Jan 29

REPLAY – Geek Actually Live Shows for January 29th, 2011

Here are this week’s live shows presented in the same order that we recorded them. We start with the all new Geek Actually and then move onto Film Actually.

Because the show is live, you get it here with all the mistakes intact. Check the individual audio show posts for the show notes. This week in Geek Actually we take a look at the week’s tech and geek news and in Film Actually David &  Josh review ‘True Grit’ and discuss Kevin Smith’s Sundance bombshell. I hope you enjoy.

The Geek Actually podcasts are recorded live every Saturday from 12pm (AEDST) or UTC +11 at geekactually.com/live Continue reading

Jan 29

Opinion: New World Cinema?

If you haven’t read Dave’s article on Kevin Smith’s Red State (link here) then stop now and watch the attached video. It covers a lot of what this piece is about.

The world of cinema has changed a great deal in the last 50 years. Writers and directors once thought to be the dregs of Hollywood now run everything, being classically trained is not a required tick on a background check and producers and large corporate companies now reign supreme.

Or do they? Kevin Smith seems to think that the times are a’changing. People now seek the Internet for answers over the newspaper, bloggers and podcasters are the new media controllers, not governed by money or exclusives and understandably corporations fear this. So much so that when a director like Kevin Smith (who embodies everything that is anti-establishment) announces that he will not be choosing a distribution company for his new film and instead doing the leg work himself, the ripples of this are felt around the world. Continue reading

Jan 28

First Thoughts: True Grit (2010)

If you know me at all, you may have noticed that I am an unabashed fan of the Coen brothers. So I was pretty excited to see their latest film, “True Grit” which is based on the Charles Portis novel of the same name. I just got back from the theatre and had to share my thoughts on this magnificent tale of the old west.

“True Grit” tells the story of Mattie Ross (played by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld), a 14 year old girl who has come to bring the man who killed her father to justice. She hires burnt out Marshall Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn (played to perfection by Jeff Bridges) to help her track down the killer Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). They also end up in an uneasy alliance with Texas Ranger LaBouef (Matt Damon) who is also after Chaney for other reasons. Although Mattie hires Rooster Cogburn because she believes he is a man of ‘True Grit’ it is in fact Mattie that the title refers to, she is a tough cookie and will stop at nothing to avenge her father. Continue reading

Jan 27

Retro Review – Midnight Run (1988)

Re-watching Martin Brest’s “Midnight Run” is a reminder of how talented the director was. Today his reputation is marred by the film “Gigli” (2003) starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, now considered one of the worst films ever made (and definitely worth a re-watch sometime this year). It seems hard for people to remember that he is also the director who brought us this classic film, “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984) and “Scent of a Woman” (1992). Continue reading

Jan 26

The 83rd Academy Awards – The Complete List of Nominees

Yesterday we posted the nominees for the Razzies and now we have the complete list of nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards. This year, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hand out the Oscars on Sunday the 27th of February. This list comes directly from Oscar’s own site and it is pretty fresh.

As you can see by the list below, there are not a lot of surprises here, and I think some of the winners will be predictable. Continue reading

Jan 25

The 31st Annual Razzie Nominations

Here we go again, the night before the Academy Award nominations are announced, the Razzie nominations come out. This is a light celebration of the worst of Hollywood for the year.

Below is the complete list of nominations for this year’s Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies. I’ll post the complete Academy Award nominations tomorrow. Continue reading