Archive for January, 2008
15 items.
Before you start sending me e-mails, yes, I know I screwed up the last panel in today’s comic. Everything looks right at 1:00 in the morning. I’ll fix it when I get home tonight.
Here’s hoping that everyone had a safe and happy new year celebration. If you’re reading this, I have to assume that’s the case.
Our New Year’s celebration was decidedly white, suburban and boring. Cami and I took Henry to Applebee’s at about 5:00 at night for dinner. We came home, put him to bed and watched a rerun of Saturday Night Live in the ’90’s on NBC until 9:00 PM. Henry is teething again and was up crying the night before, so Cami was exhausted and went to bed around 9:30. I stayed up because I felt I should, but only lasted until about 11:00 before I went to bed. Oh, well. At least we were together when the clock struck midnight.
That sounds bad. It sounds like we had a boring New Year’s because of Henry. That’s not true. We had an awesome New Year’s. I guess I just called it “boring” because to an outsider, that’s probably what it looks like. Truthfully, I probably wouldn’t have done anything different even if we didn’t have Henry. I went to see the ball drop in Times Square when 2003 rolled over into 2004. Since then, I haven’t really cared about celebrating the occasion.
Once you’ve partied with EVERYBODY, you don’t want to party with ANYBODY.
As you know, I live in Iowa and tomorrow is the big caucus. Cami and I have both decided to caucus for Barack Obama. It’ll be our first time caucusing, but we felt it was too important to pass up. I vote in every election, but I’ve been more proactive this time around. I’m tired of sitting on my ass assuming things are going to shake out the way I hope they will.
Odd that we would get a babysitter so we could sit in a church and argue with people about politics on a Thursday night, but not get a babysitter so we could go out and ring in the new year. But something tells me this caucus is a little more important.
We actually went to an Obama rally here in Des Moines yesterday. We took Henry and he behaved great. I felt like I was doing something good for him. It was a good time.
I know none of this has anything to do with the comic or with movies, but now that the new year has begun, prestige pictures have all evaporated from the landscape. There’s certainly some catching up I have to do in terms of what I’ve seen and what I haven’t. But if the goal here is to be timely, I’m not going to talk about Atonement, three weeks past it’s release date in favor of uncovering the intricacies of the cell phone horror movie One Last Call.
A couple of guys that NEVER miss a movie are my good friends Gordon McAplin from Multiplex and Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies. After taking the holiday week off, the three of us are getting back together tonight for a live broadcast of The Triple Feature talkcast at Talkshoe, 9:00 PM CST. Tonight we’ll be talking about all the great holiday movies we’ve seen. So set your alarm and be sure to join us tonight at 9:00 PM CST! See you there!
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Jared will go to great lengths when it comes to distracting Tom while he’s reading the paper.
I know I had a little mini-rant about One Missed Call in Wednesday blog and pretty much said I wasn’t going to give it the time of day. But it was during a special Wednesday edition of The Triple Feature talkcast (download it if you missed it) that I hit upon this particular idea.
Alluding to a joke I wanted to make about the movie in the comic, my good friend Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies basically said “Don’t bother because everyone else is already thinking it.” So, to diffuse the situation somewhat, I purposefully am setting the joke up to fail. There’s nothing witty about comparing One Missed Call to The Ring. Any 5 year-old could make the same observation. So let’s all point and laugh at the obvious instead. Besides, I love an awkward pause.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to perform my civic duty and take part in the Iowa Caucuses. It was my first time attending and it was an enlightening experience. I felt good energy leaving the precinct hall and was pleased when the candidate I’ve chosen to support – Barack Obama – won the state with a resounding 37% of the vote.
More so than just my candidate of choice winning big, I was pleased to see so many Iowans turn out on a cold January night to do their part. Over 300,000, I believe was the last estimate? That’s astonishing. At our precinct alone there were nearly 500 people compared to about 120 four years prior. I think it’s representative of exactly how important this next Presidential election will be. People are hungry for change and they are motivated now more than ever to do something about it.
Wouldn’t it be great if President Bush’s legacy ended up motivating the American people into electing the most energetic and progressive leader since Kennedy in an effort to reverse his policies? That would be a trip.
But I shouldn’t stand up on the soapbox too long. While I think political discussion is vital to the health of this country, I don’t mean to exclude anyone and this is a somewhat one-sided conversation.
