The 602 Club: A Geekery Speakeasy

The Force Awakens/Rebels Season 2 Trailers.  It will be a weekend long remembered, April 16th-19th, 2015, with a longer look at Episode VII and our first look at Rebels season 2. In this supplemental episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing is joined once again by John Mills to talk about both trailers, sharing our reactions, speculation and shear joy over what we have seen.    Host Matthew Ru...

Battlestar Galactica 1978. In the early 60's, Glen Larson had the idea for Battlestar Galactica, originally called Adam's Ark. It was not able to find it's way to TV until Star Wars' release in 1977 when every TV network and movie studio decided to get into the "Star Game". Beginning in 1978 it did not last long, citing declining ratings and cost overruns, ABC canceled  Battlestar Galactica  in Ap...

The Star Wars Saga. Some nights after closing time Ruby serves up something special and in this supplemental episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing and John Mills enjoy a rare vintage and talk Star Wars. We discuss everything, the Prequels, The Clone Wars, the Jedi, unexplored time periods, the expanded universe then and now, the Holiday Special, Special Editions, the new films, comics and t...

Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2002 Disney decided to make a film based on one of it's theme park rides. The Country Bears was a box office flop, yet this did not deter the studio from continuing to mining it's rides for inspiration. The very next year, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl would become a monster hit, going on to inspire 3 more films with a 5th one currently in the work...

Iron Man. Some movies spend years languishing in development hell and Iron Man was one of the longest. From 1990 to 2005 it bounced around from studio to studio; it wasn't until 2006 that Marvel acquired back the rights and decided to use it as the launching pad for it's own studio as well as a cinematic universe that the film would finally materialize. In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew...

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.  It took four years of blue screen shooting in his living room and work on a Macintosh II for Kerry Conran to complete his black and white short of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Through a friend of his brother's wife, he was introduced to producer Jon Avnet who shepherded the project into a full-length feature film that would stretch the limits of co...

Dragonheart. There are so many movies that come out in theaters and most of them will not be a mega hit. A majority of movies come and go with little fanfare after their initial run, yet there are some that find an even greater audience beyond the theater. These films become cult classics. In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing is joined by Suzanne Abbott to talk about the cult class...

Star Wars Rebels Season 1. In October of 2012 it was if millions of voices suddenly cried out in joy, followed by agony, as we learned that Disney bought Lucasfilm and with that came the cancellation of The Clone Wars. Soon afterwards Disney, announced it was creating a new animated show, helmed by The Clone Wars Supervising Director Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg that would chronicle the beginning...

Agent Carter. Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Solider both left us with the impression that Peggy Carter continued to be a respected member and founder of what became S.H.E.I.L.D. Yet what if the road to founder was a little rougher than was first thought? In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing is joined by agents Andi VanderKolk and Norman Lao to t...

The Rocketeer. In 1982 a comic mini series came out that harkened back to the serial adventures from the 1930's. Dave Steven's Rocketeer became a classic for comic enthusiasts, with it's fast pace, noir feel, lush artwork, and more adult themes. Then the Walt Disney company did what it does best, it took a property and remade it in their own image. In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rush...

Kingsman. In 1962 Dr. No hit the big screen and James Bond became the gold standard for spy movies. Throughout the years many films have parodied or paid homage to the spy genre Austin Powers, In Like Flint, Never Say Never Again are just a few examples. Spy movies have continued to be some of the most successful film franchises with The Bourne series as well as Bond still going strong and upcomin...

Jupiter Ascending. Breaking News: Marvel has the rights to use Spider-Man in it's films and we break it down and share our thoughts on what this will mean for Spider-Man as well as the upcoming Marvel movies. In 1999 the world of film was changed forever by a film called The Matrix. We were introduced to "bullet time" and for many, this was their first time to hear of the Wachowskis, the writers a...

Comics. On April 18, 1938 the world of publishing changed forever with the release of Action Comics #1 featuring the first superhero, Superman and in May of 1939 Batman was introduced to the world in Detective Comics #27. Since then, the proliferation of comics as been astounding. Leading to a world where comic book characters are everywhere, in film, on TV and ever conceivable type of merchandise...

