Tag: The Reel Bits

Film Actually Ep 57 (149) – Abduction

Hosts: David McVay, Josh Philpott & Richard Gray

This week David, Josh and Richard review the new film “Abduction”. We also check out a little entertainment news including Lars Von Trier trying to explain himself and The Walking Dead talk show. Plus, new trailers for “Man on a Ledge” and “J. Edgar”. Plus a brand new Lists of Five – Five Movies We’d Never Watch Again. Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

Just a reminder that we continue the re-numbering of the episodes. This show is officially episode 57 but if you have been a long time listener you might know it better as episode 149. In a couple of weeks all past episode of Film actually will be re-numbered from 1 onwards, sorry about any confusion or inconvenience.

If you are an iTunes user, please leave a review. Your comments help us improve the show.

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This show carries an explicit tag due to infrequent coarse language.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Make sure you check out our other fine podcast Geek Actually for all your tech and geek culture needs.

Watch us record Film Actually live every Saturday starting at approximately 1.30pm (AEST UTC+10) at geekactually.com/live. Your show notes follow:

What We’ve Been Watching:

A collection of other things we’ve been watching this week. Josh has been looking checking out episodes of “American Gothic” and “Sanctuary” as well as finishing off the Halloweenfilms with “Halloween H2O”. David watched the season premieres of “Two and a Half Men” and “The Playboy Club”, plus finished watching the Star Wars films on Blu-Ray. Richard has been investigating the fourth season of “True Blood” and watched the films “Midnight in Paris” and “Attack the Block”. Also, we all saw “Red State” but we will review that in full at a later date.

Feature Film Review

‘Abduction’ directed by John Singleton and written by Shawn Christensen. It stars Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Sigourney Weaver and Michael Nyqvist.

A thriller centered on a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website. Source: IMDB

Our Verdict: Truly awful but in the right way. This could just be the camp classic of the year. Do not pay cinema dollars but it is a must watch on disc. You will laugh till it hurts.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/abduction/

Entertainment Buzz

“The Walking Dead” gets a new chat show.
http://www.slashfilm.com/amc-launch-the-walking-dead-chat-show-the-talking-dead/

The trailer for “Man on a Ledge”.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810186077/video/26699405

Lars Von Trier tries to explain himself, but he is not sorry.
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201110/lars-von-trier-gq-interview-october-2011

Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar” gets a trailer.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/jedgar/

New “Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” trailer is more like a short film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir4i6SnJTDs&feature=player_embedded

Lists of Five

This week our Lists of Five: Five Movies We’d Never Watch Again. This is a tricky one because the film could be a good or a bad, just a film that you’d never watch again for whatever reason.

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.

Feedback

Matt challenges us to watch “Battle of Los Angeles” and no, that is not the Aaron Eckhart film. Challenge accepted Matt, we’ll report back soon.

Agree or disagree with us or you just have something to say? send email tofeedback@filmactually.com or drop us a voicemail at 02 8011 3167.

The Rest…

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

Join us on our Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/GeekActually or follow Geek Actually on Twitter @geekactually

Make sure you check out our new range of Geek Actually swag at cafepress.com.au/geekactually

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

Find more by Richard Gray by visiting theReelBits.com or follow him on Twitter @DVDbits

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

The opening clip is from the 1990 film “Darkman”.

We couldn’t get the “Abduction” score by Edward Shearmur, so we are closing the show with a track from “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” also by Shearmur.

September 26, 2011
The League Presents: Interview with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa on Crazy Stupid Love

The directors of Crazy Stupid Love, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, were in Sydney last week to promote the release of their latest film in Australia. We also got a chance to ask them about their next project, Pharm Girl, set to star Reese Witherspoon.

At forty something, straight-laced Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living the dream—good job, nice house, great kids and marriage to his high school sweetheart. But when Cal learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), has cheated on him and wants a divorce, his “perfect” life quickly unravels. In today’s single world, Cal, who hasn’t dated in decades, and is taken on as wingman and protégé to handsome lothario Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). It also stars Emma Stone as a love interest for Gosling.

This is the second directorial effort from the duo, following last year’s brilliant I Love You Philip Morris. They are also behind the scripts for Bad Santa, Cats & Dogs and Bad News Bears.

We need to thank Roadshow for making interview opportunity possible.

Crazy Stupid Love is released in Australia on 29 September 2011 from Roadshow Films.

