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Something to Watch: DVDs

Finally available this week is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Terry Gilliam masterpiece. If you didn’t get to see it in the theater you should watch your copy on the largest HD TV you have access to, because the visuals are truly amazing. The other must-have movie this week is Luc Besson’s Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum, the sequel to District 13. If you missed the original, they are also being released as a 2-DVD set; both of these are non-stop thrill rides in the tradition of The Transporter.

If you are looking for a few laughs, check out Transylmania; the humor is a bit lowbrow (a bit?) but still kind of fun. Probably on a par with Venus Ranger: Complete Collection which also comes out this week.

For TV series, the modern remake of Terry Nations The Survivors, Complete Seasons 1 and 2 becomes available, and if you were wondering how faithful it is to the original 1970’s series, Survivors: The Complete Original Series 1975-77 is also being released. For American TV, Tales from the Darkside: The Third Season is being released both as a stand alone and in a packaged set with the previous two seasons.

In Anime, Gintama – Collection 1, a story about how the lives of Samurai changed in Feudal Japan after the aliens landed and took over. This one looks like a lot of fun, but be aware collection one gets you started with the first 13 episodes, and there are over 200 episodes and counting so far. Also, the Augmented Reality hijacking of the convenience store and high school where Evangelion took place has been canceled due to huge mobs of fans flooding the area. The rest of the promotion for the release of the next Evangelion reboot, You Can Not Advance, will take place as scheduled, and the release itself is next month.

Multiple Doctors, Smith and Jones are back

This has been a week for multiple Doctors. We just had the wonderful rollout of Matt Smith as The 11th Doctor on BBC America in The Eleventh Hour, and I had already commented on how BBC7 was running Tom Baker reading classic 4th Doctor stories. Starting yesterday, just before the Tom Baker reading BBC7 started running Wally K Daly’s Before the Screaming Begins, which has as one of the voice actors Patrick Troughton; the 2nd Doctor. If some of the older incarnations are unknown to you, io9 just put together a great article called Everything you need to know about Doctor Who. And while it is not very Doctor-like, I should also mention that Smith and Jones signed up to come back for one more Men in Black movie, this one in 3D.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Avatar; if you only buy one DVD this year, this should be it. Enough said.

Among the imported live action movies, K-20: Fiend With Twenty Faces looks like a fun choice, from the teams that brought out 20th Century Boys and Death Note.

For TV series, Merlin, the Complete First Season hits the shelves this week. Seen in the US on NBC and Syfy, this re-imagining of the Arthur legend was built by the BBC.

Comrades in Dreams was a documentary produced in 2006 about a select few people around the world who bring the magic of movies to people and places that otherwise might not have the opportunity to see them on the big screen. I know it is hard to believe in this age of instant streaming video, but these media activists are serving a vital purpose.

Naruto Shippuden Box Set 2 probably tops the popularity charts for this weeks Anime series. This show just keeps getting better.

Previously released as individual seasons, Otogi Zoshi: Collection of Ages is the full 26 episode series. The story takes place in then-capital Kyoto (Then being around 972 A.D.), where a female Samurai archer takes on a journey in search of a jewel with mystic powers.

One of the stranger anime box sets being released this week is Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan; fans of vigilante style justice for perverts or people who like their ultra violence served up cutesy ought to love this one.

Something to Do: Cons

There are as always way more cons then I have time to research, but here are a few coming up this weekend. Wizard World is the Anaheim Comic Con taking place this weekend, and includes Stan Lee signing autographs. TMode is a blend of Asian and Western pop culture taking place in Alexandria, VA, with the emphasis on Anime, Gaming, and Cosplay. NashiCon is the third presentation of South Carolina’s original Anime con, and the winner this time around may be Kawaii Kon 2010 in Hawaii, which includes an equal number of guests from both sides of the Pacific.

Joss Whedon gets Avengers?

It looks like a good chance on “Yes”; Joss Whedon may indeed get to direct the Avengers movie, according to Cinematical. Considering how many times Hollywood has shafted Joss, I find this news exciting indeed, as long as they don’t pull the rug out from under him again. And this isn’t just any Marvel Superhero movie, but the one all the others have been building to for years; Iron Man, Nick Fury, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America all in a movie together! And directed by Joss Himself; I am so ready for this one!

And speaking of media monster conglomerate executives, SciFi Wire posted a good Venn diagram of the possible Syfy Movie Monster Combination’s that channel might use to continue creating those really horrible made-for-TV movies they do. I have to scratch my head at that, because some of their TV shows like Eureka or Caprica are world class, while most of their movies are completely unwatchable (the last good one was Deep Red). Then there is the fact that SciFi Wire was (at least until recently) owned by the Syfy Channel, so I have to wonder why they are making fun of their former bosses. Thanks to Science Fiction Geeks for the heads up on that one.