WRITER: Nicholas Stoller
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Stoller
CAST: Jonah Hill, Rusell Brand, Rose Byrne, Sean Combs

Aaron Green (Hill), a record company intern is charged with the task of accompanying his idol, out-of-control British rock star Aldous Snow (Brand) from London to a tenth anniversary concert at L.A.’s Greek Theater. The event could save Snow’s nose-diving fortunes and it could establish Green’s career. However, getting the wily, sex-addicted, substance-abusing rocker to stick to any kind of schedule will take all of Green’s patience and ingenuity.

GET HIM TO THE GREEK is the latest feature from comedy producer extraordinaire Judd Apatow. The movie is an offshoot, but not a sequel to 2008’s FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL. It takes the character of British rocker Aldous Snow (Brand) and puts him centre stage in a rollicking buddy/road movie with Apatow comedian-of-the-moment Jonah Hill.

The Snow character, who was an unexpected highlight of SARAH MARSHALL, is constantly in motion, filled with the idea of the moment and in search of any drug he can lay his hands on. He is essentially a powerful child who has to be looked after and pandered to by the younger Green whose lack of job and life experience means he is in way above his head. However Green has great tenacity and genuinely wants to see his childhood hero resurrect his career with the Greek Theater concert.

Is Aaron Green merely Aldous Snow’s minder or is he the man who will put him back on top? Is Snow his mentor or is he just using this ‘affable twit’ from the record company? GET HIM TO THE GREEK cleverly plays every variant of this relationship while simultaneously taking pot shots at celebrity culture and the entertainment media. There are amusing cameos (Lars Ulrich take a bow) and a barrage of pop culture icons are name-checked in the rapid-fire dialogue between the leads and the supporting characters.

The film successfully revamps the Apatow formula of foul-mouthed male comedy with a heart. It delves into anal humour while at the same time making points about relationships. It has fun with drugged-out excess while saying that Snow has destroyed his career with this kind of self-indulgence. As in all of the better Apatow films, you can have your cake and eat it.

If like me, you were less-than-impressed by Brand’s television stand up in PONDERLAND, then you may be put off from seeing him on the big screen, but as my movie-buddy pointed out, he is a lot funnier playing a scripted version of himself. Brand is in fine form here. Writer/Director Nicholas Stoller is intelligent about how he uses his non-acting leading man and does a similarly good job of directing P-Diddy in the role of alpha–dog record company boss Sergio.

Jonah Hill has been labelled by some reviewers as a kind of Seth Rogen lite. This underestimates his considerable acting skill and comedic timing. Time will tell what kind of range Hill has or if he will always play a variant of the same role, however he knows how to inhabit a character and not just go for the gag. MAD MEN’s Elisabeth Moss has a small but memorable role as Green’s girlfriend, a hard-working doctor who desperately needs sleep. Australian Rose Byrne acquits herself well in the role of Jacqui Q the model/singer of questionable taste and talent.

While watching the movie I was constantly reminded of the 1982 comedy MY FAVORITE YEAR directed by Richard Benjamin. Cue IMD synopsis: “It’s 1950′s New York and the age of live television. Benjy Stone is a young writer on a major comedy-variety show. He is assigned to chaperone that week’s guest Alan Swann, a faded (British) movie star and renowned womanizer and drinker. Benjy’s job is to keep Swann sober and above all, make sure he shows up for the live broadcast on Saturday evening.” Is there a long drawn-out Hollywood lawsuit in the offing? Let’s wait and see. Why not check out both films and improve your pop cultural cred?

GET HIMTO THE GREEK is slick, middlebrow entertainment that manages to keep the laughs flowing for its entire length. Screening now in Australian cinemas.

This review can also be found at mrtrivia.net

The ASADA Synergistic Intelligence Team have just released video of their M3-Kindy a “kindergarten-age/sized humanoiod robot that emulates the movements and reactions of a toddler. At first this little tyke seems rather average. However keep watching this 2 minute vid – the ability to react to a human smile, make this a creepily impressive demonstration.  Just don’t let M3-Kindy eat the broccoli.

That’s how crazy it is. Forget the iPad – that’s old news. The Kindle? A proprietorial dinosaur. Check this puppy out . . .

The Kobo is an open-source electronic book reader that uses cheap SD cards to boost memory. It plugs into your computer via USB, so you can carry thousands of books around at once. All nice and standard. No proprietary book format (although it reads many formats). It costs A$200 and can be bought at Borders.

