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Win RED SHOE DIARIES THE MOVIE and SEASON ONE DVDs Plus Exclusive Clips!

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Back in the day, Showtime gave Skinemax a run for it's money with their secret weapon, Zalman King, the acclaimed creator of stylish erotic dramas and heralded as "the high priest of erotic film-making" by Premiere Magazine, created the international hits 9 ½ Weeks, Wild Orchid and Two Moon Junction before taking to television to give audiences his best-known work, Red Shoe Diaries, the groundbreaking TV movie and series (which ran for five seasons and was a major hit for the Showtime network) that has been imitated by many, but never equaled.


This landmark series, which paved the way for such latter-day erotic dramas as Fifty Shades of Grey, stars David Duchovny (The X-Files, Californication) in his breakout role as a man who learns of his late wife's affair with another man when he comes across her personal journal shortly after her death. Guest stars in Season One include Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire), Matt LeBlanc ("Friends"), Joan Severence ("American Horror Story", "Masters of Sex"), Steven Bauer ("The Mentalist", "Breaking Bad"), and Arnold Vosloo ("Bones", "Elementary").


And yes, that's a young Matt LeBlanc in the clip above.

To celebrate the beginning of a hot summer, we've teamed up with our friends at Kino Lorber to keep things steamy with a giveaway! Five Forces of Geek readers will win a set of Red Shoe Diaries: The Movie and Red Shoe Diaries: Season One on DVD!

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Snowpiercer (review)

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Train in Vain: Snowpiercer is Full of Holes
 Review by Sharon Knolle


Produced by Park Chan-wook, Lee Tae-hun, 
Park Tae-jun, Dooho Choi, 
Robert Bernacchi, David Minkowski, 
Matthew Stillman
Screenplay by Bong Joon-ho, Kelly Masterson
Story by Bong Joon-ho
Based on Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, 
Benjamin Legrand, Jean-Marc Rochette
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Starring Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Go Ah-sung, 
Jamie Bell, Alison Pill, John Hurt, 
Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Ed Harris


Let's start with the good things about Snowpiercer, the futuristic film by Bong Joon-ho, based on the graphic novel.

It's set on a frozen earth where the last of mankind lives aboard a never-stopping super train with all the amenities of home, except for its fourth class passengers, who live in abject squalor.

It's got a fantastic cast, led by Chris Evans, mining a much darker vein than Captain America, as the hero from the last train car who decide it's finally time to push forward and overthrow the front-cars' punishing elitism.

He's ably supported by John Hurt as the Wise Old Man among the rebels and a terrific-as-ever Tilda Swinton as the Elite's slimy representative. It's also got some terrific action sequences and some startling visuals.

But the film, as audacious as it is in depicting the brutal class struggles in such a limited environment, raises more questions than it answers.

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Boston Cinegeeks, Roll Out! We've Got Passes For TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION!

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Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth film in director Michael Bay’s global blockbuster franchise. Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Li Bingbing, Kelsey Grammer, Sophia Myles, T. J. Miller, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor and Titus Welliver star. The film begins after an epic battle that left a great city torn, but with the world saved. As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history… while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from a new cast of humans, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet. In an incredible adventure, they are swept up in a war of good and evil, ultimately leading to a climactic battle across the world.
And we're giving away passes to Forces of Geek readers to see the film on Wednesday, June 25th, at 7pm at the AMC Boston Common.

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POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN Learns A Valuable Lesson About Binge-Eating Cooked Spinach Straight From the Can

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Popeye the Sailor Man has never been my favorite cartoon character for the simple reason that I always believed him to be some kind of propaganda puppet for the cooked spinach mafia (which totally exists...probably). But I have to say that this animated short, which portrays Popeye as a binge-eater who suffers the consequences of continuously downing a green, diarrhea-like substance straight from the can, is certainly a winner in my book.

Of course, I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to torturing cartoon characters.

Video after the break.

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Hilarious NASA Warnings Auto-Tuned For Your Listening Pleasure

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At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, artist and designer, David Delgado, was all set to work with their artist-in-residence when he kept noticing weirdly worded warning posters hung all over that spoke of the horrors that humans could face in the case of a "Problem".

Being that he was an artist, he photographed them and shared their oddity with friend and Artistic Director of Story Pirates (a nationally respected education and media organization founded in 2003 to celebrate the words and ideas of young people) Lee Overtree.

Overtree, of course, did what anyone would do when confronted with esoteric warnings that seem innocuous while also conveying a spirit of terror, he auto-tuned himself reading various signs like this:


Which, is exactly as the Gods would have wanted.

After the break you can listen to the spoken-word "song" Lazer Bypass.

 I can assure you, it will become one of your favorite songs ever.

