I’ve got a new guilty pleasure that I want to share with you all. TechTV is not showing “Robot Wars”, which is the original British version of what was copied and aired as BattleBots on Comedy Central in the US.

Except…it’s much better! I can put my finger on it, really. The host if Craig Charles, who was Lister on Red Dwarf. The “robots” are really remote controlled vehicles, as was the case with BattleBots. But…I guess they just take it more seriously on this show. YOU don’t have to, but they do. Sorta like, and I cringe to make this association, but sort of like WWF.

What gets fascinating, though, is the emergence of robot themes as things go on. First they were all about buzz saws and hammers, then came the flippers, which just slide an arm under their opponent and flip ’em on their backs. To combat the flippers, bots were built with lower and lower ground clearance, but the flippers just got lower and lower. Then came bots that had no ‘top’ so if they got flipped, they land on a second set of wheels and keep going. And so on.

What I’m amazed at is I find myself really rooting for one team in a good match. Seeing two ‘bots circling each other, trying to get in a killer move, starts to get really engrossing.

FWIW, I thought Battle Bots was just silly. But Robot Wars is actually pretty interesting. Check it out.

Got my first shipment from NetFlix yesterday. Nice to know it takes 1 day to get the films! The packaging is alarmingly flimsy (just a paper envelope) and disks themselves were very scuffed up, but the one I watched (Tomb Raider…which turned out to be a reasonably fun ‘turn off your brain and watch the imagery’ flick) worked fine. I sent it back today, so now its a matter of seeing how fast their turn-around time is. I’m thinking, though, that they’re going to be able to feed me movies a lot faster than I can devour them. So, all in all, pretty pleased so far.

Normally I’m one to hold a grudge forever, but just this once I’ve decided to put the past behind me. I detested NetFlix for a LONG time because of their very intrusive pop-up ads (they’d open a full-screen sized browser window to spam you with their ad) and never wanted to support them.

But after trying out the game rental place I saw how cool and convenient this system could be. I checked with a co-worker who has only good things to say about the service, and the last straw was seeing that they have a decent amount of anime.

So I signed up. It’s $20/month and you can have 3 discs out at a time. Keep them for a day or forever, as long as you’re paying that $20. My first 3 discs should ship to me today. I’ll let you know how well the service works. I do already have one gripe, though. When they say 3 discs, them mean 3 discs. So if there’s a special edition of a movie with a bonus disc of material, you have to order the bonus disc separately.

Went to see the new X-Men movie last night. Some nice eye-candy, but unless you’re a special effects fan, definitely NOT worth the cost of admission. Go see it at a matinee or wait to see it on DVD.

It was all so sloppy. Granted this is a comic book license, but when you transition to live action you have to make it somewhat believable. Stuff like people running around in a frigid arctic setting and showing no signs of cold. You don’t see their breath, they don’t ‘act’ cold. Um, jets winding in and out of tornadoes like they have the turn radius of a Volkswagon Bug. The whole movie just screamed “Filmed on a sound stage!”

I must say that Nightcrawler almost makes the whole thing worth seeing, though. He is both a neat character and has some very cool fx. But between the sloppy filmography and the gaping holes in the story (which I won’t go into for spoiler reasons), it just isn’t worth paying $10 to see.

Just heard about this new(?) show on PBS, Warrior Challenge. It’s a mix of documentary and ‘reality show’ *cringe* that puts current day warriors (mostly from the armed forces) in the shoes of gladiators, romans, vikings, and the like. Haven’t seen it yet, so no idea if its any good, but it sounds kind of interesting.

I watched Spirited Away and ever since I’ve been wanting to do a blog entry about it but I just freeze up whenever I try. I’m not good at ‘reviewing’ films and I’m scared to death I won’t do the film justice. Because this is a wonderful movie that will appeal to all dreamers, be they young or old.

