaku USA for the heads up on this one.