Recap – ScienceFiction.com

Movie Review: ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 21:30:18 +0000

New beginnings bring new excitement, but also new challenges. Such is the takeaway vibe I got from our advance screening of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ the kickoff for Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Let’s be clear from the get-go: Marvel has been giving us entertaining, high-quality films for a long time now. Almost 25 years, across dozens of television series, along with short films and literature tie-ins… this juggernaut is no slouch. Unfortunately, every entry into the series can’t be a home run – and that’s where we need to have some “real talk” about ‘Quantumania.’ The story itself is right in line with what viewers have been given across the over-arching MCU narrative to date: things on Earth appear to be “settling in” a bit post-Blip (although, frustratingly, ‘Quantumania’ still does not reference anything to do with the giant stone Eternal that is now sticking out of the Earth, half-stuck, as shown in the climax of ‘The Eternals,’ with this new film believed to be the 11th property to take place in the MCU timeline set after those events with absolutely zero remarks or tie-ins to it). The story does reference The Blip, of course, as […]

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Fiction Review: ‘Signal Moon’ (2022)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 16:39:22 +0000

Amazon has been kind enough lately to grace readers with advance copies of select forthcoming titles, and I was lucky to grab a copy of Signal Moon by Kate Quinn, which is releasing wide in August from the streaming giant. This novella-sized tale will be available in eBook only, but it packs a pretty decent punch into a relatively bite-sized story. In 1943, at the height of World War II, Lily Baines works for her country as a “Wren,” the Y-Station listeners of the British Royal Naval Service tasked with intercepting, relaying, and sometimes deciphering the enemy transmissions they hear over the airwaves. Armed with receivers, headphones, and their skill to transcribe as quickly as possible, Lily is but one of a team of women stationed at Withernsea on the English shoreline, working daily to do their part for the cause. Imagine her surprise, then, when she intercepts a truly curious transmission: one coming from a United States Naval officer originating 80 years later, in 2023. This is the main premise the drives this short story from the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Quinn. The author is intimately familiar with the 1940s Y-Station setting, having previously penned […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ (1974)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 13 May 2021 20:30:10 +0000

Have you ever stumbled across, as an adult, a TV series or movie you used to watch as a kid? Sometimes it fills you with a sense of nostalgia to re-connect with the scenes you remember seeing while you were growing up, but sometimes the experience can also be a rude awakening: can you believe that this sort of thing actually used to entertain you? What were you thinking? There’s always a chance your experience will end negatively instead of positively when re-discovering something from your past that you used to know and love. Recently, I was able to catch up, via the magic of online streaming, with a TV show I watched on the SciFi (now SyFy) Channel during my impressionable years as a young teenager, ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ (streaming for free on the NBC app; available for purchase on the Amazon, Apple+, and Google Play apps). To be clear: when I watched the show in my youth, I was watching it in syndication; the show enjoyed its original short-lived run from 1974-1975, building off the success of two made-for-TV movies about the titular character, Carl Kolchak, a reporter with a penchant for investigating stories of the strange […]

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The God Of Mischief Is ’10 Steps Ahead Of You’ In The New ‘Loki’ Trailer & Photos

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 14:54:31 +0000

Even with the success of the now-complete ‘WandaVision’ series and the in-progress ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ series, Disney isn’t resting on their laurels or taking it easy when it comes to the future success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its forays into interconnected televised content. As a perfect example: coming hot on the heels of ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ after that series concludes is the series that may be the most eagerly anticipated of all the Marvel small-screen work, the Tom Hiddleston-led ‘Loki’ mini-series. Seeming to pick up Loki’s story pretty much immediately following when audiences last saw him – opportunistically stealing the Tesseract during the time-hopping chaos of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ – the God of Mischief looks to have gotten himself mixed up with the Time Variance Authority (TVA). The TVA appears to function as a sort of space-time regulatory force, and from the hints we’ve been given so far, it would seem that Loki’s action have caused some temporal ripples that need ironed out, with the god’s semi-unwilling assistance, of course. From Disney, the “official” description of the series is as follows: Watch Loki—the imperious God of Mischief—who, after absconding with the Tesseract, is a fish-out-of-water when he […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘Planet of the Vampires’ (1965)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 17:30:56 +0000

At first glance, ‘Planet of the Vampires’ could easily be mistaken for just another kitschy ‘60s sci-fi B-movie. But those “in the know” revere this movie as one of the very first crossover horror/sci-fi films, a front-runner for great movies like ‘Alien’ and ‘Event Horizon’ and that’s why it’s this week’s Thowback Thursday, ScienceFiction.com’s ongoing column to great science fiction of the past. Filmed at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, the movie features an international cast and was shot by director Mario Bava on a shoestring budget – but Bava did such a great job of making the film look like a big production that you definitely wouldn’t think otherwise while watching it. In the film, two large interplanetary exploration ships, the Argos and the Galliott, respond to a distress signal originating from the unexplored planet Aura. Upon their attempts to land, both crews become possessed by an unknown force and violently try to kill each other; only through the willpower and efforts of Captain Mark Markary (Barry Sullivan) commander of the Argos, is the Argos’ crew prevented from seriously injuring each other. Upon traversing the treacherous molten terrain of the planet to reach the now-unresponsive Galliott, Argos’ crew discovers that their comrades […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘The Black Cauldron’ (1985)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:46:45 +0000

