Hello movie geeks! For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Tim Buel and I just started writing here at WAMG a few weeks ago. Prior to writing here, I ran a little film blog called Fliktalk.com. In addition to being the editor in chief of the site, I also hosted the podcast. We closed our doors this past September due to scheduling conflicts and loss of some team members, but the passion was still alive in me to bring a fun, informative and entertaining podcast to my fellow film geeks. Enter WAMG. I was hired by Scott as a news writer, which has been awesome, but I recently offered to take the reigns and helm the site’s podcast.

So where are we now? I have been in pre-production on the show this passed week or so and have come up with some pretty fun ideas. I will be joined by Scott and Kirk as your regular hosts and we will be chatting about a variety of topics, many of which, we hope you will contribute to! We will also be joined by various guests from other film sites, and of course some celebrity guests from both behind and in front of the camera! You can also expect some awesome contests which will test your creativity as a film geek, and your overall film knowledge and opinion!

Speaking of contests, that leads my to my next bit. We are very excited about this new show and we want you, as the audience and our fellow geeks, to have some participation in its birth. So here’s our offer: Help us name the show! We want something snappy, sexy and of course, related to our common love of all things cinema. If you have an idea for the name of the show, send an email to wamgpodcast@gmail.com with “Show Title” in the subject line. What’s in it for you? If your show name is selected, you will receive a box of of swag. This includes DVDs, shirts and other movie related paraphernalia. Sound cool or what? So get on it!

Submissions for the contest will end on Monday December 7th at 11:59pm PST so you have a whole week to get some awesome names to us. The first ever show will be live on ustream.tv (where you can participate in the chat room and listen live) starting � Wednesday December 9th at 6:30pm PST/9:30pm EST. If the dates change, we will inform you!

We look forward to reading your submissions and bringing you a film podcast that you won’t soon forget!

SEE YOU GUYS SOON!

~Tim

www.twitter.com/timbuel

So I am going to try something new here at WeAreMovieGeeks.com and give you all regular sets of video updates to keep everyone informed and update to date on the latest happenings. Here is the first installment below:

We have had our old layout for quite some time and I thought it was time for a change. Along with the new style layout we have also implemented some brand new features for all of you guys to enjoy. Here is a short list of them:

New Comments System:

We have installed a new comment system through Intense Debate that will allow you to receive emails when someone replies to your comment, plus you can register/use your other Intense Debate login to comment on our site as well. We want to get our community of readers more involved and this is our first step to reaching this goal.

Feedback button on side:

You will see there is a new feedback button on the side that scrolls with the site, the purpose of this is to allow suggestions, report errors, bugs or anything else you need help with . You post something there and we will get back to ASAP with a resolution. Need to find the name of a movie? Submit it there with all the details you can think of.

New Columns:

We are going to launch a new set of columns to help provide you with even more movie info from around the web, such as a Best of the Week column that highlights a bunch of stuff we find from around the web, movie related and sometimes not. We are also launching a DVD Column that will come out every tuesday to show you exactly what you need to be seeing/buying/avoiding.

Twitter Sidebar:

You can see our latest tweet from the sidebar now, so you will always know whats going on with the @moviegeeks twitter account.

Overall Thoughts on Reviews:

Sometimes we write really long reviews, which unless you have some time on your hands can take a while to read, but lets say you are in a hurry and need to know what we thought overall. Well at the bottom of each review we will have a little section that is highlighted in black which will give you the overall thoughts plus our rating.

We have also added a link that will take you to a page with just the name of the movie, and our overall thoughts to make seeing which ones we liked and didnt like that much easier.

Well sorry for the delay but we unexpectadly went down on Wednesday because apparently we got more than 500,000 hits in one day. Even though we have a massive amount of transfer that we hadnt used they(Servage, our OLD hosting company) still decided to suspend the database that runs WeAreMovieGeeks.com. After 2 days of work and debating back and forth with them we are now back up and running. Things might be a little quirky for the next couple of days but rest assured we will be back to normal by monday.

Also if you are considering starting a site, movie blog, or anything similar to that please choose someone other than Servage because..they suck and they kept everyone from getting their WAMG fill for the last 2 days. Word of advice, skip them at all costs boys and girls.

