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Ben’s Breakdown | “Red, White & Royal Blue” is almost a fairy tale come true.
Adapting books to the big screen is not new. Many Hollywood blockbusters came from an original novel. Many times it works. Sometimes it fails pretty badly. And sometimes you get something that is somewhat good but can’t snag that elusive gold ring. As romantic comedies go, this one is pretty basic. The adult child of…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | Tal Bauer Raises a Robust Romance with “How To Say I Do.”
Tal Bauer is one of those authors whose works continue to surprise me. When he puts out a new book, I will stop whatever I’m doing to give it my undivided attention. Bauer has given us political and psychological thrillers, and stories in the world of football and ice hockey. Now, he takes a serious…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Citadel” Two Episode Thoughts
Agent Nadia Sinh is working a spy case on a train in Europe. She is, to her surprise, backed by Agent Mason Kane. Just as she is about to achieve the mission’s goal, she learns that the mission was a setup by an enemy agency. There is a bomb on the trail, and Agents Sinh…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Renfield” is Therapeutically Gory and Fun!
We all know of Dracula. He, and vampires in general, stand at the pinnacle of horror mythology. But what do we know of Renfield? He was made Dracula’s “unwilling assistant” over a century ago. It is now the present day, and what has this existence done to him? I couldn’t wait to see Renfield. Given…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “The Night Agent” Three Episode Thoughts
An FBI agent, whose father was apparently a disgraced agent, saves a train full of passengers from a terrorist bomb. A woman just fired as CEO of her own cybersecurity company is on the run after learning her aunt and uncle weren’t who she thought they were. The daughter of the Vice-President is somehow a…
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Ben’s Breakdown | As The Sun Also Sets, Life Becomes A “Soapdish”
It’s not uncommon to see a movie or some other artistic work and recognize where art is imitating life. What can be a surprise is when the lives of those in the movie are imitating the art they are a part of, and sometimes the result can be outrageously funny. Celeste Talbert is a soap…
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Ben’s Breakdown | Is “Superman: The Movie” the mightiest film of all time?
ED: Due to illness and ailments plaguing TG2 Studios, we are rerunning this article from last year. I love superhero movies. As a child, I happily read superhero comic books, which carried on through my teenage years and into adulthood. Even into my 30s, I still enjoyed reading the exploits of the heroes that made…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | Tal Bauer Wins In Overtime with “The Rest Of The Story”
Tal Bauer is one of those authors whose works continue to surprise me. When he puts out a new book, I will stop whatever I’m doing to give it my undivided attention. That was easy when I first started reading his stories which also served as rather intense thrillers. He has also visited the world…
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Ben’s Book Breakdown | THE EIDOLON is a thrilling debut to “Magnus Academy!”
Author K.D. Edwards recently delivered a thrilling and emotional story with The Hourglass Throne, the third installment in his 9-book series titled “The Tarot Sequence.” These are tales centered around Rune Saint John. He is Atlantean. Along with the many remaining survivors of Atlantis (now destroyed from war), they live in a previously uninhabited area…
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Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | A Tale of Two Christmas Carols
The Two Gay Geeks and our Staff are continuing on with our holiday madness…. errrr cheer as we share another movie from the Christmas Closet. Some of our selections are classics and others are off-beat and (very) loosely associated with the holidays. We hope you enjoy our offerings and that you holiday season is safe,…
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Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | “A Christmas Carol” Told As A Horror Story?
It’s a cold and snowy Christmas Day when a young man walks into a graveyard and towards a specific headstone. He then does something rather unthinkable by opening up his trousers and urinating all over it. This has the effect of removing the snow and frost from the headstone, and we can then see the…
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Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | There is NOTHING Special about the “Star Wars Holiday Special”
The Two Gay Geeks and our Staff are taking it easy this year for the holidays, but we still wanted to have content for you to read during that time. As such, we got busy and watched all of our favorite holiday videos. Some are classics and others are off-beat and loosely associated with the…
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Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | “A Christmas Story Christmas”
Imagine having had the perfect Christmas when you were a child. Imagine having made the perfect Christmas movie when you were a child. Imagine, as an adult, you want to give your children the perfect Christmas. Imagine, as an adult, you wish to leave for the next generation the perfect Christmas movie. Thus begins the…
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Ben’s Book Breakdown | “C.H.A.R.O.N.” is a Cinematic Thriller!