Back to movie news, Cami and I are going out with friends on Saturday to see Juno. Yes, it finally came out here in Iowa. This is one of those movies that has been slowly making it’s way across the country, but is lagging far behind it’s buzz. It gets released in the big cities as part of some preview weekend so it can make the Oscar cut off date, then it goes a little wider, then a little more before finally reaching the hinterlands. Meanwhile all the critics have had their say about it and you feel woefully behind the times for not having seen it yet.
That changes soon. I’ll let you know what I think of it on Monday.
And with that, I hope everyone has a great weekend! Talk to you soon!
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We’re creeping into that time of year when there are less and less high-profile movies to write about. So I struggled a little bit with today’s comic.
I’ve been told by some that I should make a more concentrated effort to talk about movies that aren’t some big, dumb blockbuster or over hyped sequel. But in the back of my mind, I fear that if I don’t make fun of stuff people have at least a peripheral knowledge of, I’m going to have a lot of frustrated readers scratching their heads saying “Huh?”
I mean, even if you don’t go to the movies that often, odds are you’re going to get the joke I make about Alvin and The Chipmunks before the joke I make for The Diving Bell and The Butterfly – know what I mean?
That said, the joke I made about a movie (I assume?) not everyone has seen – Juno – kind of straddles the line between making fun of the film and making fun of our experience in real life.
Seriously – I feel like I’ve been hearing about Juno for months. And it was pissing me off. Great articles about the film and its performances being Oscar worthy. All this talk about screenwriter Diablo Cody… and I can’t see it! It makes me feel lame.
Of course, it didn’t help that my partners-in-crime, Joe Dunn and Gordon McAlpin from The Triple Feature live in major metropolitan areas. I mentioned that I still hadn’t seen Juno during last week’s broadcast. “Seriously?” said Joe. “I’ve seen it, like, three times.”
If I were Charlie Brown, you’d see that little black squiggly line of frustration over my head right now.
I can’t be the only one experiencing this frustration. Look at this FAQ for Juno over at IMDB (man, that’s a lot of acronyms). It lists the release date for the film and the first seven paragraphs are about it’s release in the US.
It opened December 5 in New York and Los Angeles, then Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Dallas/Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, and Toronto on December 14. On December 21, it adds 17 cities and is running in a total of 200 theaters. By Christmas it expands to 1,000 theaters. Finally, on January 4, it expands nationwide.
I *hate* it when studios do this. Basically they sneak the movie in big cities so it can be eligible for the Oscars before the end of the year deadline. Then, in an effort to stay topical and ahead of the competition, entertainment journalists start covering the film, doing reviews and interviews. Now that the hype is in place and I’m ready to see it, I can’t and it leaves me with the worst case of cinematic blue balls. QUIT TEASING ME, ALREADY!
That said, I finally got to see the movie on Saturday and I enjoyed it a lot. My only complaint? Not enough Michael Cera! That kid has the market cornered on awkward sweetness. Beyond that, I think the movie does a great job of telling it’s story and putting the spotlight on Ellen Page in another great performance. There seem to be so few female characters in film with a wit like Juno’s, so it’s refreshing to see something like that on screen. All of the supporting performances feel authentic, especially those of Juno’s understanding parents (played by J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney).
I don’t know if the film is quite the Oscar contender that some critics have built it up to be. In some ways, the film didn’t meet the high expectations I walked in with. But I’m sure that’s mostly the effect of hype. I’d love to see this movie again and I’m sure when it comes out on DVD in a few months, I’m going to buy it and treasure it like the unique jewel that it is. See it if it’s in your town. I mean, it should be by now, right?
One last note – I want to encourage everyone to call in LIVE during our broadcast of The Triple Feature tonight at 9:00 PM CST. Tonight, Joe, Gordon and I will be doing our much-anticipated Top 5 of 2007 show and we want as many listeners as possible to call in and keep us honest! Will our picks be completely off base or right on the money? Do they jive with your picks for the year’s best? Call in and let us know!
Again, the show starts at 9:00 PM CST and we WILL be taking your calls. So be sure to dial us in! See you there!
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I don’t know if you recall, but back in 2006, German director and all around hack Uwe Boll issued a challenge to his harshest critics to step into the ring with him to box. Basically, he was tired of people bashing his painfully bad adaptations of video games like Bloodrayne and Alone in the Dark. I did a comic about it back then, too.
