On an all-new edition of The Weekly Podioplex, Disney scored a major record-breaking win with Beauty and the Beast. This week continues the revival theme with a new adaptation of Power Rangers and a 21st century bite at the '70s classic CHIPS, as well as a new sci-fi horror film called Life. Can any of these newbies de-throne the Mouse, or will Belle and Beast dance for another week?

In home entertainment, the slate is short as three winter titles make their way to disc, Jyn Erso's mission goes digital, Batman and Dick Van Dyke take on TV, and Hitchcock brings up the anchor position with Lifeboat. Denise wraps it all up with a basket full of news, bringing this new edition of the Weekly Podioplex to a close on The Chronic Rift Network.

Weekly Podioplex Notes for March 21st, 2017

Introduction

Opening Clip: Power Rangers

Box Office Report

Top Ten

#1 – Beauty and the Beast – [New Release]
#2 – Kong: Skull Island – [-1]
#3 – Logan – [-1]
#4 – Get Out – [-1]
#5 – The Shack – [-1]
#6 – The LEGO Batman Movie – [-1]

#7 – The Belko Experiment – [New Release]
#8 – Hidden Figures – [-1]
#9 – John Wick: Chapter Two – [-1]
#10 – Before I Fall – [-4]

Tops From the Past

2012 – The Hunger Games
2007 – TMNT
1997 – Liar Liar
1987 – Lethal Weapon
1977 – Airport ‘77
 

Box Office Premieres for the week of March 24th, 2017

Wide

Power Rangers – [PG-13]

CHIPS – [R]

Life – [R]

Limited

Wilson – [R]
Prevenge – [NR]
The Levelling – [R]

Slamma Jamma – [PG]

Home Entertainment for the week of March 21st, 2017

New Releases on DVD and Blu-Ray

Miss Sloane – [R]

Sing – [PG]

Assassin’s Creed – [PG-13]

New Releases on Digital Video

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – [PG-13]

TV on DVD and Blu-Ray

Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Season Three (2011)
The Dick Van Dyke Show: Now in Living Color! (1961-1966)

Blu-Rays From the Past

Lifeboat (1944) – [NR]

Podcast Promos

Dead Kitchen Radio: The Keith R. A. DeCandido Podcast

Author, editor, percussionist, voice talent, and Rift regular Keith R.A. DeCandido presents a little slice of his life twice a month in his podcast, Dead Kitchen Radio.  Each episode Keith offers readings from his latest works, anecdotes on the writing and editing process, and music from his days with the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players and the Boogie Knights.

Quick Flicks

Playgrounds in movie theaters?
Orson Welles final film coming to Netflix
Alien: The Engineers didn’t create the Xenomorphs
Guardians of the Galaxy and Legion are getting more sequels

Links

Visit the Chronic Rift site
Send us an e-mail
Tweet on Twitter:  The Chronic Rift, The Weekly Podioplex, Denise, and Michael
Listen on Stitcher Radio

Leave a review on iTunes:  The Chronic Rift

Shop the Rift’s Best Bets or search our Amazon Store. 

Michael’s blog at Creative Criticality

Denise’s blog at Accessories Not Included

"Eat, Drink, and Be Dead"

Airdate: October 14, 1966 

This episode has something for everyone!  There are bootleggers for the Green Hornet and Kato to deal with!  There's a killer helicopter for the Black Beauty to tussle with!  And there's a new episode for John and Jim to review!  But are they in agreement again?  Take a listen and then let us know what you think of the episode by writing us here or at thebatcavepodcast@gmail.com.

On an all-new edition of The Weekly Podioplex, Logan stepped aside as the giant ape Kong took control of the box office. Adding another creature to the mix this week is Disney's live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. With so many beasts in the mix, will the Mouse House's magic win the weekend?

In home entertainment, it's drama galore as a few winter releases make their way to disc. TV steps back in time with a slate of retro titles including award-winners and memorable finales, and HD takes the time-traveling cue by bringing Firestarter to blu-ray. Finally, Denise takes on a superheroic slate of comic book news items to wrap this new edition of the Weekly Podioplex, brought to you on The Chronic Rift Network.

