June 2014

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

  • Title: Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
  • IMDB: link

Journey to the West: Conquering the DemonsCo-writers and directors Stephen Chow and Chi-kin Kwok‘s comedic take on one of the four classic novels of Chinese literature stars Zhang Wen as would-be Buddhist demon hunter Tang Sanzang on his road to enlightenment. On the road he meets a far more experienced demon hunter (Qi Shu) who begins to fall for the goofy Sanzang.

Offbeat, humorous, and more than a little uneven, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is a bizarre horror-comedy with subplots ranging from a love story to Buddhist enlightenment to the intelligence of using fairy tales to fight monsters. Featuring battles involving pig-monsters and giant fish, the movie features an odd collection of characters in the Monkey King (Bo Huang) and rival bounty hunters with the strength and speed of a tiger (Yu Xing), a giant foot (Chaoli Zhang), and telekinetically-powered swords (Show Luo). More of it works than not, but at times it’s thoroughly engaging and at times it’s just plain weird.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – The Wrath of Tiger Claw

  • Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – The Wrath of Tiger Claw
  • wiki: link

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Wrath of Tiger Claw

The latest episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles not only brings back Tiger Claw (Eric Bauza) but also will finally force Karai (Kelly Hu) to deal with the truth of her parentage. Out for revenge, Tiger Claw beings attacking friends of the Turtles starting with Casey Jones (Josh Peck) and Mr. Murakami (Sab Shimono). Playing on the sympathies of April (Mae Whitman) and Leonardo (Jason Biggs), Karai tricks the Turtles into bringing her into their secret lair planning to lead Tiger Claw straight to them.

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The 7th Sword #2

The 7th Sword #2The recent attack on ZenZion and the death of the city’s leader forces Kathleen to make some hard decisions. First she decides to make a stand against the warlord Kavanaugh. To do that she’ll have to use up the secret cache of weapons her father has been collecting for years including a Hammerhead robot, but more importantly she’ll have to convince the city’s new samurai prisoner to stay and fight by promising to send Daniel Cray back to Earth if he trains the townspeople to stand-up to the warlord.

Building on the first issue, The 7th Sword #2 explains a little more about the Malanthe (the futuristic katana Daniel Cray is an expert in using) and a bit more of Cray’s past and the stigma a samurai has on this outpost world while also foreshadowing the betrayal of ZenZion.

The 7th Sword #2 sets up the arc for the remaining issues of the mini-series with the warrior agreeing to train and fight for ZenZion while teasing the possible romantic entanglement of Cray and Kathleen which might entice the samurai to stay far longer. Worth a look.

[IDW, $3.99]

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Continuum – Revolutions Per Minute

  • Title: Continuum – Revolutions Per Minute
  • wiki: link

Continuum - Revolutions Per Minute

Following Betty‘s (Jennifer Spence) death, Dillon (Brian Markinson) has second thoughts on using his daughter Christine (Laci J Mailey) to infiltrate Liber8 and enlists Kiera’s help to get her out. Understanding Liber8’s method of attacking companies who will grow into the Corporate Congress, Kiera discovers a likely target in a small pharmaceutical company whose influence will grow exponentially in the coming decades.

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