Archive for November, 2008
12 items.
I am VERY frustrated right now because I had a very long post for the front page today and the internet ate it!
Angry… so angry!
Okay, summary time, I guess. Because I’m just too mad to go back and write it again.
1. VOTE. If you live in America, vote on Tuesday. I don’t care who you vote for. Just vote. Do not abdicate you civil responsibility. People around the world would literally die to have the rights we have. Don’t waste it.
2. Zack & Miri Make A Porno was great. Elizabeth Banks is the MVP of the picture.
3. Tune in to The Triple Feature tonight at 9PM CST where we will talk more about Zack & Miri as well as some of our favorite political films. If you have a question you’d like to ask the group before we record, please send it to group@thetriplefeature.com.
Thank you!
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My apologies if the artwork in today’s comic is somewhat lacking. I was a bit distracted last night. Y’know… watching history.
The way Tom looks in the first panel is a pretty accurate representation of how I feel this morning. I was pretty much glued to coverage all last night and it was exhausting. If I don’t see another hologram of will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, it’ll be too soon. Good work, relevant journalism!
I knew that today’s comic had to address this historic election in some way, but I was cautious not to have it lean one way or the other. That’s why Tom has his priorities straight. He’s more concerned with the new movies coming out this weekend!
Incidentally, it’s a tough decision. On the one hand, Madacascar 2 is soft on terror. But Role Models made a poor decision with it’s choice of running mate, Sean Williams Scott.
I kid, I kid…
Truth be told, I’ll probably see Role Models this weekend, but the trailers don’t look encouraging to me. I like Sean Williams Scott as an actor. You can tell he’s working hard and he does what he can. But the dude is a bad script magnet. I’ll be seeing this movie for one reason and one reason only – to nurture my man-crush on Paul Rudd.
Recently, though, I learned that Role Models was directed and partially written by David Wain. If you don’t recognize his name, you should. I know I’ve talked about MTV’s The State before and he was a member of that groundbreaking comedy group. Need another clue? He wrote and directed Wet, Hot American Summer. So there you go.
The only downside? The film has 5 other people credited with the script and typically script-by-committee movies are never good. Especially with comedies. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Not much else to talk about today, but I thought you guys might get a kick out of another completed sketch for the Donation Drive:
Today’s sketch was for a fan who mistakenly requested “a picture of the cast sitting around the coffee house with the usual funny signs in the background.” She had accidentally confused Theater Hopper with Questionable Content! Hey, I’m not complaining! I’ll take that comparison ANY day.
It was a slip of the tongue on her part and when I asked her about it, she admitted the gaffe and told me to draw whatever I wanted. I decided to have a little fun with it and do a sketch with Marten from QC and Tom just hanging out. I don’t draw other artist’s characters nearly enough. It was a fun little exercise. I should get off my can and draw more guest strips…
At any rate, that sketch will be dropped in the mail soon. I’m steadily gaining traction on completing more and more original art. I should have all of the sketch card requests completed soon. After that, I’ll be moving up to the 8 x 10" large scale drawings. Keep your eyes peeled for more in the future.
Have a great day, everyone!
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JCVD comes out this weekend and, if you’re like me, you haven’t been paying attention at all.
I had a few friends buzzing about the movie, but I guess I wasn’t paying attention because the concept sounds great. 90’s action star Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in a mockumentary as a real-life version of himself where he stumbles into the middle of a bank robbery. High kicking and movie staged heroics are no match for real bullets, so what does an actor do when confronted with a gun to his temple?
That synopsis is a little clumsy. Maybe as clumsy as the movie title itself. Watch the trailer. It does a better job explaining things than I do.
Now that I have an idea what the movie is about, I’m kind of interested to see it play out.
I should say that I’m not a big Jean-Claude Van Damme fan. I liked Lionheart and probably saw it a half-dozen time in syndication on Saturday afternoons. Growing up, it seemed like either Lionheart or Big Trouble in Little China was always playing sometime, somewhere on the dial. But by the time Timecop hit theaters in 1994, I had all but rejected Van Damme and his mullet. I was always impressed by his athleticism, but his acting was always hammy and atrocious. I know that’s supposed to be part of the appeal for a big, bloated action movie. Certainly Van Damme is no less ridiculous than Stallone, Segal or even Schwarzenegger. But when the market was flooded with those kind of movies, he was the first actor to be cut from my list.
