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Something to Do: Movies

This looks like a quality week to make it to the movie theaters! To start, we have two contenders for the Action/Adventure title, the first being Battle: Los Angeles. The next in a series of alien invasion movies that has gradually grown more intense over the last decade or so, given a serious boost with the advent of Battlestar Galactica, and refined by all the recent entrants from District 9, through Skyline, to Monster. For the hard Sci-Fi adrenalin junkys in the audience, this is the film to beat.

For the Fantasy crowd, there is a selection just as compelling: Red Riding Hood takes you through the implications the Twilight series pretended didn’t exist. I am really hoping Red herself turns out every bit as Buffy-like as I imagine her while watching the trailer, and reaks havoc on the innocent monsters.

In Suing the Devil, Luke O’Brien sues the devil for $8 trillion and the devil shows up in court to defend himself. The situation is just a bit unfair, since all of the best lawyers end up in hell when their life is over, and Malcolm McDowell as the Devil brings them with him. Again, a compelling movie with an amazing cast, and a lot to think about before the ending credits roll.

The fourth and possibly final choice for this weekend is the animated Mars Needs Moms! This Disney flic is the silliest of the weekend, but not necessarily the one with the fewest important points to bring to the table. The animation quality is what you would expect from that house: first rate!

Somthing to Watch: DVD’s

The best live action film this time around is not genre, but I will be looking for it: The Man from Nowhere, a Korean crime thriller. The one movie collection that looks like fun this week is Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: XX. The original movies may suck, but when the MST3K team is done with them they are a joy to watch. There are a few live action movie choices which I have never heard of and have no ideas about. Matty Hanson and the Invisibility Ray looks to be a family oriented direct to DVD selection, while The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff is a 1973 Spanish movie apparently of a more adult nature.

The clear winner for TV shows this week is The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. Most people had a hard time believing this was a TV show, which is kind of silly. It isn’t on broadcast TV after all, so its creators had the full range of non-regulated choices available to any film maker or premium cable channel producer. I missed it when it originally aired, so I look forward to catching up with it now.

There are a few quality documentary TV shows this week, with the must-have option being Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. This is another one of those true science programs that explores the limits of scientific knowledge, and speculates its way past the borders those limits put up. Since that definition is at the heart of science fiction, you can understand why I love this program. The fact that it is done better than most documentaries, and explains the science it is extrapolating from in an easily understandable way is just bonus points in my book; I already loved this show! Some of the lesser known documentaries coming out now include Moon Race: Volumes 1 & 2 and Space Race: Volumes 1 & 2, I suspect from the same production company.

Tales from Earthsea is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it is from Studio Ghibli, put together in 2006 from the wonderful story written by Ursula K LeGuin. But this one was the first venture by the son, Goro Miyazaki, and not the father, Hayao Miyazaki, and the lack of experience shows. Still, while not up to the masterworks dad cranks out, this version shows some promise, and I enjoyed it. I think that the review that spoke to the heart of the problem came from J-Film Powwow if you want to look into it deeper before making your decision. There are a few other projects by Ursula coming to the big screen soon, including Field of Vision, which looks absolutely amazing. And for true Ghibli fans, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is being released on Blue Ray on the same day.

There are a few re-releases worth noting this week, including the El Cazador de la Bruja – Complete Series, previously only available by season. Another Girls with Guns buddy series in the tradition of Noir (complete with the younger girl with a hole in her memory), this one takes place in the wild west. If you are not sure if this program is for you, you can watch it online before making your decision. Also, one of my favorite Anime’s of 2005, Speed Grapher, is coming out as a complete series SAVE edition, which means you can pick up the entire thing for $20 or so. The various home pages for the series seem to be gone, but if you are over 17 you can still watch it online. The story line is twisty and brutal, with many wealthy people paying for the chance to mutate into monsters with super powers, under the control of an evil mastermind. the animation is world class, the music bed and voice work is quite well done, and there are only two normal people in the entire cast (the protagonist and the victimized young girl he attempts to save). This one is a keeper.

