PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Ernest Saves Christmas

Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Written by B. Kline and Ed Turner
Directed by John Cherry

Ernest made his film debut in Goes to Camp in the summer of 1987. By Christmas 1988, his second feature was in theaters. Ernest Saves Christmas is my personal favorite of the series. I think it understands some things about Ernest that many other films, especially the post-Touchstone movies, don’t seem to understand. Between these two films, we saw the airing of Hey Vern, It’s Ernest, a CBS Saturday morning kids show in the vein of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Varney played Ernest plus other characters, the cameraman as Vern was continued, and Chuck & Bobby were brought into the canon. This has all the elements you expect, which is why I was surprised as I watched the rest of the franchise and realized certain things like this is the only film Vern appears in.

July 2024 Posting Schedule

Film Series

[Ernest Saves the Summer – July 1 thru 18]
Dr Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam, Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, Ernest Scared Stupid, Ernest Rides Again, Ernest Goes to School, Slam Dunk Ernest, Ernest Goes to Africa, Ernest in the Army

Movie Review – Ernest Goes to Camp

Ernest Goes to Camp (1987)
Written by John R. Cherry III and Coke Sams
Directed by John R. Cherry III

While his first film appearance was a cameo in our previously reviewed film, Ernest made his starring debut in this film. The story goes that in the mid-1980s, Disney took part in a parade held for the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. Studio executives Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg attended and noted that this Ernest person received louder applause than Mickey Mouse. The audience started yelling, “Hey Vern,” while the Disney dudes had no idea what that was about. They contacted John Cherry and Jim Varney and decided they would finance an Ernest feature film. It wasn’t precisely what Cherry had wanted as Disney nixed certain elements, mainly Ernest speaking directly to the camera when he talks to Vern.

Movie Review – Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam

Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam (1985)
Written by John Cherry and Coke Sams
Directed by John Cherry

Jim Varney had made a solid go of it in Los Angeles. He’d been a regular & recurring cast member on multiple nationally broadcast shows by the end of the 1970s. A cast member of Johnny Cash & Friends, a recurring role as a sleazy used car salesman on Norman Lear’s Fernwood2Nite, and even in the cast of the notorious Pink Lady and Jeff. He was married to Jacqui, his first wife, and was helping to raise her two sons. But things weren’t going well in L.A., so Varney returned to his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. His big dream was to star on Broadway, which was a challenging goal.

May/June 2024 Digest

Features
Patron Pick – Men in Black II [Bekah]
Patron Pick – Ernest Goes to Jail [Matt]
Patron Pick – Tell It To The Bees [Bekah]
Patron Pick – Hack Your Health [Matt]
Book Update – May/June

TV Review – Foundation Season Two

Foundation Season Two (2023)
Written by David S. Goyer, Jane Espenson, Leigh Dana Jackson, Joelle Garfinkel, Eric Carrasco, David Kob, Liz Phang, Addie Manis, and Bob Oltra
Directed by Alex Graves, David S. Goyer, Mark Tonderai, and Roxann Dawson

I was a big fan of the first season of Foundation, but I saw that several critics and viewers found its structure confusing. There are definitely some time jumps that allow many changes to happen. I started to see the show as a mix of serialized storytelling and anthology. Each season would have some cast that would carry over because of cryosleep or cloning. The rest of the cast would rotate out at the end of each season as we jumped centuries ahead to see the Empire’s decline and the Foundation’s rise. Apparently, people liked season two even more, so we’ll have a third coming in the next few years. This second season focused on showing how flawed systems are where one figurehead is expected to lead millions or billions, or in the case of one locale, a few dozen.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Mothership 1e Part Four

You can purchase the Mothership 1e Core Set here.
You can purchase Dead Planet here.
You can read the rules for solo and wardenless play in Mothership 1e here.

Read the previous chapter here

Scene 1 – Starting in the Engines – Chaos Factor: 8

Jerome makes the decision to run as the creature’s snapping mandibles float closer

(Speed check – 35 vs. 32 – Success)

Turning tail, Jerome runs back out to the decimated cryochamber. He has to grab the locked military case, get to the boarding skiff, and return to the patrol ship. Navarro has to answer their questions. She has to explain this…this insanity.

Book Update – May/June 2024

A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews

Without a doubt, this was the best thing I read over these last two months. I found a scanned PDF of the Salon.Com Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Authors online. That book played a pivotal role in shaping my reading as an undergrad. It was published in 2000 and has never been updated, providing a snapshot of what was seen as prominent contemporary lit circa the turn of the century. Crews has a write-up in that book where his work is compared with Kafkas and described as presenting a parade of social misfits against a Gothic Southern backdrop. That explains A Feast of Snakes perfectly.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Sundered Isles Part Five

You can purchase Sundered Isles here.
You can purchase Starforged here.
You can purchase Sea of Sands here.

Read Jadyn’s previous chapter here

Interlude – Six Months Ago

A ship from the House Linnaeus fleet emerges from folded space, but something is amiss. Large sections of the vessel have been replaced with jagged, black metal. The ship is in Audun’s orbit. Inside the command bridge, a startling sight awaits. The crew members have undergone a bizarre transformation, with metal patches now adorning their once-fleshly bodies. A spider-like construct skitters across the ground, climbing onto the shoulders of a man who stands out from the rest. His artificial nature is evident, his flawless skin a telltale sign.

Patron Pick – Hack Your Health

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 Matt Harris.

Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut (2024)
Directed by Anjali Nayar

In an ongoing battle to make me watch the oddest things we have, Hack Your Health is a Netflix documentary about the digestive system and its connection to the body. The educational film is hosted by Dr. Giulia Enders, MD, a German scientist studying digestive health and working towards her doctorate in gastroenterology. Enders and other talking heads in fields like neuropsychology, epidemiology, neuroscience, and microbiology share their perspective on how our diets affect our digestion, which has a domino effect on the rest of our health. There are some wild takes here coming after a first half that feels like basic elementary school science.