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Something to Watch: DVDs

There are several tasty movies this week, starting with Lockout. This one is another Luc Besson action adventure film, which seems a lot like Escape from New York done in orbit; escapist action fun all the way (yes, pun intended). Extraterrestrial looks like a lot of silly fun; you wake up with no memory of the one night stand who’s house you are in, to meet her wacky ex-boyfriend and neighbors, only to discover the Earth has been invaded. This one is Spanish with English subtitles, and definitely falls into the comedy category. Also in comedy, The Fairy (Le Fee) tells the tale of a man who searches all over Le Havre for the fairy who granted him two wishes and disappeared, taking his heart with her. This one is French with English subtitles, and is the third in a series of rather surrealistic films, the previous titles being Iceberg and Rumba. Finally, 4:44 Last Day on Earth is an award winning love story on the day the world dies.

We do every bit as good in TV this time around, with Eureka: Season 5 bringing this excellent series to a close… unless there was an announcement at Comic-Con this weekend I missed (please, please, please…). We also get Alphas: Season One, which just gives you time to catch up on it before season 2 starts next Monday. And Sanctuary: The Complete Fourth Season also hits the shelves, with more monster protecting adventure. And for those who like a bit of reality TV with their unreality, Stan Lee’s Superhumans: Season Two is also going to become available.

Anime also has some winners, starting with Fractale: The Complete Series. A boy who geeks out on obsolete electronics saves a girl being chased by dangerous men, and when she later runs away from him she leaves behind a necklace crammed with data. Suddenly he is being chased by both the political group who wants to destroy the technology that drives their world, and the one that wants to save it, for the data he has holds the key to it all.

Meanwhile, The Book of Bantorra: Collection 2 Continues the story of the Armed Librarians and their battles with the religious fanatics who are trying to capture the soul books and use their knowledge to conquer the world. It is a completely different premise than either Library Wars, where the librarians took up arms to defend against political censorship, or Read Or Die, where the Paper Sisters, book addicts of the first order, used their mystical powers to defend the world from the illiterate hoards who wanted to enslave it. Even so there is something of a common theme here, and as someone who has been reading everything I could get my hands on since the age of 7 (yes, I started late, but I have been doing my best to make up for it ever since), I dearly love all three series. And yes, I will be in the theaters to see the new version of Fahrenheit 451 when they release it.

Psychic Squad – Collection 2 rounds out the new releases for the week, but that link will get you little info, since they do not stream to North America. If you caught the first collection, expect more of the same. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Collection 2 compiles the second half of the series (episodes 34 through 64) into a single box set, for a more cost effective package than the original one season at a time release. And finally, Girls Bravo S.A.V.E. edition, which as usual means you can pick up the entire series for less than 20 bucks. Enjoy!

MOD: Manufacture On Demand and 3D Printing

I wanted to break from my usual kind of entry for a moment and cheer on the MOD production process, meaning Manufacture On Demand. Warner Brothers, Shout Factory, MGM, and several others have done this with a lot of titles which have not been available for a while, and it is a great business model for the digital age. You pick one of the titles in their MOD catalog and put in your order, at which point they burn you a copy of the CD or DVD on their industrial grade reproduction gear, print out a label, and send it your way. For the customer, thousands of titles you could not previously get your hands on except possibly in very low quality bootleg format are now accessible. For the manufacturer, titles they own but were not previously making any money on can now turn a small but steady profit for them, without the loss incurred by going to a full press run when the demand for the product is not there. If it turns out the demand is there as evinced by the number of folks putting in orders for an MOD title, they can then release the disk or box set as a full press run (“press” being a leftover term from pressing vynal records, the original media distribution format).

Obviously this process is good for both music CDs and video DVDs, but it doesn’t stop there. With the advent of 3D printing, objects of all kinds can be put through the manufacture on demand process. Even better, they might be designed anywhere in the world, but you could have them printed locally and avoid the shipping costs, downloading the printing template across the web. Did you know this is the same technology Jay Leno uses to produce mil spec perfect replacement parts for his vintage automobile collection? This stuff is available today, and although it can be a bit pricy, there are also open source 3D Printing options worth looking into, such as the ongoing MIT research.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

The Flowers of War is a period piece set in 1937 Nanjing in which a disparate group of people coalesce around the need to save the children trapped with the rest of them inside a church, while the invading army roams the streets outside. Starring Christian Bale, Ni Ni, and Atsuro Watabe, the director Zhang Yimou’s previous movies include Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, and House Of Flying Daggers. Add to that the fact that this movie was nominated for a Golden Globe, and I suspect this one is a winner.

