Yes, I know this has been out for weeks, but I don’t care. I just finished watching The Angels Take Manhattan, and now I can not wait to see the x-mas special. There is never enough Doctor Who in the world. And yes, I had not seen that episode before; I saved it until I was able to watch it with a friend.
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.
Top of the movie list this week has to be Men In Black 3, one of the few franchises that have actually gotten better with each new movie. In fact, I might even be tempted to get a 4K 3D TV for this one after seeing it in the theater. Also this week, ParaNorman is an animated comedy about a kid who is just a bit different.
I could not find any new releases under TV, except for a mention of the 1993 made for TV version of Frankenstein possibly being released, but even there I could find no verification. Surprising, since we are deep into the Xmas buying frenzy, and I would expect them to be releasing lots of stuff to pry open our wallets.
I only see two new releases in Anime, both of them involving mercenaries wandering through historic epoch war zones. In Berserk: The Golden Age Arc; The Egg of the King the war zone is the Midland Kingdom, which based on the armor and outfits looks a lot like late Roman period England. For Intrigue in the Bakumatsu: Irohanihoheto, Collection 2 it appears to be the Shogunate era of Japan. In both series everything is in continual flux, just like any real war zone, as alliances break and shift, and the battle continues.
Because of the holiday weekend, things kick off on Wednesday, the 21st, with Rise of the Guardians for those looking for an animated fantasy quest. Dreamworks does their usual world-class job on the animation, and the voice talent is pretty amazing, so it should be quite good. Life of Pi is an adventure story about survival that puts quite a twist on the classic man in a lifeboat plot. Hansel and Gretel & the 420 Witch is a horror/comedy about the brother and sister team who battle the evil witch who is attacking their classmates.
This tasty little video was created by Alyse Miller and Phillip SimonWhile they were attending the Ringling College of Art and Design working in the Computer Animation Program. It’s nice to know there continue to be original ideas constantly popping up in the independent animation field, and some talented people to execute them.
The Watch is a comedy about neighborhood patrol types out to protect themselves from an alien invasion, much as we saw in Attack The Block. It does have one particularly good comedic actor, who you will no doubt recognize from IT Crowd. The other live action film this week is Snowmageddon, and it also has a few actors you will recognize.
In TV, Doctor Who: Series Seven, Part One brings us the first half of the latest season, 7 episodes long. The Christmas special and the episodes in 2013 will comprise the second half, but they will have a special treat among them: Neil Gaiman is writing another episode, and after what he did with The Doctors Wife I can’t wait to see it!
The other TV series this time is Lost Girl: The Complete Second Season, and if you haven’t been following it, you really should start soon. This is a very well done series with a bit of a supernatural twist. Pretty much everything else coming out this week is a re-release of a classic or recent series, with the possible exception of Variable Geo Neo. That OVA set was made back in 2004, but I do not know if it was previously released in North America or not.
There are several quality selections in Western Animation this week from Pixar, including their wonderful feature film Brave. If you missed it in the theaters, now is the time to correct that error, and if you didn’t you already know how good it is. They are also releasing the Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2, with still more amazing and intelligent animations for the whole family. A motion comic rather than an animation, Marvel Knights Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable is the fourth installation in this story arc, with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday bringing impeccable storytelling and quality graphics to the table once again.
The Anime feature film this week is Children Who Chase Lost Voices, another excellent story by award winning Makoto Shinkai, who’s previous works include 5 Centimeters Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. His animations have a haunting beauty about them, and his stories always go right for the heart. Pretty much everything else is a re-release of some form, such as Linebarrels of Iron: Complete Series, which is coming out in a S.A.V.E. version (Super Amazing Value Edition). That means if you shop around, you can probably find it for around $20 or so.