Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2016
HBO's groundbreaking medical drama, The Knick is set at the turn of the 20th century. One of the highlights of the series has to be the graphic depiction of surgical techniques from 1901. From the splitting of the first co-joined twins to the second season finale where Dr. Thackery performs surgery on himself. Justin Raleigh leads the team that delivers on these extraordinary makeup effects. His methods have even led to the medical community calling on the team to create materials for actual doctors in training. He's also the man behind the effects on Viral which John reviewed for us Here. I had a chance to talk with Justin for a few minutes. Now you have a chance to hear about these groundbreaking creations. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Justin Raleigh.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2016
"Everything just feels so out of control. I don't remember who I am. Who I was. Whatever life I had is gone. Shattered into a million tiny pieces. Sometimes it's hard to breathe."
I have to credit Blindspot's creator Martin Gero with providing one of the more memorable moments on television with the opening minutes of the series. Unfortunately, by the time we saw the pilot that image was already ruined by the countless spots used to promote the show's premiere. We see a police officer in Times Square approach a bag with a sign on it that asks the FBI be alerted. The cop approaches the bag a bit frightened it might be a bomb and blow up on him at any time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2016
“Our planet holds a kind of parallel universe. A place of wonder where giants roam free. For thousands of years, we could only wonder about humpback whales. Now, by exploring their world, we’re getting surprising glimpses into their lives.”
In 1986, Leonard Nimoy led Kirk, Spock and their mates back in time to collect a couple of humpback whales and bring them to the 23rd century where they are extinct. If the whales aren’t there to communicate with a deadly probe, Earth is in deep trouble.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on August 1st, 2016
We've got to have the cleanest cars in the country here at Upcomingdiscs. That's because we keep going back to the All American Bikini Car Wash. I think we're starting to lose a little of the paint. This time we stopped by to talk to Jason Lockhart who plays Vex in the film. Vex is kind of the free spirit who likely wants to be spending more time with those bikini girls and cars. Actually, Jason is also a writer and director with some impressive credits of his own. It appears he had a great time working on All American Bikini Car Wash and I had the chance to talk to him about that. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Jason Lockhart.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 28th, 2016
"We were born in space. They told us the ground was uninhabited, but they were wrong, and we've been fighting for our lives since the moment we landed. Some of us have been broken by it, but most of us are still here, trying to build something real and lasting out of the wilderness... a home."
You should know the setup by now. If not, you can check out our previous reviews: Season 1 & Season 2. The show is based on a new series of books from writer Kass Morgan. The crew here has a little bit more room to operate than do most shows based on book series.
Posted in: Uncategorized by Gino Sassani on July 25th, 2016
The first rule of Fight Club is you never talk about Fight Club. So it's a good thing we're talking about Fight Valley instead. I got to hang out on the phone with Rob Hawk who both wrote and directed Fight Valley and the upcoming Fight Valley 2: Lockdown and we had a lot to talk about. The New Jersey native gives us an idea of what it was like to grow up on the tough streets of Jersey. Fight Valley tells the story of one woman who enters the underground female fight game to find out how her sister died. It's lady's night at the fights. You talkin' to me? Rob Hawk did and it's all here. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Rob Hawk.
Posted in: Uncategorized by Gino Sassani on July 25th, 2016
That's right. We're heading back to The All American Bikini Car Wash once again. Seems my car keeps getting dirty these days. This time we're talking to the guy who started it all (in the film). Tom McLaren plays Professor Dugan. He's the one who offers the extra credit if Jack can turn a profit with his car wash. Obviously, the prof. wasn't expecting this... I had the opportunity to spend some time talking with Tom. He was also involved in the marketing which has driven this little title into the top 15 in home video sales. He talks about that and his many other projects. He's got a wonderful book out with classic continuity pictures from the Fox vaults. It's co-written with Angela Cartwright. You're going to want to hear this. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Tom McLaren
Want to learn more about Tom?
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 23rd, 2016
"Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."
Every Star Trek fan knows the words by heart. For 50 years they've heralded the promise of something special. From the television show that couldn't but did anyway to 12 feature films. Would #13 be the lucky one? The trailers left many of us worried that it would more than likely be unlucky. And we needed so much for this one to be great. Since the last film we lost Leonard Nimoy, who was most certainly the heart of the franchise on the screen.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 18th, 2016
From the very beginning one can see there was great potential here. The show was based on a collection of books that appear to be quite popular. They're called The Outworld series, written by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong. The show avoided most of the standard clichés. No full moon reference at all here. The werewolves "change" at will or when emotionally charged (“you won't like me when I'm angry”). There are no silver bullets. These guys might be stronger and harder to kill than a human, but severe body trauma or blood loss kills them just like anyone else. No pentagrams or wolfbane to be found in the show. Such potential. After three years, the ride comes to an end with all of that potential unfulfilled. The werewolves might have been hard to kill. Alas, the show was not.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2016
For years I've been hearing about how "hot" vampires were on television and in the movies. It all appeared to start with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it actually goes back a lot longer ago. Zombies, on the other hand, were the sole property of feature films, usually extreme low-budget affairs. AMC's The Walking Dead has changed all of that. Suddenly zombies are very hot and populating one of the highest rated shows on television. Add a spin-off, and the domination continues. It wasn't going to take long for someone else to join the field. Enter iZombie, and we're off and running.
