Trailer Watch, Pass or Fail edition: Machete versus The Social Network, plus a bonus trailer

Good Lord, we’re behind on our movie trailers, aren’t we? Let’s get down to it, then!

Continue reading “Trailer Watch, Pass or Fail edition: Machete versus The Social Network, plus a bonus trailer”

Geeking Out About… presents: Twilight: New Moon the Commentary and Discussion Notes

As of this posting, you have a little over 15 hours left until the deadline to submit your answers to the trivia questions posed in our very first contest ever here at Geeking Out About.com. The trivia questions are here, the rules are here, and if you’d like a little insight into what we thought of the second movie and the Twilight phenomenon as a whole—although by now, I think you can hazard a guess that our thoughts are not in favor of it—you can download our commentary and discussion notes, below:

https://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/New-Moon-Commentary.mp3

https://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/New-Moon-Discussion.mp3

Over the weekend, we’ll be busy busy choosing the finalists and recording yet another podcast; good luck to all!

Trailer Watch: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 first official trailer

Here’s a synopsis:

Part 1 begins as Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality and destruction—the Horcruxes. On their own, without the guidance of their professors or the protection of Professor Dumbledore, the three friends must now rely on one another more than ever. But there are Dark Forces in their midst that threaten to tear them apart.

Meanwhile, the wizarding world has become a dangerous place for all enemies of the Dark Lord. The long-feared war has begun and Voldemort’s Death Eaters seize control of the Ministry of Magic and even Hogwarts, terrorizing and arresting anyone who might oppose them. But the one prize they still seek is the one most valuable to Voldemort: Harry Potter. The Chosen One has become the hunted one as the Death Eaters search for Harry with orders to bring him to Voldemort… alive.

Harry’s only hope is to find the Horcruxes before Voldemort finds him. But as he searches for clues, he uncovers an old and almost forgotten tale—the legend of the Deathly Hallows. And if the legend turns out to be true, it could give Voldemort the ultimate power he seeks.

Little does Harry know that his future has already been decided by his past when, on that fateful day, he became “the Boy Who Lived.” No longer just a boy, Harry Potter is drawing ever closer to the task for which he has been preparing since the day he first stepped into Hogwarts: the ultimate battle with Voldemort.

When the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book came out in July 2007, my then-roommate wasn’t going to read her copy right away, so I decided to read it all in one day, just to prove I could. Six hours later, my conclusion was that it was a great read, I cried like a little child when Dobby died, and I was able to successfully cite Ernest Hemingway in defending J.K. Rowling’s use of a train station to symbolize the afterlife.

I did not keep up with the Harry Potter movies in a similar fashion, mostly because movies are damn expensive and borrowing a book is free. However, I think that based on just how damn epic the movie looks—and my own curiosity about how the trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint have matured as actors over the last nine or ten years, depending on when you want to start counting—I’m going to try and start re-watching the series again, just to get caught up before the movie’s release on November 19.

Aidan Quinn leads actors into Exodus

If there’s anything I really like about covering indie films, it is that indie films are where you need to look if you want to keep pace with trends in original storytelling.

Picking up on where “Damages” left off in dealing with Ponzi scheme artists is screenwriter/producer R. Ellis Frazier who has assembled quite a cast for his feature directorial debut, The Exodus of Charlie Wright. Aidan Quinn will star, with Andy Garcia, Luke Goss, and Mario Van Peebles in supporting roles.

According to Jay A. Fernandez at The Hollywood Reporter, here’s the plot:

The story centers on Charlie (Quinn), a Los Angeles billionaire financial whiz who goes into self-imposed exile in Tijuana after his empire is revealed to have been a Ponzi scheme. While looking for the woman he abandoned there 25 years before, Charlie is pursued by a Mexican gangster (Garcia), a federal agent (Van Peebles) and thugs sent by a former client (Goss) looking to retrieve his money.

Whereas “Damages”—which I am still slogging through on DVR, so if you spoil it for me, I will gladly kill you—is very firmly empathetic towards Ponzi scheme victims, by having his protagonist be the schemer I’m wondering exactly just how Frazier will be able to make his story palatable enough for studio heads who may have lost money in Bernie Madoff’s scheme which was revealed in March 2009 and which victims included such Hollywood luminaries as Stephen Spielberg and his Wunderkinder Foundation, Dreamworks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg and Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.

Perhaps the words “self-imposed exile” is key?