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Something to Watch: DVD’s

For those with a leaning to fantasy based thrillers, there are a few good movies this week. Legion tells the story of one heavily armed angel out to save the life of a single human being, doing battle against the hoards of evil. While Daybreakers tells the story of R&D time traveling Vampires out to save the human race as a whole. With an all star cast and a soundtrack that includes compositions by Kate Bush, Daybreakers is the one I am bringing home this week before the others.

In the imported live action movie category, Legend Of The Tsunami Warrior from Thailand has an impressive array of talent and resources. It successfully blends fantasy, action and romance into a thrilling tale of the four sided race to retrieve sunken treasure and control a weapon of mass destruction. With Princesses, Pirates, and Paupers all going for the finish line you might be able to catch your breath every so often, but not frequently.

A twisted little variation on the classic theme is Malice in Wonderland, this one from the UK. You need a warped sense of humor to fully appreciate this movie, but it does look like a lot of fun.

Samurai Harem: Asu No Yoichi Complete Collection also looks to have a serious humor component, as well as being the first Anime for today’s post. A typical coming of age story involving a clueless martial arts teenage master and an assortment of heavily armed homicidal young women who take offense at his lack of social graces.

A release of Xenosaga DVD Complete Series – Viridian Collection puts this series into a low cost package for the first time, so if you haven’t already grabbed it, now is you chance. While this anime series was based on a game of the same name, it has interesting characters using giant robots in outer space to fight aliens, so whats not to like?

This one is a bit different, a fantasy classic in the making based on the Ramayana called Sita Sings the Blues. It blends the original epic tale with the creators own experiences and commentary supplied by an assortment of Indonesian Shadow Puppets to present a wonderful little story. I am glad to see there is now an official DVD release, assuming Nina Paley, the person who brought this into existence, is getting a fair percentage of the take. She originally released this under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License last year, giving it to the world. She did set up a way to Donate your approval to the movie (I contributed; did you?), but I suspect a lot more folks would be willing to support the project when they get their own physical copy for their permanent collection. More information is available here.

Something to Do: Movies

There is nothing really new in the theaters this week, unless you are part of Sci-Fi London, so this might be a good weekend to catch up on anything you have missed that is still in the theaters. Coming up in May there are some great films on tap, starting with the sequel Iron Man 2. I expect the seats to be packed for that on, opening on May 7th. I may even have to brave the crowed for a midnight show, just because I can’t wait. The other big-screen epic I am expecting a large crowd to attend is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on May 28th. While movies based on games have not generally been of high quality or very successful with a very few exceptions, the trailers give me great hopes for this one, as does what Disney did with Pirates of the Caribbean.

There are a few less well known movies in May I think might end up being quite enjoyable, and surprise a lot of people. TiMER has been winning awards hand over fist on the Film Festival circuit (I think they are just shy of 20 or so by now), and has a great cast and an original concept. It hits New York on the 8th, but goes into wider release on the 14th. The Wild Hunt tells the story of a young man who follows his ex-girlfriend into a medieval re-enactment game, and the lines between reality and fantasy get fairly blurred.

And there are a few films which just plain look like fun; Shrek Forever After (the Final Chapter) on May 21st, and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood on the 14th. And there are more coming, it should be a great summer for movies.

Something to Do: Movies

I have been waiting quite a while for this one; the 800 pound gorilla in the movie theaters this weekend will be Clash of the Titans. A remake of the original 1981 Ray Harryhausen classic, the changes in technology between then and now promises good things for the movie going experience. I do have to say though that watching the Owl in the original on the big screen brought the kind of sense of wonder that is rare (and it also helped solidify an already strong life long addiction to robotics that I still haven’t outgrown).

In more limited release (NY and LA the first weekend, expanding out over the following several weeks) is the epic period piece The Warlords, in the tradition of Hero and the House of Flying Daggers. Staring Jet Li, it will be available on VOD (Video On Demand), Amazon, and X-Box Live on the 4th, so everyone will have access.

Things to Do: Movies

There are two new genre selections to choose from this weekend. The first is Hot Tub Time Machine, which looks to be silly fun requiring no mental straining at all. The main sense of Deja Vu generated in this one just might be that we have seen these jokes before. If you are more in the mood for animated fun, How To Train Your Dragon could be just the ticket. It is built by the same team who did Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, so expect more of the same great humor and animation quality.

And there is a third choice: Waking Sleeping Beauty. I don’t normally recommend documentaries, but this one tells a behind-the-scenes story about the rebirth of the Disney animation studios that received a lot of attention on the Film Fest circuit.

Things to Do: Movies

I don’t see any new genre movies coming out this weekend, although The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights is going to be hitting some screens on Thursday. IO9 had some good news about an upcoming series of made-for-TV movies that SyFy will be presenting. It seems they have signed up Felicia Day as a Werewolf-hunting descendant of Little Red Riding Hood for their new Fairy Tale series. Considering what problems their made-for-TV movies have had, I think they should just put her in charge of the entire project.