Tin Man (Miniseries)

DG is a waitress from a small town in Kansas. She lives with her parents. She tries hard, but she has trouble fitting in. She listens to her parents fantastic stories about another land. A freak storm blows up a tornado and events lead to DG and her mom and dad being separated in a strange land called the ‘Outer Zone’ or the OZ. DG recognizes the land from her father’s stories. DG must find her parents during her search she finds she has much more to do.

I overlooked this Syfy Miniseries when it came out because I thought it would be just another Wizard of OZ remake trying to upstage the original. What I have found is that this is its own movie. The story line is roughly based on the original Wizard of OZ but is very different and quite fun. It might not be the greatest movie for very small children but many of us big children really liked it.

Available On: Tv.com, Amazon, Netflix

Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cumming, Neal McDonough, Raoul Trujillo, Kathleen Robertson, Richard Dreyfuss

Kamikaze Girls

The story starts off with Momoko, having a flashback to when her parents met, her father was a gang member and her mother who divorced her father to marry a doctor after she was born. Her father after getting in trouble after selling fake brand clothing – she decides to pawn off some of the clothes to buy her Lolita clothing. Momoko becomes friends with Ichigo, a gang member who buys clothes from Momoko. Ichigo basically tells Momoko her life story.

This movie is very Japanese. It perpetuates almost every Japanese stereotype in the book, but that’s what made it so entertaining. Bringing together the stereotypes and the well developed plot. I love this movie, I would put this as my top five favorite Japanese movies of all time.

You can watch this movie on YouTube.

Cast: Kyoko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Sadao Abe, and Eiko Koike. 

Futurama

Fry is a pizza delivery boy. Moments before the year 2000, Fry is frozen in time for the next 1000 years.  In the year 3000, he refuses to return to being a delivery boy, and meets a new friend named Bender by accidentally stepping into a suicide booth. They both live and decide to mooch off of his living distant nephew, Dr. Farnsworth, incidentally Dr. Farnsworth is looking for a delivery team for Planet Express. Leela the career assignment officer decides to abandon her job, and joins Fry and Bender on the Planet Express team. Fry meets Dr. Zoidberg the Planet Express doctor who is an lobster-like alien, and Amy Wong a rich engineering student at Mars University. The main plot revolves around the Planet Express company and it’s employees and the central group (Fry, Leela, and Bender).

Voice Actors: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and David Herman.

WE LOVED THIS SERIES! Mostly me though. I was so thrilled when I saw the ending, which is a real tearjerker and an utter surprise at that. Even though this show had lots of crudeness it was maybe one of the best endings to a TV series that I’ve ever seen. I was very pleased that it didn’t end on a cliff hanger.

Available on: Netflix, Google Play, and Amazon.

House (TV Series)

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) an unconventional doctor with amazing skills at a fictional hospital (Princeton Plainsboro) in New Jersey. He works as the head of Diagnostic Medicine with his team working on the most puzzling cases, . He deals with constant pain from muscle damage by popping pain relievers. His physical disability causes him to be depressed and moody, as a result Dr. House is not exactly a ‘people person’, quite the contrary, he is frequently quite offensive to people around him but his medical brilliance and dedication tend to overshadow his rudeness.

I love watching House even if it’s the reruns, but I think it might be an acquired taste for many. The cases they face can be quite amazing! I was surprised how good Hugh’s American accent was, since he is British, it was spot on.

Cast includes: Hugh Laurie, Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde, Amber Tamblyn, Odette Annable, Charlyne Yi

Available on: Netflix, Google Play, Amazon

Crossing Jordan (TV Series)

Jordan Cavanaugh is the only child of a widowed and retired ex-cop. She is a forensic pathologist who can’t help getting involved in the cases of the deceased victims she sees in front of her everyday. She is a rule breaker when it is necessary, and is very direct when dealing with people. Dr. Jordan works in the Boston morgue with a crew of unique individuals who are all great at what they do.

I don’t have the foggiest idea how I missed this show when it first aired. Crossing Jordan is a forensic procedural drama. It is well acted, and well written. It is fun to watch.

Cast includes: Jill Hennessy, Miguel Ferrer, Ravi Kapoor, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Valentine, Jerry O’Connell

Available on: Netflix, TV.com, TV Muse

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

This anime is about a high school student Sakura who is in love with her classmate Nozaki. She quickly confesses her love to him, but he misunderstands and thinks she is just a fan. He invites her to his house to help him with some drawings. She discovers he’s actually a renowned shojo manga artist named Sakiko Yumeno. She agrees only as a way to get closer to him. In their adventures they meet other schoolmates that help assist them and help inspire them.

