Feb27

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN

February 27th, 2009 | by Tom
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(3 votes, average: 8.33 out of 10)

Well, that’s pretty final, don’t you think?

I know it’s kind of a contrivance to have Charlie go nuclear in the overreaction department, but there are two things to consider here:

  1. Plot efficiency.
  2. The honest assessment that some girls have a zero-tolerance policy on screwing around.

On the second point I would like to reinforce that there is certainly nothing wrong with having standards. And who knows? Maybe Charlie has been jerked around by womanizers before? As we learned from her introduction story line, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

But we’re not going to explore that here.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, next week will take us out of flashbacks and we will learn how Jimmy ended up working at the theater that was ground zero for his greatest heartbreak. One week after that, I should have everything wrapped up.

Thanks, by the way, for indulging me these last few weeks. I know Theater Hopper is traditionally about bringing you the funny, but it’s good to flex a different set of muscles from time to time. Hopefully I’ve been able to compensate with enough dramatic tension to hold your interest.

Thanks, also, for the outpouring of support on the whole transcription effort. I posted a blog entry late Wednesday night and woke up Thursday morning with e-mails from a dozen people write in offering their services. I’ve assigned coverage up to January 2005 and still have more e-mails to sort through. I feel confident that we’ll not only have coverage for the entire archive of comics, but we’ll have them transcribed in short order. I honestly wasn’t expecting that this would be something you guys would be excited about, but I’m glad you proved me wrong!

If you’d like to see which months are still available – along with the items I am offering in compensation for your help – you can read about it here.

Not much for me to talk about movie-wise this weekend. Nothing new in theaters except Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li – both of which look like a couple of turds on wheels to me.

I’m sure the Jonas Brothers movies will rake in significant box office by attracting the tweener crowds, but I saw some footage of Street Fighter and WOW, was it bad. Wire-Fu was nakedly evident and the fight choreography was stilted and tired. To add insult to injury, the editing was atrocious. Pulling wide on shots that revealed too much of the wire work and claustrophobic, “eat the camera” close-ups that kept you from seeing what was even happening.

It’s probably not getting worked up over. If it doesn’t star Raul Julia and Jean-Claude Van Damme, why bother, AMIRITE?!

I was thinking this would have been the weekend for a more ambitious movie to try and get in front of Watchmen before it lands in theaters next week – some middling Sandra Bullock or Kate Hudson comedy that didn’t stand a chance of making a ton of money in the first place. But I guess the studios look at Watchmen like it’s the 800-pound gorilla. Make way.

I kind of wish I could have wrapped up this story line sooner so I could get hip-dip in the hype surrounding Watchmen because – like it or not – after two weeks, I think it will be over. I don’t think Watchmen has legs. Advance reviews have been too polarizing and it doesn’t sound like fanboys are going to be happy with it beyond a pure visual interpretation. At this point, the burden of proof is on Watchmen to impress me. I’m not turning over on this one as readily as I did Iron Man. I am cautiously optimistic.

What about the rest of you? Are you ready to submit to Watchmen? Have you read any of the reviews online? Have they influenced you at all or is Watchmen critic-proof? What’s your impression? Leave your comments below.

↓ Transcript
[Charlie flushes her engagement ring down the toilet.]

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