So now, over a decade later, here comes JCVD featuring Van Damme in hyper-awareness mode peeling away his soul for entertainment. Critics actually like the performance. They’re calling it a comeback! Anything is possible, I suppose. But I don’t know if Van Damme is doing himself any favors by taking that good will and announcing he’ll star in Universal Soldier III. Follow the money, I suppose.
Something equally preposterous is the news I shared in today’s comic. It’s absolutely true that Van Damme has canceled promotional appearances to take care of a dog he is adopting from Thailand that has fallen into a coma. I read that story and thought it sounded like a lie that someone is making up AS they’re telling it. Like “I’m sorry, but I can’t come to your birthday party because I have to help my cousin fix his canoe so he can by antibiotics for a staph infection. Yeah, he lives in Nova Scotia. Sorry!”
I mean, I don’t want to sound insensitive. It’s good that Van Damme is taking responsibility for a sick animal. But, first of all, why Thailand? They didn’t have any dogs up for adoption in Brussles? Second, when you have critics at your back for the first time in a LONG time (in some cases, the first time EVER), why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of that, put your face out there and remind people that you’re still alive. You know the old saying in Hollywood: “Here today, gone today!”
Maybe Van Damme has good reason to stay out of the public eye. Have you seen a picture of him lately? Looks like he’s been doing some hard livin’. The man is 48 years-old and he looks 78. See for yourself.
Yikes. The last time I saw lines that deep I was visiting the Grand Canyon!
http://www.instantrimshot.com/
Oh, who am I kidding. He could still kick my ass.
Look, Van Damme has been a joke in the industry for a long time, but obviously the guy has some smarts about the business or he wouldn’t have hung around as long as he has. Heck, he probably wouldn’t have broken into the business to begin with if he wasn’t at least somewhat ambitious and smart about his decisions.
But at some point he lost his way. Started making crap like Leigonnaire and Replicant and then got shipped back to Europe to make more bottom of the barrel flicks. All I’m saying is I would be happy is Van Damme could at least salvage some respect out of a smart, self-aware turn like JCVD. But instead, he seems to be displaying more poor decision making and it’s a shame.
That’s it for me this week. I hope to see Role Models this weekend, which has been getting some surprisingly good reviews! Probably stronger than it deserves, but I can finally unclench and stop worrying about Paul Rudd starring in some career-killing bomb. Hey… there’s no telling what could happen to your career when you’re doing time with Sean Williams Scott. Just ask Johnny Knoxville.
Thanks for swinging by today and I hope you have a great weekend. See you here on Monday!
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I don’t really have a problem with L.A.R.P.ing. I remember when I heard about it a few years ago, though. I think it was on MTV, of all places. That True Life documentary series they have? Yeah, on there.
I thought it was kind of weird at that time. But, in truth, it’s really no more or less weird than any other hobby. It’s dress-up and make-believe. When you’re a kid you do it all the time. But I guess you reach a certain age and that’s no longer “socially acceptable?” I don’t get it.
I mean, if you participate in a Renaissance Festival, than that’s okay. And if you’re a Civil War re-enactor, that’s okay… But L.A.R.Ping? How uncool!
Please. Hypocrisy, anyone?
I have to admit, however, that I was surprised by just how much L.A.R.P.ing was built into the storyline of Role Models. As you’ve probably gathered from the trailer, Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Auggie Farks and L.A.R.P.ing is his main pursuit. I thought it was just supposed to be an odd character trait. I wasn’t expecting the whole third act to center around a L.A.R.P. event or to bear witness to several choreographed battle sequences. Toss in a handful of references to KISS and you have on of the most idiosyncratic comedies ever to slip into theaters under the guise of a by-the-book Hollywood laugher.
Seriously. It’s like the writers of the movie read from a list of disparate topics and asked themselves “Which of these can we tie together and still make them funny?” It feels like a improv exercise that grew legs and turned into a big-budget studio comedy. In other words, it shouldn’t have worked, but it totally did.