You know the feeling you got when you first watched ‘The Green Mile’, realizing that John Coffey really hadn’t committed the violent crimes he was imprisoned and eventually executed for? Imagine for a second of the very real existence that the above three men have to go through everyday of their lives. Waking up each day confined to a cell knowing that as it stands right now you will never get out of prison, and for one of them execution is one denied appeal away.

Since June 3rd 1993 all three of them have been locked up for a vicious crime they did not commit. Some of you may be familiar with them and if you aren’t it is my hope that during the next week on our site we can familiarize yourself with the case, the huge community of people that are reaching out to make a difference and what you can do to help as well.

When they were arrested they were 18, 16, and 17 (in order of the photo above), Jason and Jesse (Middle and far right) were each given life sentences and Damien (pictured far left) was given a death sentence. All of these guys were handed these sentences with no more evidence than a coerced confession from Jesse (who was tried separately), and essentially being looked down upon for being “different”. By “different,” I mean wearing black clothing and listening to heavy metal music. That is enough to get you convicted of murder in West Memphis.

There have been 2 documentaries (‘Paradise Lost’ 1 & 2), and one very notable book written about the subject (The Devils Knot). From this countless celebrities have given their time, and services to the cause. Here are just a few:

Henry Rollins, Winona Ryder, Jack Black, Trey Parker, Eddie Vedder, Robert Smith, Natalie Maines, Michale Graves and a huge list of other famous supporters

The sad thing is that although everyone is reaching out for support these gentlemen are still locked up today, 16 years later. Some of you that are familiar with the book and documentaries may have heard about my Mom (Victoria Hutcheson) and brother (Aaron Hutcheson) who both played a part in the saga of the WM3.

This week, in an effort to raise awareness, we are going to have all of our columns be something related to the WM3. We will also have write-up’s from a few celebrity supporters and some of my close friends.

For more information on the West Memphis Three please visit http://wm3.org, which is run by the amazing Kathy Bakken, Grove Pashley, Burk Sauls, and Lisa Fancher.

If you dont know already I, your faithful head geek around here, am in the process of making a movie. Its called ‘White Tiger: The Story of Rick and Roddy’, and we just released our first teaser for the film. Here is a brief synopsis:

Rick and Roddy were the top male strippers of the early 90′s but since then have fallen off of their pedestal. Today, 19 years later, they’re coming back for one last big show. Determined to re-claim their fame but putting aside their differences, the twin brother stripper duo are back, except, this time they’re not as fit as they once were…

So of course we are going to blast you with updates now that stuff is finally being released after 26 years of development. Check out the teaser below and give us some feedback! Also, none of this would be possible without AJ Meadows who is a very talented young film maker, check out his other stuff here.

Want to see what went down last week here at WAMG?

Just check out the list of links below…

‘The Mighty Boosh’ Starts Tonight On Adult Swim

Movie Melting Pot†�’Bay of Blood’ (Italy, 1971)

A Number of Updates and Photos on ‘H2†�

‘Good Dick’ Out Now on DVD

March 27-29 Weekend Box Office Estimates

Video Revisit: ‘Hot Rod’

Early Review: ‘Official Rejection’

Rhys Ifans Set for ‘Deathly Hallows’

Gemma Arterton Cast in ‘Clash of the Titans’

Teaser Poster for Scorsese’s ‘Shutter Island’

Who wants to “Observe†� and “Report†� with the Movie Geeks?

SXSW Interview: ‘True Adolescents’

‘Sherlock Holmes’ Teaser Poster

‘Bruno’ lands an NC-17 rating the first time around

New ‘H2†� photos hit the web

Lost & Found†� ‘Four of the Apocalypse’ (1975)

Cronenberg Planning ‘Eastern Promises’ Sequel

Review: ‘The Path of Torment’

WAMG attends Horror Hound Weekend 2009

Jonathan Levine Jumps On ‘The Sitter’

‘Drag Me to Hell’ Gets a Poster With Flames†� Cool

Paul Bettany Starring as ‘Priest

Emily Browning takes the lead in ‘Sucker Punch’

ESPN brings on Top Names to Helm ‘30 for 30†� Docs

Rob Zombie blogs again†� young Michael Myers

Rob Zombie opens up about ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex �

First Pics from ‘Dark Country’

‘Toy Story 3D’ and ‘Toy Story 2 3D’ Double Feature on October 2^nd

Shannon and Arnett Join ‘Jonah Hex’

A New Day, a New ‘H2†� Blog from Rob Zombie

Is ‘Cronos’ coming to Criterion DVD?

