Another big old list of dvds

[sqbr]

A follow on from this post, what I've rented from Quickflix since then. All votes out of 5, if unrated it means Cam rented it. But pay them no attention, I'm very inconsistent with voting.

• Mitchell and Webb Situation, The : 2. The unfunny precursor to the very funny "That Mitchell and Webb Look". They are disconcertingly young, so I forgive them :)
  
• Top Gear: The Challenges: 4 They turn a car into a spaceship what more do you want? (Ok, I didn't actually watch anything else, but that was enough :))
  
• El Hazard-OVA Collection (up to disk one): 4. A bit dated and bits bug me (like why on earth do the closing credits have all the female characters naked on flowers??) but still a surprisingly enjoyable "Schoolboy finds himself in magical fantasy land" anime.
  
• Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, (up to disk one): 4, but I'm not really sure what I think of it. Very..odd. But interesting.
  
• Planetes (up to disk two): 4. A bit slow and doesn't grab me like some shows, but the only anime (or any tv show) I can think of which actually tries to tell stories about what every day life would be like in space in the near future.
  
• Hidden History of Homosexual Australia: 4, reviewed here.
  
• Lexx-Season 1 (up to disk two): 3. This is incredibly, unbelievably cheesy, but actually kind of fun once you get over that. Kind of like Xena I guess, except I never actually liked that show.
  
• Bleak House: 5. Made of awesome. (If you like Dickens adaptations, anyway)
  
• 30 Rock-Season 1 - Disc 1: 3. Not as clever or funny as it thinks it is, and overall too annoying to watch.
  
• Discovery Channel-Great Egyptians,The-Volume 1: 2. Cam didn't like this.
  
• Return, The (Vozvrashcheniye)
  
• Discovery Channel-CIA Secrets - Disc 1:3. Dull and slow and too much in the CIA's pockets.
  
• Doctor Who Season 3:4. See all these posts :)
  
• Blackpool: 4. See this post.
  
• Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (up to disk two): 3. Fun little anime, two kids Sliders like are forced to travel alternate universes trying to get home, except each world (and episode) is a parody of a different kind of anime.
  
• Samurai Champloo-Volume 1:4. Oddly effective fusion of hip-hop culture and samurai. Not entirely my sort of thing, but fun.
  
• Manchurian Candidate, The: 3. Too dated for me, I got bored and gave up. But not a bad film for what it is.
  

Hmm. This is the second day I've slept all morning, felt half awake all afternoon, and been all awake and inspired to blog in the evening. This is not an optimal cycle :/

Comments

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

Have you watched any Peep Show? It's the *other* show with the two guys from That Mitchell and Webb Look (which I still haven't gotten around to watching). Very, very funny, in an "oh my god these characters are so painfully hopeless why do they keep digging themselves deeper oh god I can't stop cringing but I can't look away because it's so funny" kind of way ;)

[alias_sqbr]

I tried, but it was too painful for me. Which is a pity, because it was funny.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

Aside from the theme song, and possibly incidental music, how is "Samurai Champloo" a "fusion" of hiphop and samurai?

(not trying to be quite as aggressive as that sounds, but eh)

I did like Bleak House when it was on. Gillian Anderson had an interesting character.

[alias_sqbr]

Oops, should have said "hip-hop culture" not just "hip-hop".

The plot contains anachronistic elements of hip-hop culture: mostly the music, but also fighting which resembles break dancing and stuff and just the general..vibe and focus. There seemed to me to be a definite parallell being made between the gangs of samurai/yakuza etc of the Edo period and modern street gangs/gangsters.

I'm still not sure if it's ok or weird cultural appropriation. I was talking about it with a Real African American Hiphop Fan and he thought it was awesome, which is something.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess I can see where the other elements of "hiphop" can be identified in it. It's a pretty fun show to boot.

[alias_sqbr]

Absolutely. I must get around to watching the rest of it (so much to watch!)