Archive for October, 2005
24 items.
Since I don’t have much in terms of content to deliver to you guys today, I wanted to take a moment to draw your attention to my good friend Beefy.
Beefy is a prominent member of the Theater Hopper online community affectionately referred to as the THorum. Beefy also has quite a talent for words set to music. Otherwise known as "rapping" to all the kids. I hear it’s quite popular.
Beefy is a musician at the forefront of the emerging nerd-core scene. Chances are if you hang out on the internet with any regularity, love Star Wars and comic books, his new EP "Nerd" will be right up your alley.
Maybe you’re the type of person who appreciates "phat" rhymes and "tight" beats. Well, in that case, Beefy’s EP will be right up your alley, too.
Support my good friend Beefy. He’s got some great songs for you to listen to and they don’t cost a lot of dough. I know he would appreciate your support so he can continue to produce his original sound and bring it to the world.
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Much like Chris Tucker seems only able to perform in Rush Hour movies, Orlando Bloom seems only capable of taking a role where the brandishing of antiquated weaponry is a requirement. Be it longbow, sword or musket – Bloom is your man!
It’s a fairly commonplace assertion that Bloom has cast himself in the mold of a modern Errol Flynn – having taken roles in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean and it’s sequels, Troy and Kingdom of Heaven. I don’t think is a totally negative thing to aspire to. Quite frankly, the movies are sorely lacking in brave adventure and derring-do. If someone were to come along and revitalize the persona, why not Bloom?
Okay, he’s a little bit pretty. Alright, not just pretty – but MAN pretty. Not the kind of rakish rouge you would expect to swing in from a rope and save you. But I suppose you take what you get.
I’ve been very interested in seeing Elizabethtown since I first saw the trailers. This is one of those movies where I thought it came out two weeks ago and then was really disapointed when it didn’t. Then I thought it came out again last week and was disapointed again. I really need to read the one-sheet posters for release dates much closer.
I’m excited pretty much because any movie with Cameron Crowe’s name on it is a "must-see" in my book. Between Say Anything…, Singles and Almost Famous, the man’s bitter-sweet storytelling hits me right where I live. I can do without Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky, but that’s why pencils have erasers, right?
I found it curious to learn that Crowe had Bloom in mind from the onset as his protagonist. When it looked like Bloom couldn’t do the role, he brought on another man pretty up-and-comer Ashton Kutcher to fill the role. I think this would have made the movie much less interesting for me. Good think Crowe thought Kutcher didn’t have any chemistry with Kirsten Dunst and fired him. Then again, cardboard boxes have more chemistry than Kirsten Dunst, so maybe it was just wish fulfillment on Crowe’s part to dump Kutcher when Bloom became available.
Elizabethtown is interesting in that I think it provides Bloom an opportunity to prove something he hasn’t tried before. That’s always exciting.
:: switching gears ::
I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to again mention that I will stop selling all t-shirts, hoodies and baby doll tees from the store on October 31. Leave a note here now means that it will stay up until Monday. That’s what they call "saturation," kids.
At any rate, three of the designs will be retired forever. So if you want "Under Construction," "Emerging" or "Truman in a Purse" now is the time to get them. After the 31st, the won’t be available ever again!
As for the other shirts – they’ll come back at some point, I just don’t know when. So maybe you’re thinking someone might enjoy a "Spoiler" t-shirt for a November birthday or maybe for the holidays. Best to grab them now because I don’t know if I can make them available by then.
I need to let you know that part of the reason I’m closing off this section of the store is so I can get caught up on orders. But the bigger reason is so I can begin work on a new book collecting the first year of Theater Hopper strips.
I’m having some trouble trying to decide how to distribute the information. Whether it’s one large book about 180 pages and retailing for $20 or splitting the content into two volumes of 90 pages each with the release dates spaced apart and retailing for $10.
There has been some debate about it in the THorum with more specifics than I can get into here. There is also a poll attached. I’d love to hear your feedback if you consider yourself someone interested in buying a Theater Hopper book. If you’re not comfortable posting in the THorum, I am also receptive to e-mails.
Thanks.
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Fart humor? Oh, yeah. I WENT THERE! Edgy, no?
Even when Truman is causing mischief, he’s still utterly adorable, isn’t he? Enjoy this sketch of him in quiet repose.
No rhyme or reason to today’s strip except I felt we had all gone too long without seeing Truman in action and I missed him.