Steve Carell Gets ‘Dumped’

Review: ‘Stiff Jobs’

Bruce Lee VS. Iron Man†� Action Figure Style

‘The Path of Torment’ Red Band Trailer, with a quote from us!

Watch Dan Fogler as Sam Kinison

Collector’s Edition of ‘No Country for Old Men’ is coming!

Checked Out ‘Japanese Spider-Man’ yet?

Full Trailer for ‘The Hangover’

Sony Prez confirms ‘Men in Black 3†�

Poster for Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ hits

Potential ‘H2†� Poster Hits the Web

Magnolia hates movie bloggers, likes ‘Let the Right One In’ subtitles

Bill Hader Unveils a Few Details About ‘House of Joel’

Bond Villain Joins ‘Clash of the Titans’ Cast

New ‘Transformers 2†� Images

‘Inglourious Basterds’ new photos, will premier at Cannes

Furlong and Zane must be on ‘Janjaweed’

Fantasy Cast†� Who Should Play Captain America?

International Red Band Trailer for ‘Bruno’ Hits! Respek!

Fox to Present ‘World Without Us’

‘Scott Pilgrim’ Pics Galore

Comic Con NY 2009: Alien Trespass �

Review: ‘Fast & Furious’

Murphy, Cotillard and Page join ‘Inception’

New photo from ‘H2†�†� this time Laurie

Review: ‘Everlasting Moments’

Review: ‘Cherry Blossoms’

Trailer for ‘Fame’ Remake hits the web

Kidman and Eckhart leap into ‘Rabbit Hole’

‘Night of the Creeps’ Finally Getting DVD Release

Happy Birthday Eddie Murphy

Review: ‘Alien Trespass’

Review: ‘Gigantic’

Not What You Think†� ‘The Wild Bunch’ (2009)

Do your part to bring the World Premiere of ‘Wolverine’ to St. Louis

Heroes Time! Episode Review: “Into Asylum†�

Review: Reaper “I Want My Baby Back†�

Updates and Pics from ‘The Box’

Robert Downey Jr talks about ‘Iron Man 2†�

Paul Weitz in Talks to Direct ‘Little Fockers’

Classic Shit: ‘Stander’

WAMG Interview: Matt Aselton

Cool Pics from Indie Sci-Fi ‘Hunter Prey’

We haven’t brought you much information in the form of our behind the scene’s stuff, but if you have been at a festival you probably snagged a postcard of ours with the above give on it! Well who is that girl you ask? That is the face of WeAreMovieGeeks.com the stunning Samantha Lowrey! I figured we would give a little profile on the site since everyone takes the postcards mostly because she is on it.

We picked up Samantha about a year ago and I have used her photos in almost all of our advertising, she is even our photo for the iTunes podcast page. Everyone asks who she is and now you don’t have to wonder anymore.

You can check her out on myspace or model mayhem and if you go there make sure you add her as a friend. We will hopefully be doing a shoot with her again very soon so we will have some new photos for everyone to feast on!

Oh and we couldn’t have gotten such great photos if it weren’t for Charles Barnes the greatest photographer EVER! If you need a photographer for anything definitely hit this guy up, he WILL NOT let you down.

This is the party event thus far in 2009 and you are all invited. We are going to be recording our reaction to the winners, live twittering the event and more. Here are the details:

Where: Tin Can Tavern 1909 Locust St, St Louis, MO‎
When: Sunday February 22nd at 6pm
Cost: Free

We are going to do an Oscar pool, $5 buy in and you pick the winners. The most correct answers wins the pot! There will be food, drinks, giveaways and everything else. You might even make it onto our Video Podcast, so you could end up as an Internet celebrity by the end of the night. Not to mention Ram Man, Movie Guru, Myself and the rest of the Movie Geeks will all be there so you cant ask for anything more than that!

Everyone is invited so tell all of your friends about this this (this part is NOT OPTIONAL).

Well, Today and Yesterday are officially the 1 year anniversary to WeAreMovieGeeks.com and my how things have changed.

I registered the domain on December 17th 2007 and put up the first official movie related post on December 18th 2007. The story was about ‘Walk Hard’, and wondering if it might be the best Judd Apatow movie ever. Well we obviously know that didn’t happen! Travis came on board quickly there after and made his first post about ‘Hellboy 2′ which you can see here.

