Archive for August, 2009
22 items.
This joke for The Ugly Truth is one I had in mind a couple weeks ago, BEFORE I turned my hand into hamburger with a router. So dusting it off this week makes it stale in my mind.
I know that’s not the case, though. Movies do exist in theaters for longer than one week. It’s hard to snap out of that mentality when I go to the work of making the comic timely.
Before we go any further, it would probably be advantageous if everyone were on the same page. So, embedded here is the clip in question. It is OBVIOUSLY not safe for work and probably not something you want to play around young children, either. You’ve been warned:
Now I had seen this clip maybe a month before The Ugly Truth was in theaters and I remember thinking at the time how hypocritical it was when considering Heigl’s comments back in 2007 to Vanity Fair that Knocked Up – the movie that pretty much opened the door to a successful career in film – was sexist.
Since the movie has come out, Heigl has been taking a lot of hits for those statements in contrast to the above scene. Sarah Ball from Newsweek published a particularly harsh article. Ken Levine, an Emmy-winning writer for Fraiser and Cheers also published a fairly articulate hate-piece on her.
Now Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen have gotten in on the act during an interview with Howard Stern last week.
Fans of Heigl cite a double-standard. That’s it’s okay for someone like Seth Rogen to run off at the mouth, but if someone like Heigl speaks her mind, she’s put back “in her place.”
I see both sides of the argument. But fundamentally I think Heigl’s problem is that she gives off an air of superiority that she hasn’t earned and it makes her unlikable. The sad thing is, I WANT to like Heigl. She’s funny, attractive and I appreciate anyone willing to speak their mind.
But career-wise, winning and Emmy and starring in a couple of romantic comedies aren’t much to hang your hat from. Her reputation and her performances don’t match up. She’s trying to be Sandra Bullock but comes off like Sandra Bernhard.
I don’t know how much of it is bad casting and how much of it is her choice. But I think before I would find Heigl more appealing if she were able to find (or develop) a character that plays toward her outspoken nature.
What do you think? Is there a sexist double-standard being applied to the outspoken Heigl? How aware are you of the statements she’s made to the press? Should it affect how we interpret her performances? Why do you think Heigl attracts these kind of strong feelings toward her? Leave your comments below!
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Because I lead a rich and satisfying life, I was casually looking at the people who are currently following my Twitter account and was surprised to see a picture of Katherine Heigl floating in the list of avatars.
Thinking it was a Heigl super-fan who was now stalking me using Twitter, I investigated further to discover that it was actually an account created for Abby Richter – the fictional character Heigl plays in The Ugly Truth.
Reading some of the tweets, I could see that “Abby” was having a contentious back-and-forth with one Chad Meister. That’s right – the character in played by Gerard Butler in the same movie.
Now I totally understand using social media to help promote stuff and realize that most likely it’s some intern at Sony Pictures having a conversation with himself. But what I don’t understand are the real-life people who are following this inanity.
Certainly it would be one thing if “Abby” were throwing messages into the digital ether and responding to questions or comments posed by fans of the movie (whoever they might be). But when these two fictional characters are carrying on a conversation with each other, excluding everyone else, you kind of wonder what the point of it is…
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I thought black was supposed to be slimming. Dear Lord, someone remind me never to insert myself into my own comic ever again! I looked so much better when I pulled this stunt before back in 2004.
I wasn’t planning on doing anything special for Theater Hopper’s 7th anniversary. But when I found out that I had crossed the 1,000 comic milestone, I thought it made sense to announce both at the same time.
I had actually figured out that I had reached the milestone almost serendipitously. Back when the archive database was being managed by PHP, I knew exactly how many comics were in the archive. It even went so far as to exclude guest comics, movie reviews and other “tagged” entries from the complete tally.
However, since moving the site into WordPress, I kind of lost track of how many comics there actually are on the site. I guess they don’t make a plugin for that.
Basically, I was sitting at my computer last week thinking about this and decided to do something about it. So I downloaded all of the comics in the archive and cherry picked all of the guest strips, movies reviews and other non-comic graphic entries from the folder.
