Back Look Cinema: The Podcast

Zo and Chris (a special guest and host of the Saturday Morning Podcast) embark on a trek to the final frontier. They board the USS Enterprise, but, unbeknownst to them, they are heading for a place that should not exist - a planet at the center of the galaxy where God is said to exist. This excursion, they've heard, is lead by a mysterious preacher named Sybok who is a Vulcan who has embraced his emotions. How Sybok convinced Capta...

Zo gives his impressions on this Spoiler Free review of They Will Kill You starring Zazie Beetz, Patricia Arquette and Myha'la and directed by Kirill Sokolov who also wrote the film with Alex Litvak. This episode released on Easter of 2026. Does it make for a good Easter movie?  Well, I wouldn't expect anyone to watch this film and be filled with the Holy Ghost, but it does have religious tones. The kind of religious tones that are...

Zo gives his Spoiler Free review and impressions of Project Hail Mary Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and starring Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller and James Ortiz. A film adaptation of Andy Weir's novel of the same name. Overall the novel was fascinating. Will the movie live up to the wonder that was presented by the novel? Do you think that this movie is fit for your viewing pleasure? Take a listen then make a discission...

Zo once visited his family in a small town in Georgia and during his visit some outlandish events happened. At first it seemed like that the lady in the neighborhood that everyone respected and affectionately called "Big Mamma" was acting strange. She beat up her martial arts instructor. She beat a bunch of bullies with her grandson at basketball on the playground and, strangest of all, it seems that she forgot how to cook. Later i...

Zo went on a journey to one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of the 1990's - the South Central Los Angeles Crenshaw district. Though Zo wouldn't say that the place where he grew up was exactly safe, Crenshaw would make his hometown look like Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Police helicopters seemed to be whirring above constantly. The sounds of police and ambulance sirens where stubbornly persistent. In this place the friends who Zo c...

Zo got a lot of invitations to parties when he was a teenager, but, one of the craziest parties that he went to was one that was put together by the most idealistic of teenagers while his parents wasn't home. Get a bunch of raunchy kids over to his house unsupervised? What could possibly go wrong? The teens might have to dodge racist police, avoid nasty school bullies, and ignore outspoken neighbors, but why let a few obstacles rui...

Zo visits some friends in the Windy City and he gets an earful of family drama. He hears about the arguments the stress the abuse the infidelity. He hears about all of the many challenges that threaten to break up this otherwise loving family. the thing that holds them together is their Big Mama and her incredible Sunday dinners . . . but what would happen if anything ever happen to their Big Mama? Would there be anyone else in the...

Zo finds himself in a timeline where Tokyo was destroyed in WWIII and from its ashes rose a Neo Tokyo. It's a thriving civilization if not filled with chaos: teenage biker gangs, heavy police presence, an aggressive military complex, violent protests, and a group of people that the media are calling terrorists. Rumors abound that these terrorists are actually trying to prevent Japan from doing research on the most devastating weapo...

Zo, once again, finds himself in an alternate timeline. This particular time is not that dissimilar from his own time. The major difference being that it seems that everyone is a cyborg with most people having at least some form of complex computer or robotics grafted onto or within their biological bodies. The normalization of the cyborg gives rise to advanced cyborg bodies with the only organic element being their human brain. Ca...

Zo is flung into the inconceivably distant future where he finds himself in the creepiest small town that he's ever found himself in. The town is stalked by demons and mutants and folks who live here have to be on their guard as they move about. A rancher named Doris finds out that there's more to worry about than common giant slugs and werewolves, because, as Zo had heard it, she's been confronted by a Noble. A Noble is what peopl...

Zo examines the recent adaptation of a Stephen King novel: Edgar Wright's The Running Man (2025) starring Glen Powell and comparing this film to the novel as well as the much beloved 1987 adaptation of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Michael Glaser. What where the main differences? In what way was the new movie faithful to the novel? How do the different themes compare in these films and the nove...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Zo shares his Holiday activities and talks about a more recent Christmas film that he's seen for the first time. He's wanted to see this film for a while. It's a film about a violent Santa Clause. The name of this movie is Violent Night starring David Harbour, John Leguizamo and Leah Bradly and directed by Tommy Wikorla.

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Back Look Cinema: The P...

Zo finds himself within a snowflake. What strange magic that caused him to be inside the snowflake is unclear, but he is amazed with what he finds inside. There is an entire civilization with strange human-like creatures; there are even some who seem indistinguishable from human. There are mountains, trees, rivers and an actual town - a town called Whoville. What's even crazier is that they're preparing to celebrate Christmas. This...

Zo ends up in yet another galaxy far, far, far, far away. By his reconning he's at the furthest galaxy, yet. Here there are no galaxy spanning empires, but their is a planet with a failing atmosphere and a massive military. Instead of putting forward policies that would save the environment of his world President Skroob would rather steal the atmosphere from a planet with a weaker military. The power disparity between his planet an...

Zo returns to a far, far away galaxy. It's a galaxy with an abundance of life giving worlds with a multitude of strange sentient beings and cultures. It is also a place of strife and conflict and immersed in a war among the stars. There is an overarching government that was seized by a power hungry leader who granted himself the title of Emperor and ruled through oppression. The once great Galactic Republic of freedom had become a ...

Zo is joined by Jenn from My Streaming Bubble and Twin It to Win It podcasts to bear witness to an interstellar civil war. They've imbedded themselves with a faction that calls itself the Rebellion to Restore the Republic (also known by their opponents, the First Galactic Empire as "Rebel Scum"). They've traveled with the Rebellion from the permanent snowball of a planet known as Hoth to an undisclosed location with their fleet in ...

Zo was previously in a galaxy far, far away, where he witnessed fantastic events. He was then transported to another part of that same galaxy to witness those same events play out in almost the same way, but in an even weirder and goofy manor. He's now returned to the original part of that same galaxy which had somehow got even worse, weirder, goofier, and somehow sadder. It seemed like something that held enormous promise, but tur...

Zo had been transported to a galaxy far, far away and witnessed some fantastic events. The next thing you know he'd been transported again to another part of that same galaxy, later that same day. Except this time the space ships looked suspiciously like irons, toasters and cassette players. The people he met had even stranger names like Fluke Starbucker, Augie "Ben" Doggie, Princess Ann-Droid and Ham Salad. The galaxy is in peril ...