I saw a couple interesting ones lately.

1. Shutter Island. That was amazing. Everything kept me guessing until close to the end. Some of the scenes were pretty sad, though -sniff-

2. Cinderella. Its a Korean horror movie. It was really good, though very gory And like Shutter Island, it has lots of twists and turns.

3. A Haunting in Connecticut. Wasn't scary, really. And to me it was a lot like other haunting stories. -shrug-

I keep trying to watch Teeth, but I'm outnumbered by three revolted males who are too freaked out to even think of such a scenario

The future MrsOtherRick and I are now halfway through Season 2 of Dexter on Netflix, and we are so hooked. I watched Doomsday yesterday. It was sort of like Mad Max meets Resident Evil meets Underworld. I wasn't overly impressed. I got sucked in because I like the "end-of-the-world" genre of sci-fi movies. And then of course, NASCAR was on yesterday, which chewed up 3 hours of my day.

I keep thinking of Teeth as well. It sounds like a great idea to me!

I have been doing a John Wayne Western marathon with Netflix for the last week. I started with Rio Bravo, which was simply magnificent. The characterization really stands out in this movie, along with the dialogue. The actors all really deliver here. Angie Dickinson especially blew me away, and her scenes with the Duke were just magnificent. The plot was decent too, but I really could have cared less what the characters were doing, it was great fun just to watch them all on the screen! IMHO, this is probably the best Western John Wayne ever did.

El Dorado was pretty much a copy of Rio Bravo. Literally, it has most of the same basic characters, replacing Dean Martin with Robert Mitchum, and a very young James Caan in place of Ricky Nelson. The plot is basically the same, with a few things moved around is all. Not a bad movie, but when you watch it a few days after Rio Bravo, you really notice the similarities.

The rest have been kind of so-so. Rio Lobo was decent, although the broken English of the male co-star did not help things. The Train Robbers was again alright. The ending was fantastic though! I nearly laughed myself out of my chair, it was so brilliant. It was fun to see the Duke/Kirk Douglas team-up in The War Wagon. Chisum was good. But it kept making me think of Young Guns, which I had to say did the entire story better, especially the characterization of Billy the Kid. Whenever I think of William Bonney now, it is as Emilo Estevez: "Reap the whirlwind Sheriff Brady!"

Next up, Rooster Cogburn and True Grit. Neither of which I have seen for a very long time, but both are ones I have fond memories of. Especially Kate Hepburn's turn in Rooster.

CLASSICS! Definitely my favorite Duke flicks

Slightly off the beaten path here, but I've been heartily enjoying this guy's LP of a rather horrible game known as Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (which is yet another generic UE 3 FPS). His commentary will have you rolling.

Also, despite his pseudonym (Evil Tim), his humor is actually quite tasteful.

An OLD Kathleen Turner/Nicholas Cage film (you know it was well done with those two in it) - set in the 50's with a lot of the songs of that era - Peggy Sue Got Married ... or will she? - I loved it, it fit right in with the type of movies I like best = love stories that transcend time/death/species/etc.

Examples:

Cat People - man falls in love with girl that turns into leopard after mating - the Kinski one only

AI - child robot falls in love with human mother, goes through all kinds of hell to get her back

Swamp thing - woman's husband turns into swamp monster, she still loves him

The Fly - same exact scenario as above, substitute giant fly for swamp monster

Chances Are - Husband dies, soul jumps into baby being born - finds her when he is 20 years old - remembers their life together when he sees her.

Peggy Sue Got Married - Woman time travels back to just before her 18th birthday and has the chance to redo her future, and reshape others.

Ghost - man dies, his ghost comes back to save woman he loves

Yeah, yeah, I know. I have juvenile taste in movies, lol. But it is what I like.

Sensing a pattern here. What would Dr. Freud or Dr. Phil say about this...hmmmmm.

