Did you see the Batman – Gotham Night DVD? I am very interested in hearing how it is as I too am coveting everything related to the upcoming release.

For what it’s worth, I like Chop Shop and 4 Months but not so much Mr. Lazarescu. I guess there’s just no pleasing some people.

(Visit their main site at your own risk. As of right now it’s not sending you anything malicious when you go there, but allowing a known-hacked site to put web code in your browser is not a safe thing (TM).)

As a holdover until the real deal hits next week, its certainly passable. But if you have better things to do, then you can certainly skip it.

If anyone else has seen it, I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

My hands are on my computer screen, Rick…now what?

And aforementioned “obscure” anime is Monster, one of the most brilliant shows (animated or otherwise) that I have ever seen. So get your mind out of the gutter, G.

Sadly, it isn’t available anywhere outside of Japan, yet (we watched fansubs). It’s about a Japanese doctor in Germany who unwittingly saves a child who may or may not be the incarnation of pure evil, and then when he is framed for murder he is forced to leave his life and kill the boy he worked so hard to save. It’s a combination of The Fugitive and The Omen and it’s an incredible experience. There aren’t any giant robots or cheeky girls with enormous eyes or ridiculous stylistic choices. You can actually watch all 70 episodes online here.

http://monster.animeepisodes.net/category/Monster+Episodes+in+Order/15.htm

Highly, highly, highly recommended, whether you’re an anime fan nor not. This is gorgeous, complex, brilliant storytelling.

Either way I’m jealous of both of you that you play Rock Band together.

Thanks for another send. Stop-Loss falls in the “Best Early Movies of 2008″ along with City of Men. At this point I can’t say it will be in my Top 10 at the end of the year or anything, but I think that says more about how good some recent and future offerings are than how bad Stop-Loss is. If I’m hankering for an Iraq War movie (happens a lot, doesn’t it?), this will still be the one.

Yes, you can all be jealous of my wife now.

DVD–>Red–>Satan–>Jesus

And G, I had the opposite reaction. While I enjoyed Chop Shop, I didn’t really connect with it apart from a few moments, whereas 4 Months had me riveted the entire time. I like your comparisons to Das Boot, though.

So what does it say about everyone that they latched onto the Wikipedia game but ignored my introspective questions on the Iraq war lodged within the Stop-Loss blurb? Well, seeing as I spent the last 10 minutes trying to find a way to Jesus from DVD in 2 clicks, was does that say about me…

Anywho, I’m loving the Batman animated business. Its six segments are each done in a different style. That alone makes it worth watching. Thanks, Evan, for introducing your wifey to things she’d otherwise never experience.

By the way, could you take out the trash when you come home for lunch?

But in both cases, I can only bust out our old friend, admired but not adored. I admired all 3 of those films. I also actually enjoyed and was engaged by Chop Shop.

I think I just got claustrophobic in the other two – I started having flashbacks to Das Boot (I’m serious. All the interiors in 4 Months reminded me of Das Boot)

So G, are you saying that you liked Chop Shop but that 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days put you to sleep (which was one of my recommendations for Chop Shop)? Just clarifying. Cause if you didn’t like 4 Months…well…you might have to be excommunicated or something. Just a heads up.

G, the usual protocol is to simply hit “Random Article” and start from there. (Unfortunately, this usually leads to an article on some geographic location, which always has a section on demographics, which usually contains some reference to Christianity, which of course leads to Jesus. So it’s a pretty easy game.)

DVD –> Copy Protection –> Advanced Dungeons & Dragons –> Christian –> Jesus

That’s also four…I wonder if anyone can do it in three?

By the way, I think I disagree about Chop Shop…while I didn’t feel fully engaged during the first viewing, I think if I came back to it I would notice a lot that I missed. I’m not going to say that everyone needs to see this movie now, but I would definitely watch it again.

I guess I’m just a killjoy, and should know that I should start somewhere zany…

Anyway, since I’m apparently the resident shill for direct to dvd animation: I have already preordered the Batman DVD at (wait for it…wait for it…) the Redbox! I should have a review up tonight!

Chop Shop rocks. Romanian movies put me to sleep, or rather a depression-induced coma.