Weekly Podioplex Notes for March 14th, 2017

Introduction

Opening Clip: Beauty and the Beast

Box Office Report

Top Ten

#1 – Kong: Skull Island – [New Release]
#2 – Logan – [-1]
#3 – Get Out – [-1]
#4 – The Shack – [-1]
#5 – The LEGO Batman Movie – [-1]
#6 – Before I Fall – [Even]

#7 – Hidden Figures – [Even]
#8 – John Wick: Chapter Two – [-3]
#9 – La La Land – [+1]
#10 – Fifty Shades Darker – [-1]

Tops From the Past

2012 – 21 Jump Street
2007 – 300
1997 – Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi Special Edition
1987 – Lethal Weapon
1977 – Airport ‘77
 

Box Office Premieres for the week of March 17th, 2017

Wide

Beauty and the Beast – [PG]

The Belko Experiment – [R]

Limited

T2 Trainspotting – [R]
Song to Song – [R]
Frantz – [PG-13]

They Call Me Jeeg – [NR]

Betting on Zero – [NR]

Home Entertainment for the week of March 10th, 2017

New Releases on DVD and Blu-Ray

Fences – [PG-13]

Collateral Beauty – [PG-13]

Passengers – [PG-13]

Marco Polo (2007) – [NR]

New Releases on Digital Video

Patriots Day – [R]

Miss Sloane – [R]

TV on DVD and Blu-Ray

CHiPs: Season Five (1981)
Newhart: Season Eight (1989)
Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: The Complete Series (1986-1991)
The Zeta Project: Season Two (2001-2003)

Blu-Rays From the Past

Firestarter (1984) – [R]

Podcast Promos

The Shared Desk

From the writing desk of award-nominated and award-winning authors and podcasters Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris comes The Shared Desk, a writer's show that explores collaboration, science fiction, fantasy, and just about anything that catches their fleeting attention spans.

Quick Flicks

Early reviews of Iron Fist: Not so great
Casting the next Wolverine
Deadpool meets Domino, courts Patrick Stewart
Thor: Ragnarok
Logan: X-23 spinoff ideas

Links

Visit the Chronic Rift site
Send us an e-mail
Tweet on Twitter:  The Chronic Rift, The Weekly Podioplex, Denise, and Michael
Listen on Stitcher Radio

Leave a review on iTunes:  The Chronic Rift

Shop the Rift’s Best Bets or search our Amazon Store. 

Michael’s blog at Creative Criticality

Denise’s blog at Accessories Not Included

From Grasshopper to the Prairie, actor Radames Pera performed in a number of iconic 70s television shows.  He joins us in this special episode, giving us a look at how his career all began with a chance encounter with director Daniel Mann, earning him the role of Stavros in the Anthony Quinn starring film, A Dream of Kings.  From there, he went on to appear in shows such as Medical Center, The Rookies, Night Gallery and many, many more.  He talks about his time as Grasshopper on Kung Fu and the adoptive son of Mr. Edwards on Little House on the Prairie.  Also, he shares his memories of his appearance on "Fool's Gold" on Shazam!

Radames Perá (born September 14, 1960) is an American former actor best known for his role as "Grasshopper" the student Kwai Chang Caine in the 1972–1975 television series Kung Fu. He is the only living regular cast member from the show.

​

At age eight, Radames was asked by director Daniel Mann to play the role of Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas' dying son in the film A Dream of Kings (1969). He met the director at a dinner party and was eventually cast in the role of Stavros. Pera's other acting roles include a disturbed pre-teen in an episode of Night Gallery, "Silent Snow, Secret Snow", narrated by Orson Welles, and guest appearances on The Six Million Dollar Man, as Don Ameche's son in the television movie Gidget Gets Married. Between 1969 and 1985, other guest-starring credits include two episodes of Lassie, Marcus Welby, M.D., the single episodes of Family Affair, Hawaii Five-O, and The Waltons among many others.

Today, Radames serves as a member of A Minor Consideration, a non-profit organization formed to give guidance to young performers, past, present, and future.