Oh, me too! A couple more that I like:
Somewhere in time
Beauty and the Beast

GAAAAH !!! I like both of them too! I was afraid to mention Beauty and the Beast, afraid someone would tie a bib on me.





Dr. Freud: "I see she is fixated on a father figure..."
Dr. Phil: "Gooolly! Uh-huh! Uh-yuk! What do you think, Oprah?"


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To use a mALX-ism...SPEW! (coffee finds keyboard) You slay me sometimes Ms. mALXie.

ROFL !!! If I had gotten my cup of coffee yet, your comment would have made me spew it, so we are even, lol.

I have been keeping up my John Wayne Western festival. After a spate of rather blah movies - The Comancheros, The Undefeated, Cahill U.S. Marshall - I saw a true gem today: The Searchers.

This is a very powerful movie. As one of the commentors said, it was not about the violence of the West, but rather what the violence did to people. Racism and hatred are the themes that flow through the entire film, how violence feeds and waters them, and how they burn people up. I have to give props to John Ford for making this film, and not shying from showing the ugliness and brutality on both sides of the West. In 1956, that was a real statement. Such as showing the aftermath of a US Cavalry massacre of Comanche. Or even more powerful, the aftermath of the raid on the settlers. Which is even more powerful because he never shows you the bodies. You just see the reactions of the characters.

Wayne's character Ethan is as much a villain as he is a hero (really an anti-hero, one of the few times Wayne ever played such a dark role). The main villain Scar is his mirror image in fact. Here is a man who shoots out the eyes of a dead Comanche, so that his ghost can never find the Spirit World, and will be doomed to wander the land for eternity as a lost soul. While he starts out wanting to rescue his two kidnapped nieces, half-way through the search we see that change. When he realizes that his surviving niece Debbie has been with the Comanches so long, she is probably more one of them than a White woman anymore. This picture illustrates that realization so powerfully. The way his eyes are shrouded in darkness as he stares with loathing at the White women taken from a Comanche camp.

I saw it on blu-ray, and I have to say wow. Even for a movie not originally done in the format, it is just eye-popping. The sky is bluer than blue, and the characters seem to practically jump out of the screen. A lot of that is just John Ford's cinematography. He went to great lengths to really make the landscape a character in the film, rather than just a backdrop.

Great film, that. Don't forget the iconic line:

"That'll be the day."

I just saw the Adjustment Bureau, which was good, as I expected. Really, when you have a Philip K. thermos story, the director of the Bourne movies, and Matt Damon, then end result is usually awesome. In this case, I was a little surprised on how the romantic side of the story was a very large part of the movie, as the reviews hadn't really painted it that way, but it was still an enjoyable movie. Terence Stamp as Thompson was a highlight.

I've been watching more European cinema recently and came across a real treasure which I shouuld have watched earlier. The lives of others is about a writer under observation under the Stazi in the GDR. The main character is a Stazi officer which gives it an unusual edge but it really captures suspicion and mistrust throughout. The characters a subtly put together but really shine and the mood is equally rich.

I'd really say this is one to watch, it's also remarkable how recently it's set...

I don't watch TV much, rarely a movie will come on I want to see. I caught this one last night - another chick-flick (as usual) - "Love Comes Softly" - about a rich city woman who travels west with her husband in a horse-drawn wagon. He gets killed their first day there, she is pregnant, and it is winter. (no stage coaches till spring). She is stuck there, and must marry a widower with a young daughter to have a roof over her head till she can get a stage coach home. Although nothing happens quickly or easily, she eventually ends up falling in love with both the widower and the little daughter by the time spring comes.

Yes, it was a tad predictable, but fun to watch. The little daughter steals the show with her amazing performance.

Anyway, it brought to mind another chick-flick I saw and loved - Stolen Women, Captured Hearts:

A young (red haired) woman's parents die and she travels west to live with her brother. On the way, the stage coach is attacked by a marauding tribe of native americans. They kill almost everyone but let her and another woman go. One really great looking man amongst them stares at her really hard - she somehow feels a connection to him.

