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Something to Watch: DVDs

From Norway we have Troll Hunter, a fantasy adventure done in the venerable Blair Witches style of pseudo-reality film style (think no budget, shoddy film gear, and total lack of skill sets). Three collage students take a cheap film camera and follow a hunter into the wilderness, eventually figuring out that he was hunting creatures the government claimed were bears, but which turned out to be much less of this world. Also out this week, Assassin’s Creed: Lineage is a compilation of three short films that together make up a prequel to Assassin’s Creed II, bridging the gap between movie and game.

For TV, the primary selection this week is The Event: The Complete Series. I haven’t actually seen any of this shows episodes, because the premise and trailers struck me as somebody trying too hard to jump on the Lost bandwagon, which was kind of silly considering Lost was terminally past tense long before then. Much more interesting is the Live From Tokyo documentary about the city in Japan that has 1,000 bands playing each and every night.

Live From Tokyo Trailer from Lewis Rapkin on Vimeo.

In western animation, I have to vote for the New Adventures of Captain Amazing-Lad, pretty much a parody of any other superhero cartoon going. In eastern animation this weeks winner has to be Samurai Girls, which takes place in an alternate timeline where twenty first century Japan is still ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate. The entire series may only be 12 episodes long, but they cover a lot of cultural and social upheavals in that time. Also out this week, the new Eden of the East: Paradise Lost brings us the next feature film in the exciting series. It would have gotten my top spot vote if it had been a season instead of a movie.

New Babylon 5, Bladerunner

The folks over at Deadline are reporting that Ridley Scott is signed on to helm a new rendition of Bladerunner. The classic Philip K. Dick story explores one of his favorite themes, what does it mean to be human and how can you tell if someone is? Details are few and far between yet, such as will this be a prequel or a sequel, but I really don’t care. As a person who already bought every different edit and version of the original movie, I will definitely be in the theater for that one. Meanwhile, Trekweb reports that Walter Koenig has been talking about J. Michael Straczynski getting his hands back onto the rights for Babylon 5 and rolling out a new feature film for the franchise. That is another universe I have never gotten tired of, and I look forward to returning to it as well.

Something to Do: Movies

This weekend we have an interesting looking remake of Conan the Barbarian, one a bit more visually explicit than the Arnie version. It also looks like it might be truer to the original books than the previous film versions, and I will be in the theater for this one. Also out this week is Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, with Jessica Alba as the mommy spy. While this franchise is definitely kid-centric, it still has some entertainment value for the adults in the audience. And there is one more I have to mention, even though it is not genre; the Independent Films crime comedy Flypaper starring Ashley Judd and Patric Dempsey looks to be an absolute hoot. It is only in limited release to start with, but hopefully there will be a theater somewhere near you carrying it.

There is also a special one night only event this Wednesday, the 17th, in the form of RiffTrax Live: Jack the Giant Killer. This is another one of those Fathom Events presentation, with the MST3K inheritors doing a number on the cheesy 1962 fantasy epic.

Something to Watch: DVDs

The movie worth checking out this week is Priest, an action film based on the graphic novel of the same name. Kind of a vampire post-apocalypse western, the vampires are hungry and the clergy are heavily armed.

In TV, Outcasts: Season One could also be called The Entire Series, since it got cancelled before it had finished airing in the UK, and well before it was brought to the US by BBC America. Which is sad, because even though it started out slow, by the end of the season they had built up quite a powerful storyline that just got better with each episode. Also out this week is both season 5, and the entire series to date (seasons 1 through 5) box sets of Dexter, a program that is just strange enough to be genre itself.

There doesn’t seem to be any interesting genre Anime coming out this week unless I missed something. For western animation, there is Batman The Brave & the Bold: Season 2, Part 1, which seems a bit Saturday morning cartoon-like to me.

Bunraku US release

It wasn’t that long ago that I commented on the Bunraku movie showing at Otakon and making the film festival rounds, with a link to the Bunraku homepage. We now have release dates for those of us not able to catch it at a Film Fest. On September 1st it becomes available on VOD (Video On Demand) for home viewing, on September 30th it hits the big screen across the country in at least a limited run basis, and on November 1st you can bring this puppy home as a DVD or Blu-Ray. From everything I have been hearing, this is a fitting successor to Kung Fu Hustle but with a more international cast; I can’t wait!

Something to Do: Movies

Nothing good this week in new movie releases, as I am certainly not going to recommend Final Destination 5 to anyone. But if you missed any of the new releases of the past few weeks, this would be a great time to catch up. Still in theaters we have last weeks Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Cowboys and Aliens from the week before, both of which I can recommend. Also Captain America: the First Avenger from the week before that was a strong entry for the franchise which I completely enjoyed. Unfortunately Another Earth opened to very limited release that same week, and has now evaporated from most of the few theaters it did occupy.