Spirited Away is directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who also did the fabulous Princess Mononoke as well as Kiki’s Delivery Service, among many others. Some of the richly organic imagery that made Mononoke “pop” is also in Spirited, but this later film is much safer viewing for American audiences. Disney imported it, but happily they didn’t destroy it in the process.

Anyway, its the story of a little girl who gets caught up in a world of spirits, trying to save her mother and father. She grows remarkably in a few short days as she struggles to come to terms with this strange world, and in so doing she changes the world around her as well. There are some eerie moments that will probably give the little ones a good fright, some wonderfully “EWWWW!” moments, and some real “all choked up” spots as well. And at the end of the ride, you’ll be left pondering what just happened. If you’re new to anime this may seem strange…unlike Hollywood films, anime often opts not to tie up all the loose ends, leaving you both entertained and stimulated.

Bottom line: this is a wonderful movie. Watch it.

Have I rambled about The Dead Zone yet? If not, I’ve done this show a great disservice. It’s on USA on Sunday nights at 10 pm et, currently. USA has a pretty nice website for it complete with the kind of ‘extras’ you’d get on a DVD. Very cool concept.

The show itself is based on the Stephen King book of the same name. The first few episodes followed the book pretty closely, and then things diverged. The protagonist is a guy that was in a coma for 6 years, and when he comes out, he has visions of people’s past and futures. It’s a concept that they could easily go cheese with, but they don’t…they keep it rather understated, really. The episode I watched tonight, Zion, was a kind of “It’s a Wonderful Life” kind of treatment that actually followed the book more closely than the series has done. Kinda clever, showing us both paths this way. Another episode put the protagonist in a place where he felt he had to choose between the lives of two of his friends. The episode title was Playing God and, well, it didn’t turn out like it would’ve on most TV shows.

Really a first rate show, and sadly not widely watched, at least among people I know. Do yourself a favor and Tivo a couple of eps. It’ll take 2-3 to get a feel of who is who since you haven’t seen it from the start, but its time well spent, trust me.

Disclaimer: I’m a newbie when it comes to anime, so all you old hands can snort all you want.

I just saw “Perfect Blue,” a complete anime movie (in contrast to so much anime that is episodic in nature) by Satoshi Kon, based on a book by Yoshikazu Takeuchi.

For anyone who thinks Anime is all about giant robots and blue-haired sci-fi girls, Perfect Blue will change your mind.

It’s about Mima, a young girl who is part of a pop band, and decides to leave it to become an actress. Some of her fans aren’t happy with her decision, and eventually she stumbles upon a website, “Mima’s Room” which is like a diary of everything she did and everywhere she went. Except that she isn’t writing it. Or is she? She keeps having halucinations whereupon her old, pop-star self pops up and starts scolding her for leaving her former life.

When the show she is filming has her in a rape scene, things get ugly as her alter ego becomes somewhat enraged at her ‘filthy’ behavior. Soon after, the bodies start showing up…

Creepy stuff, with an ending that took me totally by surprise. Well worth watching, imo.

Again, not for the kids though. The rape scene, even though it is a scene being filmed, is still very much mature content.

Found this rather fun page over at Amazon.Com:
So you’d like to … Become Anime Literate in 60 Days or Less

” So, you’re looking to join the secret society of the Otaku in sixty days or less, are you? We’re a small, sometimes elusive crowd, but we’re always looking for more recruits and are always accepting members. We won’t let any ole Joe Shmoe into our brightly colored world of robots and beautiful girls, however, without the proper introduction to anime. Being one of the most humble and beautiful Otakus around, I have decided to give you the advantage, to get you up and running and walk you through some of the prerequisite anime viewing. Come and be amazed.”

An amusing read and pretty useful, too!

This isn’t news, but I just found out. Fox has cancelled Dark Angel to make room for a Whedon show, Firefly.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Dark Angel, but this last season, with the show getting a kind of hip-hop feel to it and the whole ‘mutants vs mundanes’ thing taking off, I was starting to enjoy it. And the season finale was a real cliff hanger. Now we’ll never know…