When she arrives at her brothers, he promptly sells her to the farmer next door for a wife so the two properties will be tied together.

After mating on the wedding night with her new husband she is laying in bed (unhappy with her new husbands performance of his duties) and thinking about that one man that had stared at her during the attack. The next day she and the other girl that was on the stage with her are inside her new house when it is attacked by the same tribe - the man that stared at her is amongst them. In the attack they hurt no one, do no harm to the farm or others, but they kidnap the redheaded woman (WOO HOO!) and that other girl.

She has to live in the tent with the great looking guy and keeps trying to escape but he keeps catching her and bringing her back. So he tells her the reason he keeps bringing her back is that he heard her calling to him that night after she slept with her new husband. So they end up mating (HOT scene, but not hot enough to be rated) and she falls in love with him.

Then Custer (another great acting job on his part) comes and takes her back to that man her brother made her marry - and then IT IS ON because the great guy wants her back.

If I'm going to watch a western, this is what I want to see - it's about as chick as you can get - I loved it, lol.


Here is a clip of scenes from it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xs-8ussipQ...5E2915F5E23669C


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I got the Borne movies in a box set for my birthday. I guess I'll be watching those.

The Bourne movies are the exception to the rule that the movie is never as good as the book.

At first when I heard Matt Damon was selected to play Bourne, I was like "Matt Damon?? Are you kidding me??" I thought he was just too nice and too 'boy-next-door' to play such a complex character as Jason Bourne.

Then my brother rented the first movie on one of his increasingly rare visits to my house. I watched it with him, and had to pick my jaw up off the floor at several points throughout the movie. Matt Damon played the character with an intensity that exceeded that of the book.

Matt Damon owns Jason Bourne. There can be no other. I don't think you'll regret it.

Very enjoyable movies. If you like well done action/suspense, you'll like these.

Dr. Rider is correct...Matt Damon OWNS Jason Bourne!

Matt Damon is perfect as Jason Bourne, precisely because he has that ordinary, regular guy look to him. He is the perfect spy, because he is the kind of guy you look at once and then forget about as soon as you look away.

Plus the Bourne movies have Brian Cox, whom I have adored since his turn as Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter.

I have been continuing my John Wayne fest for the past few weeks. I have had several good ones: The Alamo (which was more about the myth than the reality, but no surprise really. I have never seen an Alamo movie that showed the Tejanos who fought to defend it.), where he really shines. The Cowboys was just bland, as I found Sons of Katie Elder to be. Fort Apache was a lot of fun, although Wayne is just a supporting character there. The Horse Soldiers, while inspired by Grierson's Raid IRL, just did not do much for me. Same with She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, which is the red-headed stepchild of Fort Apache.

However, I got a truly brilliant one in there. Stagecoach. When I was young people used to always rave about it, but I never got to seeing it. So unlike the others, this was my first time seeing it. Wow. It just blew me away.

First off, it is a character-driven piece, about a group of extremely diverse people all thrown together on a stagecoach journey. The ride, and the ever-present threat of Indians on the warpath, turns up the pressure on all of them, allowing us to see who they really are under the veneer of civilization (which some wear more heavily than others).

Wayne himself is simply magnificent. Any other description would be a disservice to him. He is the quintessential Western hero in this film. Larger than life, a man of simple ways, resolute determination, and a heart of pure gold. Right from the first moment you see him, you want to cheer. He makes a wonderful juxtaposition with John Carradine, who is actually young in this film! Carradine plays the Gentleman/Gambler, who is always at the service of the Upstanding Lady, yet practically curls his lip at the Fallen Woman. Where on the other hand Wayne is always the true gentleman, and treats both women with equal grace. Yet of course is drawn into a sweet romance with the Fallen Woman.

