GeekiN #98 – A Review of 2009
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Did you enjoy 2009? Listen to our review to see how we felt about the year in movies, television, and video games. Then be sure to post your own opinions. I apologize in advance for the quality of Scott in this episode.
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Tagged under: Avatar, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Chuck, Lost, Movies, PS3, Television, Video Games, Xbox 360
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So, the idea was that The Doctor’s Companion was going to come out yesterday, and GeekiN would come out today. However, Scott soon discovered that his regular mic wasn’t the one recording him. Instead, his laptop mic did the recording.
So, it sounded pretty horrible. I worked all day today on trying to fix things up, and I did the best I could. Hopefully everyone can understand him alright. We didn’t want to throwaway an entire day of recording.
If everyone is ok with how this turned out, be sure to let me know, so I can be sure to tweak anything before turning my attention to The Doctor’s Companion tomorrow. I would have done it first, but Scott was originally going to edit that while I did GeekiN. So I won’t have the files to work on it until tomorrow.
Also! Be sure you post your top Movies, TV, and Games. That way we can see how everyone’s opinions differ. I don’t think me and Scott ended up with a single title at the same rank, oddly enough.
10. Whatever Works (it wouldn’t be a Jack Gregson list without a Woody Allen film)
9. Extract
8. Away We Go
7. Adventureland
6. Me & Orson Welles
5. Funny People
4. In the Loop
3. Drag Me To Hell
2. Up in the Air
1. A Serious Man
Honourable mention to Up, Star Trek, Nine, An Education and Looking for Eric
Worst
Wolverine
Transformers 2
Year One
I know I’m the only one on the planet who will include it on his list but that just makes me hate it more
500 days of summer
As far as I know, Bill and Fleurs wedding is definitely being included in the 7th film.
I’m not sure 500 Days of Summer is as popular as you think it is. Not everyone is going to love it, because not even a small fraction of people have seen it.
And as far as the wedding goes, I’m pretty sure this picture is from that scene: http://cdn.sheknows.com/celebrityphotos/2009/04/scenes-from-filming-of-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows.jpg
God, I can’t believe I completely forgot Funny People. Loved that movie too.
Yeah, I just checked with my source, that scene is definitely in the movie.
I actually found this year to be a brilliant year for film, I saw so many good films, and it was a boring summer, but maybe that’s a good thing.
So far I’ve seen two films from this year, Kick Ass and Exam, both were amazing, so far this year is shaping up to be great.
I’m sure we’ll discuss what we’ve seen and plan on seeing in our 2010 episode. But so far, I’ve watched (And enjoyed, but not as much as I was hoping) The Book of Eli. I really want to see Youth in Revolt and When in Rome as well. For Michael Cera and Kristen Bell, obviously.
And oddly, I’m looking forward to Valentine’s Day and Percy Jackson and the Olympians as well. But there are a ton of movies this year that could end up being good.
I’m looking forward to Scott Pilgrim more than anything else this year.
I gotta say, I disagree with you Randy on Toy Story 2, I feel it is a far superior movie to the first one, it has a far more interesting plot, with some wonderful emotion put into it.
I didn’t say which one that I liked better. Just that the second one was similar to the first one. Which is pretty much true with any sequel. But when it comes to my Pixar movies, I like them all to feel unique.
Oh, still listening to the show and I gotta add The Ugly Truth to my worst of the year… if Katherine Heigl really thought Knocked Up was a sexist movie, she should look at all the other films she’s made.
I’m just curious if the two thoughts were connected. Ugly Truth is one of the worst of the year because Katherine Heigl doesn’t like the movies she stars in? Or were they separate thoughts?
I just thought it was a pretty dire comedy, I didn’t like the characters, I didn’t like the situation and I thought it was something that had been done a thousand times. I set my comedic standards pretty high, I really liked The Hangover, but another one in your top 10 I really didn’t like was Couples Retreat, as much as I want to like Vince Vaughn, he hasn’t made me laugh since Dodgeball. Comedy is a very important genre to me and there were some great ones this year, and I especially love rom coms, but I hated The Ugly Truth. I have to say though Randy, even though I’ve disagreed with your opinions in the past, but I did really like your list this year,I know I’m giving all my disagreements now, but they always stand out more than the things I agree with.
I was just curious, not criticizing. Comedy is one of the hardest things for people to agree on. I love Adam Sandler, but a lot of people don’t. I love Louis C.K. like there is no tomorrow, but some people just don’t get him.
I like Louis C.K. a lot too, I thought Lucky Louie was one of the most brilliantly observed sitcoms in years (also a big Jim Norton fan), shame it went away so fast.
He was also rather good in The Invention of Lying, one of those films that everybody hates, apart from me, that and Jennifer’s Body seem to fall into that category.
I am partway through this episode now and I’m really enjoying it. I thought I’d stop for a moment to list my favorite movies of 2009. I’ll probably list other favorites (like TV) later after I figure out which ones I liked best.
