I missed the pilot for Saving Hope when it was broadcast, so once more I am happy about VOD both through cable and online. Now that I have seen it, I am ready for tonight’s episode, and I was impressed with the first story. I look forward to finding out if they can maintain the quality.
We have a few good movies this week, starting with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, second in the film series. This is a required addition for my permanent collection, and extends into two of my favorite new media distribution trends. First, it includes an Ultraviolet copy, which means you can stream it from the cloud to any of your compatible devices, and download it to your computer if you want to back up the digital copy for when you do not have INet access. Second, you can download one or more apps (more, in this case) so you can slave your tablet/smartphone to your internet aware Blue Ray device, and run all kinds of additional information about the programing. Warner Brothers (who made the Sherlock Robert Downey movies) added this functionality to their Maximum Movie Mode, while Disney (who had the same combination of Cloud presentation with Apps extras slaved to the point the Blue Ray player is currently showing you built into John Carter last week) refer to it as the Disney Second Screen. They have been building towards this integrated combined presentation for quite a while now, slowly creating and debugging each process required to make it happen. Welcome to the future!
Another movie worth a look this week is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which is definitely worth your time to check out. While it may not be on a par with the first film mentioned today, it has a serious story to tell of its own. And let’s face it, it is always fun to watch Nick Cage go over the top with some silly or serious action. If you are in the market for something different, The Sultry Assassin: The Aphrodisiac Kill is the first in a series of eroninja novels turned into movies that will be making its way to the US.
For TV, the top spot has to go to The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Fifth Season, which unfortunately will be the final round of these. Doctor Who was a children’s show when it began (and still is, though it is hard for some geeks to recognize), and when they spun off Elisabeth Sladen’s character for the new series they definitely kept that in mind. She kept the original promise to the audience; this would always be a show that promoted a way for children to recognize positive problem solving influences and incorporate them into their own lives, so they could be the ones solving the worlds problems when it became their turn.
In new Anime, Zakuro, the Complete Series tells of the Ministry of Spirit Affairs, and the human/spirit teams they put together to solve the mysteries of the world.
For returning Anime, Bleach: Season 13 brings us episodes 194 through 205, in which Karakura town is threatened with destruction. One Piece: Collection 6 brings us episodes 131 through 156, and for the first time they actually try to get their pirate ship to fly.
We also have a couple of returning favorites coming out in more cost effective packaging. Mongolian Chop Squad: The Complete Series is coming out in a S.A.V.E. version, so you should be able to pick it up for around $20 if you shop around. If you are not already familiar with it, it is basically an animated version of the band BECK’s origin story, somewhat fictionalized. Also the Simoun – Endless Melody Collection is a re-release of that entire series for under $20, and you can find it for $15 if you shop around, so now is a good time to add both of these to your collection.
PBS as a whole has a great Best of Briton segment going this summer, first to cover the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and then expanding to all things entertaining from the empire. Brand new this week however is WETA-UK, a round the clock celebration of the best of British TV. And because it is just starting, you can catch the first episode of a lot of series right now. Episode 1 of Fawlty Towers takes place at 12:30PM EST tomorrow, Sunday June 10th, for example (if you are outside of the Maryland/DC/Virginia area, check your local cable lineups for exact times; if your service does not carry it, ask for it). An hour later will be the first episode of My Hero, a comedy about an Alien adapting to life on Earth while chasing the human woman of his dreams. Immediately following that is episode one of season 1 of the new Doctor Who series, where Rose Tyler gets told by The Doctor Run For Your Life. When that one ends, we get two episodes back to back of Red Dwarf, episodes 1 and 2 from season 1. I know where my TV is going to be set on Sunday afternoons from now on! Then at 8:30PM EST tomorrow, later the same day, we get the next Fawlty Towers episode, followed by Primeval season 1 episode 2, the next Doctor Who episode, and then 4 episodes of Red Dwarf including episodes 3 and 4 from season 1. I somehow missed seeing when episode 1 of Primeval was, but I suspect they may have a glitch or two in their electronic program guide. Guess I will just set my TV on the channel in the morning and let it ride all day, to make sure I don’t miss anything.