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Come and Re-Live Your Childhood At the Atari Party On Sat. June 14th at the Sunnyvale Public Library in CA

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If you happen to live in or near Sunnyvale, CA (which just so happens to be home to Atari, Inc. and Atari Corp) stop by the Sunnyvale Public Library this Saturday for the sixth annual Atari Party.

Yes, It's Going To Be This Exciting
For six fun-filled hours (10am-4pm) you can immerse yourself in nostalgia by playing a shitload of classic games like Asteroids, Pitfall!, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Combat and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (plus tons more), dabbling on various consoles like: Atari 2600, Atari Flashback, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx II (plus Nintendo and Playstation consoles), not to mention playing on Atari 8-bit and 16/32-bit personal computers (Atari 800 anyone?) and actual arcade games like Star Wars, Tempest, Centipede and Asteroids.

There's also going to be notable guest speakers as well (Al Alcorn - "The Creation of Pong" and Dan Kramer who worked for Atari during its heyday) who will no doubt make any gamer cream in their pants...if they happen to be older than 40.

So go on, make plans for a road trip and enjoy an entire day spent playing the video games of your youth...you know you'll hate yourself if you don't.



Kickstarter Korner: From CAN MAN to FILE 13; Childhood Comic Gets Reimagined For Kickstarter

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This edition of Kickstarter Korner kicks the Can with Dan Hosek and also, apparently Keith Koppenhoefer, who jumped in so as not to be silenced any more!

File 13 is a fun retro superhero comic looking for that last boost to make a childhood dream a reality.

Consider your pledges after the jump!

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My Tried and True Comfort Movies

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When most kids in their early-teens arrive home from a grudgingly long day, I assume they must form small gangs, raid the streets in droves, and suck down countless whippets.

I can only imagine the sound of their parents credit cards incessantly swiping followed by maniacal laughter.

Clearly spoken like someone who does not know what it is that teens actually do. Mysterious little fools living an odd and painful existence; trapped between the two worlds of "freedom" and "responsibility."

It was during this time that your mildly humble author relished in arriving home from prison, err ahem, high school and popping in a movie that soothed all those terrible memories of rank locker rooms and long hallways brimming with hormones by the literal metric ton.

Instead of the aforementioned, and probably wildly incorrect, whippet heavy scenario, I instead was roaming the aisles of my neighborhood video store. I submerged myself in movies that would soon become cornerstones in my film education.

However, as was for everyone, I found myself revisiting some of the same flicks more often than I did others.

Why, the birthing of my everlasting comfort movies was indeed afoot.


I must say, I ran a choice selection of tapes beyond ragged. I was blessed to finding myself coming to cinematic maturity between the twilight of VHS and the dawning of DVD. Remember the time when you could pick out a movie and rent it on whichever platform you pleased?

Aw, yeah, I miss that sweet luxury. I personally feel this was the golden age of the video store.

Distinctly, I remember asking my trusty video store clerk his sage advice on the almost daily. J.D., a shy gentleman with low to mid-level autism, was to Blockbuster as Harry Potter was to Hogwarts. Seriously, this guy was the king of horror flicks. I thank my lucky stars this man opened up to me and guided me through the trials and tribulations of finding not only watchable horror, but some real classics.

This, my friends, was the man who introduced me to the majesty that is Evil Dead, Rosemary's Baby, Dead Alive, as well as a slew of others. Whatever this film wizard recommended I watched with gusto. The majority of this list is with due penitence to him.

So, here's to you, J.D., thanks for tricking me out nerd style.


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Mega Madness! GREMLINS Turns 30!

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Joe Dante’s Gremlins turned 30 this past Sunday, and as much as that makes me feel ancient, at least at the age of 42 I finally understand the danger of eating after midnight.

I’m also proud to say that for 30 years my favorite movie has remained the same.

That’s not easy to explain to cinema snobs, let me tell you. I’ve always distinguished the question of “favorite movie’ to be separate from my opinion of “best movie.” I’m of the camp that your favorite movie should always be, unapologetically, one that resonated with you emotionally, and preferably at an early age.

Gremlins was that film for me, during the cinematically-prolific summer of 1984.


Before the film's release, there was a wild anticipation as to what exactly the "gremlins" were. Warner Bros. hesitancy to unveil the creature design in the pre-release marketing paid off. With a PG rating, a summer release date and a fairly tame teaser campaign, kids flocked to Gremlins, often brought by parents.

What parents got for pretty much the first half of the film was a family friendly Christmas set comedy about a fluffy cute pet and his adventures in suburbia.

Then, they hatched.

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Father's Day Gifts For That Pop Culture Loving Dad on Your List!

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Selections by Stefan Blitz and Elizabeth Weitz

This Sunday is Father's Day, an actual holiday, dedicated to selling neckties and paperweights.