There are a ton of movies that I haven’t seen yet, a few of which will probably end up on my list later, but these are my favorites at this point.
1. Star Trek
2. Up
3. Avatar
4. Brothers Bloom
5. (500) Days of Summer
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. GI Joe
8. Coraline
9. District 9
10. Watchmen
11. Princess & the Frog
12. Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek and Up have switched spots for me several times, but I’ve watched both of them on BluRay several times now, and I think I liked Star Trek just a little bit more. Both are excellent. GI Joe has also climbed its way onto the list partly because I have rewatched it a few times now, and I keep finding new things that I like about it. Brothers Bloom and (500) Days of Summer have also flip-flopped a bit. Brothers Bloom won out because it is constructed very well, and the characters as so much fun to watch. Three great characters beats out only two.
Our lists are surprisingly similar, with a few exceptions.
1 Star Trek
2 Harry Potter
3 GI Joe
4 Transformers
5 By default because somebody bought me the DVD and I had to watch it “Woverine
That all I watched so far, I will get Sherlock Holmes and District 9 on DVD.
Just finished the episode. Been waiting to hear the Tv shows you have been watching. Don’t have much time for video games but my son loved Assassin’s Creed 2. I’m behind on my television watching. I agree Chuck as my number 1. Being Human sound great. It’s on my list of BBC shows to watch, along with Jekll, Life on Mars, Merlin, and Coupling(and Doctor Who,Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures. As for american shows I’m sooooooooooooo far behind. My problem is I’m pretty anal about starting shows from season 1. White Collar and Leverage looked interesting as well as Sactuary on the Syfy channel. It has a Torchwood feel to it.I plan on starting Supernatural and Fringe this summer. Dexter is on my list as well(damn i’m behind). Once again great show!
As far as Being Human goes, if anyone starts to watch the series, start from episode 1 rather than the pilot. I freaking loved the cast of the pilot, so moving to episode 1 where every character except the Werewolf was played by a different actor, I’ve been longing for the original cast back.
I haven’t got past episode 1 yet, but so far I liked every actor in the Pilot better than the series itself. Especially Mitchell (The Vampire), and the rest of the vampires in the series. I could have dealt with the change to Annie (The ghost). While I loved her personality in the pilot, at least she is easier to understand now. But the change to Mitchell and Lauren were annoying to me. And the guy leading the vampires is not nearly as cool as before.
Anyway, just a warning. If you like the series, you could probably go back after and watch the pilot. I don’t think I could do without the awesome discussion the pilot had. They discussed which house they would be in if they went to Hogwarts.
I just wanted to say that I agree with Scott about Damnation. I was really excited before it came out because the concept was interesting, and the preview videos made it look at least passable. The final game, however, was just horrible.
I haven’t played it yet (other than the demo), but it sounds like Dark Void is another example of a great concept wasted on a game with poor execution. It seems like the best thing people can say about the game is that the music is really good. Seeing as how it was composed by Bear McCreary, the guy behind the music in BSG and Terminator SCC, the music should be good (and what little I heard in the demo was nice).
Surprisingly, I’m actually liking Dark Void quite a bit. It’s not the best game by any stretch but its not even close to being Damnation…
I wouldn’t say its worth $60 or anything, but I’m having fun with it which I didn’t expect at all.
Does the full game play better than the demo? I felt that the controls in the demo were a bit overcomplicated, especially the double stick maneuvers. Perhaps I just needed more time to get used to them or something. I am really considering renting the game just to hear all of Bear McCreary’s music. I love his television scores, so the game might be worth playing for me just because of the music. I don’t think I’ll be buying it though, especially with Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2 looming on the horizon.
Ok, here’s my top 10 for 2009. Apologies cuz I know many people don’t like some of these movies but they fall on my list. Movie releases are sometimes a little behind here in Oz plus there are just a lot of movies I didn’t get to see. Anyway, not really the best ranking but I can’t be bothered so:
10. Sherlock Holmes
9. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
8. Twilight Saga New Moon
7. Underworld Rise of the Lycans
6. District 9
5. Avatar
4. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
3. Star Trek
2. I Love You, Man
1. The Proposal
Honourable mention: Last Chance Harvey, Couples Retreat, The Young Victoria and 17 Again.
Worst of 2009: Knowing, Mall Cop, Confessions of a Shopaholic
Disagree as much as you like. These ones entertained me the most last year.
Movies from 2009 I really wanna see but haven’t yet:
Up, (500) Days of Summer, Watchmen, Coraline, Paranormal Activity, and now thanks to Scott’s revelation that the HIMYM guys wrote it, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
I just watched Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs today, and I loved it. I just about lost it when Steve the monkey saw the giant gummy bears towards the end. The movie had me laughing loudly several other times as well. I especially liked the cop voiced by Mr. T.