PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Written by Charles McKeown and Terry Gilliam
Directed by Terry Gilliam

I was obsessed with Terry Gilliam’s Brazil as a college undergrad. It was the first time I saw it, and right away, I found the imagery to be spellbinding. I’ve cooled immensely since that time on Gilliam’s work. I find most of it to be incredibly inventive yet frustratingly messy. Some comments he’s made have also caused me to see him as a filmmaker I’m not too keen on following. The first film of his I saw was Time Bandits when I was a kid, and it left an indelible mark on me. I remember seeing commercials for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and desperately wanting to see it. However, it was never an option when renting movies at the video rental store. Finally seeing the film, reminded me that, like all of Gilliam’s work, there is tremendous artistry here, but it is hindered by a lack of consistency.

Movie Review – The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn (1982)
Written by Peter S. Beagle
Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass

I grew up with a very inconsistent standard of what I could and could not watch because of my parents’ reactionary right-wing Christian beliefs. He-Man? It was not allowed because he called on the power of Greyskull, not Jesus. Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia? Perfectly fine because it was some sort of metaphor for Jesus. The Last Unicorn was one of those movies that would air around Easter or Thanksgiving on television. I would catch promos for it but was never allowed to watch because it was “of the Devil.” By the time my youngest siblings reached high school age, my once religiously dogmatic parents had abandoned these strictures but still kept them in their pockets as a cudgel to judge other people. So, after all these decades, I finally got to see The Last Unicorn, and it was, um…okay.

TV Review – The Bear Season Three

The Bear Season Three (2024)
Written by Christopher Storer, Matty Matheson, Courtney Storer, Will Guidara, Catherine Schetina, Joanna Calo, and Alex Russell
Directed by Christopher Storer, Duccio Fabbri, Ayo Edebiri, and Joanna Calo

Fairweather fans always seem to balk at season three. I remember when Mad Men Season Three premiered, and slowly but surely, people who had loved it for the first two years decided that elements of the show they had enjoyed were suddenly not good any longer. I found it to be one the best seasons in the run, finally allowing its characters to face the unwelcome truths in their lives. Lost Season Three is still maligned by so many when it has probably the best season finale of the entire show’s run. The best television moves at its own pace. You are either in rhythm with it, or you are not. In an era where plot and IP-driven television seem to dominate the landscape, it is refreshing to have something that chooses character over plot.

Solo Tabletop Actual Play – Kids on Bikes Solo Part Four

You can purchase Kids on Bikes here.

You can purchase the Plot Unfolding Machine here.

Read about our previous session here

Scene 10 – Rising Action 6 of 8 – Westgrove PD
Modified proposal: Make the location less favorable
Danger: Risk honor or reputation
Who: A political or reasonable person

Waldo is awakened in the early morning hours by Clem shouting at him. Reid is there too and also, Mayor Sartain. The Mayor looks irritated and starts screaming at Waldo.

“Where are the kids, Holman? Tell us, you fucking freak!” the Mayor rages. Reid steps between the Mayor and the bars of the cell.

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.

Patron Pick – Shanghai Noon

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

Shanghai Noon (2000)
Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar
Directed by Tom Dey

“The feeling of belatedness, of living after the gold rush, is as omnipresent as it is disavowed. Compare the fallow terrain of the current moment with the fecundity of previous periods and you will quickly be accused of ‘nostalgia’. But the reliance of current artists on styles that were established long ago suggests that the current moment is in the grip of a formal nostalgia.” – Mark Fisher

If you were raised in the US or live there, you are in a period of artistic decline. The big movie studios, always focused on the dollar, have genuinely given up on any pretense of their output having long-lasting cultural meaning. In the golden era of the studio, some executives and presidents understood they had to make crowd pleasers but always tried to push the medium forward. They would give money to some smaller pictures that ended up being the ones remembered all these decades ago.

Movie Review – The NeverEnding Story

The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Written by Wolfgang Petersen and Herman Weigel
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

This movie is a formative piece of many of my peers’ childhoods. I think I saw it twice as a kid. I remembered parts of it vividly, but The NeverEnding Story was never a picture I sought out or felt a strong connection with. That is odd because I was also a child who spent much time alone and read many books. You would think much of the story would resonate, but it did not. I think revisiting the movie as an adult made me appreciate it more, though I could see the weak points more vividly now, too.

Solo Tabletop RPG – Worldbuilding: Solo Microscope

You can purchase Microscope here.

Read our previous world building session with The Location Crafter here.

Microscope is not a solo tabletop RPG by design. As I didn’t come to ttrpgs until I was nearly thirty years old, I got tired with Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the current version at the time I started) and began seeking out other games. Microscope was one of the first I found – a game centered around collaboratively building a timeline. I’ve been lucky enough to play it a few times with other people, but now in my solo era I wanted to see if I could shape it to fit that. I also wondered how better to shape it for a superhero campaign as I am working on one. I found that with Signal Light, a superhero-specific Microscope add-on.

Movie Review – Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Written by John Milius and Oliver Stone
Directed by John Milius

In 1932, pulp writer Robert E. Howard began to pen the tales of Conan, a barbarian fighting in an ancient time of magic. He’d write 21 Conan stories before his tragic death by suicide at the age of 30. The trademark for the character passed through several hands over the following decades, leading to numerous reprints of the original stories and new authors adding to the mythos. Marvel Comics acquired the license in the 1970s, leading to Conan finding his widest audience yet. During much of this time, John Milius had been a fan of what he read. This would lead to a film adaptation that was undeniably made by people who loved the source material.

Movie Review – Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer (1981)
Written by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins
Directed by Matthew Robbins

Genre films have always existed in cinema, but it wasn’t until the breakout surprise success of Star Wars that these spectacles gained increased budgets and audiences. Dragonslayer was the second collaboration between Disney & Paramount Pictures. Their first was the Robert Altman-directed Popeye, a film that did not end up how the companies had hoped but which has found a robust cult following in the decades that ensued. The special effects are handled by Industrial Light and Magic, which marks the first use of these special effects outside of a Lucasfilm production. Derek Vanlit, the cinematographer responsible for 1979’s Alien, is behind the camera here, adding rich texture to the screen. The result was a film that was a fun fairy tale/adventure but failed to find an audience, likely because it was up against Raiders of the Lost Ark that summer.