Archive for February, 2008
16 items.
Feb01
I wish there was some kind of context for this comic, but there really isn’t. I was checking my LiveJournal friends page the other day and the feed from BestWeekEver.tv posted these images of Shia LaBeouf wearing a cow costume – no explanation provided.
I suppose you could argue their existence in a couple of ways. Maybe some photographer talked Shia into taking a couple of photos to make fun of his name – which loosely translates to “Thank God for the beef.” Maybe he’s trying to reach out to the furry community. Maybe they’re a gag gift. Or maybe Shia has no idea what to do with all the money he made from Transformers.
Whatever the case may be, they fit way too neatly into my anti-Shai campaign to pass up. But instead of mouthing off for the hundredth time about why I find the dude so off-putting, I decided to post both images at a higher resolution and let the images speak for themselves.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Images courtesy of Towerload.com
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For some people, watching the Super Bowl is all about the football. For others, the commercials. I fall into the later category and last night I was interested in one commercial in particular.
Go watch it. Right now. Done? Good.
Look, I know I’m probably setting myself up for a serious fall. I’ve got my hopes so high for this movie, they can’t possibly be matched. I know I’m also opening myself up against would-be detractors who are ready and willing to crap on something I hold dear. It doesn’t surprise me. I spend most of the year taking the piss out of all the big movies out there. For example, I didn’t make a lot of fans when I said Spider-Man 3 was a huge let down. So if Iron Man sucks, I have to be prepared for others to rub it in my face.
But for now, I’m in a blissed-out state. I can’t wait for this movie and every little snippet they release makes it look better and better and better to me. So right now I’m just riding a wave of good feelings until May 5. Don’t harsh my mellow, dude.
Speaking of harshed mellows (marshmallows?), what about that Super Bowl game last night. Pretty boring during the second and third quarter, but an excellent finish! I think what was great about this particular match up is that there was a good story in it for everyone regardless of which direction the wind blew. If the Patriots won, we’d all get to see history repeat for the first time since 1972 when the Miami Dolphins played a perfect season. If the Giants won, we’d get to see the underdog triumph.
Well, the underdog won and I couldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Two spectacular last minute plays by both teams. Your heart has to go out to Tom Brady and the Patriots. Can you imagine being 30 seconds away from perfection only to have it torn from your grasp? I wonder if the NFL provides grief counselors to the losing team? Sad stuff.
I know people like to beat up on the Patriots because they have a lot of money and they’ve been winning a lot of Super Bowls in the last few years. It’s like hating the Yankees. I get it. It’s easy to root for the favorite. You’re never in the minority.
While I typically align myself with the underdog out of a similar disdain for “sure things,” it would have been really cool to have witnessed the end cap to a perfect season. That just doesn’t happen that often anymore.
Anyway, enough sports talk. Can you guys believe that the Hannah Montana concert movie made almost $30 million? A new record for a film released over the Super Bowl weekend. I guess they said it pre-sold over $18 million tickets before Friday. That’s crazy.
Personally, I can’t wait for the whole Miley Cyrus gravy train to come to a screeching halt. I guess she’s already making the move away from the Hannah Montana character and striking out as her own performer. But by the time she’s ready to declare herself a “serious” songwriter, you know here teeny-bopper fan base will have grown up and moved on to something else. It’s going to be spectacular.
But enough music talk! Now is the part of the blog where I would tell you to be sure and check out The Triple Feature podcast over at TalkShoe. But here’s the skinny – there won’t be a show tonight. Gordon, Joe and I discussed it last week and decided we needed a little break. Not a whole lot to talk about in movies anyway, so it was a good time for us to cool our jets a little and recharge the batteries. This will give all of you who are new to the show a good chance to go through the archive and download some of our old broadcasts. Lots of good stuff in there. I’m especially proud of our Cloverfield episode from a few weeks ago.
Did you know that you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes now? Really handy! All the latest shows are sent directly to you! Check it out!
It’s probably a good thing we decided not to broadcast tonight because I’m pretty sure I would monopolize the entire conversation talking about the Iron Man trailer. And no one wants to listen to that for an hour!
In the meantime, for more Iron Man-inspired lunacy, check out this post from my LiveJournal account (friend me, while you’re at it). I took pictures of my Iron Man action figure collection. That’s right. I’m 30 years-old and collect action figures. Wanna make something of it?
Have a good day and I’ll see you here again on Wednesday!
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The original idea of this comic was to do a riff on Groundhog’s Day and the tradition if the groundhog sees his shadow, it’s another 6 weeks of winter. In this case, if the North American Fanboy sees his shadow… we’ll you probably get the idea.