Add in the action scenes. While rare, they had a big impact on me. The reason being that this was shot in 1939. Before CGI, before wires. This was all done for real. We see a man leaping from a horse onto the fist of three pairs of horses pulling the stagecoach, while all are going at a full gallop. Then he is shot and "dies", falls to the ground between the horses, and the other horses and coach pass over him. One miscalculation and that stuntman - Yakima Canutt - would have been dead. Then Wayne (or his stuntman I am sure), makes a similar leap from the coach to the first set of horses pulling it, and then continues jumping to the leading pair. Goddess, those men have balls of pure brass!

Finished the Borne movies. I thought Identity was a little meh, but Supremacy and Ultimatum were fantastic!

Borne will have 2 armed guys against him and in a blink of an eye he'll have them knocked out with their guns in his hands.

Goin old school here. City Lights by Charlie the Chap. It was suprisingly AMAZING for such an old 'movie'. Made me cry at the end.

This film shows that even without words, one can express his thoughts with actions. Bravo is all I can say.

I am so digging Netflix. Last night, my better half and I finished watching Season 2 of Dexter. It originally aired on Showtime. What a great show! Twisted, but really cool.

Tonight we started a new series on Netflix that was also on Showtime originally. Jeremiah. The setting is 15 years after a virus has caused every human that had past puberty to die. The end of the world meets Lord of the Flies. Awesome show so far.

Not big on watching network TV - but have found myself watching two of these quasi reality shows:

The "Top Chef All-Stars" - Missed the end of the episode, but caught a preview of the finale, looks like the cousins Mike and Antonia are going to be "batter-ing" it out.

Celebrity Apprentice - Dionne Warwick got the axe - and pretty well deserved, (IMHO). Am I the only one that thought she was closet tippling through the show? Dionne looked smashed, appeared to be holding herself upright in the chair by dint of stiffening herself into a board, either that or 'The Donald' now knows where that missing broom went.

We'll probably be seeing her in "Celebrity Rehab" next, from the lines on her face that alcohol has been pickling in her for a long time.

She quit, then tried to take it back - said she "changed her mind." (Let's hope the new one works). 'The Donald' cannot tolerate a quitter, it never went into deliberation after that.

Let's face it - he himself never gives up. He has fought tooth and nail to keep those three hairs covering that bald spot for how many years? It isn't like he couldn't go to "The Men's Club" and get implants, he certainly has the funds. But he doggedly continues in the 'comb-over'.

I always wondered if "The Adoring Fan's" hairdo was inspired by him.


Her charity earned nothing during her stint in the show - pretty unimpressive for the Diva of the 60's.

"The moment I wake up..
Before I put on my make-up,
I take a little sip of you." ... Dionne Warwick

I liked that show, but I really did not like how they ended season 2. He was my favorite character. I have not watched any of season 3.

I know....Dokes was cool. We haven't seen Season 3 yet either.

I saw that last year. It was fantastic! If you liked Babylon 5, you will like Jeremiah. It was made by the same man: J. Michael Straczynski.

Tonight I watched My Soul To Take. A solid Wes Craven teen horror film. Lots of WTF is going on moments, plus a good amount of misdirection on the part of the director. It all adds up to a fun film.

Still going through all the seasons of Monk (yay Netflix!). Also watching To Serve Them All My Days- it is one of those BBC series. Set at a boarding school following WWI- the main character is a shell-shocked Welshman who becomes a history teacher.

It is a bit- slow... And the episodes can be uneven.

Ooooo....Babylon 5....Now I need to see if Netflix has that too!

They do have it. There were five seasons. It is one of the best Sci-Fi shows ever made. Unlike most t.v. shows of its time, the episodes were not standalones, but rather followed a larger story though to its conclusion. You will see smaller arcs within it, but each builds upon the latter. Just like Jeremiah was.