A lot of the credit goes to the film’s performances. Paul Rudd plays Danny, a misanthropic, borderline clinically depressed pitchman for an energy drink company. Danny’s in a rut. 35 and thinking that he should have accomplished more with his life. After an impuslive marriage proposal to his girlfriend (2008 MVP Elizabeth Banks) that rings false, she breaks up with him, moves out and Danny ends up on a self-destructive jag that causes him to lose his job and lands him in an after school program doing community service as part of a plea deal to keep him out of prison.
Rudd plays Danny with a level of defeated exhaustion, he can barely muster the bile to raise a sneer. You can see why his girlfriend would dump him. He picks fights with everyone and is generally draining to be around. Rudd does a great job of thoroughly inhabiting a very unlikeable character.
But we shouldn’t forget his partner in crime Wheeler, played by Sean Williams Scott. Wheeler is Danny’s co-worker and ends up in the same after-school program as an accessory to Danny’s outburst. Scott is very winning as Wheeler, playing him as a little thick but casual and worry-free. I like Scott, but he needs to give up on this idea of being an action hero. Between Bulletproof Monk, The Rundown and The Dukes of Hazzard, he’s much better off playing to his strengths and letting his natural charisma do the work for him.
The supporting performances in the film are good, but threaten to overshadow things a little bit. A lot of focus is placed on Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s character and that’s fine, but this kid is headed dangerously toward Anthony Michael Hall territoriy if he keeps it up with all the socially inept nerd roles. I guess he has a sense of humor about it, but perception is reality. It won’t be long before this is the only kind of role audiences will accept him in.
Bobb’e J. Thompson plays the foul-mouthed and breast-obsessed Ronnie and performs the role ably. I just wish it wasn’t such a cliche – the smart alex black kid. It’s kind of funny that he continually insults Rudd’s character by referencing Ben Affleck movies, but otherwise, it’s all shock-value and that wears thin fast.
Another supporting performance I enjoyed at first, but got tired of quickly was Jane Lynch as an ego-centric former addict and the director of the after-school program Rudd and Scott’s characters have been court-ordered to attend. Normally I look forward to Lynch’s performances. She was devistatingly effective as the store manager in The 40 Year-Old Virgin and you get the sense they were trying to do the same thing here, but they overuse her.
But these are small complaints. Role Models is a very effective comedy. Really more effective than it has any right to be. Several laugh out loud moments and an ending the gets sillier and sillier without ever coming off the rails. I had a good time with this one.
For more discussion about Role Models, be sure to tune into The Triple Feature, recording live tonight at 9PM CST at TalkShoe.com. In addition to Role Models, we’ll be covering JCVD, Synecdoche, New York and Soul Men. If you have a question for the group before the show starts, send it to us at group@thetriplefeature.com and we’ll answer it during the show! I’m really looking forward to tonight’s show. I think it’s going to be a good one. So be sure to tune in live!
See you there!
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I can’t tell you how long I agonized over how to write this strip. I think I came up with 5 or 6 different treatments and felt like the “silly name” approach was the least complicated. For example, I read a review for Quantum of Solace that said it had another parkour chase sequence similar to what was in Casino Royale and I was trying to find a way to make a joke out of that. No dice.
So I ended up racking my brain trying to come up with a Bond parody title that wasn’t a direct reference to either Quantum of Solace or any other Bond film like Dr. No or Goldfinger. It was really hard, for some reason. I was bugging Cami about it. I even turned to the people following me on Twitter. At one point Cami said “You’re putting WAY too much thought into this” and she was right. But my mind was on a loop and I couldn’t get out.
This is where it would be extremely advantageous to be part of some kind of comedy-writing team. You could take a completely terrible idea and bounce it off of others until it became completely medicore idea. Hey, it works on MadTV.
I made a joke about Quantum of Solace earlier in the year and really wanted to use the line “it sounds like a math problem again” because, to me, it really sounds like one. But I’ll make due with an Ignar Bergman reference instead.
The title really isn’t a sticking point for me, though. It’s just the most obvious thing to make fun of without having actually seen the movie. First appearances count for a lot, do they not?