And while most dads (or paternal figures) are likely happy with an afternoon in their man cave watching Jaws or RoboCop undisturbed, or an uninterrupted bowel movement and a copy of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, here are some of our suggestions that would make the most of the day.

And we even have one amazing neck-tie, so there.


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Classic Casino Movies

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picture by Moyan Brenn on Flickr

The glitz, the glamour, the grandeur, it’s easy to see why Las Vegas, Nevada is so appealing to the world of cinema.

With infinite possibilities for iconic shots and stunning visuals, Vegas has, over the years, become a hallmark location for some memorable films. It’s not just about the scenery though, as the plethora of casinos and gambling provide more than a few exciting evenings and with that in mind, we take a look at some of the great movies that have been shot at casinos, poker tables and even ‘Sin City’, over the years.


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Win a 'DESTINY' First Look Alpha Code For PS4!

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It's the most anticipated video game release of the year and Forces of Geek wants you to experience it first.
Welcome to the Destiny First Look Alpha, a small sampling of activities you'll find in the final experience. Destiny is an action game that combines the campaign story, cooperative, competitive modes you expect, with in-depth character creation and huge variety of weapons, armor, and combat abilities. Create a character. Take it into every mode. Venture out into the world alone, or play with friends in search of action and adventure.

These PS4 codes can be used to participate in the Destiny First Look Alpha right now! The only other way to get a code is to register at http://playstation.greatnessawaits.com/ to register to be selected from the official pool of participants at a later time.
 And we're giving away codes to Forces of Geek readers!

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ANIMATION GEEK: Villa Antropoff, Who Knew A Found Condom Would Lead To This?

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An African fellow finds a (used?) condom on a beach and begins a long, arduous journey to follow his dreams...it's kind of in the same vein of The Gods Must Be Crazy only weirder and with more drugs.

Watch it after the break.

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Cowabunga! TMNT Doc, 'TURTLE POWER' Arrives on DVD & Digital HD 8/14

39 Facts About Comedy

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Once again I turn to the offerings of Mental Floss's trivia show so that 1) I can stalk John Green without alerting suspicion, 2) Keep up my knowledge of useless facts that impress no one other than children and 3) Did I mention John Green?

So, if you have a hankering for treasured facts about comedy (or really want to know about the time John Cleese auctioned off a piece of his colon) then take a watch-see after the break.

Seriously, what else are you doing?

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So Much More Than An Abortion Comedy: FOG! Chats With OBVIOUS CHILD Star Jenny Slate and Director Gillian Robespierre

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By Benn Robbins

I met director Gillian Robespierre and star Jenny Slate at in the Commonwealth Room of the Eliot Hotel, in Boston, with a few other journalists for our roundtable discussion about their new film the original romantic comedy, Obvious Child. (My review will run here tomorrow, so come back now, y'here!)

This was my first-time interviewing someone and I was really nervous. Right away I was put at ease when they showed up though. They were both very gracious and happy to be here, even though poor Jenny had a cold from all her recent traveling she was in great spirits and ready to go. She even joked that “I might still have a line on my face from my pillow” from her nap.

We jumped right in with questions and when asked how she went from adapting her short film to a feature length film, Gillian respond, “We started as this little story in 2009. We shot in 4 days in Brooklyn with no money and no real wardrobe. All of the crew were friends from The School of Visual Arts, where I went.” She went on to say, “We were all these (kids) in our mid twenties so no one had a full time job and we were able to shoot this movie.”. She continued, “What was really exciting, was that, in the editing room, I noticed that there was something special in Jenny’s performance. It was incredible and that in this 16 page short I had a 30 minute rough cut.”

This is really long for a short film. As it is the final cut of the original short was 20 mins long. At this point they get the film into film festivals and it got a lot of notice.

Buzz for the film built thanks to great reviews from “The Jezebel”, “Feministing” and Bust. And they were linking to the short film to the articles they were writing. “I saw it in the editing room, I just didn’t have the story yet or the footage. And I’m glad, because we all had to mature as storytellers and creators,” Robespierre added.

The film tackles a really hotbed subject in unwanted pregnancy, and unlike other films on this subject, it it never judges or preaches one way or the other. The film just lets the character make her decision and tells what happens. Less worries about trying to “sell” this film to conservatives or “small-town middle America” Robespierre says, “I wrote it for everybody and I think the goal was hopefully, because of the internet, everyone can see it. You don’t write it for one person or for small town middle America. But you hope that every young man and woman will see it.”

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Throwback Thursday Redux: The Baby Secret Doll Lays Down Some Jams And Some Serious Nightmare Fuel

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A lot of my job entails me spending a crazy amount of time searching the web for things that strike me as weird or interesting (depending on my mood or how much wine I've had to drink...this can be a 24/7 job) and while most of the time what I find is barely fulfilling to me as a writer, there are those occasional moments when something magical happens...like when you type in the words "Weird Doll" and the above video pops up.

