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Alita: Battle Angel Review – Not As Crappy As the Trailer Makes It Look

Deirdre Crimmins — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 20:00:44 +0000

James Cameron is known for creating vast alien worlds and situating fun popcorn movies within them. While Robert Rodriguez directed Cameron’s script for Alita: Battle Angel, which itself is an adaptation of the manga series Gunnm, there’s no mistaking Cameron’s touch on this attempted blockbuster. Taking place on Earth, Alita is set in year 2563,...

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Off the Shelf – Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer

Josh Zyber — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 12:00:08 +0000

Written and directed by Mamoru Oshii (later renowned for Ghost in the Shell), the 1984 feature Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer is a raucous, surreal teenage high school comedy with some metaphysical ideas on its mind. The film was a clear influence on both Groundhog Day and Dark City, and you don’t need to worry...

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Night Is Short, Walk On Girl Review: Keep Walking

Deirdre Crimmins — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:00:30 +0000

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl is a Japanese animated film that shows how many adventures you can get into on one night, as long as there’s enough booze. Movies that take place over the course of a single night can be hard to digest. You have to believe that time and space are somehow...

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Weekend Roundtable: Mecha Robot Mayhem

Josh Zyber — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 19:00:12 +0000

We’ve done Roundtables in the past about robots and A.I., so our focus this week narrows specifically to the mecha genre, in which human pilots operate robotic suits or vehicles. What are your favorites from movies, TV, comics, video games, or any other media? Note: Robots that are sentient or can make decisions independently do...

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Off the Shelf: Noir

Josh Zyber — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 16:00:48 +0000

Back during the height of the TV-on-DVD era, I got hooked on watching an anime series called ‘Noir’, which followed the adventures of a pair of female assassins traipsing through Europe killing lots of bad people. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked around one of the middle volumes and never finished the show. That long bothered me,...

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Contest: Win ‘Ghost in the Shell’ on 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray!

Josh Zyber — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 12:00:02 +0000

We had a great turnout for last week’s ‘Kong: Skull Island’ contest. While the results of that are still being tabulated, let’s see if we can keep the momentum going. We have an extra copy of the 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray edition of ‘Ghost in the Shell‘ (2017) to give away, and it could easily...

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Unboxed: ‘Serial Experiments Lain’ DVD Lunch Box

Josh Zyber — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:55 +0000

Of the many different DVD and Blu-ray box set configurations that have been released over the years, something about the idea of storing the discs in a metal lunch box appeals to me. I don’t even know what it is, really. Perhaps it’s just fond memories of the lunch boxes I carried to school as...

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Now Playing: Another Studio Ghibli Classic

Luke Hickman — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:53 +0000

Praise Disney for distributing Studio Ghibli movies domestically! Disney’s English version of ‘Ponyo‘ was great, and I’m excited to tell you that the studio has again done justice to another Ghibli picture, ‘The Secret World of Arrietty’. If you’ve read ‘The Borrowers’ or seen the old movie, then you know the ‘Arrietty’ source material. Tiny,...

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Blu-ray Highlights for 6/28/11 – Must Have the Precious

Josh Zyber — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:00:38 +0000

Why does it seem like the most awaited Blu-ray catalog titles so often arrive on the format surrounded by controversy? Is it really that hard to do a film-to-video transfer without messing around with the essential look of a famous film? Apparently, it is. First off, here’s the week’s release list: ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Combo...

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Blu-ray Highlights for 6/21/11 – Who Am I and What Am I Buying?

Josh Zyber — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:29 +0000

There’s a peculiar theme at work in this week’s Blu-ray releases. In separate movies, both Liam Neeson and Matt Damon find their whole lives taken away from them by mysterious forces. Neeson wakes up from a car accident to discover that no one recognizes or remembers him, not even his wife. Damon gets a look...

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Apocalypse? Not Now

Josh Zyber — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:00:53 +0000

If you can read this, then apparently the world didn’t end this weekend after all. Whew! I was nervous for a minute there. I’ve still got a bunch of stuff on my DVR to watch that I haven’t caught up with yet, and I really would have been pissed if I’d missed the new episode...

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Anime Legend Satoshi Kon Dies at 46

Josh Zyber — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:14 +0000

News from Japan has revealed that Satoshi Kon, director of such landmark anime films as ‘Perfect Blue’, ‘Tokyo Godfathers’, and (most recently) ‘Paprika’, passed away this week. He was only 46-years-old. Pancreatic cancer is reported to be the cause of death. The director was in many ways a true visionary for the medium. This is...

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