Today’s comic was one of the rare gems where I had the punchline in mind first and had to work my way backward for the setup. I knew that things would end with Jason Statham shooting up a car and offering his professional opinion. I just didn’t know how to get there.

Funnily enough, it wasn’t until late in the game last night that I came up with that horrible pun to put a button on it. But there you have it.

The Mechanic is another straight-up Statham actioneer that I had a modicum of interest in seeing which then waned when I saw a shiny object on the sidewalk.

This is not meant as a critique or as an indicator of my refined taste. After all, I proudly saw Crank: High Voltage in the theater. It’s just that… I don’t know… aren’t all these movies starting to feel the same to you? Interchangeable, even?

I’ll give Statham credit for mixing it up in movies like The Expendables or Snatch. He’s show that he’s not 100% ego and can place nice with an ensemble when he wants to. That’s the difference between Statham and action-film relics like Jean Claude Van Damme or Steven Segal – Statham doesn’t make it all about him. That should help keep him out of the Direct-To-DVD category for a while.

What leaves me scratching my head is why Ben Foster turned up in this thing. Foster has the kind of chip on his shoulder that could make him a junior Ryan Gossling, but he shows up in odd places. The Messenger was a strike at legitimacy and I think he could find more roles like that if he wanted.

I’m not articulating this well, but I feel like Foster is one to watch. Ever since I saw him in 3:10 to Yuma, I thought there was something tangible there. Forceful, but undisciplined. I think it’ll be a treat watching him evolve as an actor.

Not much more for me to share this morning except that I’m making a few cosmetic changes to Theater Hopper’s RSS feed. So if you follow us there and have opinions about the new logo or menu items, let me know, would you? I don’t follow my own site on RSS very closely, but that’s a door I want to leave open for people who do.

Actually, not only do I want to leave the door open, but I want to make sure the room is well-decorated. If you have any ideas on how to improve the RSS layout, please let me know.

Speaking of the RSS feed, I’ve thrown in a 728 x 90 Project Wonderful ad to the feed. So if you want a little extra coverage for your web site, check it out.

I’m also testing the waters again with a 125 x 125 Project Wonderful ad next to the comic. So if you want to throw your hat in the ring, rates are cheap. Bid away!

I might throw a 160 x 600 ad in that space in the future. I haven’t decided yet. I don’t want the site to be overrun with ads, but Project Wonderful is a unique opportunity for others to advertise on the site an an affordable rate. So I kind of want to make it worth their while. The success of the 125 x 125 ad will determine how that moves forward.

One last thing I’ll mention, if you’re not already a fan of the Theater Hopper Facebook page, please consider following. We’ve been hovering around 900 followers for the last month or so and I would be a real treat to see if we could push that over 1,000. I think that would be a significant milestone.

At any rate, that’s all I’ve got. Did anyone happen to see The Mechanic over the weekend? What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below!