The interesting film hitting the big screen on Friday is The Warriors Way, the story of a ninja assassin who refuses to murder a child. He had to flee the country with the kid, and ended up in a wild west town filled with misfits, renegades, and outlaws. But before long, his past catches up with him, and it’s Ninjas versus Cowboys for an adrenalin filled conflict. If you are looking for something bit more sedate, Dead Awake will also be out this weekend. If you would prefer your science fiction with a side of strange, Maximum Shame will be in limited release, and still looking for wider distribution.
There are actually a few good movies being released on DVD this week. In the just for fun category we have the Sorcerers Apprentice from Disney, starring Nicolas Cage. While I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for this to win any awards, it has a blend of humor and adventure that makes it worth your time to watch. In a noticeably more serious vein, Valhalla Rising has won an assortment of awards at film festivals around the world. It is a story of slavery, escape, and loyalty in 1000 AD, although it seems to have something to say about religious violence as well.
Then we have a couple of silly movies related to each other. I am sure I don’t have to explain what The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is about, but the one I will be adding to my collection is its companion piece, Vampires Suck, the extended Bite Me Edition. Strangely enough, the Twilight flic doesn’t seem to be targeting Tuesday for its release.
I didn’t see much in the way of US TV releases this week, but China’s Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils appears to be worth a look. It is based on the Buddhist 8 non-human races for the make up of its cast, and the novel was serialized monthly for years before this rather complex story line was rendered for television.
There are two anime releases this week, each of which completes the season for its show. Hell Girl: Three Vessels – Collection 2 is the final 13 episodes of season 3, in which we learn Ai wasn’t as dead as she seemed to be at the end of season 2 (and just exactly where do ghosts and spirits go when they die, and how do they come back from there?). Her assistants had been having a peaceful afterlife until her return, and she has taken up possession of a schoolgirl (in the exorcist meaning of the word) to stage her Earthly operations from.
The other release is Birdy the Mighty: Decode 02, continuing the new adventures of Birdy the Mighty, a lethal interstellar federation agent who is more dangerous to innocent bystanders than the extraterrestrial terrorists who’s stolen weapon threatens to destroy all life on Earth. If you saw the OVA series from the previous century, you know what I am talking about. If you missed it, watching any episode of Dirty Pair will give you the general idea; some people just need to pay a little more attention to keep the collateral damage down to a reasonable body count.
Dragoncon is one of the biggest media parties every year, based solidly in Fandom from its origins to its current incarnation, and encompassing one of the largest collections of creative folks from the US. One aspect of that creativity is expressed within the AMV or FMV competition, an event many cons have taken up. In its simplest form an Anime Music Video or Fan Music Video contest encourages you to take some video footage, either created by you or extracted from a favorite show or film and give it a song for a soundtrack. It rapidly gets more complicated than that, as you select the best scenes, try to match the lip movement to the song lyrics, and finally try to tell a unique story from these component parts. But even if you only achieve the first level, you have created something that has never before existed, which is always a good thing. I should also mention that the source laws for fair use have changed this past year, so you are allowed to rip your video segments directly from the DVDs if you want to now.
The DragonCon AMV 2010 is now over, and you can see the winners at that site (and maybe one or two at the end of this post). But the competition for 2011 just got serious this past October 1st, when the Fandom Music Video Awards went live. They are accepting contest entrants in three phases, or rounds: October 1st to December 31st, now underway, January 15th through April 15th for round two, and May 1st to July 31st for round three. Each round shall have its winners, and the finalists will be part of the con itself. The first video in the next segment includes some rules, hints, and trips. The others are a few of last years winners, starting with the Best In Show winner Building Steam, made from video from Steam Boy and the soundtrack being Steampunk band Abney Park’s Building Steam. Good Luck!
Duncan Jones did a brilliant movie called Moon, and if this trailer is any indication he is about to do it again with his new film Source Code. Scheduled to be released on April 15th, this is a story about a time traveling soldier who is out to stop terrorists and hopefully save the girl. But he only has eight minutes at a time to pull it off, and at the end of each eight minute segment he dies, unless he can finally get it right.
Disney’s Tangled looks like the fun movie for this weekend, staring Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi. In fact you don’t have to wait for the weekend if you don’t want to, since it comes out Wednesday.
No actual winners on the movie front this week, although it could be argued that The Expendables counts since it was based on a comic book. Personally I prefer an actual sci-fi or fantasy story to count something as genre. There are a few that meet that requirement, like Deadland, a post-apocalyptic thriller about a man looking for his lost wife after WWIII. There are also a few Fangbanger films, Vampire Sisters and Lesbian Vampires. Please note that I did not recommend any of these movies, although Fire & Ice: The Dragon Chronicles could be interesting and has several actors I like.
TV shows didn’t fair much better, with the History Channel series Ancient Aliens: Season 1 being the only real selection from live action this week. Yes, I know the people doing the program think this is actual historical research, but until they bring in some actual physical evidence it is still science fiction. On the animation side Batman Beyond: The Complete Series becomes available finally.
For anime, the classic Ghost Sweeper Mikami – Collection 1 isn’t your Saturday morning ghostbusters type program. Reiko Mikami is very beautiful and very greedy; her sidekick, Tadao Yokoshima is a serious pervert hot for Reiko, which makes it easy for her to manipulate him to do all the dangerous jobs while she collects the money. Also out this week, the much more modern Sekirei – The Complete Series from Funimation. This series is a fun romp about a highly intelligent guy who doesn’t do well under pressure, and the bevy of combat babes who need him to unleash their special powers for the competition rounds. Once you are on the shows homepage, there is a link to let you watch streaming episodes online if you are not sure if this is for you.