Do I have any opinions about The Fog? Other than it’s an excuse to pull together too-pretty television stars for a pointless remake of a mediocre horror movie, no.
I mean, I don’t know if the remake picks up the pace at all, but the original was ponderously slow. I mean, it’s a fog for crying out loud! Run away! Buy a really strong fan and hide behind it! Not one of John Carpenter’s more inspired ideas, that’s for sure. I suppose he was trying to tap into that slow, building sense of dread like there was in zombie movies of the day. I didn’t work.
Please take this moment to visit the store and consider buying t-shirt, hoodie or baby doll tee. All three, if you so desire. After October 31, I can’t afford you the luxury any longer. Some designs will come back. Some won’t. But it’ll be the last time you’ll get your hands on ANY of them for a while.
Buy a hoodie, kids. It’s getting cold outside! Bundle up!
Also be sure to scroll up a little bit to that space between the comic and the blog and sign up for the Theater Hopper mailing list. I’m going to have some big announcements in the coming weeks and mailing list people will be the first to know! They were the first to know about the store being closed and they were the first to know about my pal Jared’s stop-motion film "A Clay In The Life" before I announce it in this space on the site!
Lastly, for you consideration – I want to present to you two options for being notified of the most current updates to the site.
First, if you have a LiveJournal account, add the Theater Hopper syndication feed to your friends list. Every time a new comic is posted, LiveJournal updates. Same goes with news posts. And you can leave comments! Instant feedback – very handy! I check for messages in there often, so go for it!
The second option is for people who don’t have LiveJournal accounts. It’s called Comic Alert! and it’s a cool little system that utilizes Theater Hopper’s RSS feed to notify you VIA e-mail when the strip updates. It’s really easy to sign up for. So if you’re interested, leave your contact information and add Theater Hopper to your favorites. In fact, to help get you started, here’s a link to Theater Hopper’s listing in the system. Leave a review while you’re at it!
Thanks, all!
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How does The Rock get his eyebrow to do that high-arch thing? Simple. Through an exhaustive and dedicated work out regimen. He whipped that eyebrow into shape in no time!
Normally it isn’t within my sphere of influence to criticism movies based on video games. I usually leave that to the big guns. They’re the ones with the fram of reference. But with virtually no buzz surrounding Doom when it hits theaters this Friday, I had to kick a sick dog.
Can anyone tell me of any movie based on a video game that was successful? Tomb Raider, maybe. But I think that was because horny gamers wanted to see Angelina Jolie in a tank top for two hours.
I would consider Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within an artistic success, but financially it was a dud and it’s plot was as contrived and obtuse as the games it was inspired by. I suppose in that way, it’s the most faithful adaptation of a video game to silver screen so far!
Naturally anything with Uwe Boll’s name on it is considered box office poison. Alone in the Dark? House of the Dead? ∗RETCH!∗ Take a look at his track record and I assure you that Bloodrayne will follow suit next January? Can someone explain how they tricked Ben Kingsley into doing this movie? My best guess is that it involved a lot of zeros.
Same goes for The Rock and the big-screen adaptation of Doom. Did Doom even have a plot? I guess Hell breaks loose on Mars, right? I mean, literally. And there’s a chainsaw and a big gun or something. Wow. Sounds like a wise investment of your entertainment dollar.
Maybe I would be interested in soaking up some Grade-Z schlock if all the monsters these days weren’t computer generated gobbledy-gook. At least have the good sense to give us some really intricate puppets for them to blast holes into.
Remember the head-exploding scene in Scanners? They did that stuff by filling a latex head with dog food and rabbit livers, and shooting it from behind with a 12-gauge shotgun. Like, for real. It would never happen today, but that’s Cronenberg for you.
Not much else to say at the moment. Have to get up early tomorrow morning for a photo shoot I’m conducting. Ta, ta!
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I’m getting a lot of feedback from people about my Doom commentary today. They’re forwarding me on to behind the scenes reports that indicate that many of the monsters we’ll see on screen are, in fact, NOT CGI and are actually complicated costumes, puppetry and animatronics.
As taken from GameSpy.com…
One of the ironies of the DOOM movie is that, for a film based on a video game, there’s a concerted effort to use real sets and live characters, rather than relying too heavily on green screens and CGI. On our visit, we had a chance to visit several different sets: a reception area, your standard-issue corridors and hallways, a science lab, an excavation dig and a large portal chamber…
Almost as surreal is getting to see one of the creatures in action – in this case, we’re seeing a sequence with the Hellknight (bring referred to here as the Baron). Once again, this isn’t being done with CGI — it’s a real guy in a real costume. It’s not a cheesy rubber outfit, either; it’s an elaborate setup with all sorts of motors in the face to control the creature’s expressions.
