#one star losers keep hiring bounty hunters

[bogleech]

If I were thrust into a universe full of weird sapient aliens I would probably make them so uncomfortable. Hey dude what’s that thing on your head?! Oh my god are those symbiotes or your offspring or what?!? WHOA!!! WHAT is THAT thing!?!? (technically the answer is a retail worker who’s too tired for this)

[remotecontrolchuck]

Super Late Toonami Night Review: The COUNTDOWN continues!

So after a week of technical difficulties of my computer literally falling apart, and moving everything I have to my new laptop, I’m finally able to work on my weekly Toonami review for, well, last week. With that said, onto the review!

Last week we continued with the COUNTDOWN event, where we learn that TOM has been sent into the not so distant future, where after the Vindication goes through a bizarre nebula, SARA goes all Terminator and begins gearing the clydes for war against all organics. With help from future TOM, present TOM sets out to go back to the past, and prevent doomsday from happening.

Aside from the COUNTDOWN event, not much else occurred last week besides new episodes and old reruns we all enjoyed. Next week is going to be the DBZ Kai marathon for Thanksgiving weekend, though hardly fitting compared to Dragon Ball Super, which has a tournament started because of food in the first place. That, or Lupin the Third, because of the great food they’ve been showing on that show. Could go for some Italian right about now.

And speaking of Lupin the Third Part IV: the Italian Adveture, can’t believe we’re down to seven episodes left this season. It feels like only was only a few months instead of six that this show started, and man has it been a blast! While I’ll save my review for Lupin the Third when it finishes its run, I will say that so far it’s one of the best anime to come to the block yet, and I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

Anyway, back to the DBZ Kai being the marathon for Thanksgiving weekend, I feel it’s not that great of a choice. I mean honestly do I really need to feel like I’m eating soylent green when Majin Buu is turning people into candy before eating them, or into milk before giving them to formerly blind children for that matter? I’d rather have a food fight or be shown extravagant food than see that.

Moving on, last but not least, it’s been recently announced that the block’s run will be expanding yet again on December 2nd! If this keeps up, the old 6 Hour Challenge will be back! As for the reason for the reason expansion, a new show will be coming to Toonami, Black Clover. It’s a new series I’ve been hearing about here and there, with some people either liking it or hating it. Since I don’t know really much about it, I’ll watch this series and see for myself whether I’ll like it or not.

Now that I’m done with the news segment, it’s onto the recap of last week’s shows!

Dragon Ball Super: Despite their massive power, both Goku and Hit appear to be evenly matched. However, Goku throws in the towel after Beerus and Chompa get into another arguement. Naturally Chompa is thrilled, and Beerus is pissed. With their last fighter being Monaka, it appears Universe 7 is doom to lose... at least it would been so if not for Hit.

Seeing how weak Monaka really was, Hit decided to take pity on the little guy, and made it look he was taking out by him with one punch, declaring that he and Goku were now even. Naturally everyone is shocked by the sudden turn of events, Beerus being the most surprised as he didn’t expect to suddenly win the tournament.

Of course being a sore loser, Chompa began having a meltdown and began threatening to kill his failed champions. However, both he and Beerus are left shocked and speechless when all of a sudden a strange little fella showed on the arena floor with two purple-clad guards. And if the Destroyers are scared out of their minds, this obviously isn’t good news.

DBZ Kai: After another round of mindless massacre and rampage, Majin Buu is finally taken on by the combined form of Goten and Trunks, Gotenks. But when said combined form has an overconfident ego, the jolly bubblegum goon has no trouble trouncing the two. Fortunately the two managed to escape, the same can’t be said for the Earth military that tried to take on Buu, and ended like the previous ones that went up against Nappa and Cell.

So with their military basically annihilated once again, the people call upon their champion, Mr. Satan, to take care of the unstoppable menace. But despite his ego and dirty tricks, the “brave” fighter ends having no chance against Buu. Fortunately for him, the pink blob thinks he’s pretty funny and keeps him around as a servant, leaving Mr. Satan plenty of time to figure out how to save his image.

Stardust Crusaders: After sending Anne back to Hong Kong, JoJo and the gang head off into Pakistan to continue their journey. But they’re soon delayed by heavy and treacherous passes, forcing them to stop at local village, filled with creepy people and a recently deceased body in the middle.

Reader: Ooh, that’s bad.

But JoJo and the others are soon greeted by a nice old lady who invites them to her hotel.

Reader: That’s good!

The old hag is actually DIO’s servant Enyaba, who wants revenge for the death of her son.

Reader: That’s bad.

But JoJo begins having suspicions about Enyaba.

Reader: That’s good!

He and the others still go into the hotel anyway.

