Movie Review: The Blind Side
Coming late to the reviews party this week is Warner Bros. release of The Blind Side. Based on the Novel The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The movie tells the story of how Baltimore Ravens 2009 first round draft pick Michael Oher reached this point in his career. The Blind Side is an acting tour de force that provides plenty of substance over style and is one of the most powerful movies I’ve seen this year as well as one of the greatest sports movies I’ve ever seen.
Sarah’s Gift Guide For The Devoted Doctor Who Fan
Let's see what this season is bringing us: Torchwood season four is set to start taping next year. The season three finale of Sarah Jane Adventures just premiered. Doctor Who itself is about to switch from Tennant to Smith with the Christmas story "The End of Time". Add in the constant delicious flow of audios from Big Finish, and you can see why Whovians have reason to be excited this holiday season. So here's a guide to the top five toys, books and accessories for either yourself or the Doctor Who fan in your life, the one who sleeps in the same pajamas the Doctor wore in "The Christmas Invasion" and only eats bananas and chips and drives a car that proudly proclaims the driver's other vehicle is a TARDIS: this one is for them.
Karl’s Horror Hidden Treasures Gift Guide
Horror Hidden Treasures
You know the Hidden Treasure Horror movies, the ones you see on the shelves and look interesting but you’ve never heard of it or of anyone in the movie. Well, here’s some I run across recently that are definitely worth more than a passing glance.
Timecrimes (Los Chronocrimenes) – DVD
This is an import from France, about a man who accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time one hour. In an attempt to make sure his “other” self does what needs to be done so he can safely return home he recreates the events that brought him to enter the time machine. What could have been played as a comedy turns deadly serious.
Manga Review: This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, volume 1
Manga Review: Slam Dunk Vol. 7: The End of the Basketball Team
Slam Dunk is Takehiko Inoue’s classic basketball manga, finally being re-released in Viz editions. The star of the story is young delinquent teen Hanamichi Sakuraga; he was a huge failure in love, and a member of teen gangs until he fell in love with Haruko Akagi, a first year student at Shohoku high school. He joins the basketball team to impress her (and her brother being the team captain means she’ll be around frequently), but his basketball spirit is starting to kindle…of course, they all still need a lot of work if they’re going to reach the finals! The series is a mix of strong characters, comedy, and a lot of dramatic basketball action.
Top 5 Blu-ray Anime 2009
1. Samurai 7, This is a great adaptation of Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai and is so much better on Blu-ray.
2. WitchBlade, For all you WitchBlade comic book fans this is a must for you. See what the Eastern viewpoint of this Iconic series looks like and do it in style.
Julie’s Guide to the Yaoi Top 5 (ukes are included)
I just got back from the first ever BishieCon and I am stoked and excited to give you my top 5 yaoi picks for 2009! Yaoi, of course, being a specialized form of manga dealing with the love of men for other men, and not everyone's cup of tea, I give you my choices for those yaoi that best combine sexy men with beautiful pictures and great stories! Wonderful stocking stuffers for the yaoi lover in your life. Enjoy!
Movie Review:20th Century Boys
The masterful manga story by famed Naoki Urasawa, the creator of Monster and the epic Pluto, is being brought to the Big Screen and in Live Action. 20th Century Boys, is a highly acclaimed manga that took over 8 years for Urasawa to produce, is now being made into a trilogy and the first of the three installments will be released on December 10th.
DVD Review: Nana Box Set 2
Nana is the story of two women who share the same first name and end up living together in an apartment in Tokyo. One of them, Nana Osaki, is a punk and lead singer of the band Blast who has come to Tokyo to promote the band. The other, Nana Komatsu, is a bubbly girl nicknamed Hachi. The two are polar opposites, and yet are close friends.
DVD Review: Nabari, The Complete Series: Part Two
With Miharu having made the decision to use his power to help erase his friend's existence, the battle lines have been drawn. He joins the Iga Clan to be close to Yoite, who is desperate to have his existence erased before his inevitable death. Yoite has the "Kira" or power to inject his ki or energy into his opponents body and control them. Although, every time he uses this power, the price is that his life is shortened. The Iga clan wants Miharu's ultimate power and is working to extract it from him. There is also the small group of Miharu's friends that would like to save Miharu from his own folly.
Anime Blu-ray Review: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: Season One
Princess Sakura is drawn into an ancient ruin where her latent powers are awoken. During this process Syaoran saves her from the overwhelming destruction she was headed for. At that moment, all of her memories are transfered into the wings she had grown and the feathers are scattered throughout the dimensional worlds. The wizard of their world sends them off to find Yuko, the dimensional witch to have her give them the ability to track down Sakura's memories. Two other travelers also appear at Yuko's at that time and join forces. They each pay a high price to be able to go on this quest, but agree nonetheless. The hunt is on to find all of Sakura's feathers and to help her regain her memories.
DVD Review: Something unknown is doing we don’t know what…
“Something unknown is doing we don't know what.”
– Sir Arthur Eddington, English astronomer (1882 – 1944), comment on the Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics, 1927
Dutch filmmaker Renée Scheltema has chosen to use this quote as the tile of her new documentary film on the science behind psychic phenomena. Prompted by three seemingly mystical experiences in her own life within a short period of time, Scheltema decides to search for answers to how these things could have happened and if they could possibly be real or just coincidence. Armed with a camera and a tablespoon from her house that she watched a “Spoon Bender” twist like it was made of warm butter, she sets off to speak with some of the leading experts in the study of psychic phenomena.
DVD Review: Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 3: Beginning of the End
Wolverine and The X-Men must face their biggest battles yet in the action packed Volume 3: Beginning of the End! Following the adventures in Volumes 1 and 2, Wolverine and his team are desperately trying to stop the coming war between humans and mutants from erupting!
This volume contains 5 episodes from the hit animated series:
DVD Review: The Spectacular Spider-Man Volume 5
New adventures of our favorite wall-crawler are now on DVD as Volume Five of The Spectacular Spider-Man comes home for your collection. Following the events of Season One, Peter has been searching for his lost friend, Eddie Brock, who was last seen sporting a very evil symbiotic costume. Pete feels that Eddie's situation is his fault and he wants to desperately save his friend…but it might be too late. This first volume, featuring the Master Planner story arc, introduces us to new incarnations of classic Spider-Man villains like Mysterio, Kraven The Hunter, The Master Planner and more!
Over the last year we have had the opportunity to speak with the team responsible for this new batch of episodes, now you can see what they have to say:
Movie Review: Twilight Saga: New Moon
After standing in a line that would rival a theme park ride, I was one of the first kids on my block to witness the new Twilight movie: New Moon. I found myself surrounded by thousands of screaming teenagers eager to watch the translation of Stephanie Meyer’s second book in the series. What I found in the movie was a large improvement over the first movie but not offering anything compared to the quality we’ve seen in other fantasy genre flicks like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Underworld.
Warning: Spoilers are ahead…