Lo and behold, it was actually last Wednesday’s comic was our 1,000th! Since there was nothing particularly special about that comic, I decided to bide my time a little bit and come ‘atcha with a proper acknowledgment.
And here we are!
I think you guys know what is coming next. I don’t mean to preface that in a way that makes it sound trite, but what I’m about to say next I say a lot. Because it’s true.
I simply couldn’t do this comic without you. I’m amazed that anyone is still interested in what I’m doing 7 years and 1,000 comics later. Some of you have been with me since the beginning. Some of you are just learning about Theater Hopper. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read every comic in the archive or just a handful. Every, single one of you have contributed to the success of Theater Hopper and I thank you for it. You are amazing.
If you have it in your heart, I’d really like to raise the roof on crossing this milestone and promoting it as far and wide into the internet as possible.
Please let as many people as possible know about Theater Hopper’s anniversary and 1,000th comic. Use Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg… whatever you use and spread the word.
Let the guys at Fleen and Comixpedia know what’s going on. Say something about it in your LiveJournal or in a forum you visit. Anywhere else you happen to frequent, let them know about what’s going on here.
I don’t promote myself quite as much as I used to (or probably should), but this is a moment where I want to set aside modesty and invite as many people as possible to check out Theater Hopper so they don’t miss the next 1,000 comics!
Thanks again for everything you do and be sure to check the site later today for a couple more announcements. I have a few special treats up my sleeve!
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If you’ve been following me on Twitter the last couple of days, you’ll know that I was inspired by my friend Gordon McAlpin’s excellent parody poster for Memento that I finally got off my rear end and put together a parody poster for Iron Man that I’ve been thinking about for months.
I think it turned out pretty well…
I’m proud enough of my work that I’m printing up 50 copies and plan on selling them as 11 x 17″ prints at Chicago Comic-Con this weekend. We’ll see how they do. If I have any left over, I’ll sell them here. If the demand is high enough, I’ll print up more! Either way, I thought you guys might like to see it.
Don’t forget: I’ll be at Artist Alley table #3414. Please come by and see me. I’ll be selling copies of both books, all of my t-shirts, the Iron Man parody poster and original sketches.
I look forward to Chicago Comic-Con all year and with the stars aligning between the convention, our 7th anniversary and 1,000 comics… I think this is going to be a good show for me.
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You have no idea how long I’ve kept that terrible pun in my back pocket. I don’t care if it isn’t original. I wasn’t going to pass up using it!
I think this might be the first time in since, well… ever that I’ve had a comic up and running while I’m away at a convention. Usually I have a string of guest strips lined up for you. But I figured since I made such a big deal about the 7th anniversary and the 1,000th comic milestone, it would benefit me to keep things going a little bit.
I finished this comic and blog Wednesday night in preparation of being away. So that means right now, as you’re reading this, I’m hanging out at table #3414 on Artist Alley at Chicago Comic-Con. If you’re in town, I sincerely hope you come to visit me!
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra comes out today and it is very likely that I will be seeing the movie with my friends Gordon McAlipin from Multiplex, Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey and Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies as I have depicted here. At least, I hope that’s what happens. We have a nice little tradition of seeing movies together when we’re in town for the convention and I hope everyone can make it.
As for the movie, I kind of think it’s a win-win situation. Based of the awful trailer, I am fully prepared for this movie to be terrible but plan on having a good time soaking up the cheese. If it turns out to be awesome (as some early reviews have suggested in a guilty-pleasure kind of way) then that sounds good, too.
In the meantime, if you want to stay up to date with me on the convention floor, but sure to check out my Twitter account. I’ll be posting status updates from my phone as well as taking advantage of AudioBoo. I noticed a lot of web comic guys using it during San Diego Comic Con and I’m eager to try it out.
Basically, it’s like a mini-podcast. I record up to 3:00 minutes of audio into my phone and AudioBoo posts it to their site – complete with a link from Twitter, so you get complete coverage! Fun little app.
If Twitter isn’t your thing, then please feel free to enjoy this shot by shot remake of the trailer for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra that replaces the actors with action figures. Considering the movie is basically a 2 hour long toy commercial, the piece seems to cut to the heart of the matter.
