Why is Tom carrying around pictures of Billy Ray Cyrus? Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to find out!
Incidentally, it seems like Tom carries around a lot of pictures. Weird, ain’t it?
I was spending so much time worrying about Seth Rogen and Observe and Report last week, that I literally gave no thought to the juggernaut that is Hannah Montana: The Movie. Why would I? I’m not a 15 year-old girl.
That said, I don’t think you’re likely to see such a clear case of counter-programming in theaters all year. Morally ambiguous raunch-fest versus squeaky clean inoffensive pop trash. I guess pop trash won out.
It’s kind of pointless to criticize the film. The audience is built-in from years of Disney brainwashing and I’m not the target demo. In other words, it’s not for me.
Although I do remember seeing the trailer for the film a while back and thinking it was pretty clearly designed to be a transition piece for Miley Cyrus away from the Hannah Montana character and toward her own development as a performer. Y’know, because tweens get confused.
Am I seriously wasting time analyzing this?
I guess we have this weekend to look forward to with Crank: High Voltage. It looks to be as offensive and stupid as they come. But darn it if that trailer isn’t a bit of propulsive good fun.
A few quick things I’ll mention…
Last week I posted about being dropped from the Google index after some hackers hid some links in the footer section of my site. I submitted an appeal, but there was no guarantee that Google would take a second look at me within the next 30 days.
Well, on Saturday it looks like they reinstated me.
I didn’t receive any communication from them about reinstated, though. Which I thought was weird. I guess they must have things automated to a certain degree. Their spiders pick up these junk links and a script sends out an e-mail.
Still, it’s frustrating when there are a million purposefully malicious sites out there that Google punishes victims like myself who get hacked. I appreciated the head’s up because I didn’t know the code was there. But they were pretty swift to pull the plug. I suppose maybe some webmasters are less motivated when Google is trying to nip this problem in the bud.
I want to thank everyone who lent their support and helped spread the word about Google pulling me from the index. Specifically, thanks to Comix Talk and Comic Mix. I appreciate the coverage.
Changing gears a little bit, I forgot to mention last week that I was interviewed by the podcast Seattle Geekly while I was in Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon. Visit their site and download Episode #9. I’m somewhere around the 1:08 mark, but the whole show is good. You should download the rest of their shows as well. It’s not specifically comics-related, video games-related or movie-related. They cover the entire spectrum of all things geeky. It’s a very well written and well produced show. Check it out!
Speaking of podcasts, I’m not exactly sure if we’re recording The Triple Feature tonight at 9PM CST or not. Gordon is moving to a new home and is unavailable and the show suffers a little bit when only one of us has seen the movie. I, unfortunately, haven’t be able to get out in the last few weeks to see anything.
If anything changes, I’ll be sure to let you know here or you can follow my Twitter account for the latest. But for the time being, just assume we’re on a short hiatus while Gordon gets settled in his new digs.
That’s everything on my end. Hey – just for conversation, what did those of you who saw Observe and Report this weekend think of it? Was it as disturbing and upsetting as reported? It didn’t do very well at the box office. It came in 4th place. That seems to be the trend for dark comedies. Do you think the movie will find a wider audience on DVD? Cult status? Leave your comments below!
Do you see this man? This is Billy Ray Cyrus. He is Miley Cyrus's father.
I figure she's suffered enough. She doesn't need me making jokes at her expense.
I suppose that's fair...
...but why are you carrying around pictures of Billy Ray Cyrus?
I think you spelled Miley Cyrus wrong. Oh well, great comic either way, and the special artwork after I voted was awesome too. Hilarious!
It’s true though, Hannah Montana does have a built in audience. I just hope that my daughter doesn’t get into that stuff when she is a little bit older.
Did you notice that “Hannah” is a palindrome? I just noticed that, wow, learn something new everyday!
I’ve really been falling down on the spelling lately. I need to go back and fix the last two comics…
Just to play devil’s advocate – don’t most movies have a “built-in audience”? For instance, can’t you say that “Watchmen” had a built-in audience, albeit one far different from the Hannah Montana movies? Some might even go so far as to say that our interest came from years of brain-washing from DC and Marvel, and that you and I happen to be in the target demo?
That’s a fair point, Mike. But whereas the marketing for a movie like Watchmen was omni-present, I hardly heard a word about the Hannah Montana movie.