Reader: That’s bad.

Later, Hol Horse shows up at said hotel and we’re introduced to Enyaba’s Stand, Justice, who takes cares of her son’s former partner in crime.

Reader:...

That’s good and bad.

Reader: Can we move on now?

Gundam IBO: At Tekkadan’s Earth Branch, Chad and the others are attending the inauguration of the Arbrau Defense Force (ADF). However, things take a turn for the worse when a bomb goes off, taking out and heavily injuring both Chad and Prime Minister Makanai. Turns out the Teiwaz accountant sent to work for the Earth branch, Radice, had sold them out to Rustal’s mercenary, Galan Mossa, who planted the bomb to start a war between Arbrau and the S.A.U.

Takaki, who’s now in charge, has to somehow keep everyone in line. And to make things worse, Takaki is unable to contact Orga, as he’s being prevented by Radice, because again the guy is a backstabbing dick that’s working for Galan Mossa. And speaking of Mossa, the merc soon becomes the commander of the ADF, and McGillis is soon contacted by the S.A.U. lead their forces against Arbrau.

Soon enough, Takaki and the Tekkadan Earth Branch is forced to work with Mossa and the ADF, and fight against McGillis leading the S.A.U. forces in the upcoming war. Meanwhile, Orga gets word of recent events on Earth, and decides to head there himself to oversee the Earth Branch. He orders Mikazuki, Eugene, and Akihiro to come with him, and Kudelia joins them in order to check on her mentor Mr. Makanai.

Hunter x Hunter: Taking on the Bomb Devils (who I’ve realized I’ve been calling Mad Bombers by mistake for the last month or so), Gon goes up against Genthru, while Killua and Bisky take on the latter’s two goons elsewhere using their spell cards.

At Soufrabi, Bisky reveals her true muscular form that makes he look like a JoJo character, and promptly beats the shit out of Bara. At Masadora, Killua takes out Sub with his incredibly heavy yo-yo, using a new electrifying technique that proves to be shockingly effective.

Lupin the Third: Someone begins painting pictures of those involved in the Italian Dream affair all over Italy, leading Lupin and everyone else to the Santa Maria delle Grazie, where someone has prepared an elaborate dinner in front of the mural of da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”. During this meal, where each course is a clue to the artist’s identity, Lupin eventually figures out who it is.

Lupin reveals that the artist and their mysterious host is none other than Leonardo da Vinci himself, having been resurrected by MI6 using Wataru’s notes on the Italian Dream, a collective consciousness inside the mind of every person on Earth where all mankind's knowledge is housed.

Naturally Lupin is right, and Gibbons summons his agent to kill everyone that now knows, forcing everyone to flee the scene. While running from MI6, Lupin stumbles across Leonardo himself, who manages to escape in a hovercraft/flying machine. But before taking into the night sky, he tells Lupin that he plans on changing the world soon.

Naruto Shippuden: While down about Lady Tsunade in a coma, Naruto and Sakura are given a nice surprise when they encounter Tazuna and Inari, having been hired to help rebuild the town. They then catch up and remember the old days, specifically when after Team 7 completed their first mission, how Naruto inspired Inari and helped him and his village fend off Gato’s remaining goons.

Outlaw Star: After picking up their new crew member, Aisha Clan-Clan, who had tried to kill them earlier, Gene and the gang continue on in the great space race. However, after a dirty tricked pulled by Harry MacDougall, the Outlaw Star gets lost in subspace for bit.

Fortunately, Gene pulls a daring move by piloting the Outlaw Star through an Aether Stream, which helps them get to the finish line. While they unfortunately make it in fourth place, they do make into first place on the Privateer class, breaking it even with their sponsor Fred.

Cowboy Bebop: We are introduce to Radical Ed, a young female hacker, who helps the Bebop crew track down the one responsible for causing satellites to fire laser into planet Earth, and carving strange drawings on its surface. She soon reveals that the culprit is actually an old A.I., who she calls “MPU”.

Apparently MPU had been feeling really lonely, and was trying to recreate the Nazca Lines that were destroyed during the Gate Incident fifty years ago, when it was just a spy satellite that would pass over it often. While guiding Spike and the others on how to get to MPU’s satellite through the lasers, Ed helps the A.I. make a copy of itself, before transferring itself to Ed’s computer.

That way MPU can avoid being sent the police, and be with Ed and her friends and no longer be lonely. Ed’s plan goes off without a hitch, but unfortunately for Spike and the others they can’t collect a bounty on MPU, due to it being an A.I. and not an actual person. Shortly after, Ed joins the Bebop crew, after forcing them to take her with them after remotely taking control of their ship.