Ex-priest Travis Dominick and former FBI agent and ex-military soldier Brent Lawson are called to a small town in Pennsylvania by a fellow ex-soldier and friend of Lawson. The town is cursed with people subject to unexplainable and gruesome deaths. After arriving there, Travis and Brent constantly see shadowy creatures that later start attacking them.…
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Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special”
A young Peter Quill and Kraglin are chatting about a holiday called Christmas. Yondu shows up and tells them he’ll have none of this Christmas nonsense. We flash forward to an adult Kraglin sharing this tale with other members of the Guardians, including Mantis and Drax. Mantis feels terrible that Yondu has ruined Christmas for…
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Ben’s Breakdown | Thanksgiving “Frasier” Episode (The Apparent Trap)
We continue on in ThanksGiving mode with an episode of the hit series “Frasier”. As we enter into this holiday season, we have decided to share once more many of the articles we have previously published at this time. We will be taking a much-needed break soon, but we still wanted to have content for…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Mad About You” (Giblets for Murray)
As we enter into this holiday season, we have decided to share once more many of the articles we have previously published at this time. We will be taking a much-needed break soon, but we still wanted to have content for you to read during that time. Again, some of these articles will touch on…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Out of Body” Delivers Fun and Ghostly Goodness! For Halloween
Editor Note: The Two Gay Geeks are taking a little vacation and are reposting some goodness from the past just for Halloween. Enjoy! Romantic comedies, or rom-com for short, have been a staple of cinema for longer than I can remember. When LGBTQ cinema came into being much of the content dealt with issues such…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “TÁR” is a Masterpiece That is Both Horrifying and Beautiful
Lydia Tár is a composer and world-class conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. She is one of those rare conductors who has shattered the ceiling for both women and those in the LGBTQ community. Lydia is a lesbian and in a relationship with the orchestra’s concertmaster Sharon Goodnow. Lydia has won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony…
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Ben’s “Gay” Breakdown | “Bros” Sets a New Bar for Romantic Comedies
Meet Bobby Leiber. Bobby is an openly gay man, brimming with self-confidence, has an incredibly snarky attitude, and has a popular podcast (I wish the Two Gay Geeks could be THAT popular!). He’s also been named the director of the nation’s first LGBTQ+ history museum as well as “Cis White Gay Man Of The Year.”…
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Ben’s Breakdown | CokoCon 2022 Thoughts
CoKoCon is a local Phoenix valley convention that came about from merging Copper Con and ConKopelli Convention starting in 2018. CoKoCon is not a big convention like San Diego Comic-Con or Phoenix Fan Fusion. Instead, CoKoCon is a good-sized “fan gathering” of geeks coming together and relishing in their geekdom. One might call it a…
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Ben’s Breakdown | CoKoCon 2022: Apocalypse Later Roadshow
One of the highlights of CoKoCon this year is the Apocalypse Later Roadshow film festival put on by Hal Astell. He has taken this film festival all over to many different conventions throughout the US, and this version lasted 90 minutes made up of 7 short films, all of which were in some sort of…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | Tal Bauer Scores a Win with “Gravity”
Tal Bauer is one of those authors whose works continue to surprise me. When he puts out a new book, I will stop whatever I’m doing to give it my undivided attention. That was easy when I first started reading his stories which also served as rather intense thrillers. He has also visited the world…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Montréal Girls” is a Crowning Achievement for Patricia Chica
Films that deal with self-discovery are not new. From high art to pop culture, seeing protagonists achieve their potential and even self-actualize has been a part of mainstream cinema for decades. But never before have I seen it told so plainly and honestly that it would shake my very soul. I experienced that after watching…
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Ben’s Breakdown | Superhero Surprises can be found in “Secret Headquarters”
Imagine being a kid with divorced parents. Even worse, your father is constantly absent and missing out on his visitation responsibilities. Then, while he’s away, you and your friends discover his secret lair. Your dad is the superhero The Guard. This movie is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who has given moviegoers a plethora of adventure…
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Ben’s Book Breakdown | Seth MacFarlane shines with “The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil.”