Since then we have grown the site as much as we could handle and now have a guy in LA, 2 guys in NY, and 6 editors in St Louis. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. I am in the process of bringing on a team of developers to keep making the site better. We have some great things on the horizon and we hope that you all continue to come here, tell your friends and help us grow even more. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without our awesome team of editors, and some of the most faithful readers on the planet!

Thanks everyone, and here is to 10 more years! By then you might just have a digital version of me reading you movie news every time it comes across the wire..who knows!

Very recently we got a chance to go around and help promote ‘Horton Hears a Who’. So we went around and crashed a couple of christmas parties and had everyone wear the hats! Here are some of the pictures from the fun we had:

Some of you have seen that we all have pictures next to our comments, how would you like to be able to do the same? Its easy, and free! All you have to do is go to gravatar.com and signup with the email address you use for comments and upload a picture. Once that is done all of your comments will show up with a photo next to them, even your old comments!

So what are you waiting for? Go to http://gravatar.com and setup yours now!

Adrienne Shelly began her career in 1989’s The Unbelievable Truth. She went on to star in numerous other films, as well as over two dozen off-Broadway plays. She moved towards behind the scenes, working as a writer and a director, but she still stayed in front of the camera as well. On November 1^st 2006, she was murdered in her office by an illegal immigrant doing construction in her apartment building. This was just a few short weeks before Waitress, her final film, was accepted into Sundance. Soon after, her husband, Andy Ostroy, started the Adrienne Shelly Foundation to honor her and to help struggling female filmmakers to foster their visions and find an audience.

Last Monday, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation 2^nd Annual Fundraising Gala was held at NYU. Paul Rudd, Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines and Keri Russell were some of the stars who showed up to support the foundation and perform for the crowd. Tickets were available to the general public at various prices, with the money raised going towards the foundation.

The evening began with a video reel showing clips from various project Adrienne worked on through the years. It even showed a video of her singing on a home video from what looks like a school play at Jericho High School. Once the video ended and was met by a round of applause, Andy Ostroy came out with his and Adrienne’s adorable daughter, Sophie. He told us a little about the foundation and how Adrienne would have liked to make the evening as little about her as possible because that’s the way she was. He introduced Paul Rudd who came out and did an absolutely hilarious bit. He taught us all the meaning of Independence, by reading us multiple definitions of the word and giving us an example for ach usage. For years I have been a huge fan of Paul Rudd and I have said before that he could read from a dictionary and I would find it funny. Well, he proved my theory correct.

Rudd then introduced a video, which showed clips from last year’s grant recipients films and some interviews with them. The recipients then came on to the stage. Cynthia Wade, who won an Academy Award for her documentary short funded by the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, gave a short speech on behalf of herself and the other recipients. Michael Cerveris then came out to perform the song “Baby Don’t You Cry (The Pie Song)†�, which is from Waitress.

After the beautiful song played and received a rousing applause, a reading of the O Letters was performed by Keri Russell, Lilly Taylor, Cheryl Hines, Maria Tucci, Ally Sheedy and Karen Black. The O Letters, is a short satire written by Adrienne Shelly about 5 love letters uncovered in the year 4046 and read at a women’s conference. Each letter read at the Cognitive Center For Women’s Emotional Health is addressed to Stedman and signed only with an O. The hilarious letters are meant to be fictional correspondences between Oprah and Stedman Graham. Some of the funniest moments come when O continuously brings up her studio audience and complains about why Stedman won’t commit.

Following the reading, a mockumentary was shown that honored the biggest individual donor to the Adrienne Shelly Foundation. If you don’t know Brian Darcy, you should really do some research on him. According to the video, he delivered John Slatterly’s baby, de-boned himself to be a guest skeleton on Bones, and was Marie Louise Parker’s first. He was also Keri Russell’s. And Paul Rudd’s. He was also a great inspiration to Seth Rogen, John Hamm, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen. Following the video was Jeremy Sisto who introduced singer Dana Parish, who performed two songs off her new album, Uncrushed.

The evening lasted almost 2 hours and was a lot of fun. Everyone on stage seemed to enjoy themselves and you could tell they all really loved Adrienne and are proud of this foundation. If you would like to make a donation to the Adrienne Shelly Foundation or find out more about it, please go to www.AdrienneShellyFoundation.com.