At the time I thought I would include Boll as a regular character. Just someone who would show up and punch Tom for no discernible reason. I kind of forgot about the idea until I heard about In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Or – as I like to call it – ITNOTK: ADST. Much easier that way.
Looking at the film’s entry on IMDB, I’m kind of surprised by the cast list. Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Ryhs-Davies, Ron Pearlman, Claire Forlani, Kristanna Lokken, Matthew Lillard, Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds to name a few. Either their unaware of Boll’s poison reputation or they don’t care and are just doing it for the paycheck. But I don’t think anyone was waking into this film expecting it to be the next Lord of the Rings.
I’ve seen a couple of Boll’s movies and I think the reason he gets so much crap – I mean, despite the amateur hand when it comes to staging or shooting a scene – is because he clearly doesn’t have a passion for the video game properties he’s adapting. And when you’re comparing passion against the gamers who make these properties viable, you’d better be right there along with them. You’d better match their passion or they’ll eat you alive. Comic book fans are the same way. But Boll doesn’t seem to care. Not to sound xenophobic, but he comes off like an outsider capitalizing on a trend. A hack whose just in it for the paycheck.
I know a few hard-core gamers that feel strongly that Boll’s films are preventing video games as being seen as a legitimate art form. You’d think they were talking about Jane Fonda setting back the women’s movement 20 years when she started making exercise tapes.
Did I just date myself there?
At any rate, regarding Boll’s challenge. A few internet critics took him up on it. Turns out he was once a semi-pro pugilist. The results are about what you’d expect:
I was going to post my list of Top 10 Films for 2007 to the site today. But I barely got any sleep last night and I don’t think I can articulate myself the way I want. Look for the full list on Friday.
If you want a preview, you can always listen to Monday’s Triple Feature broadcast. I do an overview of my picks 10 through 6 and dig a little deeper on my picks 5 through 1. Plus, you get to hear Gordon and Joe’s picks as well! Everyone wins!
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the site. I hope everyone survives their Wednesday.
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“Why did you draw yourself like Gollum?”
That was the first question Cami asked me when I showed her the artwork for today’s strip. I noticed it myself after I inked it and I think it works! Old Tom should look like of goblin-like, don’t you think?
I’m really happy with the way this comic turned out. Pretty much once I decided that future-Tom should live in an environment reminiscent of The Jetsons, things started falling into place. Sometimes I think of a point I want to make first and then wrap a joke around it. This is me just being silly. It feels good.
Of course you know I had to throw in a Futurama reference for good measure.
As for The Bucket List? I don’t know. In real-life, I’m not all that excited about it. While I’m attracted to any movie that stars Jack Nicholson or Morgan Freeman, I’m not attracted to a film whose main conceit is “Hey! These guys are gonna die soon!” I don’t need to be reminded of that. Basically, to me, The Bucket List looks like Grumpy Old Men with a mortality twist and I don’t trust director Rob Riener to be capable enough of reigning in the schmaltz.
That’s it for now. I know I talked about getting you my Best of 2007 list today and I still want to make that a reality. I just have to delay it for the time being. I’m going to try and get it done over my lunch hour, though. So come back this afternoon!
See you then!
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Man, nuthin’ like a near decade-old reference to a independent horror movie to get things going on a Monday morning, huh?
So, Cloverfield comes out this weekend and I’m pretty pumped. Surprisingly pumped, actually. Pumped, but cautious. The trailer looks good, but the shaky-cam captured by victims in the middle of all the action makes me wince a little. Plus, January is typically a dumping ground for the studios where they bury films they’re not all that proud of after the holiday rush. Either Cloverfield is looking to capitalize on the vacancy of quality films, or it’s a two-ton turkey itself. It could potentially be Snakes on a Plane for 2008.
Buzz, excitement and speculation have been surrounding this movie since last Autumn with everyone trying to figure out what tricks producer J.J. Abrams has up his sleeve. The Slusho campaign and the recent oil rig disaster fake news report viral campagins have tongues wagging as fans try to decipher their meaning. With a string of mind-bending “WTF!” successes on television with Alias and Lost, expectations are running high.
Abrams did the right thing by obscuring the monster in the trailers. It’s only whetted our appetite more. There was talk at one point if you would even get to see the monster at all in the movie. While that has since been discounted, I think it would have been the braver choice.