GitS: SAC 2nd GIG: In order to obtain evidence of money laundering by a sleazy businessman with a fetish for prosthetic dolls/androids, Section 9 pulls off a fake heist in order to get them inside the vault. With the Major Kusanagi playing the thief, as well as clever misdirection and camera editing, the rest of Section 9 who are providing security manage to get inside the vault and find the evidence they need to arrest the millionaire.

That’s it for the recap, as well as this review! This week’s run of Toonami is about to start soon, so expect another review shortly after it. So see you guys in a bit for the Toonami live blog and Stay Gold!

Quick Update: I just found out that the Japanese voice actress for Bulma, Hiromi Tsuru, had recently passed away. There’s no words to describe this sad loss, she will be dearly missed. RIP and Stay Gold.

[placetobenation]

Steve’s Box Office Report: March 2010

Top 10 Films for the Month of March:

1. Alice in Wonderland – $332,430,200

2. How to Train Your Dragon – $217,581,231

3. The Bounty Hunter – $67,061,288

4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid – $63,901,573

5. The Last Song – $62,950,384

6. Hubble 3D – $52,499,484

7. Hot Tub Time Machine – $50,287,556

8. Green Zone – $35,053,660

9. She’s Out of My League – $32,010,860

10. Brooklyn’s Finest – $27,163,593

Honorable Mentions:

1. Our Family Wedding – $20,255,281

2. Remember Me – $19,068,240

3. The Ghost Writer – $15,541,549

4. Repo Men – $13,794,835

March Winners: Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, the Bounty Hunter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the Last Song

We now head into the spring of 2010 and after starting the year pretty dismally in January, we saw things pick up a bit in February and now we enter March as we had a few films that looked like they could do very well. This was especially true for family films as we had been pretty devoid of solid films for the last two months, and this month we have a couple of films that look like they will make some money which they do. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland, a sequel/remake of the classic Disney film where Alice returns to Wonderland to save her friends from the Red Queen and restore the White Queen to power. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics who praised the effects but felt the narrative was disjointed, but the mainstream audience embraced it fully as it would make over $330 million and would end up being one of the most successful films of the year. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the animated film How to Train Your Dragon, a film about a Viking teenage who tries to impress his father by becoming a dragon slayer only to befriend the dragon he captured. Coming out at the end of the month so as not to compete immediately with Alice in Wonderland, the film would receive positive reviews from critics and went onto make nearly $220 million which made it one of Dreamworks’ most unlikely success stories. The next film that makes it into this category is the comedy film the Bounty Hunter, a film about a bounty hunter who must catch his ex-wife who skipped bail and bring her in for her court date. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was too formulaic and wasted its stars, but the mainstream didn’t care as the film would make $67 million which was a nice little success for this film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the comedy film Diary of a Wimpy Kid, based on the book of the same name of two friends who try to become popular in middle school. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics and while it debuted under Alice in Wonderland, it would still go on and find some success by making nearly $64 million which ensured that the franchise would continue. The last film from this month that makes it into this category is the romance film the Last Song, based on the novel of the same name about a troubled teen who sets to reconcile with her father while also falling in love. As the second film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel to come out this and only a month after Dear John, the film would also receive negative reviews from critics though it still played out well by making close to $63 million which did fall short of matching Dear John. So it has become clear that the box office has been on the upswing since starting in a pit back in January, and now we will see if it keeps going up or if we plateau a bit before hitting the summer.

March Losers: Green Zone and the Ghost Writer

In a month that was mainly dominated by films aimed towards families, we did have a few films that were geared towards adults and as we saw, two of them managed to make it into the winners category. However, there were a few films that ended up not doing as well and we do have two films that end up being placed in this category. The first one that makes it into this category is the action thriller film Green Zone, based on the book of the same name about a solider who is serving in Iraqi during the Second Gulf War and his search for WMDs. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics and was also polarized for its status as a political film, and it would end up being one of the bigger bombs of the year as it barely made over $35 million which was a complete disaster for the film. The other film from this month that makes it into this category is the political thriller film the Ghost Writer, a film about a writer who is hired to pen the autobiography of the British Prime Minister and he uncovers secrets that puts his life in danger. Unlike a lot of the films from this month, this film would receive positive reviews from critics though it would have a soft limited opening in February, and it wouldn’t fare much better when it went wide as it finished with just over $15 million. While these two films didn’t do that badly that they would drag the month down with them, they were still pretty dismal in terms of the losers and they do remain blemishes on the month.

