The run of Deadman Wonderland on CN ended last weekend and I'm ready to write it up. Looks like I'll be taking a break, since I've already seen Samurai 7 and Eureka 7.

Ganta Igarashi is a normal middle school student until one day a person in crimson armor crashes into is classroom and massacres his entire class. Instead of killing him, the Red Man embeds a red shard in his chest. Ganta is framed for the crime and is sentenced to the death penalty. He is sent to Deadman Wonderland, a private prison and theme park located in what was formally Tokyo. (Which was destroyed by an earthquake 10 years earlier.)

The death sentence at Wonderland is a lethal poison which is injected by a collar around the neck. Every three days, the prisoner needs to take a candy-like medicine to stay alive. Prisoners earn the candy by competing in the deadly games of Wonderland.

While there Ganta learns that he's gained the ability to manipulate his blood, which can be...

Deep within a SHIELD research facility, Loki (Tom Hiddleson) has opened a portal to steal the Cosmic Cube and taking control of Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner). As a result, the facility is completely obliterated.

In response, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) decides to activate the Avenger Initiative, calling on the most powerful of Earth's heroes to meet the threat: Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). With Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) joining them, can a group of heroes used to working alone pull it together in time to save the world?

Really, I couldn't imagine a better film about The Avengers. This is a film where everyone is on their A game. As out-of-control as RDJ was in Iron Man 2, he's back on point here. Hemsworth and Evans keep going where they left off in their debut films. Having Edward Norton bowing of this film was a...

In my waiting to see "The Avengers", which hopefully happens this weekend, I needed to catch up on the one film I haven't seen that sets up the film.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr) is riding high after revealing that he's Iron Man. Unfortunately, the tech that saved his life and allows him to be Iron Man is slowly killing him. As options elude him, he grows self-destructive. In the meantime, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has replicated some of Iron Man's technology and used it to try to kill Stark. Impressed by this, Stark's rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) hires him to create his own suits. But Vanko has his own agenda.

This movie really is kinda a mess for a couple of reasons. One, there isn't enough Iron Man. For most of the movie it is the Tony Stark show, and while Downey is great at it, the character wears on you after a while. Two, it doesn't help when the other dominant character in the first part of the film, Justin Hammer, is pretty...

Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) and her family are Borrowers, little people who live on the fringes of human society, borrowing what they need while keeping themselves hidden. One day, a boy arrives at the cottage (David Henrie) and spots Arrietty. A relationship builds between the two, but how is it going to affect Arrietty's family?

I've never read "The Borrowers", but the story is about what I'd expect it to be. Events are set in motion from the first moments of the film, and you know how it is going to end up by the end. That is fine, because this is still pretty good storytelling.

While the story was written by Miyazaki, it was directed by first-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. You can tell that the quality hasn't dropped off. The attention to detail in this film is...

In the future, humans live in small, isolated underground villages. In one, Giha village, young Simon works as a digger. He's friends with the delinquent Kamina, who he idolizes as an older brother figure. Kamina has dreams of leaving the village and going to the surface.

One day, Simon uncovers a small mecha with a face, which is dubbed Gurren. Soon afterwards, giant mecha called Gunmen crash into the village and start attacking them. Simon finds that he can activate Gurren and with the help of rifle-toting Yoko, they fight off the attackers.

With Yoko's help, they leave the village and get a crash course on the world. The outside world is ruled by beastmen in Gunmen who keep the humans in their underground villages. Kanima, after acquiring his own Gunman, Laagan, vows that he will fight the beastmen and take back the surface for humanity. He forms Team Dai-Gurren to make this fight.

To be honest, after seeing a bit of this on SyFy's broadcast,...

I'm basically going to use this as a repository for my reviews. If you all enjoy my reviews, please say so.

Travis Touchdown is an otaku who resides in a hotel room in the city of Santa Destroy. After winning an internet auction for a beam katana, he's out of money. That's when a mysterious blonde woman with a French accent by the name of Sylvia Christel. She offers him a job to kill an assassin by the name of Helter Skelter. After doing the deed, Sylvia announces that by killing him, he is now ranked #11 by the United Assassins Association. With that, Travis starts his quest for the top ranking in the UAA.

"No More Heroes" stands out on the Wii, being one of the few M rated games on the console, and it mostly earns it, with strong language, very bloody violence, and lots of sexual innuendo. Travis is a dork and seems to be a stand-in for a driven gamer. Given the ridiculusness of a lot of the opponents you meet, it is hard to take it seriously. It...