Jul 12

First Teaser Poster: The Dark Knight Rises

There are two filmmakers working today that really know how to market their films; J.J. Abrams and Christopher Nolan. Both of these filmmakers know how to just drip enough information out there to get us frothing at the mouth in excitement without actually telling us anything. This year we had Abrams masterfully handling the marketing campaign of “Super 8” and a short while ago Nolan’s campaign for next year’s new Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises” started with that early shot of Bain. Now the first teaser poster for “The Dark Knight Rises” has… well, risen. Continue reading

Jul 08

Twilight: New Moon – The Puppy People Strike Back

Part 2 of the new Geek Actually multi part opinion piece about the films of “The Twilight Saga”

Twilight: New Moon – The Puppy People Strike Back

Welcome back, Gentle Reader, to the second instalment of my reviews of The Twilight Saga. To recap, David has requested that I review these film (a journey he calls it).  And here there be spoilers, but how can you spoil rotten eggs!

Now I wish to state at the outset I actually like this film more than the first.  I think the ratio of polish to poo is thicker (sort of like a Smartie or Jaffa only instead of chocolate you have… oh, well… you get the idea).

But Gentle Reader, please bear with me a moment, I really need to speak privately with David…

I think HAL the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey pretty well covered it with… “Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave? I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do”. Continue reading

Jul 07

Fox Shows Off 20 minutes of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

Yesterday I got the opportunity to see about 20 minutes of footage from the new Twentieth Century Fox film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and I was very impressed.

Fox gave a nice presentation hosted by Weta Digital’s special effects guru Joe Letteri. According to Letteri this is the second biggest film, after “Avatar”, that Weta Digital has ever worked on. The film has around 1000 visual effects shots in it. The presentation included behind the scenes footage and final scenes. He talked about the advances in motion capture since working on James Cameron’s “Avatar”, such as an active mo-cap suit that allowed them to record the motion capture data right there on location so the actors could work directly with the mo-cap performers. Continue reading

Jul 06

No Podcasts This Week

Due to an extremely harsh cold that has just wiped me (and Josh) out this week, we have decided to not record shows this week. We will take some time to just get better and come back strong for next week’s podcasts.

So, once again, there are no shows being recorded this week (July 9th) but the shows will resume as normal on July 16th. On the Film Actually show for the 16th we will finally be able to properly review “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” because we are reviewing part 2 and we will re-visit part 1 as well.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Jul 05

Trailer and Poster for the Remake of Footloose

Well this is a strange one. When I heard about this remake I assumed it was a film version of the Broadway Musical that was based on the original 1984 Kevin Bacon film of the same name. This kind of made sense to me as “Hairspray” (2007) was very successful and it was based on the Broadway Musical that was in turn based on the 1988 non-musical John Waters film.

Well now our friends at Paramount Pictures Australia have made a trailer (which you can see at the bottom) and the poster (click the thumbnail for a hi-res version) available and it seems that it is just a straight remake of the original film, lots of dancing but it is not a musical in the traditional sense of the word. Continue reading

Jul 04

Film Actually Ep046 (138) – Transformers Dark of the Moon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Hosts: David McVay & Josh Philpott and guest Richard Gray

This week David and Josh are joined by Richard Gray (theReelbits.com) for a review of “Transformers Dark of the Moon”. They also take in some entertainment news, including the new trailers for “Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol” and Pixar’s “Brave”. Plus they deliver a brand new Lists of Five: Five Investigative Films. We are also joined, briefly, by Jorge Duran from Spotlight Report for his thoughts on the new “Transformers” film.  Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

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

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 46 but when you listen to the show you will hear it referred to as episode 138, 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:

Feature Film Review

‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Patrick Dempsey, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Alan Tudyk, Kevin Dunn, Julie White and Ken Jeong plus the voice talents of Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving and Leonard Nimoy.

The big robots are back. Sam is trying to find his place in life while a mysterious Autobot ship that has been lost for many many years is found on the far side of the moon. The contents of the ship sparks of the final conflict between the Autobots and evil Decpticons. A conflict that threatens the entire world and all of mankind.

Our Verdict: A film that is just as dumb and pointless as part 2 in the series. Visually fantastic with amazing special effects but ultimately empty and soulless. Avoid this film.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/transformersdarkofthemoon/

Entertainment Buzz

Peter Falk dies at 83. Farewell Detective Columbo.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/just-one-more-thing-falk-dies-at-83-20110625-1gknt.html

Michael Bay might be going small for his next film.
http://www.slashfilm.com/michael-bay-follow-dark-of-the-moon-20-million-black-comedy-pain-gain/

Red Band trailer for “Horrible Bosses” – What a cast!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjupmLhzwc

Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” almost a go project, what do we think of this project?
http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/paramount-near-deal-to-provide-safe-harbor-to-darren-aronofskys-noah/

Writer Damon Lindelof tells us a little about “Prometheus”.
http://www.slashfilm.com/damon-lindelof-explains-ridley-scotts-prometheus-connected-alien-films/

Joe Johnston would love to make a sequel to “The Rocketeer”! Alright, we’re in!
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and-features/features/movies/e3if59b6538fcf8c6c637df82f5a7cf3d79

The first trailer for “Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol”
https://geekactually.com/2011/06/30/trailer-mission-impossible-ghost-protocol/

Disney confirms a “Thor 2” for 2013.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118039365

I want this service in Australia. MoviePass is the NetFlix of the cinema.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/06/netflix-for-theatres-watch-unlimited-movies-in-cinemas/

Pixar’s “Brave”, an early teaser to wash the bad taste of “Cars 2” away.
https://geekactually.com/2011/06/30/teaser-trailer-pixars-brave/

Lists of Five

This week our Lists of Five: Five Investigative Films. Whether it be a lawyer, a cop, a journalist… whatever. Films where clues have to be followed and truths revealed to uncover the mystery. Investigative movies are always fun and engrossing, we list five of them.

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.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Send feedback for this show to feedback@filmactually.com or leave us a voice mail message to play on the show at (Sydney number) 02 8011 3167 or Skype ID: geekactually (you can also send us an mp3 file if you’d prefer).

The Rest…

David’s “My Year With Movies” blog is on Tumbr

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Find More of Richard Gray at theReelBits.com or DVDbits.com or follow him on Twitter @DVDbits

The Reel Junkies podcast can be found at weekendronin.com

Brad and Charlie (formerly of “Movie Fan House”) are back, their new site is ReboundRadio.com and their new podcast is “Good Day Sir!”

Rachelle is over at The Funky Film Show, Thursdays on Radio Freemantle 107.9 FM or radiofreemantle.com

Find out about Josh’s other site and to listen to his other show DLC Live go to RawDLC.com or follow him on Twitter @DoGM3At

Check out Nicholas ‘The Little Geek’ McVay’s Lego animations at YouTube.com/NickyMcVay

Our show logo is by Josh Spencer over at Spencer Cartoons at  http://attackninja.blogspot.com

We close the show with the track “Arrival To Earth” from Steve Jablonsky’s fantastic score to the first “Transformers”.