Every so often, a company makes a bold, daring, unorthodox, out-of-the-normal-comfort-zone type of move, and it usually either pays off big for them or sends things crashing down in flames. In the 1960s, Disney was flying high, enjoying a run of success with their animated films that stretched, at that time, three decades long; hits like ‘The Jungle Book,’ ‘101 Dalmatians,’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ had the company feeling they could do no wrong. Then the 1970s came around, and the House of Mouse started to falter with their cartooned family-friendly films: ‘The Aristocats,’ ‘Robin Hood,’ and ‘The Rescuers’ were all successive films that were enjoyable enough, but mostly didn’t land anywhere near the financial and critical successes that their predecessors had. Execs started to panic a bit, and the decision to try something new and different was officially made: Disney’s first-ever not-totally-family-friendly animated film, their first cartoon movie to ever earn a PG rating (and might have even been PG-13 if not for last-minute edits), ‘The Black Cauldron,’ got the green-light. Loosely based on the first two books in the ‘Chronicles of Prydain’ series by author Lloyd Alexander, ‘The Black Cauldron’ tells the tale of Taran, a young pig-keeper from […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra’ (2001)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:13:46 +0000

It’s no secret that I, like many sci-fi and horror fans, have a special place in my heart for the old, ultra-cheesy, often uber-chintzy “B-Movies” of the 1950s and 1960s. With so many fans of this genre out there, odds are good that at least a few are movie directors, right? And possibly among those few directors, it’s even possible that a couple of them actually make movies that don’t suck, yeah? And of those select individuals, is it feasible that one of them may actually have excellent writing and acting skills as well so that he could fully utilize these skills in tandem with his love of B-Movies to create a brilliant and loving homage to the genre? While The Rolling Stones often remind us that “you can’t always get what you want,” fortunately sometimes you can: writer-director-actor Larry Blamire struck gold with his 2001 release of ‘The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra,’ an amazingly-detailed and lovingly-satiric take on the old B-Movie. I proudly own a copy and have seen the movie many times over; I’m excited to now bring the film to ScienceFiction.com for our Throwback Thursday action! ‘Lost Skeleton’ blends so many “fantastical” elements soften utilized in the […]

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Movie Review: Wonder Woman 1984

Dave Taylor — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 03:04:57 +0000

I really wanted to love the new Wonder Woman movie. After all, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is a fun and engaging character, particularly in her super-powered Wonder Woman guise. She’s a superhero with heart and compassion, quick to stop the bad guys but just as likely to help a child regain their lost soccer ball or favorite toy. The first film, 2017’s Wonder Woman, was mostly great fun with General Ludendorff (Danny Houston) a suitably epic antagonist that made for a dramatic showdown and goofy but lovable Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) as her love interest. It’s no longer World War I, however, it’s 1984 and the tail end of the Cold War. In Wonder Woman 1984 Diana is an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institute when she’s not donning her trademark outfit and zipping about DC rescuing women from being hit by speeding cars or tossed off bridges. Her new colleague Barbara Ann Minerva (Kristen Wiig) is envious of Diana’s presence, self-confidence and beauty; she’s a bit of a clumsy goof that people tend to ignore. A shipment of antiques arrives from the FBI with the request that the Smithsonian help identify the individual pieces. Chief among them is a crystal […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘Reanimator’ (1985)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 19:42:26 +0000

Straight out of the 1980s came ‘Re-Animator,’ an amazing film that somehow took zombies, gore, comedy, and an unknown cast, threw it all together, and created a one-of-a-kind experience for zombie and horror lovers everywhere. H.P. Lovecraft wrote the serialized story ‘Herbert West: Re-Animator’ back in the early 1920s, proving to be stunningly ahead of his time in his descriptions and depictions of re-animating the dead. Even though the 1985 movie we’re talking about here shares the same name and a few characters and locations, make no mistake: this movie is its own entity, brought to life by the writing team and the performances of its cast, most notably the over-the-top personification of the titular Dr. West played to perfection by Jeffrey Combs. ‘Re-Animator’ is, quite simply, a unique movie-watching experience, not likely to be reproduced any time soon, if ever. ‘Re-Animator’ is old-school fun. From the opening scene with it’s one random zombie through the “it’s over…or is it?” ending, the movie keeps the viewer engaged and wanting more. Sure, the look of the film has gotten a little dated, but that’s part of what makes it grand. ‘Re-Animator’ is a great example of a “splatter film” made in […]

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Spoiler-Free Preview: ‘WandaVision’