Is anyone planning on seeing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra this weekend? What are your expectations? Are you excited? Did the trailer make you skeptical like it made me skeptical? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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Sorry that Monday’s comic was so late. I was basically wiped out after driving home from the Chicago Comic-Con on Sunday evening and didn’t have time to put anything together. I would have drawn and posted the comic sometime Monday afternoon except Monday’s are the days that we keep Henry home from day care and I watch him. So a Tuesday comic it is.
My first thought with this blog was to embed the video from the infamous parody PSA from the first season of the animated G.I. Joe cartoon show. But the language is a little salty and this is a family site. So I’ll leave it up to you to look it up on YouTube instead.
If you’ve been on the internet at all in the last 5 years, you probably know exactly what Tom is referencing in today’s comic. If not, just look up “Porkchop Sandwiches” and it will become clear real quick.
If you’re still hankering for some video giggles, check out The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Funny or Die. It features cameos from Zach Galifianakis, Alexis Bledel, Billy Crudup, Julianne Moore, Tony Hale, Alan Tudyk, Vinnie Jones, Henry Rollins and non-other than Sgt. Slaughter himself!
Back to the comic, it guest stars Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies. Our tables were next to each other on Artist Alley and we made plans to see G.I. Joe with the rest of the Digital Pimp Online crew, Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey and Jennie Breeden from The Devil’s Panties. Our good friend Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex couldn’t go that evening because he had won tickets to see the Arctic Monkeys in concert. I guess it was a sold-out show. So, good for him.
Anyway, before seeing the movie that night, I told Joe in real-life exactly what I said to him in the comic. His response was one of moderate disdain and amplified for comedic effect for this comic. I always like to portray Joe as more exasperated and annoyed with me than he is in real life. But, as they say, all humor is rooted in truth. I’m sure there were several times this weekend where he would have given anything just to shut. me. up.
I thought the movie we went to was fine. I thought it was better than Transformers 2, which is kind of faint praise. But I was able to keep up with the action and despite the wooden acting and transparent CGI work, was able to enjoy myself.
I guess you could say the trailer for the movie had lowered my expectations to the point where anything would have been acceptable. Does that make G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra a good movie? Of course not. It’s horrible. But the action moves along at a steady clip and there are a few fun, over-the-top moments.
The things I was most surprised by were the number of deaths and the amount of civilian property damage going on in this thing. The destruction the Joe’s leave in their wake is catastrophic. I can’t imagine ANY “covert” agency staying under the radar for that long when cars are being jack-knifed 50 feet in the air everywhere they go.
As for the convention, it was a good time. Always a treat to see and talk to old friends. Of course everyone who stopped by the booth was exceptionally friendly and usually the first thing people would ask was “How’s the hand.” It was nice to know that people were concerned for my well being. I appreciate it.
If you’re a new reader coming to the site for the first time, welcome! Not sure where to tell you to start. But I hope the site finds its way into your bookmarks and that you come back to visit us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I promise to update on time from here on out.
Not much else to talk about at the moment. But be sure to come back on Wednesday for more comic goodness! See you then!
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The Time Traveler’s Wife comes out this weekend and come hell or high water, we’re seeing it. Cami has made this an official decree. “Call you parents and find out if they can watch Henry this weekend,” she said. “Because we’re seeing it.”
I have no problem with this mostly because I’m happy to see Cami this excited about seeing a movie. There hasn’t been much for her this summer that has caught her interest. So I think it’s great that she’s chomping at the bit to see it.
I believe Cami read The Time Traveler’s Wife for her book club (I don’t know how long ago) and loved it. I was talking to her about it last night but asked that she not spoil it for me. Still, when she explained that the time traveler in question disappears during moments of stress, I went online to learn a little bit more about it. I love that the author, Audrey Niffenegger, is using science fiction as a metaphor for unreliable men and failed relationships. It’s quite inventive.
