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

Just finished watching “Project Blue Earth SOS” a 6 x 45 minute episode action, adventure, scifi anime on the Funimation YouTube channel. Here’s what AnimeNewsNetwork has to say:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/project-blue-earth-sos/dvd-1

This is a very good looking anime with a style resembling Johnny Quest with more fluid animation. As far as I can tell it’s all cell animation w/o any CGI. Although Netflix lists it as a 1.33:1 what Funimation is showing is 1.78:1 so I’m not sure if they modified it, however I have found that Netflix is sometimes incorrect in listing video and audio formats. The audio is only 2.0 but there is a lot of stereo effect up front but they don’t hardly translate to the surround channels at all.

Like the review above says this is a very retro story based along the lines of a 50s scifi serial. However, there are a huge (lost count) number of references to all sorts of scifi movies and shows from Flash Gordon, War of the Worlds, Star Wars, Sky Captain etc. . . .

If you like that sort of campy mostly feel good story this makes for some great quick and light entertainment. If you want something more serious than a Saturday morning serial/cartoon then look elsewhere. I give it a 4 out of 5 just because it was a cool blast from the past.

Earlier I also watched “Moon Phase” a 26 x 23 minute episode action, comedy, drama, romance, supernatural anime on 6 DVDs. Here’s a review:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/moon-phase+artbox/dvd-1

Visually this one is above average looking in animation with the 1.78:1 format making it even more enjoyable. The 5.1 audio format ok but nothing to special. Mostly just ambient surround effects but not to much directional or LFE stuff.

The most notable thing about this series is that it is cute. The girl vampire carries the show because as far to often with anime the male lead is a wimp at least to start. It’s not the strongest plot in the world but IMO the likableness of the characters makes up for that. I give this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I finished the first season of Modern Family. I didn't like the show, but it's grown on me. Being another documentary-style comedy put me off, I think. It also takes a while to like some of the characters since they can be pretty annoying if you only see them in small slices.

Community and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are still making me happy. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has to be my favorite running comedy show at the moment. They have mastered being asses in the funniest ways possible.

I've also been re-watching Band of Brothers, this time with my mom. She hadn't seen the series. The audio still blows me away. We just watched the "Bastogne" episode today. I really like that episode.

One of my online friends highly recommended Cougar Town, and I was trying out some episodes of the first season, but it's just not seeming like my kind of show. Something that really bugs me is the music. The rest of the show could probably appear better than it is if the music wasn't drawing so much attention to itself as the music of a safe, inoffensive show.

As far as movies, I watched Green Zone yesterday. It was decent, but definitely not a must-see.

I didn't think I'd like "$h*! My Dad Says" but I watched a couple of episodes and it's pretty funny. Definitely helped by a couple of MadTV former regulars but Shatner, despite his advanced weirdness, is quite humorous too.

Received my bluray copy of the Pacific series yesterday. I'm planning on starting to watch it this weekend if time allows. Has anyone watched this yet and any first impressions on this series compared to "Band of Brothers"
Mel

I just finished watching “School Rumble” a 26 x 23 minute episode comedy, romance, slice of life anime on the Funimation Network on YouTube. Here’s a review:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/school-rumble/dvd-6

While the animation in this is a bet crude and lazy the characters look good and not being to action oriented fluidity of motion isn’t that important. The 1.78:1 aspect ratio is also nice. The SQ is ok with lots of panning across the front and a good amount of ambient stuff like background noises and birds chirping pulled out by PLIIx so that not everything is coming from up front.

I liked the start of this story and had it continued would rate it better but with the only premise really being the failed attempts to find love by the main characters it starts to wear a little thing toward the end. They do keep things alive by expanding from a love triangle to something closer to an octagon but so even up to the end it’s all setup and no payoff. The last few episodes seem the most lacking and only seem to serve as padding while awaiting the inevitable second season. By all accounts the second season gets off to a better start but the last part of this first season didn’t leave me wanting to rush into the second.

Have to give this a 3/5 for right now.

Any word on how you’re liking “The Pacific.” I’ve read some very mixed reviews of it so far.

I've only seen one episode of Pacific on cable. It didn't seem much different to BOB to me, just a different setting although I thought BOB had more action where Pacific seemed a bit more personal afa the characters were. As I watched Pacific(again, just one episode), I felt like I've seen this before(BOB) and since BOB was such a groundbreaking series, I kind of wish they had of left it alone.

Is this based on the short stories by James Michener, Tales of the South Pacific, by any chance? Exceptional book!!

I liked the Pacific, and watched the whole series off HBO HD when it premiered.

I don't have anything to compare it too, though, because I never got back to watching BoB after the third episode or so...