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

Spice and Wolf / Ōkami to Kōshinryō

Lawrence a traveling merchant wanders into a small rural town preparing to celebrate the harvest. They talk about the legend of the land god, Holo, a wolf-deity. When he is about to leave he notices someone in his cart under the furs, and he is surprised to find a girl with ears and tail. She introduces herself as Holo, and explains to him that she wants him to take her back to her hometown of Yoitsu. They begin their journey, in their travels she learns about how the world has changed, and learns about Lawrence’s trade.

Available on: Hulu, Anime-Planet, TV, Animeflavor

Spice and wolf is an older anime, but still sitting at my top 20 even though I haven’t got to finishing it. If you haven’t had the pleasure to watch anime yet, or haven’t before I would suggest starting with this one. It’s not terribly offensive and there is very little ‘exposure’ as far as exaggerating the female form.

Magic Beyond Words, The J.K. Rowling Story

I finished this movie and turned to my spouse and said, “You should watch this movie!” I really enjoy the Harry Potter books and films and it does my heart good to see someone who had a rough go early on succeed. J.K. Rowling has gone beyond succeeding…you might even say her carreer has been magical. I wish I could thank her for the many pleasant hours spent with her works.

I don’t really know what J. K. Rowling’s life was like apart from what has been written and in video I have seen. If her life was like depicted in this film she is beyond extraordinary. This film is well done and though there are sad parts you can count on a happy ending.

Cast includes: Poppy Montgomery, Emily Holmes, Janet Kidder, Paul McGillion, Antonio Cupo

Available on: Netflix, Amazon

Blue Exorcist – Movie

Rin and the gang are preparing for a festival that is celebrated every 11 years. Rin and Yukio are sent to assist in an exorcism. Things go bad and the two meet a mysterious young boy. The young boy turns out to be the demon from the stories, and Rin fights to keep the exorcist from killing the demon.

I wasn’t as thrilled about the movie as the series, it wasn’t as great in my opinion. Though the animation was insanely amazing, but the plot wasn’t as appealing as the series or the manga.

Available on: Yidio, Amazon

Counting Cars

This is a show for people who like nice cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Especially if you like seeing old vehicles resurrected and restored to better than new. This showcases the skill of the folks at Counting Cars in Las Vegas, NV. following their projects to a shiny, mechanically perfect completion and the problems they face getting projects finished. The show is also about the people involved as far as what they do and how they get along.

As with most of these type of shows the drama between people is often obviously planned, and usually overplayed. That is a turn off but putting up with that soap opera BS(means ‘bad stuff’ kids) is the price to pay for the wonderful vehicular art presented. I enjoy this show a lot.

Cast includes: Danny Koker aka. The Count,

Available on: Amazon, Netflix

Blue Exorcist – Anime Series

Rin a orphan teenager raised by Father Fujimoto, after reaching his teen years he finds himself to be abnormal with superhuman strength. One day Father Fujimoto decides to tell Rin he is the son of Satan one of the most dangerous of demons. Father Fujimoto is killed in front of Rin, and he is told to draw the demon-slaying blade Kurikara. After the funaral, Rin and Yukio (his twin brother), are taken to True Cross Academy, where Rin trains to become an exorcist and defeat Satan.

I loved this show! It will forever be a favorite,the only thing that I was sad about was that… Well… It ended! My favorite character in the show was Kuro, a black cat-spirit turned demon, who becomes Rin’s familiar. I haven’t seen the movie yet but it’s supposed to be good too. I do plan on watching the movie and will do a review on it soon. I also want to read the manga because it’s supposed to be much longer then the anime, which I’m very excited about.

Available On: Itunes, Amazon, Crunchyroll, Hulu

American Pickers

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz travel all over America in their Mercedes Sprinter van looking for people with cool stuff they can look threw and pick out and purchase items they can sell and make money on. In the beginning they are based in Le Claire, Iowa at a shop called Antique Archeology, and later at a second location in Nashville, Tennessee. Frank Fritz has his own place in Savanna, Illinois called Frank Fritz Finds. In later episodes they switch to a Ford Transit van.

It is fun to watch these folks digging through stuff and coming up with treasures. A lot of the stuff looks like junk but I get surprised when they say what the value actually is. Maybe my spouse will let me collect more junk now! Maybe if I get her off of ‘Hoarders‘ first…hmmm…

Cast includes: Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz, Danielle Colby-Cushman, Lauren Wray, Robbie Wolfe, Dave Ohrt

Available on: Amazon, Yidio, Google Play, Netflix

Brothers Conflict

Until now Ema has lived alone, while her world famous father an adventurer traveled the world. One day she receives notice that she is to move in with her 13 new step-brothers, her father is engaged to their mother. She moves into the complex owned by Miwa (her soon to be step mother) with her pet squirrel (Juli). Juli is against Ema living alone with 13 guys who are practically strangers to her, and is afraid that Ema might get attacked by one of her soon to be step-brothers.

This show is an adaptation from the manga of the same title by Atsuko Kanase.

Available to watch on: Funimation, Soul-anime, and Hulu.

Review by: Jayce428

This show was really fun and entertaining. It was really interesting that Juli had a male voice, and I wasn’t sure if Juli was supposed to be male or female. I was disappointed that the anime was only 12 episodes long, but it seems that they seem to be making shorter anime series recently though.

American Restoration (TV Series)

From the History Channel.

American Restoration is the daily operation of Rick’s Restorations in Los Vegas, Nevada. Rick’s Restorations restores all manner of antiques and collectibles. The variety of items that come through the shop is amazing. The techniques used to restore items is both entertaining and informative. There are even short ‘how to’ segments done by Rick explaining the best methods to use to accomplish desired results.

American Restoration, Counting Cars, Pawn Stars, and American Pickers are all offered by the History channel and cast members often have cameos on other shows. I can’t stand an excess of profanity and unrealistic emotional outbursts in reality shows and this show has achieved a balance of those that allows me to enjoy the program. I enjoy this show.

Cast Includes: Rick Dale, Tyler Dale, Kowboy, Brettly Otterman, Kyle Astorga, Ted Hague, Ron Dale, Kelly Mayer, Rick Harrison, Austin ‘Chumlee’ Russell, Danny Koker, Corey Harrison, Bob Yuhas, Chris Matthews, Horny Mike, Niko, 

Available on: Amazon, Google Play, Yidio, Netflix

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.