One of the top 2 movies of 2012, John Carter is the must-have DVD for this week. Disney really messed up bad with their marketing strategy, and just who’s bright idea was it to drop the Of Mars out of the title? But even after only making 30 Million its opening weekend domestically, it did end up pulling in 282 Million all in so far, with a total price tag of 250 Million, so it ended up making a decent profit. Perhaps if DVD sales are good enough to raise the total still farther they will go ahead and make the next movie in the series. I have already ordered my five copies, how about you? And if you were wondering, so far this year the only movie I have seen better than John Carter is The Avengers.
Also out this week, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is a fun little followup to 2008’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth, this time starring Dwayne Johnson. Like John Carter, this movie is based on a book over a hundred years old which still has a story worth telling. Let’s face it, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs were both excellent storytellers and Verne at least also had a firm understanding of scientific extrapolation. Finally, the original 1963 version of 13 Assassins is being released in the US this week, so if you have seen the 2010 remake of the film you should consider going back to the original to get a feel for how Japanese film making has evolved over the last 50 years.
In TV, Falling Skies: The Complete First Season is about the survivors of the conquest of Earth fighting back against the alien invaders, which runs on the TNT Network. Arn, The Knight Templar: The Complete Series is more of a miniseries than a full TV show, at 258 minutes long. There was a shortened version of this Middle Ages Epic Fantasy previously released in the US as a movie formatted story, that was 133 minutes long.
In Anime, Hero Tales: The Complete Series is about a star reborn as a human warrior who uses his celestial fighting skills to protect the citizens from their evil and violent Shogun. While Kurenai: The Complete Collection tells the story of a martial arts master with major negotiation skills in the battle of his life, trying to protect a wealthy 7 year old from her murderous family. Strangely enough, this one is more of a comedy than anything else according to the reports; I have yet to see it myself.
If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to drop into The Hollywood Reporter web site and check out their Women of Comic-Con video roundtable. They have assembled a great group of actresses sharing thoughts on their shows and some other topics of interest. It comes in 10 small video segments, and start’s off with Sara Michelle Geller giving advice on how to enjoy the con.
For movies, The Woman in Black is a bit of a ghost story, and the made for TV version of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island is from the Syfy Channel. I am not terribly impressed by either, but I will at least watch the Verne story when it comes out on the streaming services.
We fare much better in TV, with True Blood: The Complete Fourth Season finally coming out on DVD. This is one of the few series that I think does much better in the TV incarnation than as a book series, with more believable characters and better stories and subplots all around. I have a friend who believes the books are far superior, and we generally argue with each other about for about an hour at a time, each of us bringing overwhelming examples of why our viewpoint is the correct one. We always seem to end up underwhelmed with the others debate points somehow, but it does lead to some pretty lively discussions which we both quite enjoy.
In western animation we have Wing Commander Academy: The Complete Series from 1996. It only lasted one season at 13 episodes, but the voice talent included Mark Hamill as Maverick and Malcolm McDowell as the commander.
Anime starts off this time with Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, which is a feature length film set in the world of Dragon Age. If you are a fan of the franchise, you will not want to miss this one. There is another feature film called Gintama: The Movie, taking place in a historic Japan where aliens have taken over and Samuria have to run odd jobs to feed themselves. This whole series is quite funny, I am looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble they put the protagonists through this time.
In series, Shiki: Part 1 and Part 2 are being released as two box sets, but on the same day. This one is a bit of a thriller/horror story, and also a commentary on the genre and the folks that like to watch that kind of thing. People in the village are dieing at a rapid rate, but when the dead rise from their graves to drink the blood of the living the desire to survive can turn the living into some real monsters.
The other recent series is KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple – The Complete Second Season, previously released in 2 parts for the season, so this is more cost effective. Some folks have referred to this series as Anime’s answer to The Karate Kid, but it has a bit more fan service than that. Finally, Black Cat – The Complete Collection has been released in a S.A.V.E. edition, so if you shop around you can pick it up for around $20.