Color me surprised! I wouldn’t have figured the producers of the film to be in synch with my concerns with the blow-em-up fare, but considering the marketing I’ve seen for the movie, I think my original assessment was valid.
Literally every trailer, commercial or photo I’ve seen for Doom seems to feature some kind of CGI gimmickry. That footage in conjunction with the fantastic, impossible creatures in the Doom monster gallery would lead one to believe the creature shop would choose CGI over practical effects. Getting that initial taste and not feeling particularly attracted to the project, I didn’t take the time to dig deeper and learn that it is Stan Winston’s studio who is behind the monster creation.
For those of you who don’t know Stan Winston, you can see his trademark for character design all over films like The Terminator, Predator, Aliens, Edward Scissorhands and Jurrasic Park. The guy has serious pedigree.
Does this mean that I’m more likely to see Doom this weekend? Probably not. But in light of these facts, I think it’s earned a little more respect.
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Oct21
THE WAY TO A MAN’S HEART IS THROUGH HIS TRIVIA
October 21st, 2005 |
(7 votes, average: 6.71 out of 10)
I wanted to do something kind of romantic for today’s incentive sketch. It seemed like this would have been the natural conclusion of today’s strip if it were five panels instead of four…
The punchline for today’s comic was originally going to be something different. Something to the effect that Cami suggests Tom read more books and Tom storming off in a huff.
But after drawing the third panel and the pure look of glee on Tom’s face… I decided to go another way with it. I’m happy with the result. As fun as it is to wring humor out of the foibles of marriage, I also like to promote the fact that Tom and Cami have a very well adjusted relationship.
That goes for INSIDE the comic and OUTSIDE as well!
So, Shopgirl comes out today and it kind of snuck up on me. Back when I read Steve Martin’s original novella back in 2001 or 2002 (got it as a Christmas stocking gift, if I remember correctly) I thought about how great this would be if it were a movie. Martin writes in a very economical style. Things are very precisely described and there is never much superfluous conversation between the characters. It was ready-made for a port to the big screen. Four years later, here it is.
For those that haven’t read the book, it’s essentially about an older man (Martin) with great wealth and fine taste forging a relationship with a very disillusioned (and heavily medicated) young woman (Claire Danes) who sells gloves at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills. In many ways, both people are looking to have aspects of their lives fulfilled by the other person. It’s kind of a right place, right time scenario. But as things evolve, the two uncover that they are not the perfect fit they built each other up to be in their heads.
On plot alone, Shopgirl is going to get a lot of comparisons to Lost in Translation. The situation likely amplified by Martin and Bill Murray’s Saturday Night Live connection. Still, I have high hopes that the movie will do a good job communicating Martin’s trademark dry wit sprinkled with a dash of melancholy. No one captures the prefabricated detachment born of the utter irreality of Los Angeles better than Martin.
With hope, Cami and I will see Shopgirl sometime this weekend. We both loved the book – one of the few we actually agree on!
Wait, that’s not right. It’s not so much that we don’t agree on literature as we don’t read the same kind of literature. Shopgirl was one of those rare books that had crossover appeal in our household. Ironically, Martin’s follow-up "The Pleasure of my Company" also earned a similar distinction.
Needless to say, we’re fans. Our radar is up for this one.
I’ll be back later with a familiar reminder. Or, you could cut right to the chase and order a t-shirt, hoodie or baby-doll tee before I close off that section of the store October 31. Your choice.
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In case you’re wondering who that guy is in the last panel, it’s supposed to be Elizabethtown director Cameron Crowe. I drew him once before not last Friday, but the Friday before that. Crowe is such a mild-mannered guy, I thought it would be funny to depict him committing a felony.
If you still don’t know anything about Cameron Crowe, don’t worry. Tom doesn’t seem to know much about his abductor, either.
As you may have surmised, Cami and I saw Elizabethtown this weekend and were not pleased. I was looking for a soapbox to rant about it, then remembered I have this comic. My illustrated avatar doesn’t typically breech the fourth wall so directly in these situations, but I thought it made sense that he talk to "you" in the sense of the audience since his/my displeasure with the movie was so great.