It is in those instances when you are reminded just how awesome the power of the inter-webs can be.

I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

Source: Daily of the Day

Shout! Factory Celebrates The 30th Anniversary Of TRANSFORMERS

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TREASURE TROVE OF ENTERTAINMENT INCLUDES “30 YEARS IN 3 DAYS
SHOUT! FACTORY LIVE AT BOTCON 2014” LIVE STREAM EVENT AND MORE!

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IGGY AZALEA, Blaccents and Faking the Funk

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I can't get that dang Iggy Azalea song out of my head.

You know the one – “Fancy” – in which I-G-G-Y tells how, firs' thin's firs', she's the realest? It's the No. 1 song in the country and so far is shaping up to be The Song of the Summer 2014.

Not that I want “Fancy” to be, though. I'd rather the song not be in my head. I hope some other piece of pop fluff walks in and sweeps it away.

I don't much enjoy pop culture that insults me. As a black man and a nerd, the mainstream does a good enough job of that already on both fronts. And now I have I-G-G-Why.


After a few years of hearing about Iggy in the online hinterlands of the hip-hop background, it makes sense that she has emerged now.

Now, in our pop music mixmaster of blockbusters prying up a dying record industry that has exhausted underground subcultures and transgression so thoroughly that it's easier to sneakily uphold the power structure by watering down rebellion and disavowing history to create a cartoon.

And Iggy Azalea is a cartoon. She's no more real than Woody Woodpecker.

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Movie Credits Deserve A Little Less Credit

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At the recent X-Men movie I did something rare: I sat through the entire end credits so I could see the teaser trailer for the next movie.

As any casual moviegoer knows, the post-film credits are not only running longer than ever before, but are approaching ridiculous lengths.

Anyone who has any role in a movie’s production — down to the caterer who served food to the extras — now gets screen credit.

To some extent I’m a bit appalled at who gets to have their name listed — clearly it’s standard operating procedure to demand it when you’re hired to do any kind of work on a movie (or as David Mamet puts it in State and Main, they’ll even give a horse an associate producer credit).

But before I talk about why this practice tilts me, there are benefits to it. Specifically, it reminds us that movies are a collaborative endeavor despite the outsized focus that is placed on the actors, often but not always the director, and sometimes the screenwriter.

Almost 9 minutes of collaborators for Star Trek Into Darkness

Unlike a lot of other forms of entertainment, the technical demands of filmmaking are so great that there’s a limit to how much a single person’s vision (or a few) can really propel a movie to completion. Or to look at it another way, auteur theory is a bit of a romantic notion. (What really happens is that a director works with the same crew over and over again.)

That being said, a lot of the people listed in the credits bring absolutely no creative input to a movie — they’re not independently making decisions that affects what we see on screen. They are given a specific task to perform and have to do it within very strict parameters.

For example, The X-Men credits listed the names of all of the plasters that worked on the movie. I don’t mean to knock this profession, but in their capacity on this job, all they’re doing and all they’re allowed to do are follow someone else’s strict instructions. Or consider the legions of computer graphic artists that account for a lot of the bloat in recent movie credits.

Before finding music success, Psy was credited as Hugh Jackman's Claw Choreographer on X-Men 3: The Last Stand

In my view, giving these people credit would be like having Rodin acknowledge all the workers involved in the bronze casting process for his sculptures, or Rembrandt crediting who made his canvasses, oil paints, paintbrushes, easels, and any other equipment he utilized in making a painting.

My bottom line is that if you’re essentially performing a work for hire job rather than being engaged in a positions where you have the freedom to shape some aspect of the movie without having to get someone’s signoff (except for maybe the director or producer), then you shouldn’t have your name listed.

Maybe this seems extreme, but if you’re not going to hold the line here, then why not give credit the janitorial staff who cleans up the sound stages each night? They’re performing as vital a task in the making of a movie as the people who cook the lunches.

If the credits focused just on the essential moviemakers, then we could go back to having all of the credits before the movie. The elegance of the longer pre-credit sequences that were usual in movies until about the 1970s was that everyone who deserved screen credit got it before the movie began — they audience was forced to acknowledge the role of these collaborators. One of the main reasons a handful of people are disproportionately signaled out for their role in the making of a movie is because they’re one of the few who gets the privilege to be listed here.

The roughly two to three minutes allotted for this doesn’t leave room for many people, especially when any actor with a speaking role has to be listed. There are a lot of important second tier staff, like the second unit team and camera operators, who never get the credit they deserve because they are pushed to the end credits.


What we desperately need is another Naked Gun movie to mock just how out of control things have gotten.

Back then, they listed one of the producers’ divorce attorneys; today, that doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility.

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