Coming up on September 5th at Dragon Con is the Steampunk Exhibition, which looks like it will be a hoot with the best and the brightest of Steampunk engineers and artificers from around the world. On top of that, they are going for a Guinness world record for the largest Steampunk photograph (they better be using an authentic Steampunk photography system). And yes, Steampunk is what happens when Goths discover brown. Of course, there will be a gazillion other things going on at DragonCon, so you might want to consider attending next year (I am pretty sure this year, like most of the last decade, is completely sold out).
Nothing really looks exciting for this weekend, although Make-Out with Violence could be an interesting change of pace. This is an undead coming-of-age story of the comedy romance horror genre that was made in 2008 and has been touring the film festival circuit ever since. It has picked up a few awards, so if you are near one of the theaters this limited release is playing in, it might be worth checking out. The other film that looks interesting this weekend is not sci-fi or strictly fantasy, but straight historic adventure: Centurion. This film is an excellent example about how film making works, for it is based on a true story. The true story is that in the year 117 the 9th Legion of the Roman Army marched across what would become the UK, and was never seen again. Since that march was the start of the movie, they made the rest of it up; looks like it could be a fun adventure film.
In the too silly to be avoided department, this weeks winner is Ninjas versus Zombies. While I personally won’t be adding this one to my collection, I will watch it when it comes to late night cable. You know with that title someone will be picking it up. It is kind of sad when this is the only movie worth mentioning for the week (unless something sneaked past me).
Live action TV series did much better, with Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season finally being available. Which also means that Lost: The Complete Collection will be on the shelves as well, for anyone who hasn’t been collecting the seasons one by one.
I am happy to be able to report that Red vs. Blue: Recreation, Season 7 is also being released this week. That only leaves one more season before all of them are available as well, and this series is my favorite Machinima program.
In Anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 2 completes season two of this excellent paratemporal Steampunk story. A series I have not run into before, Persona -trinity soul-2 is also being released. I missed the release of the first half of the series in July as well somehow. This one is Subbed, not Dubbed, and features a series of mysteries to be solved in a futuristic city. If you prefer your action on galactic scale battlegrounds, then Tytania: 1 may be just what you’re looking for. This box set is the first 13 episodes of the series, with the second half to release separately later.
Not a lot out this weekend, but there are a few that might be worth seeing. Vampires Suck is silly fun poked mostly at the Twilight franchise (OK, pretty much totally at the Twilight franchise). For the first time ever I can honestly say that the parody was better than the film it was making fun of, at least in terms of acting, cinematography, believability, scriptwriting, and a few other details. I suspect that has less to do with how good the parody is and more to do with how bad the original was, and I will be seeing the parody if someone pays me enough to make wasting my time that completely worthwhile (and only then).
While on a more serious topic, and with far superior actors, What If… still bears a noticeable resemblance to the other film in one respect; it is a modified remake of another movie. This time around, the original I associate this with is one of the true classics of film making: the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart legend It’s A Wonderful Life, itself a modern day retelling of the Scrooge story. From what I can tell from the write up and the trailer, other remakes like Mr. Destiny or What Women Want may be better representations of this film, but I am always willing to check out a new Paratime story, and so few of them make it to the big screen.
I never thought I would be saying this, but they actually made a sequel to Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, called The Lost Skeleton Returns Again. The key points of this release in the IMDB Writeup seem to be that the returning actors are wearing the same clothes, and the director promised not to make another sequel. With luck it will be as funny as the first one.
I have been looking forward to the release of The Good, The Bad, The Weird since it hit a limited theater run earlier this year. This is a cowboy train robbery movie that takes place in the Chinese Wild West (Manchuria to you and me), with multiple groups including Korean Outlaws, Chinese Bandits, and the Japanese Army all going after the treasure. If it is a fraction as good as the trailer it should be a hoot, and funny besides.
Another one I have been anticipating is the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 complete collection. There is some debate on whether it comes out this week (one site puts it as far back as September 14th), and no indication as yet whether it includes the feature film, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. But I really do like the storyline, and season one had what may be my favorite song used in an Anime (at least in the top ten), God Bless.
There are a few darker releases this week; Casshern Sins continues the classic tale already presented with both a live action feature film and an animated TV series, about the cyborg who murdered the moon but may offer redemption and salvation to the robotic populace. Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed tells the animated tale of Kanaka (a talking walking staff) and Fumika (I’m not dead yet) as the Shigofumi Mail Carriers delivering messages of hate and love from the dead to the living. This rather strange and macabre series is Subbed, not Dubbed. I have always thought that which is better changes from one series or film to the next, and is a function of the fidelity of the translation and the quality of both sets of the voice actors.
For those of us not in one of the 5 cities it opens in today (and it is worse then that; only a single theater per city!), here is the Japanese trailer for the Goro Miyazaki version of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Tales of Earthsea. The other killer movie out today, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, is in every theater in North America, so at least we only have to wait to see one of them.