PopCult Reviews

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.

Comic Book Review – Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby (2019)
Reprints Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133-139, 141-148
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta, Mike Royer, Al Plastino, and Murphy Anderson

You should have dignity in whatever work you do. Jack “The King” Kirby had that self-respect, and in 1970, when he was presented with a less than favorable new contract by Marvel, the already legendary artist said, “No thanks.” Kirby had been a loyal company man despite being shit on constantly by the likes of Stan Lee. He was held back creatively in favor of more “marketable” ideas and art. So, with limited options, Kirby went to DC Comics and, over almost two years, negotiated a deal he could live with. Part of this deal was the development of a line of titles under the banner of “The Fourth World.” This new cosmic saga would be composed of three ongoing books: New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle, with the Jimmy Olsen ongoing thrown in as well.

July 2023 Posting Schedule

Film Series

July 3rd thru 14th – The Mission Impossible Series

Mission Impossible, Mission Impossible 2, Mission Impossible III, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Mission Impossible: Fallout

July 17th thru 31st – Angry Cinema

Weekend (1967), Watermelon Man, Hi, Mom!, Walker, Lady Vengeance, Observe and Report, and Norte: The End of History

May/June 2023 Digest

Features
[Patron Pick] – The Daytrippers
[Patron Pick] – Kicking & Screaming
[Patron Pick] – Oz the Great and Powerful
[Patron Pick] – Holes
Book Update – May/June
My Favorite TV Season Finales
My Favorite TV Series That Remind Me Of I Think You Should Leave

Movie Review – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Written by George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson, and David Koepp
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Once upon a time, there was a man named Indiana Jones. He had many adventures in his day. Then one day, he stopped. That would have been a perfect place to end things. Indy rides off into the sunset with his friends as the end credits of The Last Crusade roll across the screen. For nineteen years, it was the end. In the background, treatments, and drafts of scripts were hammered out as the creatives and executives hemmed and hawed over how much more money they could squeeze out of this one. I was okay with no Indiana Jones movies in the 1990s and most of the 2000s. We didn’t need any more stories anymore because we could always revisit the ones we had. But more was required by the money machine. So we got Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a medley of scenes from many scripts that are made worse by the development of computer-generated imagery. Poor Indy was forced to put the hat back on and dance for the audience again.

Book Update – May/June 2023

Runaway: Stories by Alice Munro

May & June have been my two favorite reading months this year. It’s one of those rare times when I didn’t read anything I disliked. As you’ll see in one review, my expectations for a new book didn’t pay off, but I still didn’t think the book wasn’t worth reading. May started with my first read ever of the fantastic Canadian author Alice Munro. Very much in the vein of your classic literary short stories, Munro offers up stories that spotlight crucial moments in everyday people’s lives, women exclusively. Spanning the decades, these stories all deal with choices these women made at some point, often affected by circumstances that shaped them going forward.

Movie Review – Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
Written by Jeffrey Boam, George Lucas, and Menno Meyjes
Directed by Steven Spielberg

The idea had been to make three movies from the start. After Temple of Doom was less successful than Raiders of the Lost Ark critically, there was some hesitancy about continuing. Steven Spielberg hadn’t felt as committed as he would have liked on Temple, the subject matter didn’t interest him, and the material was far darker than he would have liked. However, the director believed they could correct the course and make something better. Eschewing directorial gigs on Big and Rain Man, Spielberg focused on developing the third Indy film into something special.

Movie Review – Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984)
Written by George Lucas, Willard Huyck, and Gloria Katz
Directed by Steven Spielberg

I did a lot of imaginative play as a kid, as do most kids. I’m about to sound like an old man, but this was a time when television was the biggest distractor in the house, and without cable, it wasn’t much of one. The movies and shows I would watch would inspire the play I did, often by myself or maybe with a younger sibling, if I could convince them to play along. I became a Ghostbuster using a backpack, yarn, a paper towel tube, and a shoebox. I was a Ninja turtle using the same backpack for a shell, a wrapping paper tube, and a piece of cloth with eye holes cut out. Indiana Jones was as simple as a cowboy hat and a jump rope.

Patron Pick – Oz the Great and Powerful

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.

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Written by Sam Raimi, Mitchell Kapner, and David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Sam Raimi

The Wizard of Oz is the most significant notable American fairy tale. The others we typically think of are imports from Europe and folktales translated from their African roots into a new land in the case of the American South. It began in 1900 as the work of writer and theatrical producer L. Frank Baum. Combining fragments of his life experiences, Baum constructed a story about a little girl from Kansas and her adventures in the strange land of Oz. Two years after the book publication, Baum staged a live theatrical performance, so it is clear his intent was that this would always be a living story, not simply a book to be read but to be performed.

PopCult Podcast – Showing Up/Sleepless in Seattle

From the present, we have a film about a struggling artist trying to determine if she has anything of value to say and where she fits in with the larger art community. From the past, it’s a film about falling in love but with some heavily problematic messages and weird stalker-ish, parasocial behavior.