Trekoff: The Motion Picture (2016)

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

For a second I thought “Trekoff” was going to be a grating experience, but eventually Justin Timpane’s documentary about Trek fandom eventually won me over big time. I may not be much of a “Star Trek” fan, but I know what it is to be a fan, and a fanatic, and all around geek for something so much, that you want to spend all your time involved with it. “Trekoff: The Motion Picture” is a documentary and partly live action tour film about the raunchy Star Trek podcast that has managed to build a loyal following of listeners. Hosts Justin Timpane and Alexia Poe have an infectious enthusiasm that drips off of the film and will win over anyone that has ever sacrificed or expressed love for a particular kind of fandom.

It also helps that Alexia Poe is kind of hot, but I digress. Timpane and Poe sought out to do a podcast that was different from the others, where they discuss “Star Trek,” and debate various captains all the while discussing who Alexia would sleep with, and why she’d let William Shatner give her a golden shower. Admittedly, the dick jokes get kind of tiresome, but “Trekoff” is still a breezy and raucous documentary that is devoted to the way Timpane and Poe celebrate their love for “Star Trek.” They do so with a lot of laughter, a ton of joy, and endless sexual innuendos and double entendres that their audience seems to love when they’re recording their podcast live.

While “Trekoff” doesn’t offer new or original insight in to the “Star Trek” fandom, the documentary succeeds in exploring the more surreal aspects of the fandom. As well we’re given keen insight in to how rabid hosts Timpane and Poe are for “Star Trek.” While they deliver endless sex jokes, and argue about who’d be better in bed Kirk or Picard, they seem to love the franchise, and get very emotional when the humor stops and their sincerity shines through. I wish we’d seen more of that quality, to be honest. That said, “Trekoff” is a charming, funny, and unusual documentary about fandom and love for “Star Trek” that I had a very good time with.

Now Available on DVD at Amazon, and on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Videoport: A Short Doc (2016)

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Kids today will never understand the joy of going to the local video store and spending hours within the aisles of your favorite titles just to find something to bring home. I fondly remember walking through my local video shop watching a graphic horror movie on a mounted television while my parents staggered to the counter with a stack of titles they planned to bring home to watch that night. And no, I don’t speak of “Blockbuster” video. I speak of actual video stores that were once as common as Laundromats.

Running for nearly three decades, production company p3 explores the beginning and painful end of one of Maine’s most popular and beloved communities for film lovers “Videoport.” With the advent of digital rental and streaming, every year more and more beloved video rental spots are closing down and “Videoport” is sadly one of the many to close down. What with almost twenty thousand movies to rent, and three decades of building a community and massive fan base, it stings to think that the store may be replaced by an outlet or discount store by a faceless entity.

“Videoport” explores in a nut shell how much the once prominent video rental store was a beacon, not just for discovering unusual films, but for commuting alongside like minded people. Many of the individuals interviewed for the documentary discuss how they met their significant others, and built lifelong friendships, only to see it now dissipate with time. “Videoport” ends on a bittersweet note with the curators of the store donating their entire catalogue to the local library, making it available to a new generation of film aficionados. It’s their last noble favor to a community that they’ve helped nurture for thirty years.

The PC Thug: A Puerto Rican Day Parade Movie Recommendation

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

June 12^th, 2016 brings forth another year of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and if you’re in the Bronx, you’re preparing for the onslaught of traffic and swell of parade goers coming out to celebrate Boricua heritage. For me it’s been a consistently interesting and entertaining event since I was a child. It’s an event that’s almost stopped New York and the Bronx in its tracks and helped a lot of members of the Puerto Rican community come out and celebrate who they are. Alongside the Gay Pride parade, the Puerto Rican Day Parade is a source of great pride and festivities with a lot of what Puerto Ricans are known for: Food, Dancing, and Music.

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Epic History X-Men, Volume 3: The Dark Phoenix Saga

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

There’s no bigger an X-Men fan online than Comic Book Girl 19. The web personality has made her claim to fame from online personality to bonafide geek goddess by providing insightful, lucid, and very controversial opinions about comic books and pop culture in general. Among some of the biggest pop culture dynasties, Comic Book Girl 19 is one of the most passionate X-Men fans around. Like me, she hates the movies, but loves the X-Men comics and longs for a day when we can finally see them adapted properly on the big screen. “Epic History X-Men” has nothing to do with the movies, and is in fact about a certain stream of storylines and character arcs involving the X-Men.

