Buttered Pop Culture

  Midnight At The Well Of Souls is, in my opinion, Jack L. Chalker's best book. That may not exactly be a controversial opinion, as most people probably don't remember him and those who do know him mainly from this novel. However, this isn't about stirring up shit on the internet, but about giving you my honest to goodness opinion. And even after all these years I still enjoy this book. First published in 1977, the book begins at an archaeological expedition on a distant planet. Not only does this sequence set up the main drama of the story, it also helps to establish the universe our characters live in. The book came out while the Cold War was still going strong, so of course the dystopian future we find ourselves in involves worlds that have become socialist nightmare. People have number designations instead of names. They are genetically programmed to do their jobs, and to be happy with that. There are individualist holdouts though, as we discover when we...

 I always thought Perry Mason was an odd hero for the 50's. Finding out the first book was published in 1933 made more sense, and the 30's were less conformist than the 50's. I struggled a bit with the t.v. show as a kid, which I saw in reruns as I was not born in time to see the original run in the late 50's and early 60's. The reason I struggled with it is the same as the reason I found him an odd hero for the law and order 50's. See, Perry Mason is a man who is dedicated to justice, but not strictly to the law. In fact he seems more than willing to bend and stretch the law in pursuit of justice. In fact he seems to get pleasure from doing so, even when not strictly necessary, if it will allow him to spring a trap on the officers of the law. He is always the smartest person in the room, 3 steps ahead of everyone else. This also stands in contrast to the more common everyman hero of the era, who instead of intellectual superiority holds an overabundance of ...

 I decided up front that I am going to start and end this post by saying something nice about this show, because I will spend the rest of the time trashing it. Okay, something nice, something nice... Kat Dennings has great tits. She actually mentions the fact a lot in the course of the show. Okay, I'm not being completely fair. The premise of the show isn't bad. Former rich girl falls on hard times, moves in with girl from the wrong side of the tracks and tries to help her make her dream come true. Each episode ends with how much closer to (or sometimes further away from) their goal they have made it. But in execution it all falls apart. This show should have been an easy sell for me, as I have a big crush on Kat Dennings, and have had a crush on Jennifer Coolidge since American Pie. I like dirty jokes. I am a fan of Garret Morris. But this show goes a little too far in the dirty joke department for me, at least for a broadcast prime time show. Put that bullshit on cable. I...

Blacula is better than any movie with a name that dumb has a right to be. The name is sort of a blessing and a curse. I think a lot of people watch the movie because of the dumb name. I think maybe there are some who refuse to watch it because of the dumb name. It was obviously made with the intention of being a blaxploitation Dracula, but it is better than that idea would make you think it is. It has a story that is interesting, good actors, and special effects that are charming in their cheesiness. The look of the movie seems to owe a lot to the Hammer films that were popular at the time. There is one sort of surprising element that may have actually led to the movie's popularity with general (read white) audiences. Blacula begins in the late 1700's with a meeting between an African prince and the infamous Count Dracula. The prince wants help to stop the slave trade, but Dracula digs the idea of people as property. He is, after all, a monster. In fact he decides he'd like...

 It's almost impossible not to compare Near Dark with The Lost Boys. Both vampire movies came out in 1987. They both tell the story of a young man who gets entangled with a group of vampires because of his romantic interest in a female of the "pack". The young men both come from a single parent family unit and have a younger sibling intent on saving them. One movie has Corey Feldman in a role, the other was produced by Edward S. Feldman (though apparently the two are not related). There are siblings on the two though, as Joshua John Miller who plays Homer in Near dark is brothers with Jason Patric of The Lost Boys. But there are big differences, too. For starters, while both have achieved a kind of cult status over the years, The Lost Boys was very successful at the time of it's release while Near Dark was less well known and less celebrated. The Lost Boys is more traditional in it's portrayal of vampires, with the added twist of making them sort of a juvenile del...

 Star Trek novels often run into the same issue as Marvel movies. They often take place between installments of shows or movie franchises, so these big important things happen only to never be spoken of again. This book has some of that. It also tries to develop a backstory for a character introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, and chose to give one that makes little sense. The half Romulan, half Vulcan Saavik was of course going to get stories focused on her. But this book sets her story right after Star Trek The Motion Picture, where Spock discovers her on a Romulan planet during an illegal Vulcan rescue mission. She is feral and speaks in a pidgin language. And her presence on this world is tied to a Romulan plot to start a war and wipe out the Federation. The book states there are 6 years between the events of The Motion Picture and it's story. Which means that if the events of WOK take place immediately after, which is not the sense given, they are 6 years (or more) as...

 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang should have been a bigger movie.But the studio apparently did not have faith in it. And it doesn't take much imagination to see why, if one is being honest. Robert Downey Jr. was trying to make a comeback after years of substance abuse and arrests. Both co-star Val Kilmer and writer/director Shane Black were currently in a bit of a slump. And it's kind of a weird flick. It shares some dialogue DNA with Tarantino's movies, the plot is based on old noir pulp detective stories, it has hijinks that would not feel out of place in a t.v. sitcom were they not so dark, and a couple of zany sight gags that feel like they're right out a Leslie Nielsen Naked Gun movie. Robert Downey Jr's character narrates the movie, and in this capacity mentions he is in a movie several times. The movie is set at Christmas time, but this has nothing to do with the story, and the only impact on the movie is the occasional Santa hat worn by someone on-screen. When I conside...