1990s – Page 3 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Sátántangó

Sátántangó (1994)
Written by Béla Tarr and László Krasznahorkai
Directed by Béla Tarr

Seven hours and thirty minutes. That’s what will stand out for most people when they learn about Sátántangó. That is certainly something that makes it unlike most films. A runtime that long feels overwhelming, and that’s the reason Béla Tarr made this movie. Based on the novel of the same name, the film’s structure is a piece of wonder modeled after the actual tango dance. Broken into twelve parts, the story does not move chronologically and follows the steps of the tango – six steps forward, six steps back. It’s a daunting cinematic challenge, but I found it a very fulfilling experience and felt things I never had before about films.

Comic Book Review – X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Omnibus Volume One

X-Men by Chris Claremont & Jim Lee Omnibus Volume One (2021)
Reprints Uncanny X-Men #244-269, X-Men Annual #13, and Classic X-Men #39
Written by Chris Claremont and Ann Nocenti
Art by Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Rick Leonardi, Kieron Dwyer, Bill Jaaska, Whilce Portacio, Mike Collins, Dan Green, Steve Leialoha, Kent Williams, Scott Williams, Josef Rubenstein, and Art Thibert

Following the conclusion of Inferno, Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men entered a strange period. He would wrap up the Australia-era team only to disband the X-Men. Yet the comic would continue. Instead of team-centered stories, the book became a rotating anthology about mutants who had been or were associated with the X-Men. There wasn’t a team officially bearing that name for nearly a year, but the stories continued. What was happening was a showdown between Claremont and new line editor Bob Harras.

PopCult Podcast – The Crow/Opening Night

We go retro this episode to look at two old releases. The first is a 90s Goth cult classic that has recently been remade. The second is a premier performance from the late, great Gena Rowlands.

Comic Book Review – Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volumes Five and Six

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Five (2021)
Reprints Detective Comics #612-614, 616-621 and Annual #3
Written by Alan Grant and Archie Goodwin
Art by Norm Breyfogle and Dan Jurgens

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Six (2022)
Reprints Detective Comics #622-633
Written by John Ostrander, Marv Wolfman, Bill Finger, Mike Friedrich, Alan Grant, and Peter Milligan
Art by Flint Henry, Mike McKone, Jim Aparo, Bob Kane, Bob Brown, Norm Breyfogle, and Tom Mandrake

We see a change of hands as we finish this round of post-Crisis Batman reviews. These issues will mark the conclusion of Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle’s run in Detective, as they were handed the reins of the Batman title. I would say these are not the duo’s best work. We get several one-shot stories before a dramatic conclusion that pushes Tim Drake into his next steps of becoming Robin.

TV Review – Northern Exposure Season Three

Northern Exposure Season Three (1991-92)
Written by Martin Sage, Sybill Adelman, Ellen Herman, Robin Green, Stuart Stevens, Henry Bromell, Dennis Koenig, Jordan Budde, Craig Volk, Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider, Jeff Melvoin, David Assael, Mitchell Burgess, Kate Boutilier, Jeffrey Vlaming
Directed by Nick Marck, Bill D’Elia, Miles Watkins, Jim Hayman, David Carson, Sandy Smolan, Michael Katleman, Jack Bender, Michael Fresco, Lee Shallat, Dean Parisot, Rob Thompson, Matthew Nodella, Steve Robman, Tom Moore

This was the season where the awards started coming in for Northern Exposure. It was also the first season to have a complete order, twenty-two episodes. The budget has been increased, and the amount of care put into many of these episodes approaches cinematic levels. I had to check what year these episodes came out, 1991-92, but they feel more complex than something you would expect from CBS then. It’s become clear to me how this show was one of the experimental US programs of the 1990s that paved the way for the prestige TV of the cable era.