Man of Steel. Every once in a while there is a film that arrives that ignites fandom and creates visceral polarization, Man of Steel has been one of those movies. People seem to love it or hate it, in fact it's Rotten Tomatoes score indicates that in it's 55% critical reception. As the cornerstone of the DC cinematic universe, it's an important film that has set the tone for the movies slated to a...

Raiders of the Lost Ark. As George Lucas vacationed in Hawaii after finishing the original Star Wars, he is joined by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg mentioned that he wants to direct a Bond movie and George tells him he has something better; Indiana Smith. Steven would go on to direct and fortuitously convince George to change the name to Indiana Jones. The rest, as they say, is cinema history. In th...

Galaxy Quest. 1999 saw the release of three films aimed at sci-fi fandom and more specifically, Star Trek - Free Enterprise, Trekkies and Galaxy Quest. Galaxy Quest seemed to hit that sweet spot for many fans and at Star Trek Las Vegas it's ranked as a Star Trek Movie. In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing is joined by Norman Lao and Andi VanderKolk to talk about Galaxy Quest. We as...

It's a Wonderful Life Doctor. Every year geeks gather around their television sets to see what will happen to The Doctor and his companion at the holidays. The Christmas special usually combines elements of well know stories of the season with a sic-fi twist and this year was no different In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing is joined by Andi VanderKolk to talk about Last Christmas...

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Peter Jackson has been thinking about and working in Middle Earth since 1995 and finally, at the close of 2014 the defining chapter is here. From it's beginnings as  two films and a companion piece, all the way to a trilogy of Hobbit films, the process has been anything but smooth. Finally the two trilogies are now complete and so ends the adventures in J...

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  The middle movie of a trilogy has always been the hardest to do. It relies on the first film, has to set up the last film and try stand up on it's own. Some movies have done this really well, such as The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers. The Desolation of Smaug also had the distinction of being the film that had the most added to it when the duology beca...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. After the monster success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy thoughts turned to making The Hobbit. After dealing with rights issues and a directorial change, Peter Jackson once again found himself in Middle Earth.  In this episode of The 602 Club, host Matthew Rushing is joined by Alice Baker and Megan Calcote from Educating Geeks to talk about the first film in th...

James Bond   The British secret service agent has been thrilling audiences with his adventures and conquests for over 50 years. Ranked number three in total franchise dollars, Bond continues to be one of Hollywoods longest running series. In this episode of The 602 Club host Matthew Rushing is joined by John Champion and Norman Lao discuss their love these films. From favorite Bonds, to movies and...

Mockingjay Part 1.  Susanne Collins' Hunger Games series took the world by storm in 2008 and has continued to do so through the film adaptations.  Host Matthew Rushing is join by Andi VanderKolk in The 602 Club to discuss the first part of the finale Mockingjay Part 1. Together they dive into the first two films, the decision to split the final book into two movies, while dissecting the themes and...

The Force Awakens Teaser. Fans around the world were beside themselves when they learned that George Lucas had sold Lucasfilm to Disney, who immediately announced that they were going to be continuing the Star Wars saga on the big screen.  Now the first look at the new  Star Wars  movie,  The Force Awakens  is here and with it the speculation wars have begun. In this supplemental episode of The 60...

Interstellar. Visionary director Christopher Nolan burst on to the screen with Memento and since then has continued to intrigue and provoke though in audiences with films like Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy. In this episode of  The 602 Club , host Matthew Rushing is joined by Darren Moser and Norman C. Lao to discuss the release of Interstellar . From their first impressions, to characters,...

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. In 2008, Iron Man came sauntering on to our movie screens and the Marvel cinematic universe was born. Flash forward to the fall of 2013 and Marvel's *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* hit television screens promising big-time Marvel action in your living room each week. In this episode of *The 602 Club*, host Matthew Rushing is joined by Darren Moser and Norman Lao to talk ab...