Dennis Finocchiaro | Geekscape

Wait, Wait, Wait, You Didn’t Watch ‘Orphan Black’ The First Time Around?

by Dennis FinocchiaroAugust 27, 2013

You mean to tell me you missed it? Orphan Black, the story of Sarah Manning, a drifter who finds out the hard way that she’s a clone, is returning for an encore presentation starting Saturday, September 14th on BBC America. What is “finding out the hard way”, you ask? She watches a woman commit suicide at a train station and only after trying to rob her does she realize the woman is her exact duplicate. So what does she do? Steal her identity, of course!

What Sarah doesn’t know (at first) is that she’s stolen the identity of a police officer. She’s then forced into the role as she learns more about her past, herself, and begins meeting more and more of her clones.

Why should you watch? How about to see Tatiana Maslany (Diary of the Dead, The Vow), who was nominated for quite a few awards for the role. She plays multiple characters (she’s a clone, duh), and is rather excellent. She even does a variety of accents, since many of the clones come from different countries.

If her acting and hotness aren’t enough, her brother Felix, played by Jordan Gavaris, adds a level of sarcastic comedy and hilariously negative one-liners that make for guaranteed laughs. He gives Orphan Black a comedic side that at times it needs, with some of the dark characters that viewers eventually learn are pulling the strings.

The best part of watching is trying to decide which clone is the hottest. Yes, it sounds dumb since they’re all played by the same actor, but she is so good, you find yourself forgetting they’re all the same person in real life.

I have to admit, I only caught this show because of the multitude of commercials they aired during last season’s Doctor Who, but I am certainly glad the commercials made me curious.

Of course, if you did catch the show first time around, you likely agree it is absolutely worth seeing again. It airs at 10:00 P.M. on BBC America starting September 14th.

A Book Fan’s Thoughts On The ‘Divergent’ Trailer

by Dennis FinocchiaroAugust 26, 2013

So the first trailer for Summit’s new film Divergent was released last night, and having read the book, I am pretty excited about the movie adaptation. Here are some of my thoughts after watching those brief few minutes of footage (obviously, there may be some spoilers below!):

http://youtu.be/LUe2chuZVIo

1. The trailer seemed to capture the main character Tris, played by Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, The Spectacular Now), quite well. As I read the novel, I couldn’t help but compare Tris to a certain protagonist of The Hunger Games, plucked from what seemed like a backwards post-apocalyptic society and thrust into a world that looks more similar to our own.

2. Kate Winslet’s character, Jeanine Matthews, seems to have been made more prominent in the film. Again, I am only basing this on the trailer, but it made her look like a major character in the film, while in the book she had a fairly small role. It could be that Winslet is the most recognizable actor in the film, so the trailer focuses on her a bit more than it should. From what I hear she’s much bigger in the sequel, Insurgent, but I haven’t gotten to that one yet.

3. The continuity seems to be fairly consistent with the novel. Some of the quicker scenes in the trailer (Tris jumping from the rooftop, the knife taking the tiny slice of her ear) were pivotal moments in the book, and the emphasis on them in the trailer makes me think they will remain important moments in the storyline.

4. The setting and scenery seem perfect. The story takes place in Chicago after something has happened to most of the world , and the people of the city work together to keep society going. From the few shots of scenery in the trailer, it seems they kept true to the book’s description of the buildings, especially the long, rocky hallways of Tris’ eventual home.

5. Yes, this story has the cheesy romance of Twilight films, but they kept it to a minimum and mostly downplayed it in the book as secondary to the plot. The trailer seems to push the possibility of romance, but that’s probably just to attract a certain demographic.

Overall, this trailer got me more excited for the film, and now I will probably start reading Insurgent tomorrow. It should be a fun film to follow as we get closer to its release in 2014.

Now it’s your turn, what did you think of the trailer!?

Geekscape Geek-Out: Welcome to Springfield LEGO-STYLE

by Dennis FinocchiaroAugust 19, 2013

When The Simpsons debuted in 1989, a lot of parents (mine included) were wary of letting their children watch the rambunctious show. But I remember every Sunday night, the playgrounds would empty out and we would run to our homes in time to catch the show. I was allowed to watch, mostly because my parents were fans of The Tracey Ullman Show, where the nutty family originally debuted with shorts.

