Trisha’s Take: Mao’s Last Dancer review

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Mao’s Last Dancer

Directed by Bruce Berensford
Starring Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Amanda Schull, Joan Chen and more
Rated PG for a brief violent image, some sensuality, language and incidental smoking

There’s an art involved in adapting a book into a movie. Stray too much from the source material and you run the risk of alienating the audience who already knows the story. At the same time, if you stick too closely to the book’s conventions you may not attract enough of an audience who wouldn’t normally be interested in the original work.

And if the book is based on true events, and is an autobiography to boot? All bets are off.

The plot of Mao’s Last Dancer is based on the autobiography by Chinese-born ballet dancer Li Cunxin, who following in the footsteps of such artists as Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, defected to the U.S. in 1981. However, the story of the movie begins in medias res, with a 20-year old Li stepping foot onto American soil at the beginning of a student exchange program which places him deep in the heart of Texas, with the Houston Ballet. Continue reading “Trisha’s Take: Mao’s Last Dancer review” →

Trisha’s Video of the Day: Where Randall Munroe will never, ever go

Trisha Lynn

The Masquerade at this weekend’s San Diego Comic Con will undoubtedly feature some awesome feats of costumery and stagecraft; however, I think these guys have got them beat:

Part of the Calgaray Zoo’s summer exhibition called “Dinosaurs Alive!”, the costumes and this skit alone are enough to make anyone want to plan a trip to Alberta, Canada this summer. Now open till October 31.

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

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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” →

Walt Disney to produce a live-action movie about gargoyles

Trisha Lynn

The latest news out of the House of Mouse has me pretty bewildered.

According to Marc Graser at Variety, the next live-action film in the Walt Disney Studios pipeline will be something about gargoyles, with Zoe Green in final negotiations to write it and Lauren Shuler Donner producing.

I can hear many of you thinking, “Wait, ‘Gargoyles’? As in the awesome 1994 animated cartoon about a bunch of creatures who by day are lifeless statues but at night come alive and protect a modern day New York City metropolis from the schemings of a businessman named Xanatos?”

And this is where I have to dash your hopes and say that no, Graser’s sources say that it’s not tied to it, but will be something entirely different: Continue reading “Walt Disney to produce a live-action movie about gargoyles” →

RIP: American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar (1939-2010)

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When news broke on Monday that American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar was found dead in his Cleveland Heights, Ohio home, I wrote via Twitter: “I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting him in person, but [Pekar] is and will always be an inspiration to struggling creators.”

Pekar is best-known for the pioneering comics series American Splendor which told the story of Pekar’s own life and the lives of the people around him in his home in Cleveland. It was this series which lead to several guest appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman,” the last of which in 1987 got him banned from the show: Continue reading “RIP: American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar (1939-2010)” →

Black Star Warrior needs your help, badly

Trisha Lynn1 Comment

Once again, Google informed me that the latest and final part of the Black Star Warrior documentary is online, and this one has an appeal for help at the end:

As the YouTube comments have so far stated, this is really tripping my “This is fake” buttons, but I also agree that it’s so well-done that I don’t care. The glimpses at the end of the documentary of what looks like “actual” footage is pretty interesting, and if indeed they will be releasing a trailer to go along with this, you know I’ll be all over it. Also, isn’t Comic Con coming up soon?

Anyway, if you think you can help, go visit LandoIstheMan.com for more information.

Related Posts: More “news” about BlackStar Warrior?, Video of the day: Did someone really make a black version of Star Wars?

Trisha’s Quote of the Day: On the different flavors of geek

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I enjoy doing outdoorsy-type activities in addition to playing games, and I have a big, yellow off-road vehicle that I like to drive into the mountains when I go camping and hiking, etc. I was recently looking for tires for this vehicle and so spent some time on web forums for off-roading geeks. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, among off-road geeks, tire brands are debated with the same ferocity as game geeks argue their positions in the console wars.

—The Escapist Magazine‘s editor-in-chief Russ Pitts has an awesome answer to a run-of-the-mill question.

(BTW, congrats on the five-year anniversary!)

Announcing the Twilight contest winners!

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We here at Geeking Out About… are pleased and proud to announce the winners of our very first contest ever.

To recap, the rules of the contest were as follows, and liberally liberated from the LiveJournal Daily Quiz:

  1. On Monday, June 28, we posted 10 trivia questions pertaining to the Twilight movies, the books, and/or the fandom.
  2. Entrants were to answer those questions in the most entertaining way possible. These answers didn’t necessarily need to be correct.
  3. All of those answers were emailed to us on or before July 9 and myself, co-editor Jillian Pullara and lead movie reviewer Lyssa Spero each chose an entry whose combined answers we liked the best. We also chose Honorable Mention answers to feature in this announcement post because hey, we like publishing funny things.

At this time we’d like to thank LJDQ co-moderators Angledge, Chaosvizier, and LoveLlama for going on hiatus last week and driving traffic towards us.

Each grand prize winner will each receive a $15 gift certificate to either Amazon.com, iTunes, or the online retailer of their choice. In an additional change from the previous rules, we will also be selecting six honorable mention winners who will each be receiving a little “surprise” gift by regular U.S. Postal Service mail as a thank you for participating.

So without further ado, let’s start the show! Continue reading “Announcing the Twilight contest winners!” →

Keeping Tabs: Avatar sequel unlikely to win animation Oscars, and other stories

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  • Ever since Spirited Away was the second movie to win the Best Animated Feature award and the first anime (and non-English language) movie to win, anime and animation geeks have been keeping a close eye on this Academy Awards category. The newest change in the rules of the category, amongst other rules changes, were announced, including this death blow for films like Avatar which featured extensive use of new technology: “”Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.” (Source: ANN)

    • Continue reading “Keeping Tabs: Avatar sequel unlikely to win animation Oscars, and other stories” →