Not much to say about today’s comic. I’m a little distracted because I have to finish an 8 to 15 page paper today about the ethics of editorial cartoons for one of my Master’s courses. I have a couple of pages written, basically outlining the history of the editorial cartoon. I’m going to move into editorial cartoons in the modern day (for example, the Danish newspaper that printed the cartoon depicting Muhammad and the controversy that caused). I hope to wrap up with something about the future of editorial cartoons in an uncertain economic climate. Several editorial cartoonists are being let go from newspapers around the country and it begs the question whether these individuals are serious journalists or mouthpiece for a newspaper’s editorial board. I’m also going to look at the internet and self-publishing as a recourse for these displaced artists.
If anyone has any thoughts or ideas about this subject that they’d like to share with me, please leave comments. I’m still looking to mix in a few good references if you have any.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Have a good day!
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As you’ve probably heard, District 9 comes out this weekend. Personally, I’m very excited to see it if for no other reason than to watch a science fiction movie with a little more on its mind than the next great space battle or awesome explosion.
Don’t get my wrong – space battles and explosions are great. But that’s also what action movies are for. Whatever happened to good sci-fi movies that twisted the screws a little bit or made us consider the human condition? Between District 9 and Moon, 2009 is shaping up to be a very good year for the genre.
I’m going to try and squeeze in an early matinee of District 9 this morning before rushing to meet Cami for a showing of The Time Traveler’s Wife immediately after. It’s going to be hard, but I think I can do it.
District 9 is showing at the theater that is closest to my house at 11:10 AM. The movie is 111 minutes long. So, with trailers, that means I’ll be getting out of the movie between 1:00 and 1:15 PM.
My in-laws are watching Henry today and Cami is taking the afternoon off to have lunch with her folks and Henry where they live about 20 minutes away.
After I watch District 9, I’m going to try to meet Cami at a different theater in town where her parents live to watch The Time Traveler’s Wife. That movie starts at 1:45.
So, barring no complications, I’m going to be cutting it pretty close. But if we pull it off, it will be awesome.
What’s better is that there is an outside chance Cami and I will be seeing The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard on Sunday afternoon when my parents come over to watch Henry for a couple of hours. I talked Cami into seeing it after I showed her the Will Ferrell sky-diving clip with language and images entirely NOT safe for work.
Now I know to you all of this movie-watching might sound like negligent parenting. Not the case. Cami and I are just looking to spend a little time with each other after I was in Chicago last weekend and she was in Minneapolis the weekend before that. It just so happens that there are a bunch of awesome movies coming out this weekend, so we’re choosing to take advantage of that.
I’m kind of psyched for this little experiment. I haven’t seen 3 movies in one weekend in… I can’t remember how long. Fun!
What about you guys? Which movie are you most psyched to see this weekend? What are the odds of you seeing more than one? Leave your comments below and have a great weekend!
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I had a pretty productive weekend of movie-going. Between seeing District 9 and The Time Traveler’s Wife on Friday, I thought I was rounding things out nicely by seeing The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard on Sunday afternoon.
How wrong I was.
I think I must have been suckered in by the idea that Jeremy Piven was going to deliver something similar to the lovable cad he placed in PCU, but that didn’t really happen. It’s not really Piven’s fault. He slathers on the oily charm and is relatively winning in his performance.
And it’s not as if The Goods isn’t a funny movie. There are some genuinely inspired bits in the movie.
I think the problem is that The Goods is basically 20 good jokes looking for a plot. The conflict is contrived, the potential girlfriend is cliched… There just isn’t any connective tissue to this thing. It basically barrels through it’s running time trying to shock and offend you into laughter enough times that you won’t notice how lazy all of it is.
And it’s a shame, because there is some amazing comedic talent in this movie – Piven, Tony Hale, Will Ferrell, David Koechner, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Kathryn Hahn, Rob Riggle, Craig Robinson… the list goes on. I feel like everyone pretty much did their best with what they were given. But much like the lead character, the movie itself is kind of a con.
As for the other films I saw this weekend, I really liked The Time Traveler’s Wife, but I am convinced the Rachel McAdams is on a mission to make everyone in America cry by 2013. Between this movie and The Notebook, if you don’t tear up even a little… you’re soul dead.
In regard to the time travel elements of the story, Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly compares the movie to a game that the audience learns to play and it takes a little while to get the hang of it. But the story asks some interesting questions about free will and the forces of attraction.