The first season is a bit rough, mainly because of the poor acting of the lead. They get rid of him and replace him with Bruce Boxleitner at the beginning of the second season, and it really takes off then. I have to say the ending of the first season really rocks though. "Nothing's the same anymore." You will see what I mean by that. Straczynski really knows how to tell a story, how to make it epic in scale. You will see parallels to LOTOR, which was definitely an influence. But mainly Straczynski understands the power of myth and the hero-cycle, and uses that to the utmost.

There were several made for tv movies after the series. One was In The Beginning, which is actually a prequel to the series, basically setting things up, and creating links between characters that even they do not realize are there. You might start with that. Or wait until after watching the series. It is not critical either way. When I periodically go back to re-watch it, I always start with it though, just to keep it all chronological.

Netflix is a wonderful thing.

Wrothken and I have been watching Scrubs for awhile. I can't believe I missed so many episodes! And I saw other ones so many times I thought some characters were in the show way, way longer than they actually were. Its a cute show, though I get sad whenever someone dies.

And I finally got to finish watching Teeth. It is officially my new favorite movie, just behind Hard Candy. I feel so bad for the poor girl when she first discovers her... um... gift. And some parts make me cringe for her.... but the "punishment" is generally deserved. Doctors make some funny comments while they attempt to fix what she does to the men. And the last mutilation was done in such a hilarious manner. Of course, Wrothken refused to watch it with me.

Today in the theatre: Sucker Punch.

This film is very aptly named, let me tell you. It invites you in with the promise of fetish and hot women killing monsters in increasingly unbelievable ways, takes all that preconception, and wallops you in the gut with it.

This was an extremely intense movie; a far cry from a summer blockbuster. The overarching theme of the film is escapism, and what some people do to cope with the world when it all turns bad.



Great ending, by the way; very unexpected twist.

This is NOT A movie about pandering to fetishism, this is a movie that takes everything you know about them and physically assaults with them. If you want a clear message of girl power presented in a crisp, burlesque package, I heartily recommend this one.

I saw Driven the other day. It was better than I expected it to be. Plus, the end was set in Detroit I really enjoyed the very tangled web of relationships between the characters. It did not really have cut-and-dried villains except perhaps for Burt Reynolds, who turns in a solid performance as the ruthless boss. They characters were competitors, but many of them managed to either remain or become friends through it all. Basically, they were just people with their own agendas. Stallone was good, and perhaps more importantly he had a good character. A man who had it all and lost it, and has been humbled by the experience. On the downside, the movie seemed unsure of what character to focus on: Stallone's, or the new kid he's been brought back to mentor. Because of that it often seems to wander.

I finished watching Claymore today. This is probably my fourth time watching the series. Again, I just loved it. It is packed with gore and ultra-violence, which I know draws in the young male crowd. But that is not what it is really about, which is why they get all flustered with the ending, which I loved.

It is set in a fantasy world where monsters called Yoma roam the land, eating people's innards. Making it worse, they can take human form to hide amongst people, and pretty well above and beyond anything a human can fight in an even battle. In come the Claymores, who are women infused with Yoma energy, making them powerful enough to fight the Yoma and win. They are tough chicks with big swords (hence the name).

However, the more Yoma energy (or yoki), they expend, the more like monsters the Claymores become. If they expend too much, they literally become monsters, and cannot go back to being human. The series revolves around this fight within each Claymore to retain their humanity in an incredibly violent and horrific world. The goriness and violence of the series is meant to underscore this. It is a nasty world these Claymores live in. Going from one battle to another, most have nothing else to live for but killing Yoma. They have no families, no friends, even the people they are sworn to protect fear and hate them because they are half-monsters. Their lives are simply one battle after another, and can only end one of two ways. They either get killed in a fight, or they Awaken and become a monster.

Enter Clare, who like many of them became a Claymore to get revenge on the Awakened Being that killed someone she loved- Teresa of the Faint Smile. Teresa had been the greatest fighter of her era, and took Clare in. In the process Teresa learned to live again. At least until she died (which I will not go into). Clare herself meets someone who changes her life - Raki - and the show revolves around the two polar opposite forces in her life. One hand there is her lust for vengeance that can only end in self-destruction - even if she achieves it. Then you have her love for Raki, which gives her a reason to live for the first time since Teresa. Seeing how it all plays out is just marvelous.