For what it’s worth Quantum of Solace was a title that Bond creator Ian Fleming used for a short story that was part of a collection of short stories titled under For Your Eyes Only. Of course, people recognize the title of For Your Eyes Only as that of the 1981 movie starring Roger Moore. The point is that Quantum of Solace wasn’t plucked out of thin air during some marketing meeting, but is actually a throwback to the original Fleming stories as a means to honor the franchise in a similar manner to Casino Royale in 2005.
I think that’s a good thing. Obviously stripping things down worked for them in Casino Royale. I’ve read in reviews that Quantum of Solace literally picks up right were Casino Royale left off. So they’re not taking any chances with the franchise flying off in another direction.
But, at the same time, I kind of miss the tongue-in-cheek randiness of the Roger Moore era. I mean, Octopussy is actually a very terrible title, but it’s also very evocative. Not so grim and serious. I guess I just find it interesting how Bond continues to reflect the tone of society throughout the years. Daniel Craig’s version is much more angry and self-destructive. I’ve read a few articles that explore that as well as the wider phenomenon in modern action movie that don’t project the ideal of physical strength and brutality like they did in the 80’s. But, instead, reflect the inner torment of driven individuals. The next great war will be one of the mind. How does Bond – a relic of the Cold War – fit into that New World Order? Easy. Make him Jason Bourne.
Ooo! Snap! I WENT there!
Anyway, that’s it for me. Just wanted to encourage you guys to check out Monday’s recording of The Triple Feature. We talked about Role Models, JCVD and Kung-Fu Panda (now out on DVD) and I thought we put together a really good show. Lively discussion and hit on some great topics. Had a blast recording it and I really want you guys to check it out. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes as well, if you’re interested. But if you haven’t listened before, give it a try!
Later!
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This isn’t the first time I’ve depicted Jared as having the sauce and sometimes I wonder if that’s fair. But it’s not like I’ve made it a dominant character trait, so I don’t lose much sleep over it.
I only express mild concern because Jared the comic character is based off a real person and I don’t want to offend him. Secondly, I always second guess comics where I introduce alcohol or other adult themes because I like to believe that Theater Hopper is accessible to a younger audience.
Obviously the comic isn’t sunshine and lollipops all the time (do kids still care about lollipops?) but my rule is never to go any further than what you might see in Prime Time TV. I think we’re still in safe territory here.
SIDEBAR: I just took a closer look at those comics I linked to earlier and the look like friggin’ cave drawings compared to what I’m doing now. I’m not trying to brag, I’m just shocked at my own evolution and am racking my brain a little bit trying to remember when and exactly how I started to change my style. Fun.
I suppose along those lines I can mention that I’m working on Theater Hopper: Year Three. I originally started laying out the book in late Spring with the hopes of taking it to Wizard World Chicago in June, but that didn’t happen and I ended up putting it on the back-burner.
Well, now it’s on the front-burner and I’m half-way through the commentary. You’d think writing commentary for the strips wouldn’t take that long. I essentially do it every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the present. But there’s something about revisiting that period three years ago that makes it difficult to remember where I was at creatively and what things were important to me back then.
Remember, this is before Henry was born and I feel like a completely different person now.
But the Year Three book is something I want to get right. It was the first year I started to experiment with longer story lines. It was the year I wrote the arc where Jimmy lost his job. It was also the year that I introduced Charlie. I know a lot of people who have written me and talked about how they’ve enjyoed those stories. So I want the behind-the-scene revelations to be satisfying for them.
I generally consider Year Three to be the make-or-break year for Theater Hopper. I started taking more risks creatively and the audience began to solidify. In some ways, it was the high water mark of the strip and I would really like to try and capture that again. But if things hadn’t turned out the way that they did, I probably wouldn’t have continued to pursue the comic.
At any rate, I’m working on it. I’d like to have it out by the holidays, but it’s already mid-November, so that doesn’t seem likely. I know I want to have it in my hands when I go to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this April. So keep your eyes peeled for a pre-order opportunity sometime in the new year.
In the meantime, I’m not sure I’ve shared this here or not, but if I have, I’ll post it here again. This is the cover for Year Three:
That’s it for me today. Planning on seeing Quantum of Solace tonight. Cami says she’s not interested in seeing it, so I’m going solo – which is a shame. She really liked Casino Royale. Oh, well. I’ll tell you what I thought of it on Monday.