New Wonders, 3D Star Wars

I am in the wrong country to watch the trailer for the new show on BBC 2’s web site, Wonders of the Universe, but perhaps you might be able to see it. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic Phil Plait, Mr. Bad Astronomer himself, posted the trailer on the Discovery Channel site from Professor Brian Cox’s previous series, Wonders of the Solar System. That should give you the general idea of what kind of program this will be; hope BBC America ends up picking it up. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter tells us they have announced the release date for Episode 1 of Star Wars in 3D; February 10th, 2012. The plan is to roll out one a year in Episode order rather than release order. Personally, I fell asleep in the theater during The Phantom Menace, so I will be waiting for 2015 to see the first one I care about.

Age of the Dragons trailer

The premise behind Age of the Dragons is a bit unexpected. Dragons are hunted for the napalm-like substance that fuels modern civilization, but Captain Ahab is chasing after the Great White Dragon that slaughtered his family. Yes, this really is Moby Dick done with dragons, and Danny Glover gets to be Ahab in this one. In theaters this Friday (or perhaps a year from this Friday, the release date data is a bit unclear) on a very limited run (along with The Adjustment Bureau and Rango in much wider release), and out on DVD two weeks later, which is where most of us will get to see it.

Also out in extremely limited release this weekend are the Korean film I Saw The Devil and the Thai movie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I find it interesting that both movies have their official home page in Japan, which seems to be turning into a gateway to the rest of the world for Asia. In much wider release, Beastly is a story we have seen before, involving a callas guy who earns the curse laid upon him, and must now achieve a goal previously unthinkable to him to get his body back. Even though it is a bit derivative, I suspect I will be attending Beastly this weekend. I should have posted about all of these with my normal Monday Movie post, but here they are before they hit the big screen at least.

Doilaks, P.K. Dick, and a non-special DVD rant

The image of the Doilak just cracked me up, so I had to share it here. Charlie Jane over at io9 has put together a great list of Philip K. Dick Stories that Hollywood Hasn’t Filmed Yet but really, really should. Finally, there were a few unscheduled DVD releases this week… or rather, scheduled in an unusual way. Previously special editions of them had been released, complete with some collector item, such as a figurine or pencil board. Once the special editions were sold out, they then released the regular versions. I suppose they were hoping that people who could not wait to see it would be willing to pay the inflated prices that collector items bring to the table, thereby increasing their up-front profit. I consider this a bit cheesy; I have to see a series before I know if I like it enough to pay an extra $10 to $25 to get the version with $1.29 worth of paint and extruded plastic to proudly mount on my shelf. The bit I find embarrassing is I had not noticed they were doing this until they released the regular ones; I just assumed the initial releases were over priced and didn’t bother. The titles being released this way this way this week include Chrome Shelled Regios and The Sacred Blacksmith. They are referring to it as a First Press Edition, much like the First Edition books have had for centuries, but with tangible value added items.

Something to Do: Movies

There are a couple of interesting choices this weekend, starting with The Adjustment Bureau, written by Philip K. Dick and starring Matt Damon with Emily Blunt. There is a way your life is supposed to go, and if you step outside that path the near supernatural members of the Adjustment Bureau will step in and make corrections to reality to sync your life back to their expectations. As with every other P.K.Dick story turned into a movie, I am guaranteed to be in the audience on opening weekend. Note that the official Dick site is not kept up to date as well as it should be, so it is leaving out several other potential film projects.

Ordinarily a week with one of Phill’s stories coming out on the big screen would be enough to keep me happy, but this time around we get more. Apollo 18 was originally scheduled for this week, but has now been pushed back to April 22nd of this year. With the tag line There’s a reason we’ve never gone back to the moon, it looks quite interesting. But the universe keeps things balanced, and Rango has been moved up from the 18th to the 4th of March. This animated western epic stars Johnny Depp and is directed by Gore Verbinski (they worked together on that Pirates of the Caribbean series of films). So it looks like I have two films I need to see this weekend, and I will do my best to make both.