Prior to the actual performance, I was waiting out in the press area to speak with some of the stars. The following is a video of what some of them had to say about Adrienne and the Foundation. You may notice that a lot of the footage is of the celebrities speaking to other media outlets. That’s because I am still very new at this and the whole Red carpet is definitely not my thing. Thank God this was a very well run media event or I would probably have no decent footage to show you right now. Since most of the other outlets were just recording audio for news stories, they were mostly fine with me joining them. In fact, some of them recorded audio of my interviews, as well. Enjoy!

Remembering Adrienne Shelly
 �

Now I tried to keep my coverage of this event as unbiased as possible but now it’s time for me to geek out. The highlight of my evening was getting to meet Paul Rudd. As I said above, he has been one of my favorite actors for years. When I posted my Jason Ritter interview, I said that meeting him has put him high up on my list of actors I’d love to work with. Well, before I met Paul Rudd, he was already honing in on the top of my list. Below is a video of my interview with him, as well as some great footage of him talking with other media outlets. He was a lot of fun and really is a great guy. I hope to get the chance to interview him again someday. Enjoy!

Paul Rudd is a Role Model

Jerry Cavallaro -Â �www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com

Now that we’ve all recovered and regained our memory of the night of Saturday, October 25th… We can reflect on the success of our First We Are Movie Geeks Halloween Party. We, the Movie Geeks, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves [some more than others] and we hope everyone in attendance had a killer time! We all greatly appreciate all the readers who turned out, especially those who participated in our hugely successful costume contest. We thank everyone who came out and showed up, making this the biggest pre-Halloween, Halloween Bash of the year!

See Our Costume Contest Winners!

We would like to thank The Movie Guru, who did a slam-bam awesome job as our MC for the evening. We also want to thank the Stratford Bar & Grill management, as well as their staff of servers and bartenders who also came dressed in costumes to “enhance” the atmosphere. Everyone in attendance enjoyed great music, food and drinks and the Movie Geeks handed out tons of prize packages, including some very “exciting” Jello-shot contest prizes. We hope to see our next Halloween Party get even better!

Pictures from the Party…

Hey Movie Geeks,

Sorry that it has taken me a while to write in about the event. It was tough adjusting to the real world after spending 5 days in the glass cube set up in Times Square. Sleep has been a big priority for me although I am still a bit sleep deprived. I also wanted to be very thorough and as a result this is going to be a very epic blog post. What follows is a very detailed account of the past week of my life†�

I want to start by sharing with you a short video from the competition.

And with that, it was all over. I lasted 68 hours 21 minutes in the glass theater watching movies. I suffered through the English Patient, the Sound of Music and Superman 2. If you include the time spent speaking with press and at the hotel (before and after), I was awake almost 75 hours. Unfortunately not long enough to win the lifetime subscription to Netflix or the $10,000. But just like Rocky, I lost and yet I kinda did win.

On Wednesday October 1st, about an hour after I sent in my post, I left for the city. I had some time before checking in to the hotel so I went to Times Square to check out the glass box. Unfortunately it was not set up yet. In fact, they didn’t start until Midnight but it was all set up by 10 am the next morning and it looked great. It was a 16 by 40 ft. glass box equipped with two large HD TV’s and an amazing surround sound setup. They had two DVD players running the films simultaneously so they could quickly switch it in case a disc skipped or froze, which did happen once. It was really a great setup for watching films, except for the constant sound of traffic and crowds screaming, as well as the distracting lights and reflections in the TV’s. It was really an awesome setup in an extremely distracting location, which I guess was part of the challenge.

After checking in to my room, we had to go down to the conference room for a meeting. They went over the general rules and told us that the contest has changed. Instead of being a cutthroat competition, there was a set time the event would end. Anyone who made it to 3 pm on Tuesday (123 hours) would win the prize. At the meeting we also find out that a documentary crew will be filmingthe entire event and would later be releasing videos online. We go around the room introducing ourselves and it immediately became apparent that this was going to be a fun adventure. At about 5:30 we all got to Virgil’s BBQ for an arranged feast courtesy of Netflix. We all started to bond as we enjoyed various spiced meats and side dishes. Not exactly the perfect meal before a competition like this or any type of endurance contest but it was delicious nonetheless.

