Film Actually Ep052 (144) – Conan and Cowboys

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Hosts: David McVay & Josh Philpott and guest Richard Gray

This week David, Josh and Richard Gray (theReelBits.com) review the new remake of “Conan the Barbarian” and Jon Favreau’s genre blending “Cowboys & Aliens”. They discuss Ridley Scott’s big time return to sci-fi and the synopsis for “The Man of Steel” is revealed. All this and we still have time for an all new Lists of Five: Five Genre Bending/Blending Movies Worth Watching. Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

If you are an iTunes user, please leave a review. Your comments help us improve the show. This show carries an explicit tag due to infrequent coarse language.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Make sure you check out our other fine podcast Geek Actually for all your tech and geek culture needs.

*Update 31/07/2012 – Film Actually was a split off from the main Geek Actually show and originally maintained numbering continuity with that show. That logic no longer works as the shows have become two unique entities, so we have gone back and re-numbered the Film Actually shows to reflect their true episode number. This show is now officially episode 52 but when you listen to the show you will hear it referred to as episode 144, this is why. Sorry about any confusion or inconvenience.

Film Actually is recorded live every Saturday. Go to geekactually.com/live for the schedule and to watch it

Your show notes:

What We’ve Been Watching

A collection of other things we’ve been watching this week including the TV series “Monster”, “The Company Men” and the HBO documentary movie “Superheroes”.

Feature Film Review 1

‘Conan The Barbarian’ directed by Marcus ‘remake man’ Nispel and written by Thomas Dean Donnolly, Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood based on characters created by Robert E. Howard. It stars Jason ‘I want to get into mythical creatures’ Mamoa, Stephen ‘I’m always the bad guy’ Lang, Ron ‘I survived Uwe Boll’ Perlman, Rachel ‘I should have been in Twilight’ Nichols and Rose ‘Look at me being evil’ McGowan.

A quest that begins as a personal vendetta for the fierce Cimmerian warrior soon turns into an epic battle against hulking rivals, horrific monsters, and impossible odds, as Conan realizes he is the only hope of saving the great nations of Hyboria from an encroaching reign of supernatural evil. Source: Anonymous on IMDB

Our Verdict: Avoid this mess of a film and watch the 1982 version instead.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/conanthebarbarian/

Feature Film Review 2

‘Cowboys & Aliens’ directed by Jon Favreau and written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby based on the Platinum Studios comic by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. It stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Noah Ringer and Mr. Crabbs… sorry, I mean Clancy Brown.

1875. New Mexico Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde. It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. Source: Official Site.

Our Verdict: Not sure what film all those other reviewers were watching, we had a great time with this fun adventure film.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/cowboysaliens/

Entertainment Buzz

Ridley Scott plans new a “Blade Runner” film. Yay!
http://www.thereelbits.com/2011/08/19/ridley-scott-to-direct-new-blade-runner-film/
but be prepared, it is not what you might think
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/08/blade-runner-ridley-scott-directing-harrison-ford-star-prequel-sequel.html

A casting sheet reveals “The Man of Steel” synopsis, looks like it is loosely based on “Superman Earth One” by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis.
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/VoicesFromKrypton/news/?a=44609&t=MAN_OF_STEEL_Open_Casting_Call__Official_Synopsis

Lists of Five

This week our Lists of Five: Five Genre Bending/Blending Movies Worth Watching. With Jon Favreau’s new movie blending western with sci-fi, it got the boys thinking, what other genre blending/bending mixing films are worth watching?

Just a reminder, because we never like to just make things easy on ourselves, our lists are not necessarily top five lists, they are more or a less a list of film recommendations within the theme of the list.

Feedback

Matt wanted us to be aware of this great Jimmy Kimmel clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWTtMdXAazs&sns=fb

Tristan has found the best film review ever, but…
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0600/dinosaur.html

The Rest…