Up first this week is a 4K release of Contagion. I hadn’t seen the Steven Soderbergh film since it came out in 2011 and watching it in a post-COVID world, it’s more like a documentary than a drama someone made up for a movie. A virus starts off in China, finds its way to the US and around the world killing people, over running hospitals and causing chaos throughout. The CDC and other health organizations work to find out what this virus is and how to fast track a vaccine. Pretty much mankind’s existence the past 4 years. Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Bryan Cranston, Kate Winslet and many other Hollywood names star. The 4K looks fantastic because Soderbergh is a master at using color. Scenes and characters have different tones and color filters and the film is well worth the upgrade. Having been over a decade since I last saw it I really didn’t remember much beyond the cast and didn’t remember Jude Law’s character reporting on conspiracy theories and the government hunting him down. I know people rewatched it (along with Outbreak) when they locked us down in 2020-21, but if you haven’t, it’s a pretty eye opening rewatch with how accurate it became.
Most anthology films tend to have one or two segments I like with a few segments not as good. Unfortunately I didn’t like any of V/H/S 85. Pretty much the king of anthology horror, the V/H/S/ franchise is one I usually support, but I could not get into this one even with a segment by Scott Derrickson. It opened well with one story involving kids at a lake being shot down before becoming undead. It’s at least the most watchable segment. There is a later segment connecting it with a family secret and why those kids were shot. One segment is about a disaster in Mexico and a creature being awaken. The absolute worst involves a one woman play about the advancement in technology, but it’s supposed to be 1985 and the idea of VR was around, but it felt way too new especially the eye-phone puns. I was looking forward to this and was quite disappointed with it.
Next we have The Moon, a Korean film about their space program trying to get to the moon and rescuing one of their astronauts. It relies heavily on F/X and CGI and looks really fake because of it, but it’s not that bad of a watch. It feels like The Martian, but a lot of sci-fi feels the same anyways. A tragic accident sets back Korea’s space program, but they get it back up and send three astronauts to the moon, but something goes wrong and one astronaut needs to be rescued with help from an old program employee. There’s a lot of pro-Korean propaganda in it trying to make them look good and intelligent and that’s fine, they did make the film. I was surprised they didn’t try to make the US/NASA look bad and in fact they have good things to say about them by the end. It’s not something that’s going to wow too many people, but if you want some realistic science fiction it’s good for a fix.
Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman is a Korean supernatural film about a guy who does fake exorcisms for money until a client shows up over paying for his services. Her sister is having issues and soon he’s in over his head. He has a past and is the grandson of a shaman, but he doesn’t quite know how to deal with his new circumstances. I’m not a big paranormal guy so this isn’t quite up my alley and I don’t know if it’s based on any mythology from over there. The third act has lots of effects and gets into the supernatural stuff. I liked the beginning more when he and his assistant were putting on fake rituals and scamming one family. It’s not something I’d watch again, but if you like supernatural stories especially Asian ones you’ll probably like this.
The longest title of the week is I’ve Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills – Complete Collection. This is quite odd even for anime. A farmer gets powers as he becomes a better farmer. He quickly saves a princess and one punches a guard and sets the tone of the show from the get go. When not farming (which he reminds people of all the time) he decides to use his powers and go on adventures and save the day. All the characters have a sort of status bar (like in video games) and everyone can see other people’s statuses and they update when successful. Like I said odd. It’s 12 episodes so it’s a quick watch. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it was good enough for a watch.
Last we have Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible – Complete Collection. This came out last week, but I needed some time off and didn’t have time to get to it then. Shiraishi feels invisible to everyone, but his family. He gets walked into, ignored and most of the students at his school think he skips school all the time. All, but Kubo, who teases him and pushes his boundaries of invisibility to others. Secretly she develops feelings for him befriending him, communicating with him and so on. It’s another quick watch that fans will enjoy. Non-fans won’t jump to other anime after watching it, but it has a lot of the tropes you see in teen anime, the longing of normalcy, the curiosity of others, etc.
The Nerds Templar 