This time of year I truly do feel like hibernating. Not much is happening in pop culture that’s captured my interest. Well, except for Lost coming back to the airwaves. Thank goodness for that!
Much as if you say the words “Bloddy Mary” into a mirror three time and a ghostly woman appears to slit your throat, I’m reluctant to give too much attention to Paris Hilton in fear that saying her name aloud might make her real. I fear that by making fun of her upcoming movie The Hottie and The Nottie, I’ve already given more attention to this film than it rightly deserves. Clearly the marketing Svengali who dreamed up the film’s title should be strung up by their thumbs. I mean, I get that it’s cashing in on Hilton’s trademarked, half-lidded “That’s hot.” catchphrase, but what the hell is a “Nottie?”
Whatever it is, can we PLEASE assume that Paris Hilton is the “Nottie?”
That’s about all I have for you today. I could probably go on for a few more paragraphs about how much I hate Paris Hilton. But really, why share the obvious? It’s not like there are that many people in the world left to convince about Paris’ sub-par worth as a human being, right?
Incidentally, if anyone is trying to figure out the significance of the date in the last panel, click on this link. I promise nothing will jump out at you. But you may find this site has the power… to move you.
LATERZ!
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Feb08
Everyone is pretty much on board with the concept that Matthew McConaughey seems to have a pathological aversion to shirts, right?
I have a ton of friends that like to do McConaughey impressions and they all boil down to pretty much the same thing. Keep the eyes half-closed, speak slowly, trail off on your vowels and do it all with a stupid grin on your face.
In most ways, McConaughey has been playing off his character Wooderson from Dazed and Confused almost as long as he’s been in Hollywood. You have to assume that’s what he’s like in real life. Every once in a while he turns in an interesting performance like he did in A Time To Kill or Frailty. Heck, even Reign of Fire had it’s plusses because of him. But for the most part, it’s slow-talkin’, easy-goin’ Matt.
Part of me wishes I could adopt the McConaughey philosophy in real life. I’m just not one of those people who can let stuff roll off their backs. I wish I knew the secret. I mean, I can guess what the secret is – “there is no secret. You just… be.” or some other new age mumbo jumbo. But some people aren’t wired to accept the Hakuna Matata interpretation of things and I’m one of them. I could probably save myself a lot of stress if I could tap into it somehow. But at the same time, I’d probably get a lot less done.
Fool’s Gold is a re-paring of McConaughey and his co-star from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson. I have to admit, I liked How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I thought McConaughey and Hudson had good chemsitry in that flick, so I’m not opposed to seeing them cover the same ground.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was one of those movies I initially rejected based on premise. It was too cloying, even for a romantic comedy. But I went, and it grew on me. Then it came out on DVD, and we bought it. Then it was on TBS all the time and eventually I let it into my heart.
What can I say?
Cami and I probably won’t end up seeing Fool’s Gold this weekend. We’re saving up karma points so we can trade them in next weekend for a Valentine’s Day babysitter. Both Cami and I are excited to see Definitely, Maybe It seems like the more interesting of the two romantic comedies. We’ll see.
Not much else to report from the home front. Thanks for swinging by the site this week! Have a great weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday!
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Last week when I did a comic about The Hottie and The Nottie, I spoke about not wanting to give too much attention to the film based on it’s horrid premise and the fact that Paris Hilton was its star. But when I read this article with a box office recap for the weekend, I had to gloat a little bit.
I suppose I made it a little bit personal by taking shots at Hilton for her plastic surgery over the years, but she’s done such a terrible job lying about it in interviews, I found the irony delicious. How can someone like Hilton who is so ugly on the inside and who still looks like a drugged ostrich to this day make any commentary on what is or is not “hot.” It’s laughable.
I brought this up in the comments section of last Wednesday’s LiveJournal comic feed, in addition to being the “star” of the picture, Hilton was also executive producer. You get the sense that she thought this movie might improve the public’s perception of her. “Look, I’m helping out ugly people? Aren’t I great?!” while at the same time standing over co-star Christine Lakin in the make-up chair saying “More! More!” as they slathered on layer after layer of “ugly” make-up. Why Lakin agreed to the role is beyond me.
At any rate, that’s pretty much all I have to say about things. Again, I don’t want to lend to much credibility to the film. Just looking for an opportunity to take a cheap shot, I guess.
HEY! DO YOU LIKE PODCASTS?
Well, if so, be sure to tune into The Triple Feature live at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe.com tonight! Last week Joe, Gordon and I decided to take the night off and recharge our batteries. This week we’re back with lots to talk about. So be sure to tun in live and participate in the show. Call in and speak to us in real time or chat to your heart’s content in the shows chat field! Tonight we’ll be talking about Fool’s Gold, In Bruges and more! See you there!
