The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec was an amazing 2010 French movie by the master Luc Besson, and it is finally being released on DVD in the US. This is thanks to the team at Shout Factory, a company I have grown to appreciate as they keep releasing those quirky little programs that don’t have the kind of mass market appeal to bring in the millions of copies sales the big companies insist on. Examples in my collection include the complete surviving works of Ernie Kovacs, the entire ReBoot animation series, way more Roger Corman movies than I should ever admit to owning, and a Blu-Ray version of the cult classic Harlan Ellison movie A Boy And His Dog, complete with a reversible cover o you can pretend it is another movie entirely when your friends come over. This one really is one of the best, pretty much Steampunk based on an excellent graphics novel series by the guy who did The 5th Element, you should catch it as soon as possible.
A blast from the past: John Cleese as an art critic, commenting to an art collector about the Tardis. Suddenly Tom Baker’s Doctor runs up and jumps in, along with two Companions, one of whom is the second Ramana. Just a small throw-away moment from original series that brought two quintessential British icons together for the first time. There is also a wonderful behind the scenes outtake from that episode where John asks Tom for an autograph for his kid, but neither has a pen.
This is an excellent weekend for movies, starting with R.I.P.D., the Rest In Peace Department from the comic book of the same name. It has Mary-Louise Parker costarring with Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, and Kevin Bacon in this comedy fantasy crime drama. If that wasn’t enough to keep you entertained another action/adventure/comedy based on a comic book is also hitting the big screen, RED 2, in which Mary-Louise Parker is costarring with Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and Anthony Hopkins. That girl is definitely getting around, and getting some excellent parts in the process. Those are both on Friday, and I am going to have to attend both of them. On Wednesday the 17th Turbo is in the theaters, an animation about a snail who wants to be a race car. I really can’t afford to do three movies this weekend, even though it is from Dreamworks, one of my favorite western animation houses. This time around, the animation loses.
Not a great week for movies, with the remake of Evil Dead being about the only new film out there. And without Bruce, I just don’t see the point. We do better in TV, with Alphas: Season Two continuing the story for our team of special powered investigators. Unfortunately Syfy cancelled it, so it didn’t get a season 3, which means this is it for this series. Also this week the excellent BBC America original series Orphan Black: Season One hits the shelves. If you haven’t seen this one yet put it on your must-watch list and join the Clone Club.
In anime, Naruto Shippūden rolls out box set 15, bringing us up to episodes 180 through 192. The latest episode to stream out of Japan is 320, so we have a ways to go to catch up yet, but you can watch them on either the Viz or Hulu web sites. There is a re-release I am excited about this week, in the form of Patlabor (The Mobile Police) TV Series; Collection 1. Giant Robots, sociopaths, madmen waving guns – these aren’t just the problems the Mobile Police have to deal with every day, these ARE the Mobile Police! is a truly apt description, even if it is part of the current ad copy. This wonderful series is directed by Mamoru Oshii, who later went on to do Ghost In The Shell and many other excellent cyberpunk anime stories.
Japanese commercials look strange to western eyes mostly because we do not have the cultural context to appreciate them. While some of these look very like what you might find on TV over here, some are just bizarre looking. Enjoy.
There was a Discworld game that came out way back in 1995, and as such games do, it had a collection of 8 bit music. It also had Eric Idle doing the voice of Rincewind, which I think is a brilliant bit of casting, and Jon Pertwee doing a whole lot of the other voices. It was based on Terry Pratchett’s book Guards, Guards! but somehow wound up with Rincewind instead of Vimes in charge. If you still have the game you no doubt need a legacy system to play it on, but thanks to Sorek142 you can still listen to the soundtrack, or at least the incidental music, from the various scenes. Note that does not include Eric Idle’s song That’s Death, ranked by PC Gamer as among The best songs in PC gaming in 2010, because that was on the Discworld II game.