Now, it’s very possible that I didn’t hear anything about it because – again – I’m not the target demo. So I’m probably not exposed to the advertising channels Disney would use to communicate with that audience.
But at the same time, they’ve built up their branding of the Hannah Montana franchise to a point that they hardly have to market it anymore. It’s a popular television show, Radio Disney plays her songs all the time, they have corporate synergy with ABC which they can use to promote her further.
Comparatively, a movie like Watchmen with has a fanbase originating from a 20+ year-old, self-contained graphic novel is a much harder sell. Not saying it didn’t have a built-in audience. I’m just saying that Disney’s reach extends much farther and the default audience size is much larger.
That’s okay, it happens to all of us. In this comment alone I backspaced at least 10 times because of spelling errors. Ya gotta love brain farts š
I haven’t seen Observe and Report but I will probably catch it this weeked. On another note though, Crank 2: High Voltage looks like it will be good popcorn flick, I enjoyed the first one when I went into the theater with low expectation. Don’t expect anything but stupid over the top action and you will be happy guaranteed.
Question: Has anyone seen the pirated version of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie? I’m interested to hear what people think of it (I won’t watch it until it hits theaters because movies like that are meant to be enjoyed there first).
Great points, Tom, and maybe I should’ve used X-Men as a broader brush with which to paint. Your points would still ring true there as well.
The other advantage that HM had this month, though, is that its demographic can’t drive itself to the cinema. It’s the old “Kids Eat Free!” mentality – not only will they sell tickets to the kids, but parents more than likely will have to buy a ticket as well (unless they ditch the kids a see a movie of their own). This is a great busness model – let’s say that for every two kids that sees the movie, one adult gets dragged along. That means that in order to sell, say, 3M tickets, they really only have to attract 2M kids to actually see the movie in order to sell 3M tickets.
It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya! š
Observe and Report was better than expected. I feel like the two halves of my brain were fighting over how I was supposed to watch the movie. The logical, film student half of my brain kept thinking “Ooh, statements about violence, must analyze…,” while the other half of my brain kept yelling, “Shut up, you nerd, it’s just a Seth Rogen movie!”
Having said all that, I like my violence cartoony and over the top, so naturally I can’t wait for Crank 2!
Now that I’ve actually got some money I plan on seeing Observe and Report quite soon. Over the weekend my interest in it went straight up (as did my interest in Adventureland; I may see them in the same day, make a double-feature out of it).
I have high hopes for Crank 2. First was was awesomesauce, and by the looks of things the second appears to be more of the same (which, really, is exactly what it should be for a movie like that).
I hate to think friends of mine assisted in the whol Hannah Montana success. Even tho I didn’t get to observe Seth Rogen, I did see Duplicity which was pretty good. Nice twists here and there.
I can’t believe you mentioned Crank 2 over State of Play. That movie looks ten times better and at least contains a real story with real actors.
I was wondering what you thought of Observe and Report. I was hoping to here your take on it, maybe in your next post.
Whoa, don’t diss Crank 2 there, guy. The original movie is an amazing action movie, went above and beyond all expectations. If there’s any problem with the second, it’s just that too much is revealed in the trailers. Not every movie has to be a great film to be a great movie.
Sorry mister, it’s just that it’s not my kind of movie. I like mindless movies (like Apatow comedies and Resident Evil) but this one is just TOO mindless. I mean “turn you brain to a puddle” kind of movie.
Just my opinion.
I love the film reel speech bubble shirt, plus I’m a big fan of grey (strange I know). But the ‘O’ alarm reads like an ‘A’ thus I see “Spailer” but that’s just my niggley thought.
I didn’t want to see Observe and Report. I hadn’t heard much about it, but the previews made it look lackluster. However, my friend said he’d pay for the tickets if I went with him on Friday. So I did see it, and I was surprised. I won’t say “pleasantly surprised,” but I did enjoy it far more than I expected. It had a fine mixture of enthralling story, disturbing but thought-provoking issues, and blatant absurdity. I could’ve done without the naked chase scene at the end, but you take the good with the bad.
As for Crank 2, I loved the first one and am extremely excited for the sequal. It is a mindless action movie, but it takes it to the point of parody. I can’t believe the creators intend for you to take it seriously. Like when I watched the first one with a friend and he began saying things like “He couldn’t do that.” The only response for naysayers like that is: “Remember what you’re watching here.”