I'm about half way through the 2nd season and now I tend to agree with Adrian. It's so different and weird that it's actually making it boring. Besides (now the real reason comes out), it doesn't use any LFE to test my new subwoofer.

I just watched “Crest of the Stars.” It’s a 13 episode (about 25 minutes each) on 4 disk anime.

Both these reviews pretty much sum up my thoughts on this series:

T.H.E.M. Anime

Anime Planet

In a nutshell this is a character driven “boy-meets-girl” drama set in an epic space opera but w/o becoming soap opera-ish. The animation is substandard for today but doesn’t detract from the main point of the series, the story. The audio is nothing spectacular but the music does enhance the space opera setting. Plot progression is slow for those into action/monster of the week fare, however being sourced from a novel shows though in the rich presentation of the story and characters. Despite being a clichéd topic, boy-meets-girl, the way it’s presented lends a whole new life to the old genre.

This series continues with “Banner of the Stars,” “Banner of the Stars 2,” and AFAIK “Banner of the Stars 3,” and a movie. The first two also get high marks from reviewers for the same reasons a “Crest of the Stars,” but I haven’t read any reviews of #3 or the movie. I’ve just stared “Banner of the Stars” and it’s pretty much holding up with “Crest of the Stars.”

Note that if you plan to watch these do it in order or you will miss out on the story progression and character development. Also note that at both the beginning of “Crest of the Stars” and “Banner of the Stars” they start with a battle where it sounds like everyone is speaking Japanese w/o subtitles even if you’ve selected the English dub. However, this is not Japanese and it “is” intentional. It is a made up language of one of the races, appearing again at the beginning narration of each episode (with subtitles this time). Fooled me into not watching it for a long time until I read a review and realized what was going on.

If you like a good dramatic story with interesting and likable characters this is a must try. If you prefer most of today’s Hollywood movies and American TV shows run away very quickly.

I'm still working on Monster. It's pretty good. I wouldn't say it's a classic yet, but there have been some good moments in the storyline.

A movie I love ....

I watch "Constantine" again last night, first time on Bluray with HD Audio, bitstreaming..... and with the Axiom setup

I thought the audio was done really well.... lots of surround, but surround as it should be, the LFEs were all there and incredible, but not over done.

Almost a Demo for people who have the time to watch a whole movie!

I started watching "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" again last night. I had not seen it since its original broadcast and untimely demise.

What a good show! Very smart writing.

One has to wonder, was it really "smart writing" if it was taken off the air?


I guess it depends on what your definition of smart is. :P

Oh I think it's pretty obvious that there is not necessarily a direct correlation between "smart" and "marketable"

I just watched, well tried to watch, the “Halo Legends” Blu-ray. It’s a collection of short stories akin to “The Animatirx” or “Heavy Metal.“

I got through the first to setup pieces “Origins and Origins 2” which are nothing more than narrated information dumps giving the back-story to the Halo universe. The third segment “The Dual” was so badly animated I couldn’t watch it. I only made it part way through the 4th segment before getting so bored I turned it off.

Going back to Netflix I looked at the glowing reviews on the first page. I clicked over to the second page of reviews, something I didn’t do the first time, to see an almost unbroken string of single star ratings. Some reviewers did say that the later episodes were “tolerable,” but I’m not going to bother with any more of it.

Big thumbs down, -1 star (at least). IMO hooking up an old pair of rabbit ears and watching the static would be more entertaining.

I will watch both volumes of Kill Bill today on Blu-ray tonight.

Nice.