Rich Heldenfels, Pop Culture Wanderer

This is a long catch-up on movies I've watched since late June. As you can see, the emphasis has been on commercial fare but that's what has drawn me to theaters. These are arranged mainly in reverse chronological order, from "Angel Has Fallen" back to "Spider-Man: Far From Home." Angel Has Fallen continues the adventures of president-saving Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), previously seen in "Olympus Has Fallen" and "London Has Fallen." This time around, Banning is accused of masterminding a massive attack on the president (Morgan Freeman); of course, he is being framed, and the framer is both clear early in the movie and given away in "Angel" trailers. It's up to Mike, then, to clear his name and to keep the president from further harm -- with help from his estranged father (Nick Nolte, who may be the best thing in the movie). There are fights, shootouts and explosions, almost all of them ridicu...

I've carried the above book around for decades. Used to have more MAD books but held onto just one as a memory. And so much of MAD is in my memory: Don Martin cartoons, Mort Drucker drawings, 43-man squamish, "My Fair Ad-Man," Things We'd Like to See, Spy vs, Spy, mockery of all sorts from the usual gang of idiots. I even read some of the old MAD comic books, which my piano teacher had for students to read while we were waiting -- along with some of the EC horror comics which preceded MAD. In college, a student I knew was the son of a MAD artist. Even as I moved on to other forms of humor, notably the National Lampoon and the satire of Pogo, MAD remained a touchstone. Now, we are told, MAD as we knew it is done   ending the development of original content for the magazine, focusing instead on republication of old stories along with some special issues.I can't say this is a loss to today's world, since I can't remember the last time I looked at an issu...

I have been reading Richard Ben Cramer's 1993 book "What It Takes: The Way to the White House" a dazzling, in-depth look at the 1988 presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Richard Gephardt, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart -- and Joe Biden. Although much of its treatment of politics and technology is outdated, its sense of what it takes to win an election. I was drawn to it by Matt Bai's book about Hart, but the strongest echoes in it for today are of Biden -- a man who 30 years ago was warned about habits that he still has. For example, advisers warned him " this was the big leagues. They’d try to kill him, and Joe would have to watch every move. “Stuff you been saying ... won’t wash ... stuff about your history ... it’s all going to come out. ... stuff you said, ten years ago ... everything comes out.” Indeed, the book notes his gaffes then, and they have never stopped. Or this:  When a woman in Iowa, sitting at a table at a meeting, had her ba...

I loved this in its original form and generally am not fond of technical revamps of movies and shows. Still, this one has me curious -- and may justify replacing my beloved old DVD set. The official word: HBO will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission moon landing with a special encore presentation of the Emmy®-winning 1998 miniseries FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. On Monday, July 15, all 12 digitally remastered episodes will launch on HBO GO, HBO NOW and HBO On Demand. On Saturday, July 20, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission moon landing, HBO2 will air a marathon of all 12 episodes, starting at 8:45 a.m. (ET/PT). To celebrate the anniversary, the standard definition visual effects have been replaced with brand-new CG effects that are based on reference models from NASA. In addition, an HD BluRay edition, set for release July 16, will feature remixed audio in Dolby ATMOS, as well as an exclusive “Inside the Remastering” featurette, which delves into t...

I still cruise the television offerings, though sometimes not for long. "Blood and Treasure," the CBS summer series, wasn't even worth finishing the first episode, a clumsily forced attempt at clever action. I managed to make it through one episode of Spectrum's "L.A.'s Finest," a gender-reversed visit to the "Bad Boys" formula, but one was enough; again, everything seemed to have been borrowed elsewhere, and not very well. I've seen a little more of the new Netflix-backed season of "Designated Survivor" ; it seems to be trying to be less of a thriller and more of a political tale (including via real-people documentary footage) but it's not very good at it -- at times a blatant reworking of things "The West Wing" did better. And I can say that from current memory, since I've been binge-watching "West Wing," with six seasons done and the seventh to go. The original flaws are still there -- the unk...

Notes from some recent screen adventures ... Shaft. Not only do I remember seeing and liking the original Richard Roundtree "Shaft" in college when it was new, I also saw Roundtree performing in a Virginia dinner theater several years later. (He was good, though sketchy about his lines, and not helped by his co-star, better known as a TV news anchor.) I have no real memory of the two Roundtree sequels, or of the '70s TV series, except that Roundtree as always was cool. The Samuel L. Jackson "Shaft" sticks in memory for its "what's my name" scene, Busta Rhymes's yelling "Shaft" and having one of the great screen villains, Peoples Hernandez, played by Jeffrey Wright. So I had ample reason to see the new, three-generation "Shaft" with Roundtree, Jackson and Jessie Usher ("Survivor's Remorse"). It's not great, there are significant plot holes (and one huge early clue), but it passed the time well enough, es...

As you know, I write a question-and-answer column about entertainment which runs in newspapers around the country. And some time back I received a letter asking this: I know it is a delicate question to be asked these days, but one that I'd like to have answered. Is there are regulation out there that says gays must be represented on television shows? I quit watching three shows because they made me sick seeing gay men dating, kissing, etx. At first I decided not to answer the question, either directly (as I sometimes do) or in my column. I did not want to give this person a voice. But, as time passed, it seemed more appropriate to answer it, especially considering the backlash against the children's show "Arthur" over its inclusion of a gay couple, and over Gillette having a young transgender man in an ad.  I may also have gone back to it because of Pride Month. After all, in recent days there have been even more issues in that time: the White House bannin...

The following contains some spoilers from tonight's "Big Bang Theory" series finale. Updated with a closing note about "Young Sheldon's" season finale. One of the comforting things about "The Big Bang Theory" is that, even when characters misbehave (Sheldon specifically), there was an underlying sweetness to how things played out. Of course, there was pain -- Sheldon again, Howard and women, Leonard's relationship with his mother, Stuart's general misery, Penny's sorrow over her acting career -- but there was also an assumption that these are all basically good people and that life would work out in some way. And so it has: Howard's finding Bernadette, Leonard finally working toward some affection with his mom, Stuart finding Denise, Penny getting a new career. And what, then, of Sheldon? That was the crux of the series finale, which began with everyone waiting to see if Sheldon and Amy would win the Nobel Prize, and then led ...