Skip to main content

Something to Watch: DVDs, 14May13

There are a few tasty movies this time, starting with Cloud Atlas, a very complex book turned into a very ambitious movie. I missed this one in the theaters because of real life getting in the way, I am looking forward to finally seeing it. There is also Frankie Go Boom, not a genre flick but a comedy with both Chris O’Dowd and Ron Perlman that sounds like a lot of fun.

Have you seen the 4K TVs yet? They are 4 times more detailed than Blue Ray’s 1080P at 4,000 pixels, the same resolution as the screens in a regular movie theater. Nobody is making the 8Ks yet (the IMAX resolution screens), but at $20,000 for the 85 inch 4K screens and most streaming content for them not coming along until the fall, they are not in big demand. That is now changing, with a 55 inch 4K priced at $5,000 (still noticeably hefty for my budget, especially because with my eyesight I can not see the difference between the 4K and the 1080P at couch distance), and the fist few 4K films being released on Blue Ray DVD format discs holding 4K video files. Movies coming out this week include Ghostbusters, The Amazing Spider-Man, the Toby McGuire Spider Man, Battle: Los Angeles, and the new version of Total Recall. Pricing appears to run $35 a movie for the recent stuff, $14 for things older than a decade. So, once again, just like they did for Blue Ray and then 3D, they want you to buy the same movie you already own for still more money. I think I will pass, at least until the price comes WAY down.

In TV we have Mythbusters: Collection 9 continuing the engineering madness for another season. Speaking of madness, also being released this week is Top Gear: The Complete Season 19. I am not6 a car fanatic, but I never miss this one if I can help it.

In Anime, Tiger & Bunny: Set 2 continues the story of the robot jocks with serious endorsement contracts and a winning record against the bad guys. Darker Than Black: Gemini Of The Meteor is the complete second season with a few OVAs thrown in. BK has lost Yin and is under attack from all sides, when he runs into a girl who’s life was changed the night the Meteor came down.

One Piece Season 4 DVD Part 5 sounds like it ought to be a single volume with a few episodes, but the average part-season of One Piece is 11 episodes, so this set brings us episodes 253 through 263, and we are still nowhere near caught up with the Japanese current season, which is sitting at episode 594 this week (yes, you can watch it streaming at that link). The Straw Hat Pirates are a hit with fans world wide. I should also mention that Kämpfer für die Liebe has an OVA set coming out this week, but it only has two episodes so try not to pay too much for it.

There are two new feature length presentations, starting with The Princess and the Pilot. That one is a story of love, danger, and power politics during wartime. Colorful: The Motion Picture starts at the train station on the other side of death, where one soul will get sent back in a body belonging to someone else to try to resolve the mystery of his death.

Finally, we have two re-releases in new box sets. My Bride is a Mermaid is a S.A.V.E. edition, so you can pick up the entire series for around $20. And Gurren Lagann is coming out in a limited edition special box set complete with music CDs, so expect to pay way more than you were expecting for that one.

X-Ray Analysis of the Starship Enterprise

The original model used in filming the Star Trek series was donated to the Smithsonian, and now they have produced and published an X-Ray Analysis of the Starship Enterprise for everyone to enjoy. You can also see pictures there of where it now hangs in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. If you are in the neighborhood you can attend the Star Trek’s Continuing Relevance symposium at 1PM on Thursday May 16th at the Moving Beyond Earth exhibit in Gallery 113. I should probably also mention that they will not be showing Star Trek Into Darkness at the IMAX theater at the Air and Space Museum on the mall, but they will be showing it at the Udvar-Hazy Center Airbus IMAX Theater in Chantilly, VA. That is the Air and Space annex out by Dulles Airport, you should time your attendance to be able to wander through the Udvar-Hazy Center Museum and see their incredible collection of exhibits, which includes the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The Worlds End trailer

The final entry in the trilogy that started with Shawn Of The Dead and continued through Hot Fuzz is on its way, and here is the wonderfully funny trailer for The Worlds End.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 7May13

Movies this week include a ton of things released previously on DVD and now coming out on Blue Ray, like Hitchcock, but they have been available in some format for a while, so not new as such. The best of the new releases looks to be The Assassin’s Blade, the Jingle Ma 2008 film out of China. There is also Shifter about a kid who gains the power to shift into the body of a wolf and goes to save his parents, but I couldn’t find a proper link to it.

We do better in TV, with Fringe releasing both season 5 and the entire series as two different box sets. May I just mention how shocked and surprised I was that Fox actually let a high quality TV show run all the way to the end, without canceling it 6 episodes in after playing it in the wrong order and changing what time/day it airs each week? We also have K-9: The Complete Series, an Australian Doctor Who spin off that they made appear to take place in London by use of some London production input. Some of that London production input is from Bob Baker, who took a break from co-creating all those wonderful Wallace & Gromit projects to help out with the series. There is a rumor that they have a second series in the works, but I will remind everyone that when you look at the quality you need to keep in mind it is a children’s program, just like the Sarah Jane Smith series.

In western animation we have Superman: Unbound, where Superman goes up against Brainiac to try to save his home town of Kandor, miniaturized along with all of its inhabitants and held captive by the arch villein.

In Anime, Natsuyuki Rendezvous: Complete Collection is about a still grieving widow, the man who wants to woo her, and the ghost who comes between them, making for one of the stranger romantic triangle stories I have ever followed. Since they only have 2 bodies between the three of them, it can occasionally get a bit confusing as to who is doing what to whom. As you might suspect from the subject matter, this one is a bit melancholy. Toriko: Part 4 continues the combat gourmet saga through episodes 39 to 50, which are every bit as funny as the food fights that went before.

While not quite genre, both Sound Of The Sky and Kids on the Slope are music based series with a positive attitude, and look like a lot of fun. Finally this week, Sekirei: Complete Series puts both seasons into a single box set for the first time, making it a more cost effective buy.