Now that is over though, I have that familiar post-series letdown. Whenever I watch a good series, I get so used to it, that when it is over it is a bit depressing. Now I have to decide what to watch next. I am thinking of maybe going back to my Horatio Hornblowers. Or maybe staying with anime and doing Twelve Kingdoms again, or Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars I & II. Maybe even Gunslinger Girl, in spite of how depressing it gets at the end.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" - with Colin Firth - WOO HOO !!!! A very well done Oscar Wilde.

Just saw The Lincoln Lawyer.

Read the book, liked it, saw the film was doing well enough on Rotten Tomatoes to justify seeing it, was actually impressed by some of the performances.

Especially Matthew McConaughey, who managed to act just a little differently this time around, but was still himself enough to pull off the Mickey Haller role.

The other actors turn in solid performances, and as a legal thriller it avoids the cliches by "solving the case" halfway in, while the rest of the film focuses on the legal jousting without trying to make it into a metaphor for something its not. It's the good parts of Law & Order with enough time to develop the characters and tell a story.

The Crucible - the actors did an awesome job with this, there was no point that I lost immersion because of bad timing or acting whatsoever, the story was powerful and riveting, it was extremely well directed - worth the time to watch this one !!

I am watching Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, and Banner of the Stars 2. All three are 12 episode anime series' starring the same two characters. Each is a separate story, at a different time in their lives. Like Claymore, the traditional gender roles are reversed, with the girl being the strong, silent, warrior type, and the boy being the more supportive type.

The shows are space operas, being set in a future where the galaxy is divided among 5 main factions. 4 of them are formed together in a treaty against the final one: The Abh Empire. The Abh are basically elves in space. But not magical fantasy elves. They are the result of genetic engineering, having been created to serve as slaves to work in space in the distant past. They rebelled and destroyed their creators. But they still continue the practice of genetic engineering, with all births being artificially done. The Abh's home is space, and they really have no interest in the planets they conquer as part of their empire. They really only want to control the space around them. So they tend to be very hands off in their rulership of regular humans (or "Landers") living on the worlds. Still, they are hated and feared by Landers, because they look different, and of course because it makes good propaganda for the other 4 nations.

I liked how the tackled the obligatory issue of FTL travel. It is done by using gateways called Sords that allow access into and out of Plane Space. Plane Space is another dimension laying beneath our own. As the name implies, it is only two dimensional, lacking the dimension of depth. To survive there, ships need to have a special engine that can create a Space-Time bubble around them in three dimensions. If a ship's space time engine goes out, it will be immediately crushed down into two dimensions, and everyone on board instantly killed. Combat in Plane Space is interesting, because it can only take place between ships whose Space-Time bubbles have merged. So it is by necessity at relatively close range. Because ships cannot jump into or out of Plane Space on their own, all movement through it is controlled by the Sords. So unlike in Star Wars, you cannot just hit your hyperdrive and be on the other side of the galaxy a minute later. You have to go from one Sord to another. So controlling the Sords means total control of space travel. So in peacetime this means regular trade routes through the Sords, and in war it means attacks can only come through those same routes.

One thing I like about the shows is that each is quite different in its plotting and feel. The first is your standard boy meets girl and they have space adventure kind of story. With the backdrop being the beginning of an all-out war between the Landers and Abh. The second series is your basic war story, with our boy and girl now years older and serving on a ship in the Abh fleet. The third is more about diplomacy, with our pair now acting as ambassadors to a planet conquered by the Abh, and trying to sort out is a very chaotic and violent revolution going on on the surface.