Writers, Get out Your Pens

Self-publishing used to be a bad word. It was frowned upon by the chosen writers. The ones chosen to have their books put into print by publishers. People who couldn’t work in a team environment with a producer and an editor were cornered into self-publishing – and nobody would talk to them. Now they are rock stars. Brad Pitt was wrong in Fight Club. We’re all going to be famous rock-stars because we’re killing off the middle men one by one! What was it that Karl Marx said about access to society’s “means of production” being in the “hands of the few?” Not so anymore.

Now you can release your own music (like I do on Bandcamp) make your own films and upload them (like we do here at Geoffrey on YouTube). And now? . . . Now you can publish your own Kindle novelette.

Do be certain to follow this very handy guide. That’s actually a brilliant link to a list of tips for any writer. Check your work before releasing your novelette to the masses (because no-one else will).

And be sure to make it completely free.

Whaaaaaaat?

I’m sorry but your first novel is FREE

You ain’t going to get anywhere without writing and releasing your first novel for nix. If the Kobo comes with Dostoevsky’s “Crime & Punishment” pre-loaded, you’d better not charge a dime, friend. Dostoevsky is King!

So – all you people who ever wanted to publish a novel (or novelette, or short story, or anthology of poems) – now there’s no excuse. Nobody’s going to reject you. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. At least you won’t owe your publisher a penny if your book flops! And most do (keep that in mind as you write).

So what’s next? . . . Books, movies, music . . . Well. There’s a slew of computer printers that can “print” out plastic parts. It’s all in its infancy, but one day maybe even wannabe toy-makers and toolmakers can start their home-based careers. Without having to go through Hasbro or . . . Black & Decker? (I think that’s where toolmakers go).

In a Nutshell

Quick! Make a run for Borders and order your $199 Kobo. Use the SD card in your digital camera if you want to store more than 1,000 books. And get in now before third world labour becomes too expensive.

The Social Media Demographic is changing. In 2008 the kids (teens) thought Twitter uncool, but they are are now part of a steadily rising demographic. Key users are of working age as these social tools are increasingly being used to attract new clients and work. I’m 42, and because in the business of making websites, I should know.

How I Use Social Media

The following is how I use the various Social Network Tools available today and how I might use them if I could afford an iPad. Click the social media title to see my social media page/s and how I use the software (because that’s what it is people – software).

Facebook

• text-chatting to friends in front of the TV
• sharing photos with friends and family
• sharing links
• keeping in contact with overseas family
• keeping in contact with people you normally wouldn’t catchup with (like ex-girlfriends etc.). Indeed keeping in contact with everyone you’ve ever met!
• keeping friends updated on what you’re doing (status report)
• letting friends know what my latest website looks like
• letting friends or family know what l look like (as I age)
• gentle business promotion?

(As a general rule, it’s probably best to keep anything that resembles advertising to 1 in 10 posts. Facebook is mostly a social catch-up arena.)

Twitter

• Like the Facebook update status I can let my friends know what I’m eating for lunch ;p
• advertise a website special for the moment to 1000 people at once.
• follow topics of interest
• quickly send out a link to something of interest to a group of people
• follow a group chat about a particular topic by inserting a #hashtag into my 140 word post
• follow musicians realeasing free albums
• follow deals on specialist equipment
• follow deals on short courses / education freebies

Delicious

• I’m so tired of losing my links with different browsers and bookmarks, that now I keep them all in one spot … online. It takes a little longer to post a link of interest, but it’s worth the convenience when you work on several computers. If you click on the word delicious above – you can see all my saved bookmarks. I don’t care that they are available publicly. And that’s part of the social network issue . . . Privacy!

Tumblr

• basically an online scrapbook
• sound
• image
• movie snippets
• blog thoughts.
• half-baked ideas or noodles of mild interest I post here
• comments on things I see and like

Digg

• They email me daily with what’s popular on the web
• I often tweet it to my Twitter followers
• basically a run down of the most popular thing on the web

(younger Gen-Y audience – not business oriented)

Linked In

• my Business CV online
• associates can post job references.
• my work history and CV for all to see
• people “re-connect” with associates they may have worked with in the past
• 35-45 working age group

Flickr

• Hosts photos that you can share with friends / family / work colleagues
  I use this to show location stills to cast / crew for films

MySpace

• Musician / Filmmaker hub (mostly for musos)

Bands were once “discovered” here but those days (2007) are probably behind us. Youtube is more likely to show off your tap-dancing these days plus bands are increasingly cutting out the middle man by turning to self-distribution models using websites like Bandcamp. Even I have an EP on Bandcamp – The Mary Street Abduction.

