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Something to Watch: DVDs

The movie worth checking out this week is Priest, an action film based on the graphic novel of the same name. Kind of a vampire post-apocalypse western, the vampires are hungry and the clergy are heavily armed.

In TV, Outcasts: Season One could also be called The Entire Series, since it got cancelled before it had finished airing in the UK, and well before it was brought to the US by BBC America. Which is sad, because even though it started out slow, by the end of the season they had built up quite a powerful storyline that just got better with each episode. Also out this week is both season 5, and the entire series to date (seasons 1 through 5) box sets of Dexter, a program that is just strange enough to be genre itself.

There doesn’t seem to be any interesting genre Anime coming out this week unless I missed something. For western animation, there is Batman The Brave & the Bold: Season 2, Part 1, which seems a bit Saturday morning cartoon-like to me.

Marvel Superhero on Castle

According to the folks at io9, next season will see a Marvel Superhero on Castle sometime in the next season. I am having a hard time imagining who it could be, because Castle is a reality based series; it has to be someone without actual superpowers, or perhaps an actor playing an actor in a costume playing a superhero, if that isn’t too recursive. It should be fun, whatever it is.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Choice off the week for movies has to be Paul, the wonderful Pegg and Frost romp across the American southwest in the liberation of aliens assault. It isn’t the only silly fun option, though, as the film Your Highness also becomes available on Tuesday. The film Super may also be a comedy, but not silly; more in the black comedy range, with some serious issues lurking just beneath the surface. I’m thinking all three of these need to follow me home this week.

In TV, the Tom Baker era Dr. Who: The Sun Makers is the only offering of note this time around. Companions Leela (Louise Jameson) and K9 round out the primary cast, with Leela’s eternal question of why can we not kill them? being prominent.

In western animation, Mars Needs Moms is the Disney feature film with an all star voice cast and some quality animation work.

In Anime, Soul Eater: Parts 3 & 4 is being released in a combined box set under the title Soul Eater: The Weapon Collection at a considerable savings over buying the two seasons separately. Parts 1 and 2 were released a bit ago in a combined edition as well, under the title The Meister Collection, which means by shopping around you can pick up the entire 4 season series for about $50.

Something to Watch: DVDs

In movies there don’t seem to be a lot of choices this week; Stake Land pretty much looks like it, and I am not terribly enthused about this one. However, there is a box set that should be fun: Mystery Science Theater 3000: MST3K vs. Gamera XXI has all 5 Gamera films with the famous MST3K audio overlay going on.

In TV, The Colony: Season 2 is a very interesting show, if you haven’t seen it. It is sort of the Discovery Channel reality TV version of the BBC’s Survivors, the setup is post-apocalyptic and the goal is to prosper in the face of adversity as a team. Unlike the wimpy broadcast TV equivalents, this program includes full tilt combat situations as part of the environment and resolution process. The other TV program of note is about a different battle: Ed Sullivan Presents: Rock N Roll Revolution is all about the British Invasion of the 1960s, and how America fought back. Of course, that battle took place on the dance floors and for the first time ever for a purely cultural clash on TV (there had been a number of political clashes on TV before that). The one notable Ed Sullivan Show performance that should be on the disk but is missing appears to be The Doors Light My Fire.

The western animation selection this time is Rio, a delightful little film put together by Blue Sky Studios, who did the entire Iceage series of animations. The choreographed areal dance/music sequences are some of the best I have ever seen.

For anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 5 continues the steampunk and sorcery parallel timeline story as brothers Elric and Alphonse struggle to regain what they have lost. With this one they also finish up the Brotherhood storyline, which was much closer to the original Manga than the first anime series was.

Something to Watch: DVDs

I had not managed to catch The Clone Returns Home at any of the film fests in my part of the country since its release in January of 2009, so I am happy to report it is finally being released on DVD. This Japanese movie about a cloned astronaut who returns home to find his family is all about the human heart, and has won a number of festival awards including being nominated for World Cinema – Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at 2009’s Sundance Film Festival. If this film wasn’t coming out this week, Source Code would get me vote as the top movie released on disk this time around, but as it stands they are tied for first place. I can not really recommend Dylan Dog: Dead of Night as a quality movie, but if you are looking for some campy silliness it fits the bill nicely. Finally, Zokkomon is a Bollywood film about an orphan who was abused and abandoned, thought to be dead and therefore a ghost when he returned, and ends up a bit of a superhero.

In TV, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe is a feature film length presentation starring Bruce Campbell, giving the story of how his character came to be the way he is today. Yes, I do know this isn’t quite genre, but it has Bruce Campbell; he is kind of a genre unto himself. Plus, I just love the series, so there it is.

In western animation this week we get yet another volume of Shaun the Sheep: Animal Antics for good silly fun. One of the things I like about this series is all the humor is visual, so you don’t have to speak English to enjoy them.

From Madhouse, we get Supernatural: The Anime Series, which might just be the first ever live action TV series turned into an Anime. I know it has been done before with things like Witchblade, but both the TV series of 2001 and the Anime series of a few years ago were base on a comic book of the same name. Here, the anime is directly based on the TV show, and even has the same actors voicing their characters for the English version.

In Anime, Angel Beats: Complete Collection tells the story of some dead teens being attacked by some angels, some angels rebelling against a god or two, and some other dead folks using supernatural powers against the angels, all staged around the student council for the world after death. This is noticeably different than High School of the Dead even if it should sound similar. Being re-released this week, One Piece – Collection 1 is the first 26 episodes of this long running Anime based on the Shonen Manga of the same name. And I do mean long running; there are already 508 episodes released in Japan not including the multiple movies, and they are still making them. This is an adventures on the high seas, pirates after the legendary One Piece to earn their fortunes, but the long term core of the story is the way the characters work together to protect each other. After a while you realize these are the people you want all of your friends to be like. If you shop around, you can pick this one up for as little as $20, so it is a good value as well.

Watch Nozomi Online

The folks at Right Stuff/Nozomi have a serious online presence at YouTube, where you can watch their anime online to give you a taste of what their various shows are offering. One of the better series is The Third: The Girl With the Blue Eye, where one girl and her tank show you how good the world could be; the first episode is Sword Dancer, if you want to start at the beginning. Another quality selection is Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars, and Rental Magica is another silly fun selection. While I would dearly love to embed a few of them here, they have embedding disabled due to licensing details, so enjoy them from the source.