The setting is New York City, and it is not long after the end of World War I. A woman runs into a hotel, hands her baby to the front desk clerk, and orders that they take her baby and look after him. The clerk then gives the baby to a lovely German couple who…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | Morgan Brice Strikes Paranormal Gold “Again”
Gail Z. Martin, aka Morgan Brice, continues to be one of those authors whose work excites me to distraction. Among the plethora of titles she has written, she is also responsible for her universe of the paranormal, which includes such series titles as (writing as Gail Z. Martin) “Deadly Curiosities,” “Spells, Salt, & Steel,” and…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Thor: Love and Thunder” is more of an Uneven Blunder
For many years Marvel Studios ruled from the mountaintops when it came to comic book superhero movies. Starting with the very first Iron Man through Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios did what no one else could. The studio that gave us Iron Man, Captain America, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor, could not be touched.…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “1776” (1972) | Old Classics?…Newly Reviewed
Editor: As part of the Two Gay Geeks’ July 4th celebration (Yes, today is July 5th , but since we released a new podcast episode yesterday we chose to release this article today.) we bring you once more our “Old Classics?…Newly Reviewed” look at our annual movie watching of 1776. Every July 4th Keith and I fire up…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | “Secret Service” is a Romantic and High Octane Thriller
Can a lead Secret Service agent in charge of protecting the President of the United States fall in love with the President and effectively protect him at the same time? Does this brief synopsis sound familiar? On the surface, it does sound quite similar to the first book in author Tal Bauer’s “Executive Office” series,…
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Ben’s Book Breakdown | Excellent Characters Keep “Star Trek: Ex Machina” Flying
James T. Kirk has again become Captain of the starship Enterprise, Dr. Leonard McCoy has been brought out of retirement, and Mr. Spock has learned the value of emotions. Even the computer entity known as V’Ger, satisfied that it has joined with The Creator, has scampered off to explore new places outside the Universe. So…
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Ben’s Breakdown | Phoenix Fan Fusion 2022 Wrap-Up
Over the past year or so, we have started to see the convention circuit open back up after being unceremoniously shut down due to the Great Pause, “Damndemic,” or use whatever term floats your fancy that best describes this quarantine nightmare. So we became accustomed to living in isolation. Perhaps, we even became scared to…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Downton Abbey: A New Era” is a Romantic and Posh Look at the Past
Several years have passed at Downton Abbey since their visit from the King of England. The downstairs staff is happily working away while Lady Mary has taken over the day-to-day operations managing Downton Abbey. Tom has been a widower since the passing of his wife and Lord Grantham’s daughter Sybil after giving birth to their…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “The Offer” 3 Episode Thoughts
For cinephiles, one of the most beloved films to come out in the last 50 years is The Godfather. It tells a grand story in a very intimate way. Many people would go so far as to say it is the best movie ever made. After having seen it, I can understand why. Now, just…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | “No Surrender” is filled with multi-layered paranormal goodness!
When I first discovered the book Restless Nights as part of the “Badlands” series, nothing could have prepared me for the world I was about to enter. In fact, my journey was no less fantastic than that of homicide detective Vic D’Amato, who was forced to leave his former beat with the Pittsburgh Police after a…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “The Batman” is a Mixed Bag of Bats in the Belfry
What do you do when you want to make a movie about a superhero that has already been done countless times? Simple. You make the movie but change everything about that superhero. This is the case with The Batman, written by Peter Craig and Matt Reeves, who also directed this movie. It is a bold idea,…
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Ben’s “Gay” Book Breakdown | “You & Me” Delivers Healing Through Love and Chosen Families
Luke Hale is a widower with a single teenage son named Emmet. Luke’s life is a shambles. He was a punk wannabe artist in his youth, but he lacked any focus or direction. He met a girl named Riley, and after getting her pregnant, they married and had Emmet. Eventually, they grew apart, and later…
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Ben’s Breakdown | First Contact Day
Those who have known me for any length of time will also know that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Star Trek nut. Cut me and I bleed… well… red, as in Red Shirt Red! My love for Star Trek goes back to even before my teenage years, which is why I have become most pleased that I…
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Ben’s Breakdown | Is “Superman: The Movie” the mightiest film of all time?
I love superhero movies. As a child, I happily read superhero comic books, which carried on through my teenaged years and into adulthood. Even into my 30s I still enjoyed reading the exploits of the heroes that made up the Justice League of America, the magical exploits of Dr. Strange, and the power of Superman,…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “The Adam Project” May Be Sci-Fi Fluff, But It Also Has Tremendous Heart!
Imagine living in the future and you go on the run from your own people. You travel back in time to correct an event that will save your future, and your only ally is your 12-year-old self. Using time travel to change past events is not a new idea in sci-fi stories, but the moment…
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Ben’s Breakdown | “Severance” Season 1: Three Episode Thoughts
Imagine going to work without any of the emotional burdens from your personal life. Then, imagine going home from work without any of the work stress brought upon by your job. Is this good? Is this bad? Would you undergo the procedure called Severance? This original AppleTV+ series is the brainchild of Ben Stiller. Yes, that…