We head back to the Sofitel and right to our rooms. Unfortunately we cannot sleep yet because we have to go up to room 2202 to pick up our Netflix branded track suits and do our intro interview for the documentary crew. Due to several delays and because I took a hit for the team, I agreed to go last and my interview did not start till after 10. I got to meet the host, Gavin McInnes, who was hilarious and definitely makes for an “interesting†� interviewer. The next morning I actually received a phone call before the event from Chris from Netflix who wanted to assure me that a majority of the interview will never see the light of day and if I am worried about anything specifically to let him know and he will make sure it is not released. I really had no problem with any of it, as long as it is not taken out of context so hopefully we will see some it released in the future.

After the interview, I get back to my room and lounge around a bit. I turn on the TV and watch Forrest Gumpand finally get to bed about 11. Well, I was lying in bed trying to sleep but I just couldn’t. I struggled until about 12:30 but then I woke up at 2 am. I bounced in and out of sleep for the rest of the night until about 7:30 am when I just couldn’t sleep anymore. I originally planned on sleeping from 11-9 but that unfortunately didn’t work out. I really should have taken some sleeping pills or at least a few shots of Nyquil PM.

After meetingin the lobby at 10:30, we began our March to Times Square. Upon arriving at the glass box, we all marveled at how amazing it turned out. I couldn’t wait to start but first we had to speak to the press. I, along with Jose Feliciano and Matt Raub, were all picked to be in the competition based on our videos from the Facebook contest. Since we were the nobodies, most of the interviewers focused on the other competitors. Crazy Legs Conti, a competitive eating champion, from New York was a big crowd pleaser and an all around great guy. Cheryl Jones broke the record back in 2003 when Netflix had a toned down version of this competition. Jeff Jones won $250,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Movie Edition. Claudia Wavra broke the record 3 times prior to this event and Suresh Joachim held 33 world records and broke about 55.

They began the opening ceremony at about 11:30 am and at exactly noon they began the first film. We started with Iron Man. I barely focused on the film and found myself more concerned about looking away from the screen but it eventually became very natural. In fact, I still stare directly at the screen when watchingthe TV in fear of taking my eyes off and being disqualified. We followed with Best In Show, Ghostbusters, Inside Man and a great B-movie, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Then we got our first true test, The English Patient. We are allowed to talk during the films so we all got through it by MST3K’ingit. In fact we used that technique a lot, even the good films if they were moving too slowly. We get a few solid action flicks to last us the night but in the morningwe are faced with another test. Only this test isn’t a film but fitness guru Richard Simmons who paid us a visit during two of our breaks. We exercised with him for most of the
break, which was followed by a lecture on eating healthy foods. One of the highlights of the week was watching Richard Simmons yell at Jose for eating M&M’s. Then we sit down and watch the next film. A Night At The Opera starring the Marx Brothers. We lose Matt Raub before the credits end.

The competition continues. Jeff Jones drops out at about 4 hours later after beginning hallucinations at only 28 hours in. Crazy Legs Conti makes it to 33 hours before bowingout himself during the end credits of Fletch, a film he suggested for the competition. It’s more than a full day until the next person is bounced. Jose Feliciano is asked to leave at 4:41 am Sunday morning after succumbing to sleep. This was especially hard on me since we were the “dynamic duo†� of the box. We were the two amateurs who helped each other stay awake. We had a high 5 technique and would tell jokes to keep each other up. Every musical that came our way became a duet for the two of us. Singing, it turns out, is a great way to stay awake during a film. Everyone standingoutside during West Side Story got to see us belting out “I Feel Pretty.†� I last almost 4 hours after Jose but I am called out at 8:21 Sunday morning. I technically did not fall asleep but my eyes
were closed for too long. I apparently took a 20 second blink. I was awake when they called me out but I did not fight it because I knew I wouldn’t make it much more anyway. In case you are wondering, I got out on Dave. It is probably best that I got out at that time because I had apparently been hallucinating as well. Only rather than seeing dogs, like Jeff Jones did, I had a 5-minute conversation with a person who apparently was not there.

