PopCult Reviews

TV Review – Deadwood: The Movie

Deadwood: The Movie (2019)
Written by David Milch
Directed by Daniel Minahan

It wasn’t the ending we would have liked, but we never believed there would be an ending. That’s how I feel about Deadwood: The Movie. The original idea was to do a series of made-for-HBO films that brought a satisfying conclusion to the series. Money and life saw to that not happening. The film was made just in the nick of time, I suppose. Shortly before he began work on the movie’s script, series creator & showrunner David Milch was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He currently resides in an assisted-living facility as the disease has no cure and weakens a person’s ability to function daily. Milch’s gift to us as he undergoes this tragic transformation is a final glimpse at Deadwood and the characters we grew to love over three seasons. It’s a spotty, often messily structured film, but it is a way to say goodbye.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Supersworn Part Two

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Supersworn Pre-Alpha
Designed & Written by Ben Adams

You can check out this game and many other hacks of Ironsworn here.
Read part one of our Supersworn campaign.

Before we jump into the game, I’d like to review more of how I built my character of Slingshot. In Supersworn, you switch out your spaceship for your headquarters. As for my other Assets, I chose Tendrils as it was the very “slingin'” power I had in mind for this blatant Spider-Man knockoff. Starting out, Tendrils can provide +1 if used in a non-combat Move, and they add another Momentum to whatever the specific Move offers typically. I chose Journalist to go with Christopher Kelly’s background as a collegiate reporter, which gives me +1 to any Gather Information or Compel moves in the context of a story I’m working on. Finally, I picked Loyalist, which lets me add +1 when I Aid an Ally (in a solo instance, this would be friendly NPCs). On a strong hit with a match, this Asset lets me mark my Bonds track.

Comic Book Review – New Gods by Jack Kirby

New Gods by Jack Kirby (2018)
Reprints New Gods #1-11, New Gods reprint series excerpts, DC Graphic Novel #4: The Hunger Dogs, and excerpts from Who’s Who
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, Vince Colletta, D. Bruce Berry, Don Heck, and Greg Theakston

Did DC truly understand what Jack Kirby had given them in his Fourth World concept? Do they realize it yet, or will they just never get it? While Jimmy Olsen was the foot in the door, once Kirby got his core books off the ground, he unleashed a reinvention of what comics could be. New Gods is a comic that doesn’t always have to be about its central characters in the present day. During this year-long run, Kirby would go back in time and tell us stories from these characters’ pasts or stories that gave us information they were not privy to. The result is a sprawling synthesis of Biblical storytelling and modern pop art sensibilities. This is the kind of comic book that only a person like Jack Kirby could have conjured up, a vast cosmic ocean emerging from the mind of a true artistic visionary.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Be Like a Crow

Be Like a Crow (Critical Kit)
Designed & Written by Tim Roberts

You can purchase this game here.

This was the first tabletop rpg I have been approached to review by the company that publishes it. That made me feel quite good, and I hope I do justice for every game I review here. If you’re a regular reader of these solo TTRPG reviews, you know I was a newcomer to these games circa 2011. After being very enthused by the gaming scene for a few years, I fell out of love with it due to the reasons many hobbies go sour for people these days. However, this year’s discovery of the plethora of solo games and gaming tools has reinvigorated my joy. One thing to note is that my preference as I perused the ttrpgs back during my first round with them was that I just really wasn’t an Old School Renaissance guy and, in fact, preferred what was sometimes referred to as “story games,” i.e., games that are fiction first rather than crunchy with stats or heavily dependent on mapping and measurement. As a result, I wasn’t exposed to certain kinds of games, and I especially have never played a hex crawl before.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible III

Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and J. J. Abrams
Directed by J.J. Abrams

For a brief shining moment in 2002, we could have had David Fincher directing a Mission: Impossible movie. But that didn’t happen, and there would be a sequel. As cheesy & silly as Mission: Impossible 2 was, it was the second highest-grossing movie of 2000, just behind How The Grinch Stole Christmas, which meant we would be getting more of them. Joe Carnahan (Narc, The A-Team) was working in pre-production on the project, and the film was reportedly going to feature Kenneth Branagh as a Timothy McVeigh-styled villain with Carrie-Anne Moss and Scarlett Johansson starring in supporting roles. But after a conflict over the film’s tone, Carnahan left, which sent Tom Cruise to the phone to call J.J. Abrams. Due to scheduling delays, many of the film’s actors left the project, which led to recasting. Eventually, all the pieces came together, and a new Mission: Impossible came to the big screens with a whole different tone & style than the previous two.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible 2

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Written by Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga, and Robert Towne
Directed by John Woo

Is bland & formulaic better than something bizarre & bad? I’m unsure which is the right choice, but I know that Mission: Impossible 2 (of MI 2) is very much the latter. Yet, it’s not the sort of bad that makes watching the film unenjoyable. Unlike some of the later MI pictures, I was glued to the screen for the entirety of this movie. This is mainly due to the sheer 2000s-ness of this one. John Woo is at peak Woo-ocity as well, including his iconic drama doves, one of which almost gives away Ethan Hunt’s position in a crucial scene. To understand MI2 is to remember that this franchise wasn’t quite sure what it would be. I have to hand it to the MI series that, for the longest time, it refrained from dedicating itself to one director or one style, and each picture really did feel like that filmmaker’s take on the concept.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible (1996)
Written by David Koepp, Robert Towne, and Steven Zallizan
Directed by Brian De Palma

There is a formula. At the time of this writing, I have watched five of the six currently released Mission Impossible films, and there is most definitely a list of things that have become expected for nearly every installment. That said, each film (up to Rogue Nation) has its own director and a distinct style, which sets it apart from much of the copy/paste nature of its contemporaries, like Marvel movies, where the directors are made to suppress their style to be, well, bland, I suppose. I don’t think the MI films are a boon to cinema, but they do feel like something completely different from what we are served today.

PopCult Podcast – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret/The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

It’s all about the girls in book adaptations this week’s episode. One is a beloved coming of age novel that has been the subject of much censorship since it was published over 50 years ago. The other is a remix of a classic horror novel set in America and about the scourge of death in poor communities.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Supersworn Part One

If you enjoy the reviews, podcasts, and other content we make here at PopCult Reviews please consider sending a tip of appreciation through our Ko-Fi. Thanks!

Supersworn Pre-Alpha
Designed & Written by Ben Adams
You can check out this game and many other hacks of Ironsworn here.

Stepping away from my regular routine with these solo tabletop RPGs, I will be playing with a very preliminary but still well-developed fan hack of Ironsworn: Starforged that is superhero themed. I previously reviewed and played with Ironsworn and Starforged; however, superhero tropes are in my wheelhouse more than fantasy ones, so I expect this to go even smoother than those. Supersworn takes these systems and makes some tweaks so a player can be a superhero in a world similar to those of DC, Marvel, or even a universe with a wildly different take on capes.

My Favorite Films with a Fireworks Scene

Blow Out (1981)
Written & Directed by Brian De Palma

It’s fireworks season in America now, as millions of people celebrate their “independence” by igniting explosives and permanently wounding themselves because they don’t know how to handle fireworks. In the spirit of that, I am sharing my favorite films with fireworks scenes related to the plot. I have provided the actual fireworks scene when available for each film, but I provide a trailer if that particular moment wasn’t clipped on YouTube.