The Surprise/Story of March 2010: Moviegoers return to Wonderland as Alice easily takes top spot of March 2010

As mentioned earlier, 2010 had been devoid of films that were aimed towards families and the ones that had been released the previous two months failed to break out and only made decent money. With this month, you figured that Alice in Wonderland was going to do fairly decent and it was just a question of how high it would go, and the wildcard of the month was How to Train Your Dragon since Dreamworks was looking to launch a new franchise after Shrek and potentially Kung Fu Panda. There was a lot of intrigue with how Alice would turn out given that it was a live-action remake being made by Tim Burton and a lot of the focus was on Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the Mad Hatter. At the end of the day, Alice exceeded even the most modest of expectations as it easily debuted at number one in its opening weekend, and it would maintain control of the whole month until Dragon came out and it would be one of the more successful live-action remakes in history. Coupled with a strong performance from Dragon and a couple of other solid performances from most of the other films from this month, and March 2010 ended up being a very good month and thus far was easily the high point of the year at least until the summer.

Overachiever of March 2010: Alice in Wonderland

As the decade began, Disney had decided that they wanted to start introducing some of their newer fanbase to the classics from their library, but instead of just re-releasing the films they would instead remake them into live-action films as the technology made it more feasible to do so. They had already done one for the Jungle Book and two for 101 Dalmatians, and now they made the decision to make Alice in Wonderland live action which I’m sure was being seen as a major gamble given the content of the book and that the original was liked, but was not considered a classic. However, there was some intrigue with this film between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp coming together again for this film and the fact that it was treated as a sequel instead of a straight remake, and coming out at the start of March was a prime spot especially with a lack of family films out at the time. In the end, the film would have a great run that I don’t think anyone could’ve ever expected and it deserves the title of overachiever of the month, and it also opened the door to future live-action remakes which would become one of Disney’s hooks for the rest of the decade.

Underachiever of March 2010: Hot Tub Time Machine

Going into this month, there weren’t too many comedies that came out and you figured that something had the potential to breakout even amongst the family films since they were going for adults not interested in those films. One of the films that looked to be a potential breakout hit was the comedy film Hot Tub Time Machine, a film about a group of friends who go back in time through a hot tub and they try to change their timelines. The film would receive mixed to positive reviews from critics and it looked like it was going to do well even coming out against How to Train Your Dragon, but in the end while it did ok the fact that it just barely made over $50 had to be seen as a disappointment. While it was still well enough that talks of a sequel could now start, the fact that it didn’t break out like I think many were expecting leads to it being named the underachiever of the month.

March 2010 Awards Watch: Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, the Bounty Hunter, the Last Song, and Remember Me

As we head into the month of March, we officially put the close on the award season of 2009 and now we kick off the award season of 2010 with a few films from this month making it into this category. Now obviously it all comes down to what film gets nominated for what award and which award gets the most films included in it, and looking at it at face value it looks like the Golden Raspberries are once again the dominant award. Not all of them are included for that as the first film from this month that makes it into this category is Alice in Wonderland as it would win two Academy Awards (Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design) while being nominated for one more (Best Visual Effects). It would also be nominated for 3 Golden Globe Awards (Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, and Best Original Score) and this was a nice little haul for this film that had many question marks going in. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is How to Train Your Dragon which was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Animated Picture and Best Original Score) though it wouldn’t win either, and it was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award (Best Animated Picture) which it wouldn’t win though this was a good win for this film and Dreamworks. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the Bounty Hunter which was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards (Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, and Worst On-Screen Couple) though it wouldn’t win any of them. The next film that makes it into this category is the Last Song which was nominated for one Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Actress) though it wouldn’t win and those last two had the benefit of there being other films that were worse. The fifth and last film from this month that makes it into this category is the drama film Remember Me, a film about two young adults who fall in love while dealing with their own personal drama. The film would receive negative reviews from critics and was nominated for one Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Actor) though it wouldn’t win as again it benefitted from other bad films coming out during the same time. So as mentioned, the Golden Raspberry Awards once again have the majority of the nominated films and we will see if that continues or if the other two awards can outperform it.

Overall Thoughts of March 2010:

Overall, the month of March 2010 was a pretty good month and was easily the best month of the year thus far though in all honesty the bar was set pretty low thanks to January. It does help when one of the films released during a month is in essence guaranteed to be a blockbuster and March had that with Alice in Wonderland, but the fact they had two blockbusters this month was an added bonus. In addition to those two, the majority of the rest of the films were fairly solid and helped carry the month though most of the carrying was done by Alice which it did pretty easily for the most part. 2010 has not been the best year thus far as it started at the bottom of a pit and February helped pull it out a little bit, but thankfully March was a big success and now things look brighter for the year though we will see how things play out in April. As for the month of March in 2010, it was a pretty good month with two major blockbusters and a few solid performances by the other films.

Final Grade: B+