I’m proud to have made it as far as I did. For a while, I really thought Braveheart was going to take me down. It’s a good film but not when you have a full bladder and an hour and a half still to go. Somehow I made it, through to the end credits but then I fought my way to the porta-potty. After I was booted out, I had to wait for the documentary crew to arrive to film that exit interview that’s embedded at the top of this post. When being taken back to my room, I overheard the room number that Jeff Jones was in so I paid him a visit before going to bed. I said my goodbyes to him and his father and then made my way to my room. I made some calls and sent some texts to inform friends and family that I was out and then I took a 6-hour nap. I woke up to the maid trying to get in my room. I checked my phone and found out Cheryl Jones got out 2 hours after me. I knew Jeff was gone and figured they put her in his room. I went down to the room and sure
enough she was staying there. We decided to check on Suresh and Claudia and then get some dinner. We were the only two contestants that did not go home yet since Jose had left while I was sleeping. Apparently, they could not reach him by phone when he had to leave for his plane and they had to go in his room to shake him awake.

This was when I started to really feel like a minor celebrity. We went to show our support and were allowed to talk to the final contestants for a little bit. I also spent some time talking with the crowd that was gathered around the box. I even took some of the Netflix flyers the street team was handing out and did some street promotion. I must have talked to at least 200 people in that short amount of time. Some even asked to take pictures with them. Afterwards, I went with Cheryl to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner and we were interrupted at about 10 times from curious people. I was wearing my Netflix competition jacket, which is bright red so I was pretty easy to spot. We were so popular there, they even comped our dessert. (If you ever go there make sure you get the Alabama Mud Pie) It was great being able to look at our food for the first time in 3 days. I was reminded of the old Seinfeld bit that the worst part of being blind would not being able
to see if bugs were in your food.

The next day I woke up after a decent 7 hours of rest and met Cheryl in the lobby. We went to show some more support for the last two competitors, still going strong. We went to lunch but then went back to the box. After Cheryl left, I stayed behind still talking the competitors through the films. I jumped back and forth from Suresh to Claudia depending on who wanted/needed to talk. I was about to leave when Annie came on and Claudia asked me to stay for it. I stayed through the whole film, singing off key to all the songs. I finally left and for the first time got to go home. I got home just after midnight and was in bed by 1. Rather than catch up on the many hours of sleep I had missed, I woke up at about 6:30 and caught a 7:30 bus back to the city. It was the last day of the competition and I wanted to be there for as much of it as possible.

I arrived just as Miracle was ending and I could tell they were both tired. I was also told that they don’t want me or anyone else talking to them for the last few movies because Guinness wants them to do it on their own. So while they knew I was there, I spent some more time with the crowd outside. I also spent some time at the second TV, which no one was watching, since they were showing Clerks. It was the only film I suggested that they chose but it was not even on the original list. It was a nice surprise for me when I got there. Afterwards Susan Sarandon stopped by to deliver the final film, Thelma & Louise. I got to speak with her briefly and she said she was very impressed with my 68 hours. She spoke with some press and then left soon after. We then settled down to watch Caddyshack. About halfway through at 12:24 pm, we all cheered as Sureshand Claudia broke the world record. They put on Thelma & Louise just to add some padding. The press was
allowed inside and at 3:10 pm, they both looked away from the screen the moment the credits rolled marking the end of the competition.

123 hours and 10 minutes. They won $10,000 each, a lifetime subscription to Netflix, the Guinness World record and the very awesome Popcorn Bowl Trophy. I was just about 55 hours short. I got a 1-year subscription to Netflix. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was a unique experience that I will never forget, except for a few hours that I genuinely have no recollection of at all. I love Young Frankenstein but I don’t remember watching about half of the film and that was only the second day. Despite falling short of the trophy, I still accomplished what I set out to do. I was doing this because I knew I’d be able to find some publicity for my film, Stuck Like Chuck, through this and it worked. I was written about in several local newspapers and my film was mentioned in about half of them.. This contest also got me on this site, which has been one of the few sites that I visit everyday for my movie news. This contest also led me to meet some
really great people from around the world and hopefully we will be able to stay in touch online.

Overall, it was an amazing once in a lifetime experience and I am just happy to have been a part of it. I want to end this by sending out a big thank you to anyone readingthis who was involved in any way with the Popcorn Bowl and to everyone who stopped by or showed support for all of us competing. I’d also like to thank Scott and the other Movie Geeks for giving me this forum to talk about this event. If you have any questions, feel free to post them and I’ll try to answer them in the comments. Also, if you have a Netflixsubscription, be sure to check their site since they are supposed to be releasing some more exclusive footage of the event in the future. For now, you can see some short videos on www.youtube.com/netflixnowplaying. Thanks again. Keep watching movies!