Comic Book Review – Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying & The Caped Crusader Volume Three

Batman: A Death in the Family (2011) – “A Lonely Place of Dying”
Reprints Batman #440-442 and New Titans #60-61
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art by Jim Aparo, George Perez, and Tom Grummet

Batman: The Caped Crusader Volume Three (2019)
Reprints Batman #445-454, Detective Comics #615, and Batman Annual #14
Written by Marv Wolfman, Alan Grant, Andrew Helfer, and Peter Milligan
Art by Jim Aparo, Norm Breyfogle, M.D. Bright, Chris Sprouse, and Kieron Dwyer

In November 1988, Jason Todd, the second young person to hold the title of Robin, was murdered by the Joker in the pages of Batman. In March of that same year, The Joker shot & paralyzed Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and kidnapped & tortured her father in the one-shot graphic novel The Killing Joke. Things had taken a dark turn for Batman. Tim Burton’s 1989 feature film furthered that with a Gothic, haunting version of the character and his world.

Movie Review – Ernest in the Army

Ernest in the Army (1998)
Written by John Cherry, Jeffrey Pillars, and Joseph Dattorre
Directed by John Cherry

Just less than two years after Ernest in the Army’s release direct-to-video, Jim Varney passed away from lung cancer at his home in White House, Tennessee. He recorded dialogue for Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire and played a small role in a Billy Bob Thornton film. His career as Ernest ended in a downturn. Varney consistently adhered to the transparency that they made these movies because they made money. There was never a faux sense of artistry. Varney also seemed to understand how important characters like Ernest were for kids. That makes the previous film, Ernest Goes to Africa, and this disappointment feels so out of place in the franchise.

Movie Review – Ernest Goes to Africa

Ernest Goes to Africa (1997)
Written and directed by John Cherry

The Ernest franchise felt like it was running on fumes at this point. It had been ten years since Ernest Goes to Camp. Touchstone/Disney were out of the picture. The films were no longer being released theatrical, going straight to video. Budgets were meager. The ideas were also drying up. When this film came out, I was sixteen, and I don’t have any vivid memory of watching it. Our family likely rented it for the younger siblings, and I was probably present, but I remembered very little of it. John Cherry was writing & directing solo now. Film production had gone from Tennessee to Vancouver and South Africa for these final two pictures.

Movie Review – Slam Dunk Ernest

Slam Dunk Ernest (1995)
Written by John Cherry and Daniel Butler
Directed by John Cherry

The final three Ernest films were direct-to-video releases, making it very clear that the salad days of Disney financing were long gone. It wasn’t a terrible move. As we can see today, theatrical release is hardly the primary way people engage with media. What would Ernest have been like in the streaming age? He’d likely end up on some platform like Pureflix, especially looking at these final three. If, in watching these movies, you think they resemble television far more, you wouldn’t be wrong. I can easily see these being cut way down and being episodes of a low-budget streaming series.

Comic Book Review – Batman: The Dark Knight Volume Four & The Caped Crusader Volume Two

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Four (2021)
Reprints Detective Comics #601-611 and Annual #2
Written by Alan Grant, Brian Augustyn, and Mark Waid
Art by Norm Breyfogle and Val Semeiks

Batman: The Caped Crusader Volume Two (2019)
Reprints Batman #432-439, 443-444 and Annual #13
Written by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, James Owsley (Christopher Priest), and Kevin Dooley
Art by Jim Aparo, Pat Broderick, Michael Bair, and Malcolm Jones III

Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle continued their run on Detective Comics with a series of multi-part stories. In The Dark Knight Detective Volume Four, we get four plus a novel-length annual. This creative duo was a case of being in the right place at the right time on top of being immensely talented. They were working on Detective as Tim Burton’s Batman was released. Sales on the title went from 75,000 a month to 650,000 with that film’s debut. Their success on Detective would follow them to the Batman title for a couple years and even garner a spin-off ongoing with Batman: The Shadow of the Bat in 1992. Eventually, we’ll get to that one.