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Media | A2Q Archives | A2Q on Twitter | A2Q #77 | February 24, 2009
Fans of car chase porn will be very happy this week. Not only do we get both French Connection movies in HD, this Tuesday also sees the release of Ronin and Vanishing Point, two more movies famous for the epic car chases featured within. I’m particularly fond of the first French Connection, and consider it a high-water mark of 1970s cinema.
Anime nuts will say “kakkoii!” at the BD release of Akira. [And I will punch them when they do. -- Parish] I admit that I’m curious to revisit it. My one and only viewing of this movie, which occurred somewhere around 15 years ago, left me scratching my head. In the end, I had no idea what the heck just happened, and at the time I put it down to the fact that I was watching a dubbed copy. I’ve since learned that even anime fans find the plot of Akira somewhat inscrutable. Also this week, abother anime called Samurai 7 is also hitting the streets, and as a Kurosawa devotee I am a bit uncomfortable with the whole idea of what appears to be a futuristic anime take on Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai. Perhaps if I watched it I might enjoy it. After all, Seven Samurai has been remade multiple times, notably and to great effect in the classic western The Magnificent Seven.
It is fairly heartbreaking that both a new Futurama movie and a new De Niro flick are hitting video, and I can’t muster much enthusiasm for either. The De Niro piece in particular is in one of my least favorite movie genres: the navel-gazing Hollywood movie about how wacky Hollywood is. Ugh.
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Apologies to all that I missed last week’s releases. My house was under siege by mother nature, who saw fit to dump way too much snow on top of us. Besides the logistical nightmare of trying to get both myself and my wife to work with only one 4WD vehicle between us, the power was off and on most of last week, not leaving me much opportunity to get the column done.
Thanks for reading Add to Queue, GameSpite’s weekly round-up of US Blu-ray release highlights. Sorry, rest of the world; region locks are the industry’s way of saying they still don’t understand the Internet. All right, Popeye’s here! get your hands on your heads, get off the bar, and get on the wall! Cover art courtesy of Amazon. Follow Levi Tinney on Twitter, or add him to your PSN or XBL friends list: VsRobot. You can also contact him via e-mail via levivsrobot [at] gmail [dot] com. He wrote this column while listening to Iggy Pop, with one of his cats curled up in his lap.
KAKKOI-
ooph, right in the biscuits.
Anyways, I do recommend the new Futurama movie. I think it’s definitely the best of the lot, and good in its own right.
I used to have 8-bit, 11 kHz, .voc files of samples from the original English dub of Akira on my computer.
“Chill out pops before your arteries harden!”
The Streamline dub was awful, but I kind of love it even more for its dopiness. Wasn’t it produced by Carl Macek? Maybe that’s why I like it.
I too can vouch for the (relative) quality of the new Futurama movie.
…Is there some kind of contract that requires Robert De Niro’s mouth to be obscured by something for the covers of his Blu-Ray releases?
parish: Carl Macek was responsible for Streamline (along with Jerry Beck), but I can’t find any “producer” credits for him for Akira. Still blame him for that horrible, horrible dub, though.
Man, I got nostalgia out the butt for the Streamline dub, right up to Parish’s levels of having wav samples of the dialogue on my computer. Now, like with the DVD release, I wish they could’ve found a way to license that dub, growly Colonel and all.
“Tetsuo? THAT peaBRAIN?”
Man, this Futurama thing might’ve not lived up to the show, but I still bought it based solely on the fact that it’s Futurama.
Here’s all you need to know about Samurai 7. It’s a Gonzo anime. Translation: avoid at all cost. It’s not the most awful thing they’ve ever made but a very bland mediocre adaptions that veers off from the original and does its own awful thing by the end. Also it’s got a lot of what was even at the time incredibly ugly 3D so unless the studio’s gone back and replaced it all with less visually offensive animation it’s going to look even more jarringly ugly in blu ray.
“Yeah but… it’s a ‘Vanishing Point’ Challenger!”
Every now and then, my brother and I imitate the old Akira dub at each other.
I’m particularly partial to the Colonel’s line when opening the giant refrigerator… “Do it nooooooooowwwwww!”
I highly recommend the Akira manga. It’s 8 volumes and much more understandable and awesome than the anime which is a boatload of fun but pretty much completely incomprehensible. Turns out the plot is actually really cool! Who knew!
Being merely 5 when Akira made it to the U.S. market, I first watched it after Pioneer redubbed it. A year later, I bought the Streamline VHS from a comic convention. I hated so much I gave it away to a friend. I can never understand anyone who enjoys the Streamline Dub unironically.
Also, I bought the BD release of the movie, and it looks pretty good! Sure the plot’s really hard to follow towards the end without having familiarity with the manga, but it’s just so pretty!
Oh God, I’m turning into one of THOSE people. Expect my future BD library to be filled with nothing but Michael Bay and Joel Schumaker releases.