Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Geeks.
Why the Defenders Need Iron Fist
On August 18, 2017, Marvel fans were gifted with another series to binge: The Defenders , the first season of the team-up that I personally didn't know I needed, but will now watch until I die. The Marvel/Netflix partnership, which currently spans five and counting unique, interconnected series, always manages to drop whenever I have papers due, I digress. These series, though not without their issues, are a welcomed start of an approach towards better representation and diversity in television.
By Hannah Anderson8 years ago in Geeks
Review of Game of Thrones 7.6
I thought last night's Game of Thrones 7.6 was the best episode so far in the entire series. We finally got to see the battle between the dragons and the dead. Dragon fire versus dead ice and everything that led up to it last night was peak Game of Thrones, profound and breathtaking. And the battle itself...
By Paul Levinson8 years ago in Geeks
Is God a Playwright?
William Shakespeare famously writes in his play As You Like It that, “All the world’s a stage, and the men and women merely its players.” Tom Stoppard, playwright, director, and student of Shakespeare, explores the full potential of this ideology in the film adaptation of his play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. Tom Stoppard’s first and only film is an experimental tragicomedy that depicts the events of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as experienced by the titular Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), two minor characters sent for by the King to determine the cause of Prince Hamlet’s troubled disposition. Throughout the film the two heroes grapple with their predetermined fate and their seemingly meaningless existences as they encounter the unnatural forces of theatricality, forces that dictate reality as explained by the wit of The Lead Player (Richard Dreyfuss).
By Devin O'Brien8 years ago in Geeks
Top 10 Movies That Will Make Your Skin Crawl. Top Story - August 2017.
There are the horror movies that make you jump, others leave you breathless, and others make you scream and close your eyes. But a movie that can make your skin crawl as you sit there squirming in your seat, resisting the urge to dig your nails into the palm of your hand, is something that’s not always easy in a film. Many audience members don’t enjoy that level of discomfort—but not you! You came for the list. So sit back and get ready to feel your skin crawl.
By Mike Dineen8 years ago in Geeks
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an interesting actress. I have never seen a female actress act in movies like she does. She is fun to watch and I love watching her. Angelina can do some amazing stunts. She can drive vehicles courageously, jump and land, shoot guns, and all sorts of things.
By Gail Nobles8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: Logan Lucky
Being a fan of the American history podcast The Dollop allows me to watch a movie like Logan Lucky and never for a moment find the story implausible. Take a listen to them tell the remarkable true story titled Jet-Pack Madness and you will find within it a story every bit as brilliant as a Coen Brothers comedy. Everything in Logan Lucky feels completely plausible when you compare it to such historic silliness as what transpired with the Jet-Pack or the L.A Freeway Shootout or The Human Taco.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: 'Manitou Canyon'
Cork O'Connor is a half-Irish, half-Anishinaabe Minnesotan private investigator with a history of getting in too deep. Since 1998, his sleuthing exploits have been the subject of 15 books by author William Kent Krueger, and have seen him traveling across Minnesota and north Ontario to destroy a human trafficking ring, take down corrupt business moguls, solve inexplicable murders, and rebuild a marriage with a wife whose death he'd later find himself investigating. If you haven't checked out Krueger's work, do yourself a favour and head down to your local bookstore.
By Calvin Hayes8 years ago in Geeks
The Pledge, Turn, and Prestige
Upon rewatching The Prestige, my writer brain turned on after the second line. The one where Cutter (Michael Caine) explains how every "magic trick consists of three parts or acts." I dug deeper into this epiphany and what I found on the other side was quite cool, if I do say so myself. What I’m going to propose is another way of looking at the three-act format.
By Michael Bergonzi8 years ago in Geeks
The Struggle to Adapt
The greatest pain in adapting a stage play to the screen is bridging the disconnect between the experience of a film viewer and a playgoer. Whereas the play is for the most part stationary in its setting, the film is fluid. Whereas the performance of a play is ever-changing with each performance, the film remains fixed in existence. These differences are felt most prominently in the adaptation of a Shakespearean work, as these plays were written at a time when the very concept of filmed performance was beyond the bounds of the imagination. They were written with the knowledge that the play could not be fully realized without the audience’s active suspension of disbelief. Film has neither that luxury nor burden, as modern filmmaking affords the audience with an abundance of details, ensuring their disbelief is not suspended to a point of distraction from the drama at hand. As such the Shakespearean film adaptation loses some of its originator’s charm, and in turn demands creative liberties to fill the gaps made in the act of adapting. A straightforward stage-to-screen adaptation is impossible (the word “impossible” here meaning “incapable of being good”), for the qualities of a play are far too dissonant from the qualities of a film, and therefore adaptation necessitates reimagination. This necessity can be best explored in Richard Loncraine’s 1995 film Richard III. Loncraine’s film adaptation takes incredible liberties with the source material, most namely in setting and music, while still adhering to the original text. In doing so, Loncraine more adeptly captures the original tone of Shakespeare’s play than could a film adaptation that strictly follows how the piece would have been performed at the time of its writing.
By Devin O'Brien8 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: Full Dark, No Stars
Hello all, and welcome to the first of presumably many book reviews to come from yours truly. Before we get into the review proper, I'd like to give a little background information regarding why I'm reviewing a seven-year-old book. The long and the short of it is this; I've challenged myself this year to read 100 books, none of which I'm allowed to have read before. Yes, I'm on track, and yes, I really do enjoy it. But reading nine or more books a month has its downside—I've had to exhaust my bookshelf to find things I haven't read yet. So, more or less, that's what's brought me to this point (and a little further info—the bulk of my reviews will be of books I've read for this challenge, so many of the books reviewed here will fall into this "dated" category).
By Calvin Hayes8 years ago in Geeks