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So I was skimming around on Digg.com today and I learned that someone Dugg my comic “Harrison Ford Never Rides Bitch” from a couple of months ago. The article had almost 2,000 other people Digg it, as well. Pretty cool, huh?
Well, actually no. It wasn’t cool because the person who Dugg the comic linked directly to the image and not back to the page in the archvie where it’s being displayed. So not only did I miss out on a huge revenue generating opportunity, I was also denied credit on the piece and people are unaware that there’s a larger site behind the comic – so it’s unlikely that I gained any new readers from the exposure. What’s worse, is because the dude linked to the image itself, it’s sucking down my bandwidth without any of the positive side effects!
So here’s the thing – you know that I appreciate it when you link Theater Hopper through the various social bookmarking outlets. But you’re doing more harm than good if you’re not linking back to the site itself. So be cool, please?
I understand that this is the nature of doing business of the web and you can’t control how people choose to disseminate your stuff. I suppose if I’ve learned anything, it’s that I need to start putting the title of the comic, my name and the URL of the site into the comic image so at least then I’m getting credit for my work if this happens again. Either that, or I need to slap some code onto my server that keeps people from directly linking to my images. Does anyone out there know how to do that? Let me know.
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Feb13
I realize there isn’t much of a punchline to this comic, but I like how the last panel turned out. The Chrysler Building in one of my favorites, so it was fun to work it into the comic somehow. The real grin in this piece is Tom’s obtuseness. Teleporting to get the mail? That’s just lazy!
Jumper has been on my radar for a while, it seems. I think I remember seeing the teaser trailer for it sometime last fall. At the time, I remember not thinking it was very good. It certainly didn’t do a very good job of trading in on it’s pedigree of having been directed by Doug Liman – an error they’ve since corrected.
I think most movie-goers instinctively flinch whenever they see Hayden Christensen in the lead. Call it The Anakin Effect. I gotta hand it to him, though. The kid keeps working. He could have very easily ended up with Mark Hamill’s career.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Mark Hamill. Especially now that he’s a voice over artist. His interpretation of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series is still the benchmark I judge other interpretations of the character. But at the same time, Hamill didn’t really do much with the exposure the first three Star Wars movies afforded him. I mean, Corvette Summer? C’mon!
At any rate, I really like how the ad campaign is playing up the potential of teleportation with their slogan “Anywhere is possible.” That’s kind of a “duh” statement to make, but it does capture the imagination somewhat. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to check out the pyramids in Egypt in the morning and be home by lunch? Sounds pretty convienient.
We talked a little bit about Jumper at the end of Monday’s broadcast of The Triple Feature. I encourage you to download the show if you missed it. We had taken the previous week off, so we had lots to talk about. Even went a little bit long in the broadcast. No worries. We had a great time.
Hey, don’t forget Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Show your sweetie you care!
Later, all.
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It’s hard not to feel like a complete hack when writing a joke like this, but once I got it in my head, I couldn’t shake it loose. I don’t always make comics just for the punchline anyway. Sometimes it’s a good opportunity to experiment with body language and expressions. I think there are a couple of good ones here.
If you’re a little confused as to what comic I’m making refernce to, it’s Definitely, Maybe – a romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, and Rachel Weisz, Reynold’s character is on the brink of divorce and Breslin – his daugher – wants to know everything about how her parents met and fell ing love. Reynolds talks about the three great loves in his life, obscuring which of the women ended up with. It’s basically How I Met Your Mother – The Movie.
It’s all pretty much rom-com boilerplate, but I think what makes this movie interesting is the casting. Rachel Weisz pretty much plays the befuddled girlfriend in every movie, but Isla Fisher and especially Elizabeth Banks are brave choices. I think just about everyone fell in love with Fisher after Wedding Crashers. She’s basically Amy Adams with an attitude. I’m especially happy for Banks to be getting this kind of billing. She’s shown up in a lot of random places like Wet Hot American Summer, the Spider-Man movies, the horror comedy Slither and even on TV’s Scrubs. Most people probably remember her as the book store clerk Steve Carrell hits on in The 40 Year-Old Virgin. It’s obvious she has the chops. It’s nice to see her in something maybe a little more straight-forward
Above all, is it weird that the one I’m rooting for most ir Ryan Reynolds. I’ve always thought Reynolds was a great performer, but he was kind of trapped by his Van Wilder persona – the charismatic goofball who’s always throwing knowing glances to the audience. He’s tried branching out in films like Blade: Trinity and the remake of The Amityville Horror, but he’s had trouble latching on to good material. If it’s a lack of opportunity or a lack of good decision making, I don’t know.