See you then!
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If my inner 10 year-old is right (and he almost always is) bodily function jokes are hilarious. I hope you enjoyed the burping, stink lines and all!
Quantum of Solace was the big box office winner this weekend, crushing the competition with a near $71 million take. What’s more surprising is that it raked in another $30 million on top of Casino Royale. So I guess we can consider this a mandate from the people – Daniel Craig is the balls.
I went to see QoS by myself on Friday night. I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie on opening night. At least not since Henry was born. These days, I catch a lot of matinees. Which kind of sucks because you don’t get the same community movie-going experience. But, on the other hand, you have to put up with a lot less crap.
My showing was sold out and since I was flying solo, people we bouncing me around all over the theater asking if I could move down one, move over here, move over there… I’m usually pretty accommodating. But after the third time, I stayed put. Don’t ask me to move after the the movie has started. Get here early next time!
Even though Cami liked Casino Royale, she wasn’t interested in seeing Quantum of Solace. I asked her why and she said she felt like she had no stake in the movie and that it wasn’t advertised to her at all. She had no idea what it was about and no interest in seeing it.
She wasn’t dismissive toward QoS, just not involved. And I think this is very telling.
Obviously MGM had a reason to promote Casino Royale to everyone and their grandmother two years ago. They had a new Bond and it was essentially a reboot of the franchise. Spread the message far and wide. But I think the studio was a little complacent advertising QoS, perhaps relying a little too much on Casino Royale’s reputation to put them over the top. I talked to a few other friends whose wives and girlfriends weren’t interested in seeing QoS for similar reasons.
I guess the gamble paid off if the movie did $30 million over Casino Royale’s opening weekend box office. I just thought it was an interesting observation.
As for the movie itself, I’ve read several reviews that have called it “brutally efficient” and I would say that is the most apt description. Several of the action sequences take after the Bourne movies and force you to “eat the action” with a lot of hand held close-up shots. That’s fine if the action sequences are staged well. Here, they look like a monkey humping a coconut. It’s hard to tell what’s going on.
Daniel Craig is excellent as Bond. His steel blue eyes dare you to look away lest he snap your neck.
Not a lot of gadgets on display. The movie seems content to “push” existing technology into a more fantastic realm. Super powerful mini-cameras tied to a criminal database, GPS, that sort of thing.
Even the Bond women are toned down a notch. Not a lot of sex or innuendo. One quick roll in the hay and it’s over. This Bond is all about kicking ass and chewing bubble gum and he’s all out of bubble gum.
I have more to say about the plot of the movie. Specifically the ending – how it works while you’re watching it, but left scratching your head afterwords. If you’re interested to hear more, tune in to The Triple Feature podcast tonight at 9:00PM CST over at Talkshoe.com.
I mentioned this last week, but Joe, Gordon and I all have several big anniversaries to celebrate this week as well. Gordon hit #300 at Multiplex last week and Joe Loves Crappy Movies crossed the #400 strip milestone as well. Wednesday, I cross #900 and collectively, the three of us are inching up toward #100 recorded episodes of The Triple Feature. Seems like a good opportunity for a little introspection if there ever was any. Be sure to tune in tonight for the lowdown on that.
One last thing… In anticipation of Wall-E coming out on DVD tomorrow, I’m going to be posting all sorts of little bits and bytes to get you excited about the movie. Today, I have a half dozen clips from the film and they’re all great. So check them out and don’t forget to buy Wall-E on DVD this Tuesday.
Also don’t forget to come back to the site tomorrow when I post my full review of the 3-disc Special Edition! It’s good stuff!
Anyway, the clips. Enjoy and I’ll see you here tomorrow!
Treasures & Trinkets
Elbows (Bonus)
Reason for Bots (Bonus)
Building the Worlds from the Sound Up (Bonus)
Eve’s Entrance (Film)
Trailer
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I am remiss to admit that I did not feature a review for Pixar’s 9th wonderful feature film Wall·E when it came to theaters in June of this year. Not only do I find it one of the company’s most heartwarming pictures but I also consider it to be one of the best films of the year.