RSS

• Really Simple Syndication. Clicking this link usually adds a website’s content to your reader. Or e-reader! Joining an RSS feed will have stuff (like this article) emailed to your inbox (if you like this Blog, join us here). This technology has yet to stretch its wings I feel. Readers are heading over to the couch right now. The electronic book may herald the boom of a new Blog reader. Blogs are so popular because they give search engines so much to find. Because of it, businesses also try to run blogs (like this one). You can get a basic e-reader for as little as $200 these days and some of them (the slightly more expensive ones) connect to your home wi-fi.

In Short

You can find a use for nearly all of these things. But in the world of business, people need to know that you exist. Letting them know at every turn that you are there, dilligently performaing a task for clients, is really important to me. Most of my work comes through friends and associates recommending my work. Not joining all these avenues for someone with my tiny advertising budget would be coinsidered a misdemeanor.

After all – every single one of these things is completely free!

DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau
WRITER: Justin Theroux
CAST: Robert Downey, Jr.Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow ,Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson
RATING: 2.5/5

Weapons manufacturer Tony Stark’s identity as Iron Man is now public knowledge. After six months of keeping the world safe from war, Stark finds himself pitted against his Russian arch nemesis, Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) and corporate rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).  Whiplash wants revenge for past wrongs, Hammer wants to defeat Stark in business and is ruthless about pursuing his ends. Stark is also under investigation from the US Government which doesn’t want a weapon so powerful as the Iron Man suit in private hands.

IRON MAN 2 is the sequel to 2008’s excellent  debut movie that introduced filmgoers to billionaire playboy, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr). IRON MAN gave us the most rounded character portrayal of a superhero since Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker in SPIDERMAN (2002).  Although, Tony Stark was fortunate in having the kick-ass suit and all that money,  his problems didn’t make him all emo and dull like Bruce Wayne they made him all passive-aggressive and smart-mouthy. This was part of the joy of this character. Even when he was having a bad time, we were having fun.

Director Favreau and Robert Downey have preserved much of the flavour of the central character, but unfortunately the rest of the film is filler; explosive, expensive, extensively computer-generated filler.  Favreau clearly knows a thing or two about directing actors and when your cast boasts Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell and Samuel L. Jackson, then giving performers of their calibre thinly sketched characters isn’t too much of a risk.  Scarlett Johansson’s performance  consists of her looking beautiful and then pulling out the combat moves. She achieves these things with ease, but not much interest. Cheadle takes over the role of Colonel James Rhodes formerly played by Terrence Howard.

I was in another screening on the weekend and I overheard some dyed-in-the-wool comic fans talking about how much they enjoyed IRON MAN 2. They enjoyed seeing the character of Nick Fury, the introduction of SHIELD. They were also thrilled at the image of the new Thor that had been released earlier in the week and they were very happy that than an Avengers movie is in the works.

For Marvel fans this future franchise material must be exciting, but for the average film-going schmo, it’s beside the point. I don’t care that a Captain America movie is coming unless it has a strong and convincing story to support the character. For some fans just the embodiment of their favourite superhero in a big budget movie is enough to make it worth shelling out their $18.00.

However, as a comics non-fan, I would have liked to have seen the depth of Tony Stark’s character suggested in the other characters.  I wanted to care more as Iron Man geared up for battle.

The film is the work of professionals, but some of the sparkle and interest of the first Iron Man seems to be lost amidst the big budget fireworks and flying scenes. There’s a whole plotline hinted at for Mickey Rourke’s backstory involving Tony Stark’s father, the interesting ambivalence that is suggested, is dashed by the very black and white truth that is later revealed involving these powerful figures from the past.

The things I liked about the movie were that Stark and Pepper’s (Paltrow) bantering relationship is taken up another notch. I also enjoyed the big industry shows that Stark and Hammer preside over. It felt as though these were styled to parody the ‘Master of the Universe’ antics of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer or Apple’s Steve Jobs.

If you liked the first Iron Man film,  then you are likely to enjoy this one. Unless you’re a nit-picking curmudgeon like myself.

The Internet Public Library has a great list of some of the basic plots in literature, but it’s up to you and the zeitgeist to come up with something original, relevant and interesting – and yet not predictive.