Comic Book Girl 19 and director Tyson Wheeler have their cut off point, and end episode three of three with the “Dark Phoenix Saga.” The massive science fiction arc was penned by Chris Claremont and is one of the most complex, complicated, and unusual storylines ever put to the comics. And Bryan Singer actually is going to try to simplify it for one or two films. That aside, “Epic History X-Men” is a fantastic and very entertaining documentary where Comic Book Girl 19 and her sidekick Robot lay out the events of “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and explain the storyline’s nuances and emotional strong points as thoroughly as possible.

Though the series as a whole could just being Comic Book Girl 19 sitting in a chair and laying out every point of the storyline, she and director Tyson Wheeler switch up the monotony by adding splashes of panels from the comic books. They also animated a lot of the panels, and even add their own voice overs and great sound effects, all of which really add a flavor and excitement to an already enthusiastic host. Comic Book Girl 19 loves the X-Men, and she seems to have a ball describing every storyline, from Jean Grey returning as the Phoenix, the big rumble with the X-Men and an erotic mutant organization called the Hellfire Club, Wolverine taking down a whole army of guards single handedly, to Jean’s eventual transformation in to the dark side as the Dark Phoenix which ultimately split the team apart.

Comic Book Girl 19 even takes the time out to introduce her favorite X-Men: Dazzler. Dazzler is a light controlling mutant that Comic Book Girl 19 has fought for, defended, and consistently taken scrutiny for favoring over everyone else in the comics, but makes a darn good case for the character’s significance to the “Dark Phoenix Saga.” What’s punctuated through most of Volume 3 is that the “X-Men” isn’t just a series about young people going on adventures. It’s a long and very unique consistent epic about people with extraordinary powers from various ethnicities and nationalities fighting for humanity, and learning that they themselves are human, in the end.

Though considerably low budget, “Epic History” volumes 1-3 garners some bang up production with excellent voice work. They’re undoubtedly very exciting, entertaining, and heartfelt glimpses in to only some of the most important storylines in one of the most unique and original characters in comic book lore. Comic Book Girl 19 treats the material with great reverence and will likely leave you seeking out the books and appreciating the characters so much more. Suffice it to say I had more fun with the third chapter than I did with “X-Men: Apocalypse.”

“Epic History X-Men Volume 3: The Dark Phoenix Saga” is now available on Vimeo On Demand.

After the End (2013)

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Though many people will probably see “After the End” as a somber look at the end of life, it is in reality a very cathartic look at how death can sometimes be the beginning of a new stage in life. “After the End” is an emotional and brutally heartbreaking look at loss, and how much we’ve all come to fear death and view it as a totality. Who among us hasn’t lost a loved one in our lives? Every single one of us has suffered at least the loss of a pet that has greatly affected us and caused us to re-think and approach the rest of our days in a new respect.

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Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986)

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

“Madonna can go to hell as far as I’m concerned! She’s a dick!”

If aliens ever came down to Earth and wanted to know what the eighties were like, they could look no further than the time capsule that is “Heavy Metal Parking Lot.” It is, as many have described it, the viral video before viral videos existed. I’d love to see a documentary about this film some day, or perhaps an actual feature made around the events that occur in the fifteen minute documentary. It’s a hilarious and often absurd look at a certain time period where everyone wore mullets, walked around without shirts, bragged about doing drugs, and women were often very proud to admit they wanted to “fuck” certain band members’ “brains out.”

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VHS Massacre: Cult Films and the Decline of Physical Media (2016)

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

For other documentaries about the VHS resurgence and the nearing end of physical media, a lot of directors have spent their time trying to figure out where it all began and celebrate the idea of the VHS boom of the modern era. “VHS Massacre” seems to be standing in ground zero of the end of physical media and trying to figure out where it’s all going, rather than where it all began. For many of us that have reveled in the new wave of VHS appreciation, we all know how it began. VHS won over Beta, despite the latter have more quality simply because VHS had more appeal to its product. It cost less, the tapes stored more footage, and porn became almost exclusive to the format. But with the rise of digital media, VHS has gone the way of the dodo, now relegated to good will bins and mom and pop stores deep in small towns and counties.

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