Cami read the book and complained that the left a lot of details out, but admitted it was a long book and not all of it would have worked in the context of a film.
I was unfamiliar with the source material, but found the movie to be highly resonant and enjoyable. Both of us admitted to thinking about the movie days after we had seen it, despite some of the problems it may have had.
Lastly, District 9. What else can I say about this movie but “wow?”
If you’ve been interested in this film at all, you’ve probably read some of the reviews. A lot of people have been reacting very positively. But I would say that it’s in danger of being oversold just a little bit.
That’s not to say that the movie isn’t effective. Quite the contrary. It’s a very solid sci-fi / action movie. But so many critics have been calling it a masterpiece, I think they’ve lost a little perspective.
The first act is phenomenal. Shot in a documentary style, director Neill Blomkamp goes to great lengths to establish a believable alternate reality where extraterrestrial refugees parked their mother ship over Johannesburg, South Africa 20 years ago.
The aliens, rounded up inside a shanty town called District 9, makes obvious allusions to apartheid. When crime runs rampant in the slums, the general populace has had enough and a large corporation begins to round them up so they can move them to a tent city 200 miles out of town.
That’s where the political stuff ends. I won’t spoil what happens next, but a lot of it is action movie boilerplate. Chases, explosions, violence, gore, heroic platitudes. The whole ball of wax.
There’s some very interesting (and disturbing) Cronenberg-level “betrayal of the body” stuff going on in between the first and second act that I had a hard time stomaching. But the effects work is amazing and the CGI is nearly seamless.
I’m trying not to downplay my review. I strongly encourage all of you to see the movie. I just want you to know what you’re getting into so you don’t get your hopes too high.
District 9 is an expert film. Tightly wound and brilliantly told. Once the action kicks up, hold on to your seat – because you’re going for a ride.
But the trailers and the first act sells lofty concepts about man’s inhumanity to man (and aliens) and what ethic boundaries we will overlook in the pursuit of power and money. Just don’t expect these kind of quandaries throughout, and you’ll be fine. In fact, you’ll be better than fine. You’ll really enjoy yourself.
SIDEBAR: Tonight’s episode of The Triple Feature I think will be really good. I know between the three of us, we were all kind of surprised by the quality and diversity of films showing up in August this year. Normally August means back-to-school and that means you’re not treated as well at the multiplex as the studios try to shuffle off inferior product. But so far, I’d say things are shaping up nicely. So we should have a lot to talk about tonight at 9:00 PM CST.
Be there to listen to it live! We’ll see you then!
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Long-time readers of the site are probably familiar with our online community, the THorum. When I started Theater Hopper, it was a great way to interact with fans and we had a really good run of civility and fun for a couple of years.
Unfortunately, time commitments prevented me from visiting the THorum as often as I would like and the time I did spend there was directed toward fending off spambots, who were swarming the forum by the dozen, daily.
When I relaunched the site in WordPress earlier in the year, I decided to take another stab at the THorum, this time upgrading to phpBB3.
Unfortunately, the same maintenance problems reared their ugly heads and the THorum is now inaccessible.
I was pretty much ready to pull the plug and rely on feedback from the blog comments when I received an interesting offer from Halforum.com.
First, a bit of history. About a year ago, Scott Kurtz from PVP closed the doors on his forum. Halforum was founded by a couple of people from the PVP forum in an effort to keep the community together. I was a semi-regular on the PVP forums before they shut down and have been casual acquaintances of the group since.
Recently, the administrators from Halforum have reached out to me with an interest to establish a partnership. Basically, I link to a subdomain within their forum from Theater Hopper. They obtain access to potentially new members and I have the burden of forum maintenance lifted off my shoulders. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
I’m mentioning this to you guys because I’m trying to build some consensus. I know most of you who respond in the comments filed will probably say that the comments are suffice when it comes to community building or feedback. But I’m curious if there are any of you out there looking for something more?
Generally, I just want to know your thoughts. Is partnering with Halforum a good idea or a bad idea. Do you think you would check it out? If not, why?
The original THorum went a long way toward helping establish Theater Hopper and make it a success. So I still find value in using forums as a communications and networking tool. I just wanted to take everyone’s pulse on the matter. What do you think?
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