About The League
In the beginning there was chaos, a vast information network that provided few islands of hope. Then there was a light, a shimmering hope in the darkness. A portal for lovers of the wonders of celluloid and the entertainment industry. Then there came another, and another ushering in a golden age of wonders the likes the world had never seen. By day, they live out their lives as the humble David McVay of Geek Actually, Jorge Duran of The Spotlight Report, Richard Gray of The Reel Bits, Dave Longo of Damn Good Cup and Josh Philpott of Hip Hop Net. But when the signal goes out they come together as one! The League assembles! Tremble all who dare stand in its path!

September 19, 2011
Film Actually Ep 55 (147) – 13 Assassins and The Change-Up

Geek Actually Presents

Hosts: David McVay & Richard Gray

This week the podcast continues the re-numbering, this is now episode 55 or 147 in old money. David and Richard Gray fly solo as Josh is away having a well deserved break. This week is a short episode due to the studio move and it wouldn’t be right to do a Lists of Five without Josh, so David and Richard just review a couple of new releases for you, “13 Assassins” and “The Change-Up”. Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

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

*Note* The Film Actually show is taking a short break from live shows as we are currently moving the studio. The audio podcast will come out as normal during this time.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Make sure you check out our other fine podcast Geek Actually for all your tech and geek culture needs.

Normally you could watch us record Film actually live every Saturday starting at approximately 1.30pm (AEST UTC+10) at geekactually.com/live but not for the next couple of weeks. Your show notes follow:

Feature Film Review 1

13 Assassins directed by Takashi Miike and written by Daisuke Tengan based on the screenplay by Kaneo Ikegami. It stars Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya and Gorô Inagaki.

A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord. Source: IMDB.

Our Verdict: A brilliant Japanese Samurai film that hits all the right marks emotionally and has one hell of a spectacular, extended action scene.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/13assassins/

Feature Film Review 2

The Change-Up directed by David Dobkin and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. It stars Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Olivia Wilde and Leslie Mann.

A comedy in which a married father accidentally switches bodies with his best friend, leading to a series of wildly complex difficulties. Source: IMDB.

Our Verdict: Better than expected. Not always successful but it has many laugh out loud moments. Worth watching if you like Apatow style comedies.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/thechangeup/

The Rest…

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

Join us on our Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/GeekActually or follow Geek Actually on Twitter @geekactually

Make sure you check out our new range of Geek Actually swag at cafepress.com.au/geekactually

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

Find more by Richard Gray by visiting TheReelBits.com or follow him on Twitter @DVDBits

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

We close the show “Barbie Girl” by Aqua, don’t ask

September 14, 2011
The League Presents: Exclusive Horrible Bosses Sydney Red Carpet Interviews

Horrible Bosses had its Sydney premiere on 16 August 2011, and its comedy superstars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis were in town to talk about the film. Horrible Bosses is about Nick (Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Day), for whom the only thing that would make the daily grind more tolerable would be to grind their intolerable bosses into dust. Quitting is not an option, so, with the benefit of a few-too-many drinks and some dubious advice from a hustling ex-con, the three friends devise a convoluted and seemingly foolproof plan to rid themselves of their respective employers…permanently.

We need to thank Roadshow for making this red carpet opportunity possible. Richard Gray, David Longo and Jorge Duran hit the red carpet, while David McVay braved the photo pit for the fabulous snaps below.

About The League
In the beginning there was chaos, a vast information network that provided few islands of hope. Then there was a light, a shimmering hope in the darkness. A portal for lovers of the wonders of celluloid and the entertainment industry. Then there came another, and another ushering in a golden age of wonders the likes the world had never seen. By day, they live out their lives as the humble David McVay of Geek Actually, Jorge Duran of The Spotlight Report, Richard Gray of The Reel Bits, Dave Longo of Damn Good Cup and Josh Philpott of Hip Hop Net. but when the signal goes out they come together as one! The League assembles! Tremble all who dare stand in its path!

The music used in this video is Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business”. The awesome intro animation comes from David Longo.

Horrible Bosses was released in Australia on 25 August 2011 from Roadshow.

August 31, 2011
The Reel Bits Presents The League – Exclusive Morgan Spurlock Interview

David McVay of the Film Actually podcast, representing a dynamic group of bloggers known collectively as The League, got a chance to have a telephone chat with director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) about his new film POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. The new film is a documentary about product placement in films. Morgan generously answered questions from the entire League. Some of the topics covered: What attracts Morgan to the documentary form, what scares Morgan Spurlock, can you really make an independent film today, what advice would he give new filmmakers and did he consider contacting McDonalds. We also get a little info on his next film, a little documentary about Comic-Con.

We need to thank Jorge Duran for really driving to get this interview, Shauna and Harriet over at Nixco for making the interview a reality and of course Morgan Spurlock for taking some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.