Cloverfield is clearly a 9/11 parable. Falling debris, mass confusion at the ground level, people looking up, throngs of people crossing the George Washington Bridge, the destruction of a national monument… all the keystone images are in place.
You could argue that any disaster movie set in New York at this point could be seen as a 9/11 parable and you wouldn’t be wrong. But what Abrams could have done with this – and, in my mind, been much more effective – is NOT show the monster.
There is no horror greater than the monsters that live in our imaginations. Anything we can conjure in our own minds – our own personal fear – is ten time more powerful than anything a filmmaker can give shape to on screen. What better way to contextually address the spectre of terrorism – this amorphous hate and violence against us – by refusing to define what it looks like?
That’s the artistic interpretation. Then again, the hard core geek in me REALLY wants to see what this bad boy looks like.
And then buy the action figure.
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Hey, gang.
I know I promised that I would type up my list of the Top 10 Movies of 2007 and I kind of flaked. So I started working on it tonight to have something to reference back to instead of breaking another promise.
One problem – my write-up wasn’t very good.
I thought that I could add some value to my picks by punching it up a little copy. I started writing and found myself just kind of regurgitating what I said in last weeks Triple Feature broadcast, so I scrapped it.
My advice? Download last week’s show. You won’t regret it. Gordon, Joe and I put together a great show with a lot of back and forth and a few surprises. It’s probably one of my favorite shows we’ve done over the last year. I was really proud of it.
Don’t forget to check out this week’s show, while you’re at it. We’re broadcasting live at 9:00 PM CST. We’ll be discussing In The Name of the King, The Orphanage, 27 Dresses as well as The Bucket List and First Sunday.
Sorry again for flaking out on the Top 10 list. But come back to the site for a DVD review of Paul Rudd in The Ten tomorrow.
I swear!
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Adam Brody, Rob Corddry, Famke Janssen, Ron Silver, Jason Sudeikis, Gretchen Mol, Oliver Platt, Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Liev Schreiber,and Jessica Alba.
There must have been something pretty attractive about The Ten (on DVD January 15) to attract this level of talent. Now that it’s all said and done, I’m still trying to figure out what it is.
Written and directed by two alumni of the sketch comedy group The State, The Ten is a modern examination of The Ten Commandments. It’s not so much a film as a series of comedy sketches performed by a rotating and sometimes interceding cast of characters.
Paul Rudd plays Jeff Reigert. An everyday guy, he’s supposed to be guiding us through these stories. But between his wife, his mistress and Diane Wiest, he can barely get two sentences out with breaking a commandment or two himself.
That’s about as much narrative as you’re going to get in this picture and the random inclusion of Diane Wiest should give a clue as to the completely unpredictable nature of this comedy.
The film is fairly elliptical about how it addresses the commandments. In some cases, those who break them end up having things work out for them just fine! It’s not so much a morality tale, but more of an attempt to let the air out of a serious subject. Watching the film, I kept thinking about Monty Python’s The Life of Brian. The Ten is just as random, just as offensive and just as odd but it’s not the kind of movie whose sense of humor all audiences will appreciate.
I mean, once you have Winona Ryder having vigorous sex with a ventriloquist’s puppet, pretty much all bets are off.
I think there is a lot to like in The Ten, but in small doses. I would have hoped that the film could have gotten out of it’s own way at times and maybe found a way to interweave the narrative between stories a little more. Near the end of the film, things start to gel . But from a distance, the film feels like little more than a series of sketches that would have played much better on TV.
Then again, the film never takes itself that seriously. So maybe neither should we.
This is a great film to have on DVD, a fun afternoon rental if you don’t mind disconnected humor. Give it a shot if you’re willing to try something different. It may end up growing on you. But audiences expecting traditional setups and punchlines should look elsewhere.
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I know on Monday I said I was going to do a whole week of Cloverfield strips. But as I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something new, I hit a dead end and my mind began to wonder about the other movies coming out this week. A movie like the horror/comedy Teeth was too good to pass up.
Gordon and I actually got to talking about this movie on Monday night’s Triple Feature broadcast and I’m aware that Gordon has a very risque comic of his own related to the film. Be sure to check that out over at Multiplex tomorrow.
I first saw the trailer a few months ago, I think, over at Break.com and I thought it was a gag trailer. Something made by someone with a twisted sense of humor, too much money and too much time on their hands. When I found out it was real, I couldn’t believe it.
