Each Thursday (or Friday, since some weeks we seem to be running behind on everything), Needcoffee.com's staff of whackos will wrack our brains to give you interesting and new things to do over the weekend. Books, movies, whatever. We'll throw them out, you do with them what you will. And hey...if you have something you want to recommend--whatever it is--drop us a line.
Incidentally, we've provided links where we can for you to buy the stuff or find out more if you're interested, courtesy of those Amazon types, in the US, the UK and Canada.
Hey, come on, we can't be totally selfless in this, can we?
March 18, 2005
Book of the Week:
by Andy Riley. What can we possibly say about this book that hasn't already been said? There's just something
so delightfully perverse about how badly these cute little bunnies want to bite the big enchilada and to what lengths
they are willing to go to ensure their stoic demises. So many suicidal bunnies that you expect it to have a soundtrack by
Air for God's sake. This Plume release is certain to bring a big chuckle. From everybody but Dindrane.
(UK)
(CAN)
Audiobook of the Week:
by Adrian McKinty, performed by Gerard Doyle. Alexander Lawson served on the drug squad in Northern Island.
Trouble is, he wound up becoming a heroin junkie and got booted from the force. Now he receives word that an ex has been
forced to take a dirt nap in America, and he's sent over to try and found out what the hell happened. So a heroin addict
on his own in the States is trying to solve a crime when he can barely keep his own shit together. Blackstone's got it
unabridged, so nibble on this tasty thriller.
(UK)
(CAN)
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Dave Gibbons. Yes, that's the same Dave Gibbons who brought you the art for
Watchmen. Here he scribes as well, to give
you a story about gangs in an alternate future of hoverbikes and domed cities. When a young teen wants to hook up with
one of said gangs, he finds himself joining The Originals with a buddy. However, their paths start to go different directions
when there's a girl involved (ain't that always the way of it?). Definitely worth a weekend read, it's handled out of the UK
by Titan.
(UK)
(CAN)
TV DVD of the Week:
. World War II was a time for Britain to get the shit bombed out of it. Adding even more injury was the fact
that not all the ordinance actually went off, so enter the UXB guys--which stands for UnExploded Bomb. Yeah, fun job, huh?
You get all thirteen episodes of the series thanks to A&E Home Video, plus an
episode on the subject from the History Channel's Suicide Missions
series.
(UK)
(CAN)
DVD of the Week: . Probably the most criminally underappreciated film of last year, Paramount dropped the ball on the theatrical release but looks to be trying to make us feel better (somewhat) with this DVD. This love letter to adventure serials comes with two commentaries are here, one with producer Jon Avnet, and another with helmer Kerry Conran and his effects crew. There's two featurettes, the original short that Conran created as proof of concept, deleted scenes and a gag reel. So good you'll call up Conran to personally apologize for missing it in the cinemas. (UK) (CAN)
Foreign Film of the Week:
. Facets Video brings you the epitome of the song, "Looking For Love in All The Wrong Places." During the
Cuban Revolution, the title character joins up with rebels looking to bring down the government, but falls for a Havana chorus
girl. It's only a hop skip and a jump to a love triangle and as you can probably guess, hijinks ensue. Not without humor,
it's worth a watch if you're looking to catch something different.
(UK)
(CAN)
Anime DVD of the Week:
. In order to make up for the really terrible theatrical release strategy for Miyazaki films, Disney is working
off the guilt by releasing respectable DVDs of his other works with new English vocal casts. In this one, the likes of
Rene Auberjonois, Peter Boyle, Tim Curry, Cary Elwes, Elliott Gould, Anne Hathaway, and Andy Richter are on hand.
This comes with a behind-the-scenes featurette on their recording session, a rather nice making-of featurette,
the entire film in storyboard form, and Japanese trailers.
(UK)
(CAN)
Adverse Video of the Week:
. Long before Joel Schumacher decorated Gotham with neon and nipples, he was giving you this look at a cab
company in the American capital that's broke, trying to get forced off the streets by rivals and now they have to deal with
kidnapped kids. Starring Mr. T--always a plus--it's called a cult classic by some, and so bad that it's good by others.
Which is how it ended up here.
(UK)
(CAN)
Family DVD of the Week:
. They've gone from entertaining you via answering machines to teaching your kids the alphabet. Los Johns are
bringing in some animation and puppets to help. They even become puppets themselves (maybe they were in that Angel
episode) and provide tracks like "Who Put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?" and "E Eats Everything." There's four bonus
tracks on this Disney Sound release as well, if you buy it from Amazon.
(CAN)
Docu DVD of the Week:
. Are you a Discovery Channel junkie? You know what we're talking about. It doesn't matter what it is, if it's
some kind of edutainment, you just can't look away. Well, Columbia-Tristar offers up this recent special that wants to
find the eldest son of Rameses then figure out if God was really the perp that killed him. Yeah, I know, sounds like
CSI: Babylon when we talk about it that way, doesn't it?
(UK)
(CAN)
Music CD of the Week:
. Even if you haven't heard of the qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, you have at least heard his work.
Working with Peter Gabriel, Eddie Vedder and others brought him into the world's view, as well as his music being used
in film projects. Fans will be pleased to note that Narada has released this two-disc set featuring seven rare tracks
from the archives. Sprawling world music goodness.
(UK)
(CAN)