The Ultimate Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Review
June 29, 2009
I want to thank our regular listener AtomicBetty for sending this review to me, it is quite possibly the best review of the new Transformers movie I have read yet. I was laughing out loud. Click the link below and prepare to have your mind expanded 
Let’s face it, this is what we are all thinking.
http://io9.com/5301898/michael-bay-finally-made-an-art-movie?skyline=true&s=i
The Bodyguard to be sort of remade!!! Oh My God It’s Miley!
June 29, 2009
I think Hollywood may now have officially reached creative rock bottom. Variety reported that Hugh Jackman and Miley Cyrus are teaming up for a ‘kind of’ tween, musical remake of The Bodyguard (remember Whitney and Kevin?) called Personal Security (obviously tweens don’t know what the word bodyguard means).
Jackman will play a New York police detective who is forced into bodyguard (sorry, personal security) duty for a spoiled teen heiress (Cyrus, obviously playing against type) who has received a kidnap threat. I am sure the little pre-teen girls will be lining up for blocks for this one.
This is one film I can honestly say that I won’t be waiting for.
Australian Censorship Strikes Again! Online Gamers Beware
June 29, 2009
It’s been awhile since we at Geek Actually had a go at the Australian Federal Government, but something new just came up and here we go again. The Sydney Morning Herald had an interesting article today, which you can read here.
In a nutshell (and I am paraphrasing a lot), Stephen Conroy (The Federal Communications Minister) has announced that the internet censorship program, that is currently being tested in Australia by nine ISPs, will be broadening it’s scope to include online games. That’s right, games like World of Warcraft and Second Life suddenly have a cloud of uncertainty in Australia because the online aspects of the games don’t carry an Australian rating and therefore are technically illegal here.
The scope goes even wider though as it will also affect downloadable games, flash-based games and sites that sell games from overseas. As we have mentioned many times on the Geek Actually podcast, Australia is the only developed country to not have an R18+ rating for games, even though the average age of gamers here is 30 (according to research commissioned by the IEAA (Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia))! This means that if a game is deemed to much for an MA15+ rating it is refused classification (RC), essentially being banned.
Under the new censorship laws, adults who would like to purchase or play an adult oriented game online will not be able to. I will mention again that we are the only developed country in the world that does not have some kind of adult classification for games.
If you are mad about this, do something! Write to your Federal Minister and voice your concern.
The argument that the government has been using for years has always been that children might get their hands on this evil stuff. This is a stupid and ignorant argument that makes no sense when you consider that you can have R18+ movies in your house. Maybe a little parental supervision is needed if you are worried that your children might play the game. They certainly wouldn’t be able to buy the game if it had the proper age appropriate classification on it.
Ron Curry, Chief Executive of the IEAA summed it up in the above mentioned article by saying, “It’s through the introduction of an R18+ classification that adults will have access to age appropriate material and parents will have the full toolkit to understand the suitability of content for their children.”
On a lighter note, Stephen Conroy has been nominated by the British ISP industry for its annual “Internet Villain” award. His competition is the European Parliament and Nicolas Sarkozy. Good luck Mr. Conroy, I hope you win, you deserve it.
Geek Actually Episode 41 – More Than Meets the Eye
June 28, 2009
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
David McVay is joined by Josh Philpott, Sarah Kalpokas and Nicholas McVay
Recorded live on Ustream. David, Josh and Sarah discuss the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, the return of Steve Jobs to Apple and the teaser trailer for The Last Airbender.
Then we reviewed (spoilers and all) Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen. The film was universally not received well. The general feeling was that the robots were fine the humans were not.
Nicholas, The Little Geek, joins us for his opinion on Transformers 2 and the video game The Force Unleashed.
As always this episode carries an explicit tag due to small amounts of bad language.
Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes
Geek Actually is brought to you by listeners, just like you. Thanks for your contributions. If you wish to make a contribution, click the link on the main page.
Just a reminder, if you have any comments about the episodes please leave them in the comments field below or email us using the contact link above. If you are an iTunes user, please leave a review as we are trying to get on the featured list and every review helps. Your comments (good or bad) help us improve the show.
