Jun 27

Film Actually Ep045 (137) – Kung Fu Panda 2

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Hosts: David McVay & Josh Philpott

This week David and Josh review “Kung Fu Panda 2”. They also take in some entertainment news, including the new trailers for “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “The Muppets”. Plus they deliver a brand new Lists of Five: Five Most Disappointing Film Events. 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 45 but when you listen to the show you will hear it referred to as episode 137, 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:

But First…

Feedback and what we’ve been watching. David runs over his experience with the disappointing “Cars 2”, after 16 years of hits, Pixar finally has a dud.

Feature Film Review

‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ directed by Jennifer Yuh and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. It stars the voice talents of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Oldman, Seth Rogan, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Jackie Chan, James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Danny MCBride and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

In Kung Fu Panda 2, Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five. But Po’s new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. Po must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins; only then will he be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed. – Source:  Dreamworks

Our Verdict: David and Josh have slightly differing opinions on this one. Josh liked it far more than David, but in the end both did like it and recommend it.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/kungfupanda2/

Before we get into Entertainment news, we are going to take a little musical break: “Weird Al” Yankovic skewers Lady Gaga with his new video clip “Perform This Way”. Watch it here http://youtu.be/ss_BmTGv43M

Entertainment Buzz

The new “Captain America” trailer is here!
https://geekactually.com/2011/06/24/new-trailer-and-poster-captain-america-the-first-avenger/

Finally some new news about “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”
http://www.slashfilm.com/emma-stone-offered-pride-prejudice-zombies/

No more parodies, here is the full trailer for “The Muppets”
https://geekactually.com/2011/06/19/trailer-the-muppets/

It really isn’t an origin story. Julia Ormond in talks to play Lara in “The Man of Steel”.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/julia-ormond-in-talks-to-play-supermans-mom/

The Red Band Trailer for “Conan the Barbarian”, why isn’t David more excited?
https://geekactually.com/2011/06/19/red-band-trailer-conan-the-barbarian/

Lists of Five

This week our Lists of Five: Five Most Disappointing Film Events. Films get hyped, you get excited and then when you finally get to see the film you are just shattered. Let’s list five of such events.

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).Join us on our Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/GeekActually – Follow David on Twitter: @davidmcvay – Follow Josh on Twitter: @Dogm3at – Get your Geek Actually swag at cafepress.com.au/geekactually – David’s “My Year With Movies” blog is on Tumbr – Check out Nicholas McVay’s Lego animations at YouTube.com/NickyMcVay – Our show logo is by Josh Spencer over at Spencer Cartoons at  http://attackninja.blogspot.com

Friends of the Show

Listen to Reel Junkies podcast by going to weekendronin.com

Charlie and Brad (formerly of the Movie Fan House) are back, check them out at ReboundRadio.com

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

Find out more about Josh’s other show, DLC Live, and Movember go to rawDLC.com

We are closing the show with a track from Hans Zimmer and Michael Powell’s fantastic score to “Kung Fu Panda 2”.

Jun 26

Geek Actually Ep137 – Seen It All Before

Hosted by: David McVay & Josh Philpott

This week on Geek Actually, David and Josh take a look at the week in geek including Nokia’s new N9 phone, a learning robot, the latest from Apple vs. Samsung’s court case, Facebook’s Project Spartan, brain implants, geek weeding cakes and the latest in Hackerpalooza 2011 news. Come on in, the water is fine.

Geek Actually is the fusion of the old Tech Actually and Geek Actually After Show podcasts. All the tech and geek goodness that you have come to expect from the old shows wrapped up and made easier to swallow as one simple, little, tasty podcast. DeltaKnight (AKA DAvid Murray) continues to supply us with some of the geekiest stories on the web and Josh and David love to play with the tech news.

Geek Actually is recorded live on Saturdays around 12pm (AEST UTC+10). Go to geekactually.com/live to watch it live.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Your show links follow: Continue reading

Jun 25

REPLAY – Geek Actually Live Video Shows for June 25th, 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.

This week on Geek Actually, David and Josh take a look at the week in geek including Nokia’s new N9 phone, a learning robot, the latest from Apple vs. Samsung’s court case, Facebook’s Project Spartan, brain implants, geek weeding cakes and the latest in Hackerpalooza 2011 news.

This week on Film Actually, David and Josh review “Kung Fu Panda 2”. They also take in some entertainment news, including the new trailers for “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “The Muppets”. Plus they deliver a brand new Lists of Five: Five Most Disappointing Film Events.

Check the individual audio show posts for the show notes. Watch the videos below.

The Geek Actually podcasts are recorded live every Saturday from 12pm (AEST) or UTC +10 at geekactually.com/live Continue reading

Jun 24

New Trailer and Poster: Captain America: The First Avenger

It’s almost like Marvel Pictures knew it was my birthday today as they just released this new trailer and poster for “Captain America: The First Avenger”. Click the image for the full new poster and below you will find a trailer with a lot of brand new footage and lot more story related content.

I really am looking forward to this film far more than I should be. “Captain America: The First Avenger” is based on the Marvel Comics character and is directed by Joe Johnston. The film stars Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones and Dominic Cooper. It opens across Australia on July 28th 2011

What did you think? Comment below.

Jun 23

Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

Although fun and energetic “Kung Fu Panda 2” lacks the overall originality and soul of the first film. The original film was a movie that could be enjoyed by any age, the sequel, unfortunately, is just a kid’s film, a really great kids film, but a kid’s film all the same.

All the ingredients from the first film are here, stunningly rendered CG, great character animation and stellar voice work from the entire cast, what is missing is a script that focused on the story, the journey, the characters and the action more than the morals. This film lacked the energy of the first film because we seemed to stop every 20 or so minutes so our hero Po could learn a new life lesson. This in itself is not a bad thing but it makes you kinda just want to get back into the moment of the film.

I loved the first “kung Fu Panda” and “How To Train Your Dragon” a lot and I was really looking forward to the second instalment in the Panda franchise, but I came away with vague feeling of disappointment. I have felt for awhile now that if any company was going to out do Pixar, Dreamworks animation was going to be that company. They went from the strength of “Kung Fu Panda” to the powerhouse of “How To Train Your Dragon” effortlessly leading me to believe that “Kung Fu Panda 2” was going to be something special. But with this film I feel like they have taken a step backwards, not a huge one but a step backwards nonetheless. Continue reading

Jun 23

Can Nokia Disrupt the Phone Market With The N9?

This week I was invited to a special event to announce Nokia’s new handset the “N9”. The invite for the event claimed, “Nokia to “disrupt” market with new device” so the questions are, 1) will they disrupt the market? and 2) what is the new handset like?

Let’s tackle the second question first, what is the new Nokia N9 like? With a nice edge to edge 3.9″ slightly curved AMOLED screen with no front buttons (all controls are touch except the lock button and volume controls on the side), an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a body carved from a solid piece of coloured polymer, the N9 is a pretty phone.

But pretty isn’t enough, how does it perform? The display is bright and sharp and the new MeeGo operating system is smooth and responsive. In fact Nokia says that the hardware and operating system were designed in tandem so the final process should prove to be a very satisfactory experience for those who use the phone. I only got a short hands on but it was a much more pleasant experience than the Symbian system running on the N8. Continue reading