About The League
In the beginning there was chaos, a vast information network that provided few islands of hope. Then there was a light, a shimmering hope in the darkness. A portal for lovers of the wonders of celluloid and the entertainment industry. Then there came another, and another ushering in a golden age of wonders the likes the world had never seen. By day, they live out their lives as the humble David McVay of Geek Actually, Jorge Duran of The Spotlight Report, Richard Gray of The Reel Bits and Dave Longo of Damn Good Cup, but when the signal goes out they come together as one! The League assembles! Tremble all who dare stand in its path!

The Music used in this special presentation comes from the original soundtrack to POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. The track is “The Greatest Song I Ever Heard” by OK Go.

The Film Actually podcast can be found on iTunes or watched live every Saturday.

POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is released on 11 August 2011 in Australia from Madman.

The Reel Bits is the cinema arm of DVD Bits. Richard can be found on Twitter @DVDBits. The Reel Bits is also @The_ReelBits

August 3, 2011
First Look: Korean Film Festival in Australia 2011

Back for a second year, the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) has unveiled its poster for the 2011, along with two award winning short films announced earlier this week.

Park Chan-wook’s Paranmanjang (Night Fishing) made headlines for being shot entirely on the iPhone 4, and went on to win the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.

Not content to stop there, KOFFIA 2011 has also managed to secure the Silver Bear winner for Best Short Film Pu-Seo-Jin Bam (Broken Night) from rising star director Yang Hyo-joo.

The Reel Bits is proud to be a Festival Partner again this year, following our successful partnership (as DVD Bits) with KOFFIA 2011. In addition to covering the festival in full, Richard Gray serves as the Blog Editor on the official KOFFIA Blog. We will also be involved in a few of the special events, but more on that later.

KOFFIA 2011 will run from August 24 to 29 at the Dendy Opera Quays in Sydney, before moving to Melbourne’s ACMI from September 10 to 13.

The Reel Bits is the cinema arm of DVD Bits. Richard can be found on Twitter @DVDBits and Sarah @swardplay. The Reel Bits is also @The_ReelBits.

July 10, 2011
The Reel Bits celebrates its 1st anniversary

Happy birthday to us! On 4 July 2010, what we now know today as The Reel Bits launched as a simple blog. Today, we turn one year old – and we look a little bit different than we did back then.

One year ago today, we launched The DVD Bits Blog, ostensibly to talk about all of those things that we couldn’t fit onto the ancient DVD Bits mothership. Only twelve months later and The Reel Bits has become the focus of our lives.

In that short period of time, our small team has posted over 430 articles, including 269 film reviews, 102 pages worth of festival coverage, ran 26 major competitions and over 50 other articles.

Richard and Sarah would like to thank, first and foremost, all of our friends and fans we’ve either met personally at screenings over the last year, or via our major outlets of Twitter. We’d like to thank our Melbourne contributor Paul Ryan for getting to those screenings time and distance prevent us from attending. Massive thanks go out to all of the studios, distributors and festivals that have supported us in our start-up year: we quite literally couldn’t do this without your generosity.

Here’s to at least one more year! We look forward to redesigning the site with even more exciting content in the coming 12 months. Until then, look for the same quality content you’ve been loving for the last 12. Now, where’s our cake and elaborate set of presents?

The Reel Bits is the cinema arm of DVD Bits. Richard can be found on Twitter@DVDBits and Sarah @swardplay. The Reel Bits is also @The_ReelBits.

July 4, 2011
‘Super 8’ TV Spot spotlights The Reel Bits

This is a bit of shameless self-promotion on our part. Super 8 opened recently around the world, and clearly our review caught the eyes of some of the people at Paramount. A few of our eagle-eyed readers have spotted this TV spot on Australia’s network and cable television, and now thanks to Paramount Australia we can share the clip with all of you.

Some of our good friends are also mentioned in the video, including Damn Good Cup and Matt’s Movie Reviews, and it is great to see us sitting alongside the likes of Total Film and Ain’t It Cool News. Well done, local web critic community!

Thanks again to Anthony Britten and Jayne Piercy at Way to Blue for providing us with the clip.

[flowplayer src=’http://thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/video/super8-TRB.mp4′ width=460]

Super 8 is released on 9 June 2011 in Australia from Paramount.

The Reel Bits is the cinema arm of DVD Bits. Richard can be found on Twitter @DVDBits, Sarah @swardplay and The Reel Bits @The_ReelBits.

June 16, 2011
Welcome to DVD Bits – The Blog

DVD Bits has been one of Australia’s favourite sources of DVD news, reviews and resources since 1998. Now you can read all about the other random stuff that runs through our brains right here on the official DVD Bits Blog!

July 4, 2010