I finally got around to watching "Million Dollar Baby" the other night. Great acting by Swank, Freeman and Eastwood but despite that and a few Academy Awards, I have to say I didn't really like the movie a whole lot. The first 2/3's of the movie was fine but Clint seemed to go out of his way to put the viewer in a depressive state by the last third of the movie(reminded me of Terms of Endearment) with no hope for the main character and too many loose ends for the supporting ones. Not meant to be a review, as I'm lousy at revoo-ing, but I found it depressing and couldn't wait for the end of it. Swank did a great job with her character though.

Thanks for the warning, I hate depressing movies. Movies are an escape for me and last thing I want is to escape into someone else’s depressing story.

Hockey. Was there anything else on tonight?

Well....until the 2-women bobsled event about 5 minutes after the game ended....could they have timed that any better?

Apperently not. In the semis there was only one second between first and eighth place.

I sooooo wanna ride one of those things...

I took a break from playing Bioshock 2 for the last couple of days and just watched all of “Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU” It’s a 12 episode anime split between 4 disks. Most episodes stand alone with one two episode story and a few half episode stories where each 15 minute segment is it’s own mini-episode. There are a couple threads that tie the series together including the romantic tension between some of the characters. That makes it a great anime to watch if you can only fit in one 30 minute episode at a time but if your like me I couldn’t stop putting in the next disk until they ran out since it’s that good.

If you’ve seen “Full Metal Panic” this whole series is like one of the high school comedy episodes from that series. More generally it’s a character driven comedy with moderate action an a touch of romance. If you haven’t seen the original series picture a slice-of-life high school comedy where the main premise is trouble gotten into by the very under socialized commando sent undercover there to protect one of the students.

The animation is great. Every character looks distinctive w/o resorting to wild hair colours or distinctive cloths and that includes the people in the background and on the streets. Motion is fluid and no using speed lines or fast pans over a stationary pictures as far as I recall. Facial expressions and body language especially for the main character are superb adding greatly to the impact of scenes. Only a small amount of fanservice but no nudity.

Audio is 5.1 and sounds pretty good. Some occasional LFE and mild surround sound use mostly when people are yelling in crowds. Music is ok but nothing stand out, so I’d say it does it’s job w/o calling attention to itself. Where the audio really shines is in the voice acting. The dub is great. Lines are delivers so well especially the timing and integration with the “cinematography” (not sure how else to describe it) that it’s easy to forget your watching animation. Some foul language in one scene is not completely “bleeped” out for comedic effect. And some sexual innuendo but those old enough to get it probably would be bothered by it. I can’t stress how well the English dub is written and lines are delivered. If timing is everything in comedy this one gets the timing just right.

There is also a lot of parody. Not just of other anime but also major movies. One that works really well is a take off on the “Austen Powers” nude scene where things just happen to keep blocking the naughty bits.

I’d give this 4.5 stars or an “A.” Just misses top marks for a couple reasons. It’s to damm short. I liked these characters and want to see more of them in this environment. Also, it doesn’t really have an ending so to speak. While that’s understandable from a stand-alone episode format I was hoping they would do something more with the romantic thread to sort of punctuate the ending. This is definitely an anime I’ll be watching again.

AnimeNewsNetwrok

T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews

I usually avoid the English dubs due to the tendency toward lackluster performances, but it sounds like this is a fine exception. I'll have to put this one on my list.

I've been watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Season One on Blu-ray. I don't like how the people look, but otherwise the art and animation are very pretty. I've only been watching at night, so I haven't been able to crank the sound, but it seems pretty decent. Of course, it's annoying that it's only Dolby Digital and not a lossless codec. It's also too bad the writing of the show is so uninspired. Maybe it'll get better as it progresses, but as of now (five episodes in) there hasn't been much meat to the story, and the dialogue is as bland as can be. Here's hoping that turns around.

IMO it’s great English voice acting. It’s also got Japanese audio but I don’t know if it’s 5.1. I didn’t even sample the Japanese audio so I can’t offer a comparison but the reviews say it’s great too.

I saw the “Clone Wars” movie and liked it. I liked the introduction of the Ahsoka Tano character. I’ve been putting off watching the series until I can collect more of them to watch all at once. The look of the characters also puts me off. Sort of felt like I was watching a play with the characters wearing masks with exaggerated features.

I went to see Shutter Island. We almost saw Avatar, finally, but somehow we decided not to. Shutter Island was okay, but overall it didn't really do a lot for me. I guess I can't really say a lot about it without spoiling anything, and there wasn't very much to the story in the first place. I guess it's one of those movies where I kept hoping for more.

Dean, you may want to read this reviewer's differing opinion on Heroic Age in case his tastes are more in line with yours.