​

Links

Facebook

Webpage

"The Ogg Couple"

Aired December 21, 1967

It's the final go around for Vincent Price and Anne Baxter as Egghead and Olga in a story that should have been their first go around together.  It's pretty much a mess and this has turned out to be the shortest podcast review ever because of it.  But there are some hightlights including an opening that will have you talking and a discussion on how dangerous it is for Batgirl to be riding around on radioactive sparkplugs.

​

Joining John to work this all out is author and podcaster, Kevin Lauderdale.

Comment on the episode here or write thebatcavepodcast@gmail.com.

 

Kevin Lauderdale has written essays and articles for the Los Angeles Times, The Dictionary of American Biography, Animato, mcsweeneys.net, and teevee.org; and his poetry has appeared in Andrei Codrescu's The Exquisite Corpse. He has published fiction in several of Pocket Books' Star Trek anthologies, including Constellations, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the original Star Trek. His original fiction has appeared in Neo-opsis magazine and Cthulhu Unbound, the cross-genre Lovecraftian collection from Permuted Press. He is a graduate of UCLA and a card-carrying member of SFWA. In addition, Kevin is a host of his own podcast here on the network, It Has Come to My Attention and co-host of Mighty Movie: Temple of Bad. Recently, Kevin took over as host of the old time radio podcast,Presenting the Transcription Feature. Follow Kevin's exploits through his LiveJournal blog - http://kevinlauderdale.livejournal.com.

Check out the website John mentioned where it explains in more detail how the three parts of the Egghead/Olga story was supposed to play out - Batgirl Trap Website.

Looking back at Keith’s first short story collection, Without a License: The Fantastic Worlds of Keith R.A. DeCandido. Published by Dark Quest Books in 2015, it includes 11 of Keith’s stories, from the shared worlds of Viral and V-Wars to stories that originally saw print in Furry Fantastic, Liar Liar, Defending the Future: Best-Laid Plans, Amazing Stories, and The Fedoras Literary Review, as well as two previously unpublished stories and new stories in the worlds of Dragon Precinct and Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet.

In addition to telling the story of this collection, Keith reads two stories from it: the new Cassie story, “Seven-Mile Race,” and one of the unpublished ones, “Behold a White Tricycle,” a story originally written for the never-published 44 Clowns: 11 Stories of the 4 Clowns of the Apocalypse. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you…)

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we present an episode of “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” set on the Emerald Island.  Today, kissing the Blarney Stone is must-do for tourists.  Back in Queen Victoria’s time, the tradition was less-known and a lot more dangerous - as the Great Detective and the Good Doctor are about to learn.  Then we double-dip into classic Americana with two episodes of “Vic and Sade.”  First Vic is requested to tackle some ballistic golf clubs, and then he receives a top honor in the world of kitchenware.

Episodes

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

March 18, 1946

“The Adventure of the Blarney Stone”

6:03

Vic and Sade

April, 1941

“40 Lbs of Golf Clubs”

38:02

May 2, 1941

“Vic’s Picture on Quarterly Cover”

47:32

We come to the actual gameplay of the first home game for our vid-cast.  Contestants Stephanie and Billy battle it out in three rounds where they learn that nines are their enemy and there is clearly a difference in thinking when it comes to East Coast and West Coast.  Watch until the end and learn who wins and who decides what the next game to review will be.  Would you like to play?  Contact John here on the website or by visiting our Facebook page.

Episode 41—Midnight Mack

Science fiction writer Scott Pearson concludes his two-part in-depth interview with New York Times bestselling author David Mack. In this episode they discuss Mack’s love of the band Rush, his non-Star Trek tie-in fiction, and his original fiction, featuring his forthcoming novel The Midnight Front, the first of his Dark Arts trilogy. Double-length episode!

