Archive for November, 2003
21 items.
It should be noted that I am totally talking out of my ass with today’s comic. Although I am fascinated by the legacy that Tupac Shakur left behind and the many conspiracy theories regarding his death, I don’t own a single one of his albums and, at the end of the day, I’m just a lame white guy from Iowa who can’t really relate to what Tupac meant to the people he left behind.
Still, it’s fun to speculate on what happened to him. Kind of like wondering aloud if Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. There’s always going to be that part of you that wonders if life would be different if they were still around.
That being said, I’m usually more of a realist at heart. And that’s why MTV’s latest biopic offering to the Tupac legacy, Tupac: Resurrection smacks of grave-robbing to me. It just seems shady to be making a buck off his estate supposedly “in his own words”. Tupac narrates the film through interviews recorded before he was gunned down in Las Vegas back in 1996. It seems like it would be a noble thing to let a slain performer eulogize himself, but it doesn’t seem like it would take a lot of effort to cobble together a few sound bites.
I don’t know. That’s just me. Sorry today’s strip didn’t aim more up the middle, but I was really stripped for ideas.
I went to see Lost in Translation with friends for a second time at a different theater over the weekend. You might recall I had some difficulty seeing it the first time around. Things were better, if only slightly this time out. There were no boom mics in the shots, but the presentation seemed unusually dark. Either I’m just getting picky about it, or the only way I’m going to watch this movie as intended is when it comes out on DVD.
I also had a chance to see Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World on Saturday. I liked it. Russell Crowe does a good job and so does Paul Bettany. Crowe does his usual burly man thing, but Bettany was the real revelation for me. Far less creepy this time around. A very subdued performance that I enjoyed.
I think the picture will be nominated for a few awards come next year, but not all of it stuck with me. There’s a lot of old English nautical slang that went right over my head. There were a few scenes that I had no idea what was going on.
Language barriers aside, the movie script was very clever and it gave you a good taste of what life was like on these warships back in the day. You can’t help but watch the film and think of what a difficult life that had of been. Even though it is a work of fiction, they make you feel like this was something that actually happened. I thought that was pretty cool.
Not much else to report for now I guess. So I’ll just cap things off there!
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Theater Hopper reader and Tupac Shakur fan Matt passed along an interesting link for all you Tupac conspiracy buffs out there:
http://www.tupacfans.com/alive.php
I found the revelations very interesting. Particularly Tupac fascination with the 16th century Italian philosopher Machiavelli and the number 7.
Incidentally, the movie Tupac: Resurrection was released 7 years after Tupac died. Food for thought.
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Today’s comic was almost sacrilege in my house. Cami is a dyed-in-the-wool, hard core Mike Myers fan from way back. So I Married An Axe Murderer is one of her favorite movies.
I’m not without my loyalty to Myers. I’ve often enjoyed his work all the way back to his days on Saturday Night Live. Like everybody else, I was totally swept up in Austin Powers-mania, doing horrid impressions each summer a new movie was released.
But as time goes on, one begins to realize that Myers has consistently cannibalized his own work. Despite his great ability to introduce and engrain catchphrases and characters into the pop culture lexicon, he will often grab hold of a concept or a character and ride it into the ground. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to watch Shrek and hear the voice of Fat Bastard coming out of his mouth. You couldn’t do, like, a squeaky voice, or something?
Things get complicated in that respect when you learn that Myers originally recorded all his dialogue for Shrek WITHOUT the Scottish accent and later convinced the producers to let him re-recorded the character WITH the accent. This was done at great expense to the animators eventually costing the production millions of dollars to reanimate the main characters lips.
Most don’t know that Myers has a reputation for being difficult – an exacting perfectionist. That rumor gained steam during the pre-production of the failure Dieter project, which Myers walked off of due to what he thought was a sub-standard script. Both Universal Studios and producer Brian Grazer sued. Eventually it was settled out of court.
Things must be peachy-keen between all three players now considering Myers is their lead in the big screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat. I don’t know if I care to see it this weekend or not. Frankly, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Jim Carrey’s outing in The Grinch, and most of the art direction crew on that film has returned for The Cat.
There’s something about the make up in these movies that just unnerves me. That funny snout apparatus on the actor
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Those of you who know me know that I am SERIOUS Henry Rollins fan. Well, guess who is going to see him do a spoken word this evening at 8:00 PM. THAT’S RIGHT! It’s me!
I’m pretty pumped about it. Hell, I’m always pumped when Henry comes to town. He’s been making annual appearances in these parts for the last few years. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to try and get a picture with him. I have one of him and me from 1997. It’d be nice to get an upgrade.