I wanted to like this movie. I really wanted to like this movie. In fact, when we left the theater and Cami was actually ANGRY about the time we just spent watching it, I swung hard in the opposite direction – Playing Devil’s Advocate to the point where Satan himself came to me and said "Dude, seriously. It was a bad movie. Stop speaking up for it in my name. It’s not good for business."
To me, the three acts of the film played like three separate movies. The first act dealing with Drew’s corporate life and his failure. The second detailing the harmless eccentricities of Southern people and the third capturing Drew’s cross-country trek back to Oregon. It seemed like barely any of these arcs related to each other. I feel in love with the third act. If they could have condensed the first two acts and expanded the third, I would have been much more interested in that.
There were so many details about the movie that I think were overlooked. In addition to the ones mentioned in the comic (which are the most glaring), what about the 737 that Drew takes into Kentucky – it’s totally empty! No plane that large would ever be that low on passengers. Not even on a red eye. Not even on a crappy airline. Disbelief NOT suspended!
Kristen Dunst’s character gives up a trip to Hawaii to be with Drew during his crisis even though they don’t know each other. Why even mention that at all? Are we supposed to be impressed that she gave up so much to be with this stranger? Giving up a weekend to hang around this guy would be enough!
Why the hell wouldn’t Drew’s mother fly to Elizabethtown to retrieve her husband? Yes, I understand she was in shock. Yes, I understand that she felt his family didn’t like her. But if she loved him to the degree that she would perform an embarrassing tap dance routine in front of them, she couldn’t have gotten on the plane sooner?
The wake hosted in the hotel ballroom with Drew’s cousin’s band playing "Freebird" seemed incredibly cloying and ridiculous – especially in the light of the huge prop bird catching fire at exactly the right moment and various members of the audience laughing and scampering about in slow motion as the sprinkler system burst. Of course the band continues to play, stomping around in pools of water on the stage and their instruments do not electrify them to a crisp.
At a critical juncture in the movie, Drew attempts to break off his relationship with Kristen Dunst’s character and she says he "keeps trying to break up with her even though they’re not together." Was there some other break-up scene I didn’t see? I think they dropped this one back in there to remind us that Drew is actually VERY despondent and planning to kill himself when he gets home. An idea mention once, dropped, then picked up again to add tension, I guess. Some kind of conflict. It was sloppily executed.
What about Drew’s road trip back with his Father’s cremains. His mother and sister had no problem with him spreading them all over the country? Were they ever consulted? Didn’t see that on the screen! You’d think they have a say.
And of course, the big reunion at the end. So we’re supposed to believe that Dunst’s character pulled some strings in her role as a flight attendant to get fly ahead of Drew and be at the Second Largest Farmer’s Market to meet him just in case she showed up? He job must have some pretty flexible work hours and policies!
I dunno. Maybe all of this is nit-picky, but all of these inconsistencies really got to me after two hours in my seat. I expected so much more from Crowe and he let me down. The whole film is like a string of half-baked ideas. Or rather, the film feels like it must have been 3 hours long to start and was edited down for time. There’s probably a better movie in there somewhere, it just sucks that we’ll have to wait for the DVD to see it. In the meantime, the theatrical version is probably going to turn off anyone who is casually interested.
I think that there is probably a larger version of Elizabethtown waiting in the wings. Crowe did the exact same thing with his release of Almost Famous: Untitled. And while that release is vastly superior to the theatrical release, at least the version that landed in theaters had a narrative thread. Elizabethtown doesn’t even have that.
What a waste.
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I want to make sure that everyone knows that this is the last week for you guys to buy any t-shirts, hoodies or baby-doll tees from the store. Come October 31, I’m closing that part of the store down.
"Truman in a Purse," "Under Construction" and "Emerging" are all designs that are going to be retired. So after next Monday, that’s it. You won’t see them ever again.
As far as the other designs, I’m not sure when I’m going to bring them back. Maybe they’ll be back by the end of the year, maybe not. Once I wrap things up on Monday, I’m shifting focus into producing a book for Theater Hopper that collects the first year of strips. I can’t manage the distraction of ordering and distributing shirts, which is the reason behind this closure.
Additionally, I think I want to explore other options in terms of how the store is set up. I’m talking on the back end here. The coding. The method by which money and order details are delivered to yours truly. So I’ll have to do some research on that and it’s going to take time.
Lastly, when I eventually bring it all back online, I want there to be some new designs in there for you to choose from rather than peddling the same old wares. I want you to have something to look forward to. Save your money now.
