Movies – Geeking Out About.com

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

Posted on 20 July 2010 by admin 1 Comment

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

I had to watch this at the office with the sound turned off, which means that I had to completely imagine the overblown narration that probably accompanied this latest Machete trailer. Given that Grindhouse was not a box office success—$25 million total gross versus a $67 million budget—I can understand that the official studio trailer isn’t gonna have that awesome grindhouse feel which got the entire film greenlit to begin with.

Doesn’t mean it’s not a stupid trailer, though. So while the official trailer gets a fumble, me and my friends are still going to see this movie in U.S. theaters this fall on September 3.

For a movie that’s your typical “Young guys stumble into brilliant invention, but money comes between their friendship”-flick like The Social Network seems to be flogging, I can’t help but think about other movies like Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) or even Pirates of Silicon Valley and wonder exactly what is going to make this film stand-out from the pack.

If the only thing it has going for it is Aaron Sorkin putting words into Mark Zuckerberg’s mouth, then I think I’m going to give this one a pass. Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network is out in U.S. theaters on October 1.

Finally, props and kudos to Rick Marshall at MTV’s Splash Page blog for posting this exclusive 30 second teaser from the animated adaptation of comics creator Eric Powell’s The Goon, part of a longer section of film that will be shown this coming Friday—which will also be exclusively shown at the MTV blog directly after the panel ends at 7:00 pm EST.

Featuring the voice of Paul Giamatti as Frankie and directed by David Fincher, hopefully we’ll learn if and when the movie will get a release date at the panel.

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

Posted on 9 July 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

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:

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

http://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!

Aidan Quinn leads actors into Exodus

Posted on 25 May 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

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?

Tag: Movies