Suspiciously, there are only two spoken word dates listed on Rollins’ web site. Tonight in Ames, Iowa and tomorrow in Decatur, Illinois. I like to think that he’s making a special trip just to see me.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
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I’ve taken pot-shots at the theater industry’s somewhat misaligned concept of proportional servings in the past, but I thought I was due to revisit the comedic devise for today’s strip.
I tried coming up with a good joke for today’s release of The Cat in the Hat, but I kept coming back to punch lines involving raves, The Grateful Dead or related drug humor. Frankly, we’re just not that kind of comic.
Gothika is the other big release today and I couldn’t think of a damn thing to make fun of there other than how bad Halle Berry’s hair looks. But I guess it’s alright, ‘cuz she’s supposed to be cra-zay!
I think my movie options this weekend are kind of slim, but I don’t really care. My good friend Nick is coming to visit from Minneapolis this weekend and we’re gonna tear it up Iowa-style!
I guess I didn’t mention how my experience at the Henry Rollins spoken word show went on Wednesday. Well, it went okay!
We didn’t get there until about 10 minutes before he went on. So we were left scrambling for seats. We ended up in the balcony probably a good 200 feet away from him. This was a change in scenery for me because in my usual fan-boy way I would drag everyone to the show an hour in advance to get good seats. I’ve seen him 4 other times before this and we’ve always been just a few rows away from the stage.
Not that I minded, particularly. We could still hear him great. That is, whenever the two girls sitting next to me decided to discontinue one of their several lengthy conversations. And what was up with the girl in front of us taking pictures with some kind of high-powered flash? I think it may have bleached the skin of people sitting in the 3 rows in front of her.
Rollins was cool. He seemed more mellow than usual. He told a lot of good stories. Standouts included his tale of catching a burglar as he was in the process of breaking into his home and getting out of jury duty. He shared a few “Hollywood” stories, too – talking about his attendance at the premieres of The School of Rock and Kill Bill. He also talked about being dissed by Sheryl Crow.
After the show, Cami and I hung around outside to see if we could get a picture with Henry. But after a half hour, we decided to bolt. We had an hour long drive ahead of us at 10:30 at night and work the next day. On top of that, we had to pick up Truman at my parents place on the way home. We didn’t want him to be cooped up in his crate all day, so my folks babysat for us. How cool are they?
I bought Final Fantasy X-2 yesterday and I’m looking forward to finding some time to commit to it. What I’ve played so far is really a lot of fun. I enjoyed Final Fantasy X immensely. I’ve played all the way through it 3 times. It’s probably my favorite game of all time.
I don’t want to come off sounding like a FF fan boy, so I think I’ll cut it off there.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. Next weekend is Thanksgiving and I’m sure that’s going to throw a lot of us into upheaval. Hopefully you’ll still make time to visit the site. I plan to keep updating through the holiday.
If you haven’t joined the forums yet, look into it. We’re having a lot of fun in there.
Later!
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Nov24
Myself, Cami, Jared and his wife Patti didn’t actually see The Cat in the Hat this weekend, so maybe it isn’t fair to bash it. But if most of the reviews are correct (as I believe they are), I think we’re in pretty safe waters.
I’m not particularly impressed that the movie made over $40 million this weekend. Expect that number to drop off dramatically in the next two weeks. At the end of the day, it just isn’t a smart idea to make a feature-length movie out of a children’s book with only 200-some words in it. There’s a lot of extra exposition to fill.
I was watching Ebert & Roeper this weekend and they both panned the film. No surprise, but they made an interesting observation: The people who made The Cat in the Hat also produced The Grinch. What they fail to realize is that people don’t want to see Mike Myers or Jim Carrey buried under mountains of make-up and special effects. As two of the most able comic actors currently on screen, they themselves are the special effect. Handicapping them with prosthetics and fur suits prevents them from trumping the material and bringing it up a notch.
There aren’t too many movies I’m worked up for right now. I’ll admit that I’m interested in seeing Ron Howard’s The Missing, but mostly because I’m a big fan of Tommy Lee Jones. The Haunted Mansion comes out this week, but I don’t think that looks very good. Neither does Timeline (admittedly, I’m not much of a Michael Crichton fan).
Bad Santa has been getting some interesting reviews. Apparently the subject matter of the film is quite adult. I was all but ready to write it off because of it’s awful trailer, but that was before I found out that Terry Zwigoff directed it. Zwigoff also directed Ghost World and the documentary Crumb. He’s a bit of an odd-duck, but I think his sensibilities are similar to mine. If they can get the word out that a first draft of the Bad Santa script was handled by Joel and Ethan Cohen, I think it’ll build more buzz.
Speaking of buzz, if you guys could throw a little vote-love my way over at buzzComix, that would be great. We’re kind of teetering on the cusp of the Top 10 and are in danger of falling off without a little support. I’d like to hang in there before the month ends. I promise to kick off December with more great voting incentives.