I’m not saying Definitely, Maybe is the magic bullet, but I think it will pay off to do something a little more traditional and safe. If it gets people thinking about Reynolds as a more serious actor, then I would say “mission accomplished.”
If you’re interested, you can check out the web site for the movie at http://www.definitelymaybemovie.com. Here’s a couple of links to the trailer as well.
That about does it for me today. I just wanted to say thanks to all of the people who sent e-mails with their suggestions on how to prevent hotlinking. I’m not sure what direction I’m going to go with things – if I’m going to block off the folder on the server with the images, or if I’m going to include some kind of copyright line into the body of the image. But I got a lot of good tips and I wanted to say “Thanks.” I’m sorry I couldn’t respond to everyone individually.
I’m at home with Henry because he’s been sick the last few days, but I might be back a little later in the day if I can get him to take a nap. I was sent a reall cool Theater Hopper-related DVD cover mock up I want to share with you guys. Don’t let me forget!
See you soon!
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First off, apologies for the lateness of today’s comic. I was having all kind of issues with my internet provider over the weekend. Of course, we had a huge blizzard here in Iowa that probably had something to do with it, so I can’t get too mad with them.
Good thing I was a home when things got turned back on so I could post to the site.
But, waitaminute. Shouldn’t I be at work? What am I doing at home on a Monday morning? You can thank this guy.
That’s my boy Henry and he’s one year-old today! Both Cami and I took the day off to celebrate with him.
I wish I had something more profound to say about my experiences in the last year, but the entire process of fatherhood is so completely transformative, I’m not sure I recognize the person I was before Henry came into my life – so it’s difficult to pinpoint what’s different.
In many ways I feel like Henry has always been here with us. I can’t really remember the days where Cami and I would simply lay around on a Saturday and watch an I Love the 80’s marathon on VH1 anymore. (That’s probably for the best.)
Certainly Henry is much different than the little sleepy lump we brought home from the hospital a year ago. Watching him develop has been an everyday miracle. I know most parents feel this way, but I felt like we really lucked out with Henry. He has a great temperment and a sense of humor. Loves to laugh and smile. Very verbal. He’s already identifying things like blocks, books and ball. In the last week, he’s been standing himself up. He’s *this* close to walking now. It’s amazing.
I don’t post many pictures of Henry in this space and that’s been by design. Partially to protect him and partially because of relevance. I mean, this is a web comic about movies, you know?
But I was looking over all of the wonderful e-mails of support readers sent a year ago when Henry was born and thought you guys would appreciate seeing how far the little guy has come. One day I’m going to show him those e-mails and explain to him how so many people welcomed him into the world without ever knowing him. There are good people in the world. You guys are some of the best.
Part of me wondered if I would have to set Theater Hopper aside after Henry was born. It’s been a bumpy ride over the last year, but I think we’ve found a way to make it work. A large part of that is because of your patience and support. Thanks for continuing to read Theater Hopper, thank you for your encouragement and thanks for supporting me and my family.
I’ll be back with more news later in the day. Big news, actually, that will affect the future of Theater Hopper in a really good way. But for now, I have to help decorate a birthday cake!
See you soon!
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Well, we just wrapped up Henry’s first birthday party and put him to be. All things equal, I would say he had a great time. It was great to spend time with the family. Smiles all around.
So what about that big news that’s going to change the direction of Theater Hopper that I was talking about earlier?…
Starting today, Theater Hopper has entered into an exclusive partnership with the movies news, review and interview blog FirstShowing.net. Theater Hopper comics will now be mirrored on FirstShowing.net every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
It’s a real thrill for me to announce this exclusive partnership with First Showing. There’s is a blog I’ve been following for a while and it speaks directly to my sensibilities. These guys do a great job not only discussing upcoming projects, but reviewing what’s in theaters, too with humor, sometimes caution, sometimes utter fanboy adulation. Believe me, they cover all the angles.
It doesn’t hurt that they have a soft spot for comic book properties like yours truly, either.
So if you haven’t visited FirstShowing.net before, be sure to add them to your bookmarks now. Hopefully this is a relationship that we’ll be able to develop further in the months to come and find new ways to work together and deliver a unique movie-related online experience for everyone involved.
Thanks again to Alex Billington and look for continued updates as we move forward!
For more insight into this exclusive partnership, please be sure to listen to The Triple Feature talkcast at TalkShoe.com tonight at 9:00 PM CST. Feel free to call in or submit questions! We’ll see you there!
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