Fortunately, we have the DVD release to reflect on and take the time to fully absorb the brilliance that is Wall·E.
For the uninitiated, Wall·E is a small, boxy robot left on Earth to clean up the mess left behind by humanity as they have shuttled themselves off-world on the dime of the global corporation Buy N Large. Our Wall·E is one of many, but the only one left still functioning. Day in and day out he performs the tasks he was programed to do – scoop trash into his tiny frame, compact it into cubes and stack them into spirling skyscrapers. He does his work efficiently, with no complaints… and totally alone.
Centuries in isolation have caused Wall·E to develop a personality. Like a beachcomber, he collects odd trinkets in an attempt to understand the history of a society that has long since abandoned him. He collects spoons and forks, hubcaps and adoringly watches an old videotape of Hello, Dolly – longingly looking for companionship.
Companionship comes in the form of a sleek and elegant probe droid named EVE, sent to Earth to search for signs of plant life. What follows is an adventure that takes Wall·E off Earth and reconnecting with the remnants of humanity living on-board a luxury star cruiser before leading them home.
The commentary track from director Andrew Stanton reveals a lot. While he admit that the movie hits on themes of environmentalism, consumerism and some of the more slothful tendencies of humans coddled by technology, he never set out to make a “message” movie. Stanton identifies himself as the type of person who likes to keep his politics to himself and was not interested in preaching to the audience. The themes established in the film developed out of the “reverse engineering” of the film’s core concept – a robot left on Earth all by himself and what would that feel like?
Stanton’s commentary reveals a lot about Pixar’s film making process. They establish a simple premise and start asking questions.
“Okay, he’s a robot alone on Earth? What is he doing there? He’s cleaning up. He’s a janitor. Why? Because that seems like a lonely job to do. Why is he alone? Because humanity left Earth. Why? Rampant consumerism ruined the planet. Oh, so he’s cleaning up what they left behind? Yeah! Are there other robots helping him? There were, but the broke down. So then he must have been working for a very long time? Let’s say 700 years. But he doesn’t spend the entire movie by himself? How do we introduce conflict? A probe robot visits Earth. What’s it doing? Looking for plant life. Why? Because then humanity can come back to Earth.”
And so on and so on. I reveals a simple extrapolation process in the writing and gives you the impression that the film’s “message” was a lot less deliberate and serious than some people took it.
In addition to the movie, the three disc special edition contains bountiful extras well worth your time. Most stunning is a deleted scene introduced by Stanton that was pulled from the film in the 11th hour. It’s the trash compactor scene right before the third act where, instead of Wall·E being damaged, it’s EVE who is nearly beyond repair. As Stanton explains, the scene was in the movie all the way up until test screenings. Meaning it had cleared the years of script revisions, storyboards, animatics and made it’s way to full render. This NEVER happens in animated movies, much less computer animated movies that require hundreds of hours of rendering time. It wasn’t until the test screening that Stanton realized his mistake and completely reconfigured the last act of the film. For the rarity of this alone, the scene is fascinating.
The extras also include an hour and a half long documentary called The Pixar Story, which reveals the history and inner workings of the company, excellent featurettes on sound design, visual design, set design, character development and score and – as advertised – a hilarious new short called Burn·E featuring the trials and tribulations of a service robot trapped outside the hull of the ship as seen in the movie.
I strongly believe that Wall·E is a film we’ll still be talking about 50 years from now. Not just from it’s timely message (accidental or not), but for the risks taken by Stanton and Pixar to deliver an emotional and engaging story that makes you care about robots in a way you never thought possible. It’s economical and engaging story will be something families and film buffs will be returning to year after year.
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This comic is a little bit mean. I don’t think it’s exactly fair to bust on Cami for wanting to see Twilight with the argument it’s for teenage girls. Look at all the dumb crap I’m into! I really just wanted an excuse to show Gary Oldman in that crazy wig from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Man, that was a messed up movie.
In real life, Cami doesn’t have an interest in seeing Twilight. Although she has read the book for her book club. Incidentally, they’re talking about it tonight, I think! Small world. But she is not swayed by Edward Cullen’s charms (or his off-putting trapezoidal head). She’s taking the day off work Friday, so I asked her if she planned on seeing the film. She described such activity as “a waste of time.” Ouch.
