Friday, October 22, 2010

Despicable Me

Despicable Me is a 2010 American computer-animated 3-D comedy film from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment that was released on July 9, 2010 in the United States. The film stars Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, and Miranda Cosgrove. It is the first CGI feature produced by Universal, in association with its Illumination Entertainment division. It has been entirely animated in the French studio Mac Guff in Paris, France.
The story is of a supervillain named Gru who plans to use three orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, only to find that their innocent love is profoundly changing him.
The film earned positive reviews from critics, and grossed more than $246 million in North America, against a budget of $69 million.

Resident Evil After Life

Resident Evil: Afterlife is a 2010 3D science-fiction action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller. It is the fourth installment in a series of film adaptations based loosely on Capcom's survival horror video game series Resident Evil. It is also the first film in the series to be released in 3D. In the film Alice searches for and rescues remaining survivors in Los Angeles of the T-virus outbreak, who team up against Albert Wesker, the head of the Umbrella Corporation.
In May 2005, producers mentioned the possibility of following Resident Evil: Extinction  with a sequel titled Afterlife. Extinction was released in 2007 and was a box office success prompting Afterlife to begin development in June 2008, with the script being written by Anderson that December. Elements from the video game Resident Evil 5 were incorporated into the film.
Chris Redfield, a primary character from the video games was featured for the first time in the film franchise. Other characters from the games and films who return are: Claire Redfield, Albert Wesker, and Jill Valentine. Filming took place in Toronto from September to December 2009 using James Cameron's 3D Fusion Camera System. The film was released in 3D and IMAX 3-D theaters on September 10, 2010.

Resident Evil Extinction

Resident Evil: Extinction is a 2007 science fiction action horror film also categorized as a doomsday and zombie film, and is the third installment in the series of film adaptations based on the Capcom survival horror series Resident Evil. The film follows the heroine Alice, along with a group of survivors from Raccoon City, as they attempt to travel across the Mojave desert wilderness to Alaska and escape a zombie apocalypse. The film was directed by Russell Mulcahy and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson.
The film was released in the United States on September 21, 2007 and was commercially successful, grossing $147,717,833 worldwide. However, it received many negative reviews from critics. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on January 1, 2008

Monday, October 18, 2010

Coyote Ragtime Show

Coyote Ragtime Show  is an anime series directed by Takuya Nonaka and produced by ufotable, which first aired in Japan on July 3, 2006. The storyline consists of the adventures of a group of space-faring fugitives in search of a treasure.
ADV Films acquired the North American rights to the anime Coyote Ragtime Show and has released all twelve episodes in this series on 3 DVDs. In 2008, the anime became one of over 30 ADV titles transferred to Funimation.[1] In Australia and New Zealand, the series is distributed by Madman Entertainment. The manga was picked up by Broccoli Books, which managed to release two of its three volumes before closing its doors; the third volume is still listed on the Broccoli website as TBA. The future of the manga's English translation remains unknown.

Afro Samurai

Afro Samurai , also written AFRO SAMURAI, is a Japanese seinen dōjinshi manga series written and illustrated by manga artist Takashi Okazaki. It was originally serialized irregularly in the avant-garde dōjinshi manga magazine Nou Nou Hau from September 1999 to May 2000. Inspired by Takashi Okazaki's love of soul and hip hop music and American media, Afro Samurai follows the life of Afro Samurai who witnessed his father (owner of the No. 1 headband) being killed by the hands of a gunslinger named Justice (owner of the No. 2 headband) while he was a child. As an adult, Afro sets off to avenge his father's death and kill Justice.
The Afro Samurai dōjinshi was adapted into a 5-episode anime TV series by studio Gonzo in 2007. The same studio also went on to produce a made-for-TV movie sequel entitled Afro Samurai: Resurrection in 2009, which gained two Emmy nominations, for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, which it won, and Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More), which it did not win. After the release of the anime series, Takashi Okazaki remade the original Afro Samurai dōjinshi into a two-volume manga. To be only released in North America, Tor Books and Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the title and published it under their new Tor/Seven Seas imprint.
In addition to the success of the anime series, Afro Samurai has also been adapted into a video game and an upcoming live-action feature film. For the TV series and the film, two soundtracks by the RZA of Wu-Tang Clan have been released as well as a profile book in Japan.

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII  is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Released in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America and PAL regions, it is the thirteenth installment in the Final Fantasy series. The game introduced a few innovations to the series: a fast-paced combat mechanic, a new system determining which abilities are developed for the characters called "Crystarium", and a customizable "Paradigm" system to control which abilities are used by the characters. Final Fantasy XIII also includes elements from the previous games, such as summoned monsters, chocobos and airships.
The game takes place in the fictional floating world of Cocoon, whose government, the Sanctum, is ordering a purge on civilians who have supposedly come into contact with those from Pulse, the much-feared world below. Lightning, a former soldier from Cocoon, begins her fight against the government in order to save her sister, who has been branded a Pulse l'Cie—unwilling servants to the beings known as the fal'Cie, who maintain order on both Cocoon and Pulse—and thus has become an enemy of Cocoon. Lightning is soon joined by a band of allies, and together the group also become l'Cie after their encounter with a Pulse fal'Cie. Together, they rally against the Sanctum, while also trying to discover their "Focus" as l'Cie—the tasks they must complete before their time comes to an end.
First appearing at E3 2006, Final Fantasy XIII is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection of Final Fantasy games and is the first game to use Square Enix's Crystal Tools engine. Square Enix describes the theme of the game as "those who resist the world". Final Fantasy XIII received mostly positive reviews from video game publications. Selling over 1.6 million copies in Japan, it became the fastest-selling title in the history of the series. As of May 2010, the game has sold 5.75 million copies worldwide.

InuYasha

InuYasha , full title InuYasha, a Feudal Fairy Tale is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008. The series follows a time-traveling middle school girl, a half-demon, a lecherous monk, a fox demon, a demon slayer, and a nekomata during the Sengoku period as they seek to find all the fragments of the Jewel of Four Souls and to keep them out of the hands of evildoers, especially Naraku.
The manga was adapted as two anime television series produced by Sunrise. The first, broadcast for 167 episodes on Yomiuri TV in Japan from October 16, 2000 until September 13, 2004, was directed by Masashi Ikeda for the first forty-four episodes and by Yasunao Aoki for the remainder. The second series, called InuYasha: The Final Act, began airing October 3, 2009 to cover the rest of the manga series and ended on March 29, 2010.