Segments

Intro :28

Meeting the Band 2:43

Vinyl and Tape and CDs, Oh My 6:00

Vapor Trails Redux 6:43

2113: Writing Rush 14:07

24: Rogue 24:54

Favorite Sci-Fi Books and Shows 31:15

Some NOT Sci-Fi Faves 38:40

Original Fiction: The Calling 40:40

On Writing Urban Fantasy 46:32

The Calling Gets Orphaned 48:43

The Dark Arts Series is Born 53:32

Book One: The Midnight Front 54:53

The Novelette: Hell Rode With Her 1:02:29

The Dark Arts Going Forward 1:06:55

Ella’s Dave Mack Story 1:10:24

On an all-new edition of The Weekly Podioplex, Logan sliced into the box office and eliminated the competition, using his cinematic swan song to make his mark on the record books. This week, the Wolverine goes toe to toe with a giant ape as Kong: Skull Island takes audiences on a forbidden journey. Which mutant will win?

In home entertainment, Disney takes us to the islands as Moana makes her debut alongside Jackie, Scamander, and the Passengers. The Americans sneak into the TV list, and two classics make their way onto high-definition. After that, Denise wraps things up with a new slate of news in the Quick Flicks, putting the finishing touches on this first March edition of the Weekly Podioplex, brought to you on The Chronic Rift Network.

Weekly Podioplex Notes for March 7th, 2017

Introduction

Opening Clip: Kong: Skull Island

Box Office Report

Top Ten

#1 – Logan – [New Release]
#2 – Get Out – [-1]
#3 – The Shack – [New Release]
#4 – The LEGO Batman Movie – [-2]
#5 – John Wick: Chapter Two – [-2]
#6 – Before I Fall – [New Release]

#7 – Hidden Figures – [Even]
#8 – The Great Wall – [-4]
#9 – Fifty Shades Darker – [-4]
#10 – La La Land – [-2]

Tops From the Past

2012 – The Lorax
2007 – 300
1997 – Private Parts
1987 – Lethal Weapon
1977 – Rocky
 

Box Office Premieres for the week of March 10th, 2017

Wide

Kong: Skull Island – [PG-13]

Limited

Raw – [R]
Badrinath Ki Dulhania – [NR]
The Ottoman Lieutenant – [R]

Personal Shopper – [R]

The Sense of an Ending – [PG-13]

My Scientology Movie – [NR]

The Other Half – [NR]
The Dark Below – [UR]
Uncertain – [NR]
Suntan – [UR]

Home Entertainment for the week of March 7th, 2017

New Releases on DVD and Blu-Ray

Moana – [PG]

Jackie – [R]

Incarnate – [PG-13]

New Releases on Digital Video

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – [PG-13]

Passengers – [PG-13]

TV on DVD and Blu-Ray

The Americans: Season Four (2016)
Saving Hope: Season Four (2016)

Blu-Rays From the Past

Compulsion (1959) – [NR]

Fahrenheit 451 (1966) – [NR]

Podcast Promos

The Melting Potcast

The Melting Potcast: A Little of Everything, from Everyone, Everywhere. It's also your source for really bad food and writing puns. Our crew gives you never-before heard fiction in a variety show setting, featuring different types of segments. This is a melting pot, after all!

Quick Flicks

Van Helsing re-write
Hellboy 3 will never happen
Castle Rock gets a ten-episode order on Hulu
Jurassic World 2 plot revealed?
LEGO Batman Movie director helming Nightwing film
Robin Hood: Origins

Links

Visit the Chronic Rift site
Send us an e-mail
Tweet on Twitter:  The Chronic Rift, The Weekly Podioplex, Denise, and Michael
Listen on Stitcher Radio

Leave a review on iTunes:  The Chronic Rift

Shop the Rift’s Best Bets or search our Amazon Store. 

Michael’s blog at Creative Criticality

Denise’s blog at Accessories Not Included

On an all-new edition of The Weekly Podioplex, Batman and most of the newbies are told to Get Out as Jordan Peele's fresh flick takes down everyone. The competition is fierce this week because the new arrivals include the afterlife, a god, and the Wolverine. This battle's gonna be nuts.

In home entertainment, it's another short slate headlined by Doctor Strange as Marvel continues Phase III. Academy Award-winning Best Picture Moonlight comes to disc as Collateral Beauty hits digital, and the Tanners bring Fuller House from TV to DVD. After a beastly look at retro classics, Denise goes wild with news before closing the cage door on another edition of the Weekly Podioplex, brought to you on The Chronic Rift Network.