My wife’s indifference to the movie aside, Twilight is one of those phenomenon like Pokemon or Queer Eye For The Straight Guy that caught me completely off guard because I’m not the target demographic. I had no idea how popular the books were or even that a movie was being produced because I am not – as pointed out in the second panel – a teenage girl. That’s fine. I’m just saying that I’m a little bit ashamed of myself for being so unaware. Call it willful ignorance, I suppose.
We were talking about a recent crop of videos that popped up on YouTube featuring a bunch of screaming girls losing their minds in Philadelphia last Thursday when Cullen showed up to promote the film in a mall appearance. I don’t understand this. They can’t be going so crazy for Cullen? What has he done. Nothing. The movie isn’t out yet. He could be totally awful in it. I guess they could be responding to his looks or maybe just excited that the lead character from their favorite book now has a physical form they can direct that energy toward. Whatever it is, it’s scary.
Joe made the point on Monday’s Triple Feature that Twilight is posed to become the next Harry Potter. That makes sense considering the supernatural aspects of their stories. But at the same time, I kind of doubt it’ll be around that long because Twlight doesn’t appear to work on the myriad of different levels that the Harry Potter movies do. I feel they touch on more universal themes and the more complicate politics of the adult world as much as they do on budding teenage romance and fantasy elements. I guess we have to wait and see.
Quick sidebar, today is the 900th Theater Hopper strip. Nine hundred. I say that out loud and I hear Jeffery Jones as Principal Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in my head. “Nine tyyyyyymes.”
I’m not going to make a big fuss about it beyond the fact that I appreciate a nice, round number like 900 and that it makes me excited to cross that 1,000th strip milestone. It’s not far off now. After that, I’ll really feel like I’ve accomplished something.
Then, nothing. Not until Theater Hopper celebrates its 10 year anniversary. Speaking of which, congrats to Mike and Jerry for reaching the big 10 over at Penny Arcade yesterday!
One last thing before I forget: To celebrate the release on Wall-E on DVD yesterday (c’mon – how many of you bought the film and ran home to watch it last night?!), I’m passing along all kinds of fun stuff from the movie that you can check out online.
Today it’s Space Fun Facts!
Just who is this Wall-E? And what is an Axiom? The Character Guide gives the low-down on all of the bots and even the human Captain! Wall-E and Eve take an adventure across the galaxy. Go beyond the Earth’s atmosphere with these Space Fun Facts!
I’m linking to the document as a PDF, so you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. Click here to check it out!
That’s all for now. Have a great Wednesday!
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Today’s comic was inspired by my continuing work on Theater Hopper: Year Three. I was writing up some commentary from 2005 and ruminating on the simplified style I attempted on a specific comic I don’t draw things like that very often mostly because I don’t often have a reason to stage the characters in a full-body render. If you look through the archives, there’s a lot of close-ups or shots from mid-chest up. Part of that is because I feel it puts you closer to things, but part of it is because larger areas are easier to color and shade than the smaller, detailed work
Anyway, I was thinking about the lack of the full-body render and – even though it’s time consuming – it’s fun to do and I enjoy the results. So I decided to take a swing at it with this comic.
I’m kicking around the idea of seeing Bolt this weekend, although it looks like a paint-by-numbers Disney film to me and I’m not particularly impressed by the fact that it has John Travolta and Miley Cyrus laying down vocals. But face facts; It’s been getting strong reviews and that hamster looks friggin’ hilarous!
But if anything is going to get me in the door, it’s that the movie is also being presented in 3-D. I’m completely aware that it’s a gimmick, but I’m willing to give it a try. Primarily because it’s a CG movie and a creative director can do things with shots that a real-world director could never attempt. Couple that with 3-D and you get an interesting result.
I only seem to feel this way about CG movies and not live-action movies. For example, Journey to the Center of the Earth looked dumb to me. But this looks alright. A big reason I went to see Beowulf last year was for the 3-D and it didn’t disappoint. So let’s see what Disney can do with it.
Not much more to say, so I’ll leave it at that. Here’s hoping everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you all again on Monday!
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