As much as I hate to write two Lego articles in a row, I can’t help but be excited for the big Lego announcement this week. The Simpsons will be released in Lego form sometime in 2014, and while my bank account may not be looking forward to it, I surely am.

Personally I’d rather see The Muppets in Lego form (A Lego Cuusoo member has created a set and is gathering votes as I write this) seeing Bart, Homer and the other regulars will be so much fun. I’m also curious to see which other Springfield locals are released. While I’m sure characters like Krusty will be made, I’d love to see a little Hans Moleman, Comic Book Guy and some of the smaller characters in Lego form.

Ultimately, these sets will be released, but much to the dismay of SOME Lego fans. Some fans began speaking out against the sets, saying the show isn’t as kid friendly as the other Lego genres. But I fail to see how this is any more offensive than some of the lines in Avengers, or even those sets based on the darker Batman films.

And while we’re talking Legos, the Lego Ghostbusters fan-created set quickly gathered the 10,000 votes it needed to be considered as a Lego set. The question now is if Lego can afford the licensing, and the hope that they won’t have to get Bill Murray to sign off on the set. Just kidding.

Geekscape Geek Out: A Lego DeLorean!?!

by Dennis FinocchiaroJuly 31, 2013

When you are a child of the 80s there are always those memories you look back on and really cherish. We all wanted our own alien to hide from the government, just like we hoped to someday race towards a slowly closing door, just make it through, and then reach back and pull our hat out just in time. And, of course, we hoped to someday feel the wind blow through our hair from atop our very own hoverboard.

When we had a toy battle, it was all out war. Optimus Prime would crash through a Lego wall and destroy not only the Decepticons, but also Skeletor, Gargamel and Cobra Commander.

So when I heard there was a Lego Back to the Future set coming out on August 1^st, my inner child went nuts. I had to have it. The set premiered at SDCC this year, and while those lucky few who found one in their hands were asking $70+ for it on Ebay, I decided as exciting as it is, I could wait until the official release this week. And here it is.

The best part of this set was how it came about. After a bit of research I found it was a Lego CUUSOO set, and I wondered what that meant. Turns out it’s an ongoing project by those clever people over at Lego to give fans the chance to get their own ideas made into sets. It’s simple (no, not really). Fans come up with an idea for a set, create a prototype, and post it over at Lego.CUUSOO.com and see if they can get 10,000 people to support it. Every month, creators look at every set that recieves enough support, and if they like the idea, it gets made. And then the creator gets 1% of the sales!

So getting back to the Back to the Future set, it is outstanding. I expected it to be one of those overpriced sets, somewhere around $49.99 (or even more), but it’s only $35, which is a fair price for such a cool set. It comes with parts to create any of the different versions of the DeLorean, plus the added bonus of seeing Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly as minifigures. It even comes with Marty’s skateboard! Sure, I’d rather the hoverboard, but what can I do, right? The doors open like a real DeLorean and the wheels even fold up for flight mode.

I guess what has me most excited about this isn’t just the fact that they took something from the 1980s instead of all of the high-tech toys coming out today. It’s also the anticipation of the possibility of any other classic 1980s films being picked up and made into official Lego sets. Who wouldn’t want to see a Peter Venkman vs. Slimer set, including all of the other Ghostbusters, the firehouse and of course the Ecto1? And if this can be made, why not a Big set with Tom Hanks playing the giant floor piano? Or even better…Fezzik, Inigo and Vizzini carrying Buttercup up the Cliffs of Insanity with Westley chasing them up the rope? The possibilities become endless when a toy creator like Lego is willing to listen to their fans.

And for those of you who might be wondering, yes, the DeLoreon comes with a flux capacitor.

A native of the Philadelphia area, Dennis Finocchiaro is the author of The Z Word, a collection of flash fiction that takes place during the apocalypse, and is a lover of all things Lego.