The Atom video site has a ton of enjoyable content, and one of the recent additions there is the webisode series My Anime Girlfriend. Put together by a team from Comedy Central with some help from an SNL alumni, this combined live action/anime production is just silly fun. Here is the first one to get you started…
The new Simon Pegg and Nick Frost movie Paul will be on the big screen tomorrow (or possibly midnight tonight, depending on where you live), and they have been all over the place promoting it this week. This is one of the things they got up to while filming the program; an impromptu parody of a classic scene from the original Star Wars movie. Thanks to e folka College Humor for this one.
We have several good choices this time around, with the action/adventure selection being Limitless. The premise is simple; what if taking a drug allowed you to use 100% of your mind, rather than the usual 10%, but came with some brutal side effects. Everything in this film evolves from that simple starting point, and between De Nero and the trailer, I am figuring this for a must see.
The comedy winner this week is Paul, another Simon Pegg/Nick Frost humor extravaganza. They play two nerds on holiday going to Area 51 on holiday, where they run into space alien slacker Paul, who is trying to escape.
In limited release another action comedy looks tasty; Dao Jian Xiao, with the English title The Butcher, The Chef, And The Swordsman. Three interrelated stories involving various bladed objects made from melted down legendary swords with minds of their own, and the extreme emotions of the people wielding them. As you might suspect, this import is from Hong Kong.
If you are in the mood for a documentary, Nostalgia for the Light will be in limited release, telling the story of Astronomers looking for clues on the origin of life from the Atacama Desert in Chile.
Hereafter is a story of three people touched by Death in different ways. Matt Damon is the Psychic who doesn’t want to speak with those who have passed over any more, while others need his gift to understand what has happened to them. Strangely enough, this movie was directed by Clint Eastwood. Interplanetary is a low budget independent film in which everyone on Mars dies. You have to be a B movie horror fan for this one, I am afraid, as well as Sharktopus, which at least had a few names I have heard of involved.
I consider it a bit strange that I didn’t find any live action genre TV series coming out this week, but it had to happen sooner or later.
In Anime, D. Gray-Man: Season Two is the story of young exorcist Allen Walker, and the ghosts and demons he must battle to save humanity. Weighing in at 103 episodes (so far), if you like this one you can be comforted knowing there is more to come. Also, Gunslinger Girl: Complete Collection is hitting the shelves in a single box set, all 13 episodes plus the OVA’s, for less than $50. You should shop around for something noticeably less than $50, because you can pick up the 13 episode series for $29, and the OVAs for $9, or a combined price of $38.
Under the tag line Do something funny for money, the annual charity event Red Nose Day is coming around in the UK again on the 18th. Also known as Comic Relief, this gets a full day of support and special programing from the BBC on several of their channels, including BBC 3, BBC Radio 1, and BBC Radio 3. While you still can’t watch their streaming video feed in North America (I keep waiting for their promised paid subscription service, but so far nada), you can listen to the radio streams live. One of the things I always look forward to is the contribution from the Doctor Who team. This year they are doing a micro episode in two parts according to SFX, complete with Amy Pond flirting with herself.
The premise behind Age of the Dragons is a bit unexpected. Dragons are hunted for the napalm-like substance that fuels modern civilization, but Captain Ahab is chasing after the Great White Dragon that slaughtered his family. Yes, this really is Moby Dick done with dragons, and Danny Glover gets to be Ahab in this one. In theaters this Friday (or perhaps a year from this Friday, the release date data is a bit unclear) on a very limited run (along with The Adjustment Bureau and Rango in much wider release), and out on DVD two weeks later, which is where most of us will get to see it.
Also out in extremely limited release this weekend are the Korean film I Saw The Devil and the Thai movie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I find it interesting that both movies have their official home page in Japan, which seems to be turning into a gateway to the rest of the world for Asia. In much wider release, Beastly is a story we have seen before, involving a callas guy who earns the curse laid upon him, and must now achieve a goal previously unthinkable to him to get his body back. Even though it is a bit derivative, I suspect I will be attending Beastly this weekend. I should have posted about all of these with my normal Monday Movie post, but here they are before they hit the big screen at least.