The Geek Actually Podcast is recorded live on Ustream every Saturday Morning 11am Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10). If you still just want to listen to the audio podcast, it will go out as normal on Sunday.
Podcast – Live Tomorrow
June 26, 2009
Just a reminder that the Geek Actually Podcast will record live tomorrow (Saturday Australian time) at 11am AEST (UTC+10). Hope you can join us in the chat room. Just click the live link above and log into Ustream (it’s free) to join the chat. The audio version will be released on Sunday on the feed as usual.
The show will feature me (David McVay), Josh Philpott and Sarah Kalpokas. Ben Straw from Ben’s Tech Show won’t be able to join us, unfortunately, his internet connection is playing up on him. The review of the show will be Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
This is our first live show, so it could be fun to watch us make all those newbie mistakes Patience will be the word of the day.
Steve Jobs Returns to Apple
June 26, 2009
On a brighter note, Steve Jobs has returned to Apple. All the speculation and rumour mongering that has been going on over the last few months, Steve Jobs quietly returned to work at Apple a week ago.
He had a liver transplant two months ago but everyone is being tight lipped as to why, but apparently it must have worked because he is back at the helm of Apple. It would be interesting to see if Apple will have a keynote soon so Steve can take the stage and announce something new and amazing. My prediction is that it would be the most watched keynote ever.
Welcome back Steve, hope everything is fine now.
The Original Angel, Farrah Fawcett Dies at 62
June 26, 2009
What a day! I woke up to the news today that Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett have both died. Farrah Fawcett has been battling cancer for the last couple of years and last night she passed.
Farrah Fawcett was one of the original cast members of the 70’s show Charlie’s Angels and became as famous for her hair style as her acting. She was one of the most popular poster girls of the 70’s and 80’s. She was last seen in Robert Altman’s Dr. T and the Women.
The news of Fawcett’s passing follows closely behind the news that Ryan O’Neal had asked to marry her a couple of days ago. O’Neal and Fawcett have had a long standing relationship since 1982 and they have a son named Redmond. They have never been married though. Our thoughts go out to you Mr. O’Neal on this sad day.
Vale Farrah Fawcett, you will be missed.
The King of Pop Dies at 50
June 26, 2009
After much speculation this morning, it has been now confirmed that Michael Jackson has died of a heart attack at the age of 50. This marks the end of an era for me, I was a child when The Jackson 5 were huge during the 70’s and I was a teenager during Jackson’s solo career and rise to fame as the King of Pop when the album Thriller was released. I do like his music and the man was an amazing showman. I think it would be fair to say that the man also invented the modern video clip by making small event films by huge name directors, such as Thriller and Black and White (both directed by John Landis), Bad (directed by Martin Scorsese) and Remember the Day (directed by John Singleton).
During his later days, his behaviour got weirder and weirder and I am not some rabid fan who would be an apologist for his weirdness, however it is the passing of a music legend and that is a sad day.
Reports say that he was working out and rehearsing a lot for his upcoming tour and many say it is a surprise that he had a heart attack. I kind of wonder if it has something to do with all the abuse that he has done to his body over the years. Whatever the reason, rest in peace Mr. Jackson. Now the big question is what happens to his poor children? I really hope Jackson has made preparations for them.
Geek News: Avatar footage explained
June 26, 2009
Just an update from the footage shown yesterday. Comingsoon.net has a deep description of what was seen at the Cinemaexpo, The general feeling is amazement… If you have the time its worth the read, there is some new info relating to the movie’s plot and so on. I’ll let you read for yourself.. enjoy! Link
Comments?
Geek News: 24 mins of Cameron’s Avatar Movie Screened!
June 26, 2009
That’s right geeks, finally someone has seen footage of the bank braking 3d spectacular! Those of you who have not been following the hype build, It has been well kept under a tight seal and only a few concept pictures and such have surfaced so far. This is really is an amazing feat in this digital age we live in, I had expected at least more leaked still pics or shakey camera footage.. but no!
The first footage was aired at the recent CinemaExpo International in Amsterdam and responses seem really positive. If the critics I have heard from are to believed and it is as photo-realistic as people are saying then this is something to keep a very close eye on.. I will be all over this so I will be posting up any news that hits on this subject, so keep checking back.