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 17:01:06 +0000

Thanks to the fine folks as Disney+, we were granted early access to the first three episodes of the first-ever MCU TV series, ‘WandaVision.’ This is a spoiler-free over-arching review, as we would never want to intentionally spoil anything for our readers! You’ll find individual reviews of Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3 here on ScienceFiction.com, as they become available to the public. The first thing that jumps out at the viewer upon engaging with the new series is that this is definitely NOT your typical entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s no secret that the previews have shown the episodes with a decidedly “classic TV sitcom” type of vibe, and this is the general format that the show follows, with each episode “taking place” in a different chronological sitcom era, progressing forward through time (at least, through the first trio of episodes, anyhow); the first episode is set in a 1950s type of ‘I Love Lucy’ vibe, with episode two wandering into the ‘Bewitched’ feel of the 1960s, and the third episode moves things smoothly into the 1970s, with some of the televised technological advances that came with that era. A unique point of the series is […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘Cherry 2000’ (1987)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 16:04:25 +0000

It’s strange, trying to play the “numbers game.” Here we are, on the final day of the year 2020, talking about a movie that was released in 1987, that featured a plot that was set in 2017, but referenced the number 2000 in it’s title… it’s enough to make even a mathematician’s head swim! The pursuit for the perfect woman has scattered many men to the ends of the Earth trying to find her. The 1980s were no different, of course – and the sci-fi adventures of the era had a great time trying to envision what the future might be like – even trying to predict the faraway time of 2017… In 1988’s ‘Cherry 2000,’ Sam Treadwell found his “perfect girl” and made her his wife. She tells him everything that he wants to hear, is supportive no matter what he does, is ready for sex in a hot minute, and absolutely adores everything about him. Every man’s dream girl, right? One minor catch about all her perfection: she is literally programmed that way. Unfortunately, when his decades-old sexy love-robot blows a fuse that is darn near impossible to replace in the modern circles of 2017, Sam must hire […]

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Comic Archive: ‘Star Trek the Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation²

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 17:40:30 +0000

Welcome to the Comic Archive! There have been so many amazing stories, characters, and series produced from comic book publishers for almost 100 years now; this column will serve to celebrate some of the tales you may or may not know about. Each week, we’ll take a story arc or trade paperback/collected story from a non-new comic (three years old or further back), and discuss the details with you. Ah, the time-honored tradition of the crossover. In the pop-culture world, it’s a way – sometimes, fun and cheeky, sometimes dubious and world-threatening – of bringing together characters, properties, or worlds from two or more franchises to let them interact, collaborate, fight, etc. It’s usually an affair to remember – hopefully for the right reasons, because it was so darned cool, but sometimes it’s for infamous “OMG that didn’t work what the Hell were they thinking” reasons instead. In 2012, comic-book publisher IDW decided it was high time to combine two of their most high-profile sci-fi properties for a feature event: ‘Star Trek The Next Generation’ and ‘Doctor Who.’ IDW is no stranger to mashing-up two or more of their series, as they routinely do with many of their licensed […]

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Book Review: ‘Cell’ by Stephen King

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 15:30:26 +0000

Love him or leave him, you’ve got to give Stephen King credit: the man knows how to tell a story. The author of countless novels and short stories, a ridiculous amount of which have been adapted to the big and small screens, King writes in a style that rivets many readers and employs a “can’t put it down” approach of telling his tales fast and furiously. Which is probably for the best, as some of his novels are – pardon the pun – King-sized, sometimes topping 1,000 pages (I’ve been known, on occasion, to use his mega-novel ‘Under the Dome’ to anchor my yacht so the servants can have a smoother time serving me whilst at sea). Even though ‘Cell’ was adapted into a 2016 film – poorly, which is a true surprise since it features such strong lead character actors as John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson – the focus for fans should certainly be the original written version, first released in 2006. It’s his foray into the world of zombies, or more accurately, pseudo-zombies, as the monsters contained in this tale aren’t dead, per se. Things in the story start out innocently enough, as New England artist Clay […]

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Throwback Thursday: ‘The Black Cauldron’ (1985)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 19:25:11 +0000

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Movie Review: Don’t Look Back

Dave Taylor — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 14:33:01 +0000

You can be excused if you’re confused about the title of this film; there are over 100 movies on IMDb with the name Don’t Look Back! Apparently it’s a very popular name for a movie. Who knew? This 2020 film is a very contemporary horror tapped into the “Karen”-in-the-park bystander zeitgeist. It revolves around a group of people who witness an assault in New York City’s Central Park but don’t do anything about it, just look away, walk away, stand and watch or even record it with their smartphones. Not a good samaritan in the bunch. When some of these witnesses start to die, young mom Caitlin Kramer (Kourtney Bell) tries to discover the truth behind the dangerous situation before she too ends up a casualty of her ostensibly poor life decision. If you’re thinking this sounds like a variation on the sly and witty Final Destination horror film series, there’s a reason for that: those films were all written by Jeffrey Reddick, who also wrote and directed Don’t Look Back. Based on a 2014 short film called Good Samaritan the film has a solid premise: What if you stood by while someone was beaten or murdered instead of intervening […]

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