PopCult Reviews

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.

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.

PopCult Podcast – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes/Happer’s Comet

Two very different films in runtime, budget, scale, and content are featured in this episode. From a post-human Earth to a ghostly night in Long Island.

Solo Tabletop Actual Play – Kids on Bikes Solo Part Three

You can purchase Kids on Bikes here.

You can purchase the Plot Unfolding Machine here.

Read our previous session here

Scene 4 – Rising Action 1 of 8 – Waldo’s House

Modified proposal: Add some trouble or bad news
Oracle question: Is this trouble a person? No, not yet.
Danger: Expose one weakness

Waldo and Bopper pull into the driveway. Waldo immediately notices his front door is open.

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.

Solo Tabletop RPG – Worldbuilding: The Location Crafter Part Two

You can purchase The Location Crafter here.

Read my brainstorming session in our first part here.

The Location Crafter is another solo play tool created by Tana Pigeon, designer of the Mythic GM Emulator. This module is intended to solve a problem of solo play – how to keep the fun of being surprised during exploration in a way that mimics traditional tabletop roleplay rather than Choose Your Own Adventure. In this way, you can have a framework but not feel like the story is on rails.

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.

PopCult Podcast – In a Violent Age/The Bikeriders

One film deconstructs the tropes of the lakeside slasher genre of horror. The other follows the rise & fall of a motorcycle club in the 1960s/70s US Midwest.