Ultimately, all of this is going to take time. So take advantage of this last-chance opportunity. Place your orders today.
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Today’s incentive sketch is brought to you by the letter "Z!"
So The Legend of Zorro comes out on Friday and I find myself in the odd position of being very excited by the idea of Antonio Banderas donning the mask and cape again, but slightly confused as to where exactly this movie is coming from.
I mean, it’s been 7 years since The Mask of Zorro. Typically, if a sequel is made, it’s done when the franchise is still sort of fresh in people’s minds. Why come back now?
Okay, okay. Zorro – as a franchise – has been around for over 100 years. He’s as much a staple of modern entertainment as he is a type of mythical figure like Robin Hood or maybe King Arthur. And, yes – The Lone Ranger totally stole his gimmick. But then again, so did Batman and pretty much every supero hero thereafter.
But I’m talking about this iteration – with Antonio Banderas playing the swashbuckling hero, Cathrine Zeta Jones returning as his wife and even director Martin Campbell back behind the lens. What’s the draw?
Banderas I envision as some kind of acting dynamo who does the work because he loves it. Cathrine Zeta Jones returning seems like a step backwards to me. I mean, she’s probably doing fine hawking cell phones. What point is there returning to a role where she’s just the eye candy? She’s an Oscar winner, right? What is up with the Halle Berry’s, Charlize Theron’s and Jennifer Connolly’s of this world that feel the need to follow up their Oscar wins with action films?
Remember when Catherine Zeta Jones used to be kind of cool? When The Mask of Zorro first came out, I remember being entranced. When Entrapment soon followed, I was bewitched. That is, when I wasn’t grossed out and distracted by Sean Connery making a pass at her every 15 minutes.
But somewhere around High Fidelity, her aura began to change. The character she played – Charlie – was a rambling, self-absorbed blow hard and you kind of got the sense it wasn’t that big of a stretch for her to play that role. By the time America’s Sweethearts came out, the idea that she was – in actuality – a pretty terrible person became firmly cemented in my head.
Winner her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Chicago made her even more insufferable in my mind. I even took to calling her Catherine Ego Jones.
So why return to Zorro? Is this some act of contrition? Has she become aware of her frigid persona and is returning to her "roots," as it were, to remind people "Hey! Remember when we first met and how much fun I was?!" Maybe. We’ll see if it works.
I think I’m ready for an old-fashioned adventure flick. With all the swordplay and derring-do involved, it’s a wonder they didn’t cast Orlando Bloom as Zorro.
Darn it! That probably would have been the much better comic! But actually, I’m a little sick of talking about Orlando Bloom. Aren’t you?
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Wanted to tip you guys off to some good links worth checking out.
First, be sure to visit our newest sponsor Chuck & Elmo. It’s a fun comic and features characters who can talk to squirrels! How can it fail?
Also be sure to check out Taking the Bi-Pass. My good friend Dave is helping to do some coding work on the site right now and I wanted to repay him with some advertising. It was an easy decision to make since I’ve been a fan of Dave’s comic since he started. It’s very good. ENJOY IT!
Lastly, if you’re a gamer, you’re probably familiar with the whole debacle that has pitted Florida lawyer Jack Thompson against seminal gaming web comic Penny Arcade. If you are unfamiliar, the story is probably way to long to go into here.
But at any rate, if you’re following along, my good friend Monk over at Digital Entertainment News scored quite the "get" and was able to sit down with Mr. Thompson for an extended interview.
The interview doesn’t cover the controversy with Penny Arcade, but covers some of the finer details of Jack’s arguments against the gaming industry and it’s marketing practices. Typically Thompson’s bombastic tactics and palpable contempt for his adversaries obscure the work he’s actually trying to accomplish. This interview does a good job of pulling back the veneer and gets to the heart of what motivates this guy to tackle the billion dollar gaming industry head-on.
So it’s clear, I’m not a fan of Jack Thompson. I think he’s a huckster of the highest order. An ambulance chaser building notoriety for himself by standing a top the corpses of violence and somehow trying to tie it to the gaming industry.
But at the same time, I am very much interested in understanding the mechanics of my enemy. I think too many people see Jack’s action as an assault against their pastime – and it is! But instead of shouting the guy down or making fun of him outright, try for a minute to crawl inside his head space. Figure out what makes him tick. What are his motivations?
An interview like this helps to do that.
If you’re a gamer and this issue is of interest to you, please read. If motivated to do so, please share it with others. Thanks.
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