Yes, Robocop has been remade yet again, or is in the process at least, and I for one am looking forward to checking out the results. The Robocop 2014 regeneration looks to be a bit slicker than the original, which should allow them to make the sleaze and corruption even more obvious.
The amusing film this week appears to be The Family, a Luc Besson production about a Witness Protection arrangement that puts a mob couple (Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer) and their kids in a quiet town in France. They don’t quite fit in, to the point that their whereabouts become known to the folks they are supposed to be hiding from, and all hell breaks loose. Not genre, but the best bet for this weekend. There is also one genre movie called Cybornetics: Urban Cyborg, which, as near as I can tell, isn’t actually going to be playing anywhere near me, and based on the trailer I wouldn’t be going to see it if it was.
Star Trek Into Darkness starts us off this week, continuing the excellent J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise. I would buy a 4K TV to watch this on, if I didn’t need to eat or pay rent for the next few years, it was just that good. I am going to count Delete as a movie, since it was a miniseries on a cable system channel about movies called Reelz. Seth Green and Matt Frewer have to save the world when the internet wakes up and decides humans are dangerous and unnecessary. The Last Keepers is a family friendly show about a young woman who discovers all the women in her family have mysterious powers; the trailer looks great and the cast is very impressive, but I couldn’t find a home page for it. I won’t bother to mention Frankenstein’s Army.
In TV, Supernatural: The Complete 8th Season looks like the best bet this week, although Castle: The Complete 5th Season is a lot of fun even if it isn’t genre.
In Anime, Blue Exorcist: The Complete 2nd Season continues the battle between demons and humans with episodes 13 through 25. Our protagonist Rin is on trial at the Vatican to determine if he will be imprisoned or inducted into their anti-demon army. Bleach: Season 18 brings us up to episodes 256 through 267 as the Soul Reapers continue their never ending battles with things that would destroy humans.
Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing comes out as two box sets, parts 1 and 2, totaling 21 episodes. This is the sequel to The Last Exile, in which the Earth was restored and a long war ended through Steampunk Mad Science. In this series, those who survived remaining behind on the surface of the Earth make war on the returning exiles, attempting to destroy country after country. The final new entry this week is This Boy Caught a Merman, about an unusual relationship that has more to overcome than most.
There is a re-release worth noting this time around: Patlabor: The Mobile Police TV Series collection 2 is episodes 13 through 24 of this classic series. The director (and one of the writers) on this series was Mamoru Oshii, who went on to do all the different Ghost In The Shell Cyberpunk movies and TV series, and first became famous for his work as director of the very surreal Urusei Yatsura.
The Hugo Awards were handed out this weekend at Worldcon as always, which this year was LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas. For the full list of who won and how the presentations went down, be sure to stop by the Hugo Awards site, but I figured I should mention a few on the ones I found of interest.
Best Novel was grabbed by Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, written by John Scalzi, while Best Novelette was awarded to The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi, by Pat Cadigan. Joss Whedon got Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form for The Avengers, an honor he well deserved. Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form went to George R.R. Martin and collaborators this time around for Game of Thrones: Blackwater, beating out 3 Doctor Who episode nominations and breaking the Doctor Who string of wins in that category over the last several years.
Stanley Schmidt pulled in 2 awards, and Clarkesworld, SF Signal, and SF Squeecast all won in the various Zine categories. I recommend checking out the source article for the full list with all the details and the links, but for the first time in a couple of decades I completely agreed with the winners for those works I was familiar with. Usually I am at around 40%, this one was a nice change.
This is the week we get to see the newest installment in the Riddick franchise, and it looks like it will be quite the ride. This is either the 3rd or 4th film in the series, depending on whether you count the animated short that was released direct to DVD. Vin Diesel is still Riddick, with Katey Sackhoff and Karl Urban along for the party this time.
The only genre film I have located this week is Abigail Harm a fantasy romance base on a Korean folk tail. It is only in limited release; so limited that I think it may only be playing in one theater in New York City. But hopefully the rest of us will have access to it soon.