Jerry Cavallaro
www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com

Our favorite indie film maker Jerry is one of the contestants trying to beat the world record in the Netflix Movie Watching comp that starts tomorrow, and runs through Tuesday. We are giving him a huge forum to sound off on..so below is his first blog, and future blogs to come…

Hey Movie Geeks,

My name is Jerry Cavallaro and I am a Movie Geek. If anyone wants some proof, I am competing in the Netflix Movie Watching World Championship tomorrow. If you don’t remember, this site reported on it about 2 weeks ago. I, along with 7 other people, will be locked in a glass cube set up in Times Square where we will pretty much do nothing except watch movies for 5+ days. My strategy for all of this? Tonight I am going to sleep as much as I can. Also, I am going to do anything to stay awake including energy drinks, protein bars, and running in my seat like Lloyd Christmas.

I found out about this contest just two weeks ago. I entered a video on their Facebook page and then on Wednesday they announced Matt Raub’s video as the winning entry. Then on Friday afternoon they notified me, while I was at work. Not much work got done after that. Just to be clear, Matt Raub is still in the competition, but I am now the final entrant. I’m not sure why they didn’t announce us together but I don’t really care. I’m just thrilled to be a part of this.

In fact, in about an hour I am leaving to go to the city to meet with the people from Netflix and meet the people I will be living with for a few days.. All of the little details will be discussed tonight but so far I am told that there are 2 porta-potties for 8 people. That scares the Sh*t out of me, which makes me even more nervous about the bathroom situation. I don’t really know all the details but I am really looking forward to this.. We have no idea what movies are being shown but hopefully they will screen at least a few of my suggestions. I also asked them to screen my film, Stuck Like Chuck, but I don’t think they are willing to do so. It would be very appropriate though since it is a comedy that’s mainly about 2 people stuck in a classroom. If you want to know more about it or see some trailers, check out www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com. The two newest videos are my interviews with Lloyd Kaufman and Kevin Smith.

If you live in New York or are visiting this week, try to stop by. I’ll be the one wearing the Stuck Like Chuck shirt. I’ll be sure to check back next week with an update on my experiences in the glass theater. Keep watching movies!

Jerry Cavallaro
www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com

Just wanted to let everyone know that our shipment of shirts will be in Thursday, so if you want to order one we have them in every size up to XXL. We can ship them to you as well, just shoot me an email scott@wearemoviegeeks.com. Quantities are limited.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new addition to the Movie Geek family, Quentin David Hutcheson. He was born today (8-11-2008), and weighed in at 9lbs and 6oz. Thanks for all the kind words, Baby and Mom are both doing great. We are at St Johns hospital in St Louis for any of those that would like to come visit! Shoot me an email and ill give you the room number scott@wearemoviegeeks.com

Thanks everyone!

Scott

We are feeling really generous today, so we are going to be giving away more passes! This time we are hooking you guys up with ‘Pineapple Express’. The screening(s) are taking place Wednesday July 23rd at 7:00pm at Ronnies 20, and Thursday July 24th at 7:00 at the AMC Esquire.

How do you get tickets you ask? Come down and hang out with us tomorrow (Tuesday July 22nd) across from Ronnies theater from 5-6 at TGIF. First come, first served. We don’t have a whole lot of tickets, but we will give you what we do have.

Here is the address:
TGI Friday’s
5262 S. Lindbergh Blvd.
Sappington, MO 63126

When you show up give us the password: “I love Seth Rogen”. We look forward to seeing all of our faithful readers!

Also, don’t forget about our Canned Food donation drive that we will be giving away passes for if you can’t make it out tomorrow, come see us Saturday.

This is why you love us so much and come back day after day. We are again giving away free passes to see ‘X-Files 2: I want to believe’. The screening is taking place Thursday July 24th at 9:00pm at Ronnies 20.

How do you get tickets you ask? Come down and hang out with us tomorrow(Tuesday July 22nd) across from Ronnies theater from 5-6 at TGIF.

Here is the address:
TGIF
5262 S Lindbergh Blvd
Sappington, MO 63126

When you show up give us the password: “the truth is out there”. We look forward to seeing all of our faithful readers!