Aug 13

Megan Fox’s New Peer Pressure Ad – Funny Parody

This clever new promo for the upcoming film “Jennifer’s Body” has Megan Fox delivering a ‘Public Awareness’ style ad about peer pressure. It is a funny parody and I am really looking forward to seeing “Jennifer’s Body”. Enjoy:

“Jennifer’s Body” is directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody, it stars Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris and Johnny Simmons. It opens in Australian cinemas October 2009, look for our review on the Geek Actually podcast closer to release.

What did you think of the ad?

Aug 12

Geek Out: Astroboy – Full Trailer

Summit Entertainment has now released a full trailer for the new CG feature film “Astroboy”. Watch it below. I love Astroboy, but I am not fully convinced that this film hasn’t “cutesyfied” it too much.

“Astroboy” directed by David Bowers and starring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Charlize Theron, Kristen Bell, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nighy, Freddie Highmore, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy and Matt Lucas. It will be in Australian cinemas October 2009.

What do you think? Are you excited or disappointed by the trailer? Comments below.

Aug 09

Rumours Circle, Halo Movie Not Dead Yet?

Exciting news sweeps the net today as Sources report that Steven Spielberg may have taken the reigns of the Halo films, a reliable source has confirmed that “active negotiations” have begun on the full length feature film. Which is weird because I had thought in my mind that it would have been more of a combined effort than a Spielberg driven film.. but maybe thats news yet to come, here’s hoping…

In all honesty though Spielberg has real potential to do this right. We have seen him handle big budget well and he has done action/war well before (see Saving Private Ryan) this could be awesome!

Halo is one of the only game movies that I would give my blessing to, it has huge potential to be make a epic CGI masterpiece, plus with the lore stronger than ever with a great range of games, books and comics (sorry, GRAPHIC NOVELS) there is no end of source material to pull from.

What does everyone think? should we be excited?

Aug 09

Geek Actually Episode 46 – Geeks in 3D

Geek ActuallyDavid McVay is joined by Josh Philpott, Katrina Smith and Nicholas McVay

Recorded live on Ustream. First off, Josh fills us in on the latest from the video game world of Halo and we discuss an article in the paper that says that violent computer games are declining in sales, true or not? We have our opinions of course.

In “Great Internet Tech War of 2009” news, Google buys On2 and this possibly throws down the gauntlet to Microsoft and Skype. Also, Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigns from the Apple board of directors, does this mean the diplomats are being sent home?

Tech News This Week: Australia and the world hit by iPhone drought, Apple releases SMS patch to their phones, Pirate Bay is really trying to legit and Apple censors a dictionary!

Film News This Week: John Hughes (“Sixteen Candles”, “The Breakfast Club”) dies at 59, Paula Abdul quits Idol and could be replaced by Victoria Beckham, Michael Jackson’s dermatologist wants access rights to his kids (weird), Renny Harlin returns to low budget films and Milla Jovovich spills details on “Resident Evil 4”.

For our feature reviews we look at three films! Katrina reviews “The Ugly Truth”, it’s a rental! Josh and David review “Coraline” (in 3D) and it is highly recommended. Josh and David also review “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cora”, disengage brain now and you might enjoy the spectacle. David thinks it might be a candidate for the GWB list (click here for more details on what that is).

Nicholas “The Little Geek” McVay joins Josh and David to give his opinions on “Coraline” as well.

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

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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.

Aug 07

John Hughes Passes Away at 59

John HughesJohn Hughes, Born on the 18th of February 1950 – Died on the 6th August 2009, he was 59 years old.

As a teenager of the 1980’s, John Hughes was the voice of my generation. As a writer he was responsible for the National Lampoon Vacation movies and Mr. Mom amongst many more but it was as a writer/director that Hughes had his biggest impact. “Sixteen Candles”, “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” will always be remembered as the films that spoke to a generation.

John Hughes retired from the public eye in 1994 and only occasionally script doctored a few films (“Drillbit Taylor” and “Maid in Manhatten”) under a pseudonym, Edmond Dantes.

John Hughes died of a heart attack while on a walk in New York on August 6th, 2009. You will be missed Mr. Hughes

And to finish off, I’ll quote Grace from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” – “Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads – they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.”

Aug 06

Question: Steven Spielberg Directing Harvey Remake, Who Should Star?

HarveyOkay, a couple of days ago /Film (click the link to read their story) reported that director Steven Spielberg is directing a remake of the classic Jimmy Stewart film “Harvey”. This is a union made in heaven as far as I am concerned, Spielberg was born to direct this film. Now I am not generally a fan of remakes but I do have to say that at least the original in this case is older than 10 years so I am ready to forgive Spielberg (still one of my favourite filmmakers).

The original film, released in 1950, starred Jimmy Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake, Cecil Kellaway and a giant invisible rabbit. “Harvey” was written by Oscar Brodney and Mary Chase (based on Chase’s hit play) and directed by Henry Koster. The film told the story of Elwood P.Dowd (Stewart) who is a wonderfully eccentric and perpetually friendly man who befriends a 6’3″ invisible rabbit named Harvey. The small town that Elwood lives in then tries to have him committed and hilarity ensues. “Harvey” is one of my favourite films and one of the best performances of Stewart’s career.

Okay, that was all yesterday’s news. Now today /Film (click the link to read the new story) reports that Tom Hanks, who at first glance would be the obvious (but not my first) choice to play Elwood, is not interested in the film. Because of Spielberg’s close relationship with Hanks, this felt like it would be a given but it is now in question as to who will play Elwood in the new film.

I’m opening this up to you, the loyal readers, who should play Elwood P. Dowd in Steven Spielberg’s “Harvey”? A couple of thoughts before you cast your opinion: 1) Spielberg has a great knack of drawing performances from actors who are not necessarily great actors, I point you to Dee Wallace in E.T., best performance of her career. 2) If you have not seen Harvey, watch it before you decide. Get to know Elwood P. Dowd, you will love him.

Okay, I’m going first and you guys are going to think I am nuts, but I think Spielberg can rein him in, I am going to say Jim Carrey. There is something very Elwood in his character of Truman (“The Truman Show”) and if you think Jim Carrey doesn’t have the acting chops for the role I point you to the 1992 Ken Olin telemovie “Doing Time on Maple Drive”, still the performance of Jim Carrey’s career.

Okay, let’s get the comment field buzzing below, I want your thoughts on who should play Elwood P. Dowd in the new “Harvey” remake directed by Steven Spielberg and why. I’ll read out the suggestions on the show on Saturday.