Like the rest of you, I’m gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday, so my head is in quite a few places at the moment. Holidays always have a way of throwing your routine into upheaval. But don’t worry. You can expect strips on Wednesday and Friday – even if I AM swimming in a cloud of turkey-induced tryptophan.
If you haven’t already, you should really check out the forums. We’ve seen a recent influx of people registering. It’s a good time to join!
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In an effort to further branch out into the web comic community, I am putting out an open call for link exchanges between other creators. How many of them stop by and read my work is up for grabs, but I thought I would throw the idea out in the universe and see who responds. Trust me, I’ll be hitting up a few through e-mail just to cover the bases. Anyone who wants to grab a banner to put on their site can find them here.
I want to raise Theater Hopper’s profile and I’m proposing a “grass-roots” approach. Even if you don’t write a web comic or even have a web site, you can do your part to help! Please mention Theater Hopper on any forums you happen to visit. Maybe provide a link to your favorite comic in the archive. And don’t just worry about visiting other web comics and dropping our name. Think about movie-related forums, fan sites and the like. Branch out!
I know there are some of you who would like to lend your support to Theater Hopper, but don’t have the financial means or a soapbox to stand on. I’ve received e-mails to that effect, so I know you’re out there. Well, I’m here to say you CAN help! By spreading the word about Theater Hopper around the Internet you’re helping us more than you know.
Thanks so much for your support. I know I can count on you!
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Let me lay down a quick disclaimer: I enjoyed today’s strip very much. That being said, it is all wrong.
Panel #1)
I did not see any animals wearing hats this weekend. I will wait for the DVD rental.
Panel #2)
I’m not certain where Tom got the oysters thing, but he actually stumbled upon a family tradition. Every year for Thanksgiving, the fam gathers and oyster stew is served… to a select few. I do not partake in the eating of the “bugs.” I usually eat pizza or beef stew.
Panel #3)
I do not sleep on that side of the bed.
Panel #4)
Well, I guess it’s not all wrong!
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The Haunted Mansion doesn’t look very good to me, but it looks like the perfect movie to nod out to after a gynormous Thanksgiving dinner. Fall asleep if you like! You’re guaranteed to have a perfect antiseptic experience.
The fact that Eddie Murphy is tied to this movie and that it’s a Disney production screams “PLAYING IT SAFE!” The fact that is was directed by the guy who did the two Stewart Little movies tells me there won’t be any genuine thrills, unlike that OTHER Disney ride based feature, Pirates of the Caribbean. Still, I was pleased to see Rick Baker doing makeup on the project. That guy always produces quality work.
Murphy, on the other hand, is a performer whose stock went way down for me after he started making kiddie flicks like The Nutty Professor and Dr. Dolittle. In a way, I kind of feel sorry for the guy.
He tries slipping into the old Axel Foley mode in movies like Metro and Showtime, but audiences have decided for him what roles they want to see him in. They want him to baby-sit their kids. Hence, The Nutty Professor II and Dr. Dolittle II.
As for me, probably the only role I found him remotely interesting in the last 15 years was his duel role of Kit Ramsey/Jiff Ramsey in Bowfinger – a highly underrated film if there ever was one.
Part of me thinks we might still see The Haunted Mansion just to see if they can pull one out of the hat. Plus, Cami and I love Disney World. It’s a guilty pleasure kind of thing. I’m curious to see how close they can get to the “feel” of the ride – which is one of my favorites in the park.
Of course, either that, or I can hang around the house and play more Final Fantasy X-2.
I wanted to take a minute to call everyone’s attention to two great web comics. The first one is Overcaffinated, a great comic about geeks and the coffee that fuels them. The writing is really sharp. You can tell the guys behind it are operating a few notches above the rest. Plus, it has a great site design. I guess creator Sergio Villarreal is a web designer. It shows. That site runs like a dream.
The other site I wanted to point you to was Taking the Bi-Pass. I’m kind of ashamed that I didn’t link to this one sooner. Dave has done some great guest comics and fan art for us in the past, and I guess I thought I had always had a link to his site. It’s been fun watching Dave’s art and writing evolve. He comes up with some of the best jokes entirely out of left field.
As always, if you have a site and would like to trade links, please let me know.
I know our Canadian neighbors have already celebrated the holiday, but for everyone in America, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a safe holiday. Be sure to check the site on Friday for a special Thanksgiving-themed comic!
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Sorry, guys. Due to Cami and I hosting Thanksgiving at our house yesterday, there was no time for me to prepare a comic for today. But don’t worry! You’ll still get your recommended dose of Theater Hopper goodness today! Just a little later than usual.
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