On October 26th, one of the potentially best movies of the year will hit the big screen: Cloud Atlas. The 2004 book by David Mitchell was amazing, the cast and directors are amazing (many of the actors playing multiple rolls), this trailer makes it look like the finished product could just possibly live up to the promise that the component elements bring to the table. I can not wait to find out if they manage to pull it off; I will see you in the popcorn line as we go to find out.
We lost Mary Tamm yesterday, when she died from cancer at the age of 62. She played many rolls over the years, but to me she will always be the first Ramana from Tom Baker era Doctor Who. Tardis Elliot put together the nicest tribute video I could find…
The London version of the Doctor Who Experience was amazing, and I loved visiting it. But it shut down and moved a while ago, and finally today the Doctor Who Experience Cardiff opens its doors on its new home. Be sure to check it out, it is well worth spending the time to explore.
Take a deep breath and focus as Helen McCarthy presents the history of Manga from its beginnings in 1860’s Japan to the current crises it faces from pirates powered by broadband in a mere 8 minutes and 22 seconds. This is one of a series of 12 presentations on Japanese Creativity put together by the British Design and Art Direction educational charity, also known as B&AD. If you don’t know who the non-profit educational charity B&AD is, the next video put together by BBC4 will give you a glimpse into the organization. Finally, just for balance, a video of Helen as part of an Anime Filk group at a Con in Iowa in 2010. Thanks to Crunchyroll for the heads up on this one.
Caroline John was the name of the actress who played Elizabeth Shaw on Doctor Who, and we lost her this month. She was an active actress, with 50 titles to her credit, some of which had her sharing the screen with Jon Pertwee’s Doctor. Here are just a few of the tribute videos to remember her by…
We have three interesting movies this week, two of them silly. The serious one is Wrath of the Titans, which I didn’t see in theaters because the first one took itself too seriously, and I didn’t need any more of that. I still don’t. I also didn’t see Mirror, Mirror, not so much because it looked too silly (you can never have too much silly in my book) but because I had to work that weekend. Before I decide whether to add it to the permanent collection I will catch it on streamy or HBO or somewhere equivalent. The third one isn’t genre: David Tennant’s The Decoy Bride was made for two and a half million pounds and earned $524 its opening weekend in the US. In part this was because it only showed up on a single screen that weekend, but even later on it wasn’t in that many theaters. Let’s face it, the only reason I will be watching it is because David is in it, and he made a wonderful Doctor. OK, and the trailer looked like silly fun, too.
Notice how I didn’t even mention Sector 7? Even the Korean audiences didn’t go to that one, a bit of a surprise as his earlier work The Host won such critical acclaim around the world.
No genre TV shows this week, but I will mention Casablanca: The Complete Series if only because it has Scatman Crothers as Sam, and one of the tracks he sings is the theme for the show. And yes, the original 1942 movie is where the phrase Play It Again, Sam came from.
Anime has a brand new release this week. Towanoquon: the Complete Collection tells the story of gifted mutant children born with special powers. Government cyborgs are hunting them down to kill them, while a rebel group with their own powers are saving them to train them to use their gifts to defend themselves. Don’t let the fact that the complete series is only 6 episodes fool you, because each episode is 50 minutes long, giving them a full 300 minutes to tell the story.