Many screenplay puritans (and perhaps, more recently, The Academy itself) have spurned the film Avatar as being derivative. It borrows too much from the storylines of both Pocahontas and The Emerald Forest. Do you think it’s a bad thing that James Cameron borrowed a tired old storyline for his movie, Avatar OR are we at the point where it’s all been done before, so it’s time to do it again – only this time, with computers?

The Old School system way back in the pre-digital era had clear cut institutions for composers, producers and other owners creators of intellectual and creative products to enforce their copyright and collect a fee.

If you wrote a song and recorded it, then there were ways for you to collect royalties when it was played on the radio. If you lived in Australia and wanted to see the latest television show or movie from the US you had to wait approximately two years before Hoyts or the broadcasters decided you could have it.

In the last decade, there has been a number of technological developments that have made it possible for the average punter to get a breathtaking amount of material at speed through the crappy copper wires that we used to shoot faxes through.

If one is prepared to ignore copyright law, often it is possible to download the latest Hollywood film before it even screens in this country. Your risks are relatively low. You might get a dubbed or annoyingly subtitled version of the movie you seek. You might get a poor camcorder version of the movie pirated in a cinema rather than further up the movie feeding chain. And you might get caught up in some kind of piracy crackdown and be made to pay a huge fine.

The sheer amount of pirated TV shows and movies I see floating around makes it clear that the threat of legal action and a fine isn’t scaring too many pirates away.

When the first episode of the new DOCTOR WHO aired in UK recently, it noted that my various Oz Twitter buddies were downloading illegally. Thanks to the clever franchise building of WHO re-creator Russel T Davies, the premiere of season five of new WHO had a massive international audience waiting to see if the reboot (new Doctor, new show runner) would help or hinder their beloved Doctor. Twitter was full of comments about Matt Smith’s portrayal of the eleventh doctor and how Karen Gillan’s character of Amy Pond was working out (image above).

Australian fans get their first legal look at the series on ABC iView at midnight Friday April 16th . The national broadcaster seems to be acknowledging the demand from Australian fans. The lag between the UK premiere and Australia being a mere three weeks. Not good enough for many, but I would suggest that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is being more realistic about illegal downloading than the commercial free-to-airs in this country.

To contrast the different attitudes a look at BBC’s zombie series survivors is instructive. According to the chat at the TV Tonight blog, the Nine Network drastically edited chunks out of the series in order to show ‘compresed episodes’. This kind of cavalier attitude virtually guarantees the geek audience will seek a properly constituted version of the series elsewhere. They might buy the boxed set of DVDs if they like what they have already seen, but aren’t they more likely to be torrenting the whole damned thing for free? They were already getting it free-to-air, but bastardised. What is their incentive to do the right thing?

This type of short-sighted decision on the part of broadcasters is disrespectful both of the program makers and the audience. However it is entirely in line with the way the networks have always done business. And these days, when the free-to-air platform is looking increasingly shaky, it’s hard to see how this high-handed bullshit will benefit the broadcasters in the long run.

The iPad is coming to Australia. But will it live up to the hype? It has some serious issues and, to my mind, may just be Apple’s final hurrah. , you need to be really close to your wi-fi hub in order for it to work. This problem can’t get fixed with a software update because of a tiny receiver behind the screen and most people use the iPad on their laps / cushions etc. – further reducing the signal.

Whatever you think about Apple as a company, they do tend to come up with 100% usable products. I would go as far as to say that they are a company more into usability than the technology itself. The fact is, that for most Macs, you are spending nearly double what you’d spend on a PC with the same specs. I’m not writing this to add to the PC Vs. Mac debate. They are both massive companies who seem to behave like little babies. Perhaps that’s what competition at this level does to us. At the very successful release of the iPod, Bill Gates (most probably in a fit of jealousy after his Zune music player bombed) announced that Microsoft were no longer going to support Internet Explorer (IE) for Mac computers (Ne-ne-ne-ner-nerr!). And the black turtle-necked Steve Jobs comes over as an absolute tyrant when it comes to secrecy about his latest Mac products.

In short, time will be the great leveler, but the issues with the current iPad seem to be getting worse by the day. We’re in a world where products are realeased way before they are ready. It’s cheaper to get your loyal (in the case of Mac, super loyal) customers to do your testing. They’ll prolly upgrade to the later version anyway. I’m going to wait until the iPad (which should retail here for around $650) has been around for a few generations before I buy in. In the meantime, keep watching.

Steve Jobs’ Six Sneakiest Statements
Jobs: “Flash Will Murder the iPad”