I really enjoyed this anime and the manga. The voice actors matched the characters very well, and overall there was really nothing that I could pinpoint as being negative about the anime or manga.

You can watch the anime at: Animeshow.

Foyle’s War

Christpher Foyle(Michael Kitchen) is a Detective Chief Superintendant in Hastings, Sussex, England during World War Two. As such he fights against crime that frequently takes advantage of the war-time condition such as pilfering, the black market, profiteering and murder. Foyle is assisted by Detective Sergeant Paul Milner(Anthony Howell) and a driver named Samantha Stuart(Honeysuckle Weeks).

I really enjoy Foyle’s War. It must be quite a challenge to make films about the past when it comes to sets, props, wardrobe and slang used at the time(or banter for you Monty Python fans). I am impressed by the job these folks have done making season after season always maintaining a high level of attention to details even when it comes to the background of shots, especially when shooting outdoors. That is representative of the overall quality of Foyle’s War.

The Official Foyle’s War Fan Site

Cast includes: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell

Available on: Hulu Plus, Google Play, Yidio, Netflix

Caprica

Caprica is about two families on the planet Caprica the Greystones and the Adamas. Both families are among those devastated by a terrorist attack. Each family responds to the attack in their own way. The attack is found to be the work of a small group advocating the worship of one God over the worship of many Gods which is the norm on Caprica.

With major advances in virtual reality Daniel Graystone decides to attempt to build an VR avatar of his daughter and offers the same to Joseph Adama but the one God group has different ideas for the VR technology. Greystone’s company is working on battle robots for the Caprican government and in an attempt to bring his daughter into the real world he attempts to install the avatar of his daughter into his prototype.  Here ends the spoilers!

Caprica is a 2010 spin-off prequel of the Battlestar Galactica series. It is set about 50 years before the Battlestar Galactica timeline. The show has a very complicated storyline but it holds together well. Effects are good enough but not amazing. There is some decent action but a lot of dialogue getting to it but a complicated storyline requires a lot of plot and character development. Caprica did and does offer the science fiction fan a few new ideas and that is rare. This is a really good show.

Cast includes: Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Sasha Roiz, Brian Markinson, Polly Walker

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix

Doc Martin (TV Series)

Doc Martin Ellingham(Martin Clunes) is a General Practitioner doctor with a practice in the Cornish village of Portwenn. He is quite a good doctor in most respects, but is ill tempered, rude, lacking in social graces and to top it off can’t stand the sight of blood! Yet inside…perhaps deep inside there is a caring and brave person. The villagers of Portwenn and environs offer Dr. Martin quite a variety of challenges.

Doc Martin is good clean family fun. The show has loads of humor and well acted characters you may identify with especially if you live or have lived in a small community. Sets are wonderful, camera work is superb, and scripts well done and fun. This is a show I have used after a difficult day to improve my attitude, watching grumpy Doc Martin seems to take the grumpy out of me. Have fun.

Cast includes: Martin Clunes, Caroline Catz, Ian McNeice, Joe Absolom, Selina Cadell, Jessica Ransom, Annabelle Apsion, Stephanie Cole, Katherine Parkinson, Louise Jameson, Eileen Atkins

Doc Martin fan site click here!

Available on: Hulu, Netflix, ITV

Automata

It is the year 2044. The Earth’s pollution damaged atmosphere has allowed solar flares to cause the progressive desertification and irradiation of the world killing over 99% of the population. Robots called Pilgrims were created to stop the desertification and rebuild but when they failed were made manual labor.

The robots are controlled by two unalterable protocols first they cannot harm any form of life, and second they cannot modify themselves or other robots. The reason for the first protocol is clear but the second protocol was so that robots couldn’t evolve.

The main character is Jacq Vaucan (Antonio Banderas) an insurance investigator for the robotics company. A robot is shot when it appears to be self-repairing and Jacq is sent to investigate…

This movie was done very well. All the actors did a really good job, except for Antonio Banderas who did great! The effects were nearly undetectable from live action. The story is classic science fiction done very well. All in all I am surprised this movie wasn’t a bigger hit. Enjoy it!

Cast includes: Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, Tim McInnerny, Melanie Griffith

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix