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Something to Watch: DVD’s

There are a couple of excellent movies coming out on disk this week, although their genre status is debatable. RED, or Retired, Extremely Dangerous, was my favorite action comedy not based on a comic book for 2010. Nothing deep or surprising, just good silly fun. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest completes the Millennium trilogy by author Stieg Larsson, a rather gritty and brutal tale of government corruption and the brilliant hacker girl who fought for her life against them, and the dogged investigative reporter who helped her. And Nowhere Boy is the story of the young John Lennon. All good movies, but where is the science fiction, you ask? Here it is: Enter the Void is the story of a murdered Tokyo drug dealer who’s ghost watches over his little sister.

TV shows didn’t do as well this week, with no real live action choices available. In western animation, Shaun the Sheep: Spring Shena-a-anigans out of the UK is a good silly choice.

There are a number of new Anime titles this week. Ghost Sweeper Mikami – Collection 2 continues the story of a beautiful but greedy ghost hunter out to get rich off the misfortune of others, and her perverted (therefor easily controllable) sidekick. Pandora Hearts – Premium Edition (Sub.DVD box 2) likewise continues its storyline, about an heir to the throne who is tossed into prison on his 15th birthday for no apparent reason. The series has some resemblance to Alice in Wonderland on several different levels, and is worth following.

The Sacred Blacksmith – Complete Series gives you the entire package with no waiting, unlike the previously mentioned programs. The Sacred Blacksmith has the power to forge powerful swords capable of defeating the demons who threaten his world, and teach people like Knight Guard Cecily Campbell how to use them. If you are not sure if this is for you, you can watch it online before you make your decision. Vampire Knight – Complete Series also has that instant gratification thing going for it, the whole story at once. In this one, Yuki Cross has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, in a twisty tale where nothing is what you thought it was, and again you can watch it online before you choose whether to bring it home with you.

Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 5 is not the kind of series you are going to be able to bring home in a single box, no matter how much you want to. There are already a boatload of episodes, with another handful of seasons available in Japan beyond what we have access to here. Disgaea has similar problems…

There are also a few classic anime’s being re-released this week. The reason for the Gantz reissue are obvious; the feature length live action film makes its US debut last Thursday. Not so obvious is the reason for the Armitage: Movie re-release, but I don’t really care; this story is a total classic with world class animation that everyone should see. The robot revolution on Earth didn’t go so well and they were all destroyed. But many survive on Mars, living amongst humans just fine, often undetected. Armitage is one of them, a tough cop who’s partner has been shot up so many times he is now more machine than flesh with computer controlled prostheses. Behind the police procedural, murder mystery, and government conspiracy, this one is a love story; and it works on every level.

Karen’s Kisses

Karen Gillan recorded this wonderful variation on Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl a while ago, with the lyrics modified to explain why the original song was released in humorous detail. If you are wondering why that song, funny though it is, belongs in a sci-fi blog post, you haven’t been paying attention; Karen has been playing Amy Pond for about a year or so, companion to Matt Smith’s Doctor Who. The song was originally part of the Channel 4 program the Kevin Bishop Show, which means if you are trying to see this from the UK it won’t work, you will want to see the Daily Motion version. There is also a nice interview with her over at 411 Mania done a while ago.

Something to Do: Movies 2011

2011 has some quality movies coming up, so many that I would get overwhelmed trying to list them all here, or even all from just my own country, the US. But I can list at least a few of the ones I am most looking forward to for the first half of the year, in the hopes you might find them interesting enough to keep an eye out for.

In January 2011, the first release is Season of the Witch on the 7th (that’s this Friday). Nick Cage and Ron Perlman battle the forces of 15th century evil. The Green Hornet looks to be the movie of choice for January, coming up on the 14th. They are sticking to the attitude of the original TV show, which had Bruce Lee as Kato (the series was known as The Kato Show in China, Japan, Korea, and most other Asian countries), and no one these days can remember who the white guy was. Hollywood’s next TV series that Bruce Lee developed (called “Kung-Fu”) didn’t have a single Asian in a staring role, even though Bruce was supposed to be the star. They hired somebody named Carridine for that role. There are also 2 limited run J-Movies this month; the live action version of Gantz on the 20th (see my review and trailer here), and Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha on the 21st.

