Trailer for K2: The King, The Kong and the Ugly

I know, I know, this is so last week. Whatever, I've been sick and keeping all the internet goodies to myself in a feverish flurry of selfishness. Anyway, Geekanerd's Best Movie of 2007 is having its TV premiere soon on G4, and to celebrate they've gone and made a trailer for a familiar-sounding sequel. While I'm a little upset they couldn't find a better fake beard to approximate Billy Mitchell, the appearance of Steve Wiebe himself as a beleaguered war general (facial scar and all!) totally won me over.

New On XBox Live: Gnerd's Movie of the Year, King of Kong

King of Kong, the beloved 2007 documentary about two men's battle to become the greatest Donkey Kong player on earth, may not have been nominated for an Oscar (seeing as the nominees consist of four Iraq docs and Sicko, that's hardly surprising) but it's not all bad news for the film. Official Xbox blog Gamerscore has reported that as part of a deal with MGM, February will see the release of King of Kong on XBox live, where hopefully the doc will pick up a bit of gamer-love and achieve the cult classic status it so richly deserves. Because I'll tell you what's not helping it get seen; this god awful DVD cover. WHAT happened?! Did a focus group find that DVD consumers hate good design? Granted, the DVD cover "tells the story" more than the enegmatic one sheet, but when your movie largely focuses on seated men playing arcade games, you might want to highlight the explosively grandiose tone of the film more than the literal events therein.



A look at the other titles coming to Xbox, including Lost, after the jump...

Other Feburary releases for Xbox Live include a bunch of stuff from ABC and Disney, including HD episodes of Lost. The movie releases they're promoting for February are:

* Mr. Brooks (MGM, available in SD and HD)
* The complete Rocky series (MGM, available in SD and HD)
* Films from the James Bond series (MGM, available in SD and HD)
* The Usual Suspects (MGM, available in SD and HD)
* 3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate, available in SD and HD)
* Saw IV (Lionsgate, available in SD and HD)
* King of Kong (New Line, available in SD)
* The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Crawford (WB, in SD and HD)
* Michael Clayton (WB, available in SD and HD)
* Stardust (Paramount, available in SD and HD)

With the exception of KoK and 3:10 to Yuma, this is pretty dull stuff. Even more disturbing was this list of the top ten movies downloaded of the system since the launch...

1.) 300
2.) Beerfest
3.) Crank
4.) Superman Returns
5.) Employee of the Month
6.) Ocean's Thirteen
7.) Transformers
8.) The Departed
9.) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
10.) Jackass Number Two

I understand that the Xbox 360 is not the Wii. That it is not a system for everybody, but more serious gamers, and that the Live component is going to shrink that audience even further to a section of the populace who have the time and inclination to do multiplayer gaming and download things not via bitorrent, like normal Americans, but with their all-in-one consoles. BUT COME ON. Beerfest is number two of all time? In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "Who are these people?"

Go See King of Kong

This weekend was a movie-rific one for me. I saw King of Kong and Superbad, both of which I've been impatiently anticipating. Superbad was pretty good (read our review here), but King of Kong was GREAT. Great like a grilled cheese sandwich great. Great like those big pits of foam blocks you can jump into at gymnastics centers great. King of Kong is the best movie I have seen all year, easily. There is so much drama in the movie and not just the normal documentary drama where fairly mundane things seem more dramatic just because they happened to real people. We're talking blood sweat and tears drama. All out balls to the wall drama. There are things happening in this movie that if you saw them in a fictional film you would complain that they were too implausible. There are characters behaving so broadly that no actor could ever get away with the performance. It's a world where crazy people are doing some crazy shit, each turn more absurd than any fiction is allowed to be. Oh, and it is funny as all hell, providing heartier laughter than Superbad, easy.

If you've already seen it, this reaction to the movie by Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies will be interesting to you.

If it's not playing in your town yet, hit the jump for the full release schedule to see when you'll get the chance to catch it...

NOW PLAYING

• New York (IFC Centre & AMC Empire)
• Los Angeles (Landmark Nuart)
• Seattle (Landmark Varsity)
• Austin, TX (Alamo Drafthouse)

AUGUST 24

• San Francisco (Landmark Lumiere)
• Berkeley (Landmark Shattuck)
• Chicago (Landmark Century Centre)
• Minneapolis (Landmark Lagoon)
• Washington, DC (Landmark E Street)
• Boston (Landmark Kendall Square)
• Portland, OR (Cinema 21)

August 31

• Ft. Lauderdale (Las Olas 15)
• Dallas (Inwood 3)
• Kansas City (Studio 30)
• Pleaseantville, NY (Jacob Burns)
• Salt Lake City (Broadway 6)
• San Diego (Landmark Ken)

September 7

• Atlanta (Landmark Midtown)
• San Antonio (Crossroads 6)

September 14

• Nashville (Belcourt)

September 21

• St. Louis (Landmark Tivoli)

September 28

• Iowa City (Bijou)

To Be Announced

• Portland, ME (Movies on Exchange)
• Hartford, CT (Cinestudio)
• Ann Arbor (State)
• Columbus (Drexel)
• Madison (Sundance)

Weekanerd NYC - Movie Premieres and Yo Yo Fun

Friday, August 10, 2007

• Stardust Premiere
• Theaters Across America
  

The ad campaign has been awful, but do it for Neil Gaiman.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

• National Yo-Yo Open
• 11:30am @ South Street Seaport, Pier 17, Manhattan
  

Geekanerd loves weird sporting events almost as much as we hate regular sporting events. World champions will be showing their stuff all day. Click the title link for

Sunday, August 12, 2007

• The King of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters (New York Premiere)
• 3 @ The Museum of The Moving Image, 35 Avenue at 36 Street, Astoria, Queens

This trailer kicks ass! The screening will feature Q & A with the documentary's director, writer, and underdog hero. (in William Shatner voice) KOONNNNG!