The plot of the movie I think is incidental. A girl finds out she has teeth in her lady parts and goes on a rampage against filthy, disgusting men. I like that they take puberty and the dramatic, scary changes one’s body goes through and adding another layer on top of it. That’s clever. Beyond that, I can see it working as a revenge fantasy. Maybe she’s been abused in the past by a creepy uncle, or something and the rest is justifiable assault? But some of the scenes in the trailer are darkly comic and I wonder if they’re going to have a hard time establishing a consistent tone.
Nothing sense this mixed message clearer than the two posters created to promote the movie. One dark and sinister, one light and goofy:
The “serious” poster on the left includes a blurb that says “The most alarming cautionary tale for men since Fatal Attraction.” Which doesn’t make any sense since, well, vagina teeth aren’t real. What would you do if they were? “I really like you, Susan – but do you mind if I check something first? You can never be too careful.”
They try to sell the ominous tone with the tag line “Every Rose Has Its Thorns.” Did they have to cut a check to the lead singer of Poison to get the rights to that one?
The poster on the left is much more tongue-in-cheek (and a disgusting metaphor just came to mind that I’m probably better off omitting here). Lead actress Jess Weixler is biting her bottom lip with an apologetic expression on her face. The tagline printed on her shirt reads “WARNING: Sex Changes Everything” Ho, ho! So wacky!
You know what the funniest thing about that poster is – the Ugg boots Weixler is wearing. 2005 called, honey. It wants its fashion back. They call them “Ugg” boots for a reason, y’know.
At any rate, Teeth is in limited release. If any of you are in the big cities and have a chance to see it, let me know. I’m curious what the reaction to this thing will be.
Or, y’know – I can wait 6 months and I’m sure it’ll be on Showtime every other night at 1:00 in the morning.
Have a great Wednesday! See you back here on Friday!
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27 Dresses comes out this weekend and I’m probably going to end up seeing it. The film has been on Cami’s radar for a while.
I actually remember kind of being excited about it when I frist heard about it sometimes last fall. At that point, Katherine Heigl could do no wrong. I thought she was awesome in Knocked Up and I was looking forward to seeing her in another movie.
Of course, since then, she’s been talking a lot of smack and saying stupid things like how Knocked Up was sexist and how her character on Grey’s Anatomy has been written so poorly this season (yours and everyone else’s, sister!) It all comes off like a bunch of whining to me. It’s not professional and it makes me kind of dislike her. I know that’s superficial, but when you only have so much time over any given weekend and only so much money in your wallet, you’ll leverage any decision making you can wrap your mind around. I mean, what actress wouldn’t kill to trade places with her at this stage in her career.
I guess it will be interesting to see if she can carry a picture by herself. She may have been the female lead in Knocked Up, but that movie was most certainly not about her. I guess even if she sucks, I’m looking forward to seeing James Marsden on screen again so soon after knocking it out of the park in Enchanted. That dude was the best thing about that movie.
I’ve always liked Marsden even if he comes off like the thinking-man’s Casper Van Dien. I don’t particularly hold him accountable to the fact that he’s always the guy being dumped in movies. After all, there are actors who seemingly die in every other role they take. It’s just jarring to see him in this different context. I hope it pans out for him. He deserves more.
Actually, the fact that he’s always getting dumped in the movies might be the one great thing that will instantly draw audiences to him – sympathize with him. I mean, for once, shouldn’t the guy get the girl?
On thing’s for sure – they’ve been running advanaced screenings of this movie for a while now trying to build word of mouth. I think it screened once in December before the holidays and it was screened again for general audiences last Saturday. My sister-in-law went and she said she liked it. My good friend Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies saw it and liked it, too.
Joe made the point that the movie was formulaic, but that it didn’t count as a strike against it because it’s been very compitently arranged. Not every movie has to deliver a brand new experience. Some films take a tried and true formula and do great things with it by telling a story in simple terms. There’s nothing wrong with it. In fact, that’s what makes these formulas tried and true to begin with. Done right, they simply work.
27 Dresses has that vernier going into the film. I’ll be eager to see if it delivers on that promise.
That’s it for me today. I’m sneaking out of the house later tonight to see Cloverfiled. Actually, all three members of The Triple Feature are planning on seeing Cloverfield this weekend, so we’ll have plenty to talk about on next Monday’s show.
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday!
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