Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So what are you watching tonight?

Just watched a few scenes from the “Band of Brothers” Blu-ray. Awesome!

If you like the series get this it’s worth the upgrade. Compared to the standard def DVD the picture and audio are both big improvements. Best to just let Blu-ray.com explain it:

Band of Brothers

Thanks for the heads up on Amazon Charles.

Just watched the Blu-ray of Akira

Sad to say I didn’t like it. Despite lots of great reviews I found very little to like about this film and ended up giving it only 2 out of 5 stars at Netflix.

The video was good with nice vivid colours and pretty good animation for the 1980s. The sound track was just ok. Nothing particularly bad about it but then nothing that great either. The biggest letdown for me were the characters. Just nothing likable about any of them so I didn’t care what happened to them or in the end the story. It was like they tried to pack what should a been at least a full season of episodes into one 2 hour movie.

I just bought the Shakira, Oral Fixation Tour blu-ray and will be watching it tonight.

Well, I watched/listened to it and it was excellent! I have about 5 CD's of her, mostly in spanish. Some belly dancing and a whole lota shaking going on in this concert. I know I'll be watching this a lot more.

Just watched the Blu-ray of “The Animatrix.”

I hadn’t seen the standard def version so I can’t comment on whether the Blu-ray is an improvement in video of audio quality. If you haven’t seen it this is a collection of short stories some of which tie in directly to the movies while others just stand alone. The quality both of the stories and the animation is a real mixed bag. I’d say 3 of the stories are outstanding 3 more are just average and 3 are worthless. Nice thing is not even the poor stories last long enough to bring the whole thing down. I’d say this is a must see for “Matrix” fans, who have probably already seen it, but easily skipped if your not. The only other collection of animated shorts not part of a series I’ve seen is “Heavy Metal” which IMO beats “The Animatirx” easily.

Just watched the last episode of “Fullmetal Alchemist.”

This is definitely a top 10 anime not sure I could bump it up to top 5 for one reason I’ll note later. Most anyone into anime will already have seen this but if you’re not into anime I still highly recommend it as a great anime on it’s own right and a very good one to get started with.

It was a total of 30 episodes on 13 disks but it seemed like a lot less. It’s basic cell animation w/o any CGI mixed in so everything is seamless. The colours are great, characters distinctive, and the animation is smooth. The audio quality is good but nothing special and the music is ok but forgettable.

Where this anime shines is in the story and character development. It starts right off with the story and fills in the back-story as you go. However, the telling of the back-story is done quite well so I never felt there was a disconnect from the main plot just to explain why something is happening. Also, the series is digestible in small pieces w/o losing it’s flow. I find this unique and advantageous considering it’s length.

If you’re afraid of fan service the most you see is a bellybutton and a little cleavage. Actually there are probably more shots of Armstrong flexing and posing. Which brings me to my favorite character, yes Armstrong. Just something unique and over the top about him resulting in him often stealing the scene.

Now the one gripe I have about the series. Far to often the characters especially the main two must behave stupidly to advance the plot in a particular direction. I really hate when a story does this, especially so often. This does allow the series to have more plot twists and certainly keeps the pace going where more elaborate twists might be more time consuming, but it still seems like lazy storytelling.

Now I’ll have to watch the movie and looks like the second series is coming to DVD in the Spring of 2010.

Yeah, I would agree with that. I've actually been re-watching Fullmetal Alchemist, finally. I'd say it was better the first time, but I'm still impressed with the sheer imagination. You're right, though, that the main characters do act stupid way too much, even though they're kids trying to adjust to an adult world before their time.

I couldn't get as into the movie, but of course it's always harder for movies to be as compelling as a series. There's just not as much space for development. I'm avoiding reading anything on the new series because I want it to be a total surprise. I also still need to read the manga to see how different the original author's storyline is.

And yeah, Armstrong cracks me up.

Yeah, I was willing to overlook their behaviour because they wee kids but after 6 years of world travel . . . . I will say at the very end they finally seemed to wise up. I don’t want anyone to think it’s a deal breaker when watching it, just an annoyance causing me to give it a 4.5 out of 5.

I’ve taken so long to watch it I could probably start over and not remember the beginning. I didn’t even realize another series was out, and I’m also looking to avoid spoilers.

I went to pop the movie in and I can’t find it. My media room is a mess. Combination of still not completely moving in and not keeping up on filing new DVDs. About 1/4 of the floor and he whole desk is covered with stacks of series and I’ll be dammed if I can find that movie and It’s not available for instant viewing so I ordered the Blu-ray.

I just finished watching the final episode of the first season. Maes Hughes might be my favorite character. But yeah, let me know what you think of the movie.

I have discs on my floor now, too. I ran out of shelf space, which is another thing I'll have more of in the basement.

We tried to watch Weeds: Season 4 Episode 8 (out of 14), but Disc 1 is asking me to insert Disc 2 It's hell to get addicted to a series and you have to wait for the mailman to deliver the next disc....

For those not familiar with the series, its about a Southern California widow who turns to selling pot to pay the bills. Definitely not for the kiddies - Season 1 is almost pornographic. Not the greatest fodder, but reminds us so of life in So Cal. If you're a Kevin Nealon fan, he's great in this series.

Scott