In addition to the two main characters, we also see a lot of the various Abh admirals and their staff chiefs during the shows, which keeps us up to breast on what is happening overall in the war. They do a good job of making all them unique and interesting, and very distinctly elfin/Abh in outlook. Some of them are just hilarious, like the Bebaus twins, one who is the admiral, the other the chief of staff of the same fleet. Both come from a family known for "Spectacular Insanity". Admiral Bebaus does not disappoint on this score either...

All in all, they are good anime shows, well worth the watch. All of them are based on a series of novels, and I hope that they make the final two into animes.

My husband and I just bought Roots, and we've been watching it one episode at a time. I read the book in high school and couldn't put it down. So far, I love it.

I'm watching The Confession on Hulu. Starts off with "A hitman walks into a confessional to talk to a priest." From there, it gets...good.

I can't explain it. What I can say is that you should definitely watch it. Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt are at top notch levels with this. For all the shots of two guys sitting in a congessional booth, the amount of struggle is truly impressive.

Currently viewing Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster on MST3K.



Incredible dialogue like this can only be dreamed up by the best, eh?

Sweeny Todd, with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, anyone?

I have that in my Netflix queue. I just have not gotten to watching it yet!

I am currently watching Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and outstanding anime from the 80s (Miyazaki, 'nuff said). Set a thousand years after an apocalypse, only scattered groups of humanity remain. If that were not bad enough a toxic jungle (the spores of whose plants will kill humans in minutes) is slowly covering the world, and is guarded by hordes of giant insects.

Nausicaä is the princess of a little farming community out in the middle of nowhere. She reminds me a lot of Teresa, as she has a way of charming the insects of the toxic jungle, and all other animals for that matter. She also has this really neat powered glider flying wing thing that she flies around on. She really is a very adorable character. Her world is turned upside down however, when a giant aircraft from a distant land crashes in the Valley of the Wind. Soon after come more planes, from a rival nation, after the cargo of the first.

It is a Giant Warrior, one of the weapons that destroyed the world a thousand years before. Most turned to stone after the apocalypse, and their shells can still be seen littering the landscape. This one was still in an egg though. Naturally, the other nations wanted to to control it, and the Valley of the Wind is caught in between them, and the insects of the toxic jungle.

Unlike most anime, when this one was slated fora U.S. release, they did not go cheap on the voice acting (most of the English dubbing in anime is so atrocious that I would sooner gargle razor blades than listen to it). Instead they brought in a pile of major actors. Patrick Stewart, Edward James Olmos, Chris Sarandon, Uma Thurman, and Mark Hamiil are the biggest names.

OMG, those are some big names! Many of those actors you listen are among my favorites!

That's on my queue as well. I'd like to point out something about the voice actors they've got.

They managed to get Captain Jean-Luc Picard/Professor X/EMPEROR URIEL SEPTIM VII of TAMRIEL!! (Patrick Stewart), Luke Skywalker/Batman TAS's The JOKER!!!/Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill), and Rear Admiral Adama/Jaime Escalante/Lt. Castillo (Edward James Olmos) in one series.

That the universe is still here, after enduring such a concentration of Awesome, speaks to the existence of God, who probably has also put this on His Netflix queue.

OMG, you're right! And I'm going to have to check this one out myself! (Also, don't forget Black Mamba/Emma Peel/Poison Ivy/G-Girl (Uma Thurman)!!)

I think it's time I get back into anime--I haven't watched a lot of it since high school, and I've been missing out... With kids, most of what I see on my tv anymore is Disney cartoons and Curious George (which is fine, but...).

Be careful, as a lot of anime is definitely not for children. If you want something kid-friendly, try Card Captor Sakura. It is very sweet and cute and even the antagonists are not really bad, just misunderstood. Even though it is definitely a kid show, it is still one of my all-time favorites. Plus, Sakura is just incredibly adorable!

For grown-up anime, it depends on what you are most interested in. I mentioned Claymore a while back, which has a lot of violence, but a very strong theme of humanity underneath it all. Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, Banner of the Stars 2 are also very good. Look back to see my post on them too.