On the other hand, I Kissed a Vampire is a musical, and might just be campy enough to have some entertainment value… or might fall flat on its face. It is hard to tell from just the trailer which way it will go. Dark Nemesis is another after the apocalypse film of people fighting for their lives while running across the landscape. Pass, thanks.

In TV, Warehouse 13: Season 3 brings us still more fun episodes from this quality Syfy channel franchise, and as usual just in time to get caught up with the previous season before the new one kicks off in a few weeks.

For western animation we have Earthworm Jim: The Complete Series, the Earth Worm in the Alien Super Suit. I will confess to actually watching some of these and being amused by them.

There are two new Anime releases this week, beginning with Naruto Shippuden: DVD Box 11 which brings more Ninja goodness in this ongoing story. Also out, a limited edition of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: The Complete Series. If you have not already been following them, they are a pair of foul mouthed angels kicked out of heaven for profanity and debauchery, and must now earn their way back in by killing ghosts.

There are a number of re-releases worth noting, especially if you missed them the first time around. El Cazador de la Bruja: The Complete Series is being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, so if you shop around you should be able to pick it up for $20. The other re-releases do not have those kind of savings, but at least they are once more available to add to your collection.

Mahoromatic, the Ultimate Collection includes both seasons of the series, the summer special, and the I’m Home special in a single box set. In addition, they are also releasing the I’m Home special as a rather pricy stand alone, considering it only has two 25 minute episodes on it. When I pulled my copy of Mahoromatic, Complete Collection off the shelf and examined it, I discovered it included everything listed here except the Home special, so if I want the full set I still need the stand alone. On the plus side though, the earlier Geneon release of the collection included the complete soundtrack CD, which this new version lacks.

Dirty Pair Flash: the Complete Collection brings the original Girls-With-Guns team back for another round of mayhem as they continue to prove collateral damage is an art form best practiced on a planetary scale. This is a truly old school Galactic Police series that set the bar for everything happening since in the way of comedic combat anime. There are two other titles being re-released this week, MeiKing and Cool Devices: Collection, but just in case you are at work I will keep you out of trouble by not posting the links here.

Something to Watch: DVDs

You know it is a slow week when the only two American offerings to roll out are Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Giant Monsters, a set of four movies, except none of the stores trying to sell you this package have a clue what any of the four movies are called, and Mysteries at the Museum: Season 2, a documentary series from The Travel Channel. That’s it, nothing else on offer this time around. Guessing the US holiday weekend made a major impact on the release decisions.

From an overseas source but still with a US release we have Needless: The Complete Collection as the new offering, where World War 3 has run its course and the survivors are depending on a pervert superhero to put the planet back together. Meanwhile, Ergo Proxy: The Complete Series gets re-released in a cost effective package, so if you shop around you should be able to grab it for just over $20.

If there is anything else interesting coming out on DVD this week, I haven’t been able to find it. If you have better luck, post a comment and let me know.

Continuum: you can’t see it here

And it is driving me nutz! Continuum is a Sci-Fi time travel cop show series with some incredible actors and production values, filmed in Vancouver and currently running on Showcase. But Showcase is a Canadian channel, and as far as I have been able to determine so far, if you live in the US you do not have a channel you can watch it on, and the web sites that stream it are blocked here as well. I have at least been able to watch the mighty impressive trailer posted below (unless they have yanked that too by now). The show normally runs on Sunday evenings at 9PM EST on Showcase (insert your own boilerplate that means check your local listings here). Last weekend they ran episode 5. This weekend, in honor of Canada Day, they will be running a marathon of those first 5 episodes beginning at 5PM ET Sunday and ending at 10PM. They will repeat that sequence beginning at 11PM, and the moment I find out how to watch it legally in the US I will be posting it here. The second video is from FanExpo Vancouver with some tasty background, and that is about all I have time to type right now… I am figuring an hour to pack the car, and maybe nine to 11 hours drive time to Toronto. If I can get in a 5 hour nap and a run to a local Thai restaurant for takeaway, I should be ready to watch the series so far!