In February there are several choices, a few of which are a bit out there.
Sanctum on February 4th sounds prosaic with the whole deep-sea diving stuff, but this is a James Cameron work in 3D and IMAX. Gnomeo and Juliet is a Shakespeare variation set in the world of warring indoor and outdoor gnomes, which should launch around the 11th. I Am Number Four on February 18th sounds like a quote from The Prisoner, but is actually an identification from one of 8 aliens who landed on Earth by accident. The previous three have already been hunted down and murdered, and he is next. Drive Angry on February 25th is about a soul who escapes from Hell to avenge his daughter and protect his granddaughter. Note that Drive is the second Nick Cage movie in as many months for this year.

March starts off with The Adjustment Bureau on the 4th, with a conspiracy theory story of truly epic proportions that will remind you of Inception. Also on the 4th, the animated feature Rango gets released, to teach us all abut the nature of courage. And then we have Apollo 18, which is a covert mission to the moon revealing an entire collection of aliens. Which is a nice warm up for the 11th, when a whole group of films get released, starting with the animated Mars Needs Moms!. It continues through Battle: Los Angeles where the story follows one Marine platoon’s encounter in the battle against an alien invasion on the streets of Los Angeles. It doesn’t end there, since also on the 11th we see Red Riding Hood, where a young woman is in a medieval village which is being terrorized by a werewolf. The final pick on the 11th is Suing the Devil, where Satan (played by Malcolm McDowell) shows up to defend himself in court. When the calendar turns to March 18th Beastly tells the story of a beautiful person turned hideous with only love to save him and turn him back, while Limitless is the story of a writer who tries a drug which allows him to use 100% of his brain instead of the usual 10%. The final entry for March will probably be the masterwork for the month; Sucker Punch the 25th may be the most interesting movie of the year, or at least have a serious shot at that title.

And that is just the first 3 months; there is a lot more after that! HOP is the animated tale to beat on April 1st (from the team that brought us Despicable Me), or perhaps Rio on April 8th from the Ice Age team; I plan to be at both. Source Code is a recursive time travel story worthy of Philip K. Dick, and Super is the story of an ordinary guy wearing superhero tights and armed with a wrench, both on the big screen April 1st. The other April 8th film, Your Highness, is a comedy about the guy that tried to avoid slaying the dragon but still ended up on the quest (Natalie is the Warrior Princess while Zooey is the Damsel in Distress).

In May, the top movies are Thor from Marvel, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the Tim Powers book by way of Johnny Depp, and the animated Kung Fu Panda 2 (the Tree of Life is an also ran). Come June, X-Men: First Class gives some background (but doesn’t appear to be from Marvel studios), Super 8 tells the story of aliens gone AWOL, and The Green Lantern brings another classic comic book hero to the screen, this one a variant of the Grey Lensman. Rise of the Apes is the origin story also ran for the month.

That covers the first half of the year; the remainder will include titles like Transformers: the Dark of the Moon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Captain America: the First Avenger, Cowboys & Aliens, Conan 3D, The Thing, Immortals, the Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots, and Sherlock Holmes 2. All in all, 2011 looks to be a great year for films, with more than one goody every month.

A Christmas Carol and Blackadder’s App; Season’s Greetings!

I hope the holidays find you happy and with loved ones. I wanted to remind everyone that Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol will actually air in the US on Christmas day, mere hours after it airs in the UK. BBC America made that promise about Torchwood for the last miniseries, but failed to follow through with it. Hopefully this time they will do better. I should also mention they will roll out season 4 of Primeval on New Years Day, so there are good things to look forward to on TV this holiday season. In addition, I also wanted to let you know that the new Blackadder Soundboard App By BBC Worldwide is now available to install on your iDevice. With a ton of the best Blackadder quotes, including some from Blackadder’s Christmas Carol and Blackadder Rides Again, this one is just in time for some holiday fun (and at 99 cents it is not overpriced).

Jack’s Back, Arnie Screams

Jack Sparrow is back, this time around doing a Disney-flavored version of Tim Power’s On Stranger Tides, all about the fountain of youth and Black Jack the Pirate. If you haven’t previously read the book, you still have time before the film comes out; or you could always listen to the audiobook.

The folks over at FilmDrunk extracted every scene where Arnold screamed from every movie, and put them together in this single presentation. How long can you watch this before you have to stop? For extra points, use a stopwatch to get the exact time, and double points if you are currently hung over.