Twelve Kindgoms has a goodly amount of action, especially at the start, but is seriously into character development. In fact, the three main characters are not too particularly likeable at first. But the more you see them grow as the story goes on, the more you cheer for them, precisely because they are becoming better people. It is basically an otherworld fantasy story, with sword fighting and magical creatures.

In spite of its silly name, Gunslinger Girl is excellent. Set in modern Europe, it is basically a spy thriller with sci-fi cyberware. Again it is primarily a character piece, and is rather dark and depressing, when you learn what has been done to the main characters. They are all girls, who have been brainwashed and cybered up to become assassins.

Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex was decent, although the plot gets a bit fuzzy at times. It is a futuristic sci-fi show, with robots, cloaking devices, cyberbrains, and lots of hacking. It is mostly action, but does make as stab at what the meaning of existence and individuality really is. Why the Major is walking around in lingere all the time is beyond me though. Oh wait, teenage fanboys , that's why...

The Good Witch of the West was a neat little series. It is a fantasy story, swords, knights, princesses, and creepy magicians. Mainly a political intrigue/mystery story with a bit of character development. It is the only time I have seen actual slash fiction about anime characters in the anime itself (which was quite hilarious!)

Witchhunter Robin was a good one. Set in the modern world, it is about people with psychic powers, not witches. A bit predictable, but with good characters, action, and intrigue.

Scrapped Princess was also decent. It is a mix of action/characterization. While it starts out strong, it kind of loses steam later in the show when you figure out what is really going on. They mixed genres a bit too much I think. Going from what seemed a straight fantasy story to a science fiction one.

Vision of Escaflowne was also good. Pretty much your basic girl travels from earth to a sci-fi world with mecha, meets a boy, and they have a grand adventure story. Lots of action, some romance and character work. The very ending was just blah though. Still, it is worth the ride to get there.

Fate/Stay Night is a magical story, but set in the modern world. The premise is that every decade there is a magical tournament, and the winner gets a wish. The losers die. Each magician can summon a servant, who are heroes from past ages, such as Hercules, King Arthur, Alexander the Great, etc... Has some neat turns to it, and is a fun ride.

All of these above feature female characters in either the lead role, or at least in strong roles. So if you like seeing girls drive the story and be more than just the protagonist's girlfriend, any of these will work for you. I believe Netflix has them all as well.

I do indeed prefer to see females as more than just the playtoys of men!

I think all of them sound interesting, and I'm the kind of person who will usually give anything a chance--I never make assumptions about movies without seeing them myself first, no matter what the critics say, that sort of thing.

My husband and I have watched some more kid-friendly anime like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sailor Moon, Hello Kitty, and Ponyo--definitely kid-calibur stuff. We've barely even scratched the surface of anime as a whole, and would like to see more. I'll likely give all your recommendations a try, and I'll let you know what we thought, if you'd like!

I would love to hear what you think of the anime's you watch. I recommend watching them with Japanese audio and English subtitles, as the English voice actors almost all of them use are just atrocious.

There are two more I can throw in as well.

Serial Experiments Lain is a mind-bendingly freaky series about a girl who just might be a god, or something else. But she is certainly not human. It goes very deeply into the philosophy of what makes people people, and what is reality and not.

Blood+ is an excellent anime about vampires, without it seeming like they are vampires at all because they are so non-traditional. It's about a girl who finds out that she isn't at all normal, and cannot really recall what happened to her before the preceding year. She finds her family beset by monsters, that only she can kill because her blood is poison to them. Then there is the creepy guy following her around, who won't tell her who he is, but seems to be her servant. A very cool series with action and character development.

Theres barely any anime available over here, so ive been searching the internets to find some, unsucessfully. The closest thing I got was final fantasy VII: Advent children.

Still a great movie, and square enix always amaze me with their unbelievable graphics and detail. Brilliant story as well, but you wont understand at all if you've never played the game.