Movies

X-Men: First Class leads the movie field this week. This one was very impressive on the big screen as a reboot of its franchise, and I think the solid storytelling will have it fare just as well on the small screen. The other major movie offering that looks interesting is Hanna, a rather intense thriller about a teenage assassin. On the import front, Clash of Empires was originally called The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines, and is set against a backdrop of the ancient civilizations of Rome and China from the second century AD. It tells the story of a Roman prince traveling to wed a Chinese princess, with a lot of the filming taking place in Malaysia. Expect a lot of combat in this one; the trailer looks quite interesting. I should also mention The Last Kung Fu Monk for completeness’s sake, although it won’t be following me home.

There are two quality choices in the TV category this time around, with the obvious winner being Fringe: The Complete Third Season. This brilliant show just gets better with each season, and as usual the box set is coming out just in time for you to re-watch it all before kicking off the new season. The other release is the short lived No Ordinary Family: The Complete First Season, which I personally enjoyed and was sorry to see cancelled.

The new Anime offering this week is Bleach: Box Set 10, in a franchise that just keeps going. For re-releases, To Love RU is now being made available in a single boxed set rather than the two boxes it previously came out in. A number of recent classics are being offered in more cost effective packages, including Burst Angel – The Complete Collection which you can find for as low as $21 if you shop around, Black Blood Brothers – The Complete Series [S.A.V.E. Edition] can be found for about $15, and Peacemaker – Complete Collection is running at just about $25 if you shop around.

The movie choice for the week for me is Gantz, the live action variant of the Manga and Anime favorite. While some of the reviews I have read complain about it’s pacing, I really don’t care, I just want it for my collection. And if it bothers me enough, like anybody else I could always re-edit it to exclude the boring bits. Anyways, this is just the first in the set; Gantz 2 will be out soon, so I will reserve judgement until I see how the entire work fits together. Red Faction: Origins is the only movie of interest out this week in English, giving some serious detailed background to the game environment that spawned this film. From Thailand, Panna Rittikrai’s latest offering BKO: Bangkok Knockout is also out this week, continuing the work he did in Ong Bak and Chocolate.

Police, Adjective is not genre but rather crime comedy from Romania’s Corneliu Porumboiu that has won awards from all over the globe, and Norwegian Ninja is action comedy based on Norway’s major government scandal of 1984 (pick up some great wallpapers from the flic here). I pretty much had to mention these two, since they are each different in their own way from anything else you might have seen.

Notice how I went out of my way to avoid mentioning A Big Box of Zombies, with 8 zombie movies that were made from 1936 to 1971. While it is important to study your enemies to be ready to defend yourself come the Zombie Apocalypse, I really don’t think that this collection is the optimal way to do that. But it is fun. *grin*

TV this week is the latest version of a classic: Nikita: The Complete First Season. The successor to 1990’s La Femme Nikita movie and the subsequent TV series that ran from 1997 through 2001, this new spin on the story is a whole lot of fun.

In Anime, Neo Angelique Abyss: The Complete Collection tells of life on Arcadia, where evil demons battle the small number of Purifiers set against them. The humans are not doing very well, but Angelique may hold the secret that will allow them to survive. Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians Part 1 was supposed to be released this week as well, with Part 2 coming in October, but Media Blasters has announced that they have evaluated the market and decided to do a single box set release of the entire series, but that will not be available until March of next year. Great Guardians is the third season to become available in the US, although there is now a 4th season in Japan and they are working on a fifth.