Posts Tagged ‘Bennifer’
3 items.
Although I worked on today’s comic in advance, I did not prepare a Monday morning blog. Currently, I am suffering the after-effects of a Super Bowl party and the over-consumption of too many libations, meat and cheese. As such, my comments will be brief.
But real quick: Was it just me, or were the advertisements during this year’s game some of the lamest you’ve ever seen? Not a lick of creativity between any of them.
That aside, anyone looking for commentary regarding the revelation of Charlie’s big secret last Friday need only click the “BACK” link located directly below the comic. I added some words of not-so-much wisdom over the weekend.
Today’s buzzComix incentive sketch has nothing to do with today’s comic (as is typically the tradition). But instead the rough pencils for February’s raffle artwork. It’s a scene from the upcoming Keanu Reeves’ Constantine. Don’t ask me what it is with all the comic book inspired drawings (last month was Elektra). I guess it must be the season for obscure sequential art caricatures.
At any rate, I provided a scene still from the movie that I’m using as my frame of reference. It’s been showing up in all the television advertisements and the trailer, so I gather it must be a “signature scene”. I think the artwork is coming along very nicely. I was excited about it and wanted to share it. Vote for Theater Hopper if you want to see it.
I had some thoughts about Constantine the movie – mostly relating to how fans of the original Vertigo comic book are upset that the character has been taken out of his London setting and his trademark blonde hair replaced by Reeves’ jet black dye job. But ultimately I conceded to the fact that once Reeves’ was cast, so was a limited range for the adaptation.
Will the movie be any good? Hard to tell. It clearly won’t be as good as the comic books. But maybe they’ll take things in a direction we don’t expect.
Something else unexpected… Cami said she was interested in seeing the movie. The ads led her to believe it’s about talking to the dead – a subject that fascinates her. Not entirely correct, but not entirely incorrect. Maybe it’ll be something to see. Goodness knows there hasn’t been much else worth watching these last few months…
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Feb09
Part of me wonders if it’s okay to write this bizarre re-telling of recent pop culture history to fit the mold of my storyline. I mean, celebrity or not, these are ∗REAL∗ people and conceivable ∗REAL∗ emotions were involved.
But then I think about the little perks the come with celebrity. Any time I read an article about an actor who is presenting the Best Supporting Actor trophy at the Golden Globe Awards and then talk about a $37,890 gift basket the receive for doing so, I start to think that this kind of dissection of their personal lives is a fair, Faustian bargain.
I watched The Matrix Revolutions tonight while drawing the strip. Like many, I remember being thoroughly let down when it came out in October of 2003. I didn’t buy it on DVD and I hadn’t watched it since that time. Tonight it popped up on HBO, so I decided to leave it on as background noise while I worked.
I don’t know why, but it played much better for me the second time on the small screen. I don’t know if that’s because my television did a better job of hiding the CGI (especially in the final airborne battle between Smith and Neo) or if because the “story” had time to permeate my brain in the near year and a half since I last viewed it.
More than likely the story didn’t miraculously achieve cohesion. More than likely it was a case of absence making the heart grow fonder.
Even though the last two movies landed with an incredible THUD! compared to the first, there is no disputing that The Wachowski’s created a visual style that will be referenced for the next 50 years. It’s just too bad they decided on putting the sizzle before the steak in the latter chapters.
I won’t pontificate beyond that. Too much has already been made about the subject and by more dedicated observers than I.
In other Keanu related news, his new movie Constantine opens this weekend. It’s the story of irreverent supernatural detective who has literally been to hell and back. And just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Today’s buzzComix incentive sketch (and future Donator’s exclusive desktop wallpaper) pays tribute to the upcoming film. I know I already showed you this drawing, but that was the ROUGH PENCILS! Since reaction to the piece was really positive, I thought everyone might get a kick out of seeing the final inks. Plus, the image in its entirety, not the close-up I took of the pencils. I don’t know. Maybe you’ll enjoy watching the artwork progress.
Later.
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The two movies Tom is referencing in today’s strip are Catch and Release (starring Jennifer Garner) and Smokin’ Aces (with Ben Affleck). Smokin’ Aces is really more of an ensemble piece, so I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a “Ben Affleck movie.” More like a movie Ben Affleck happens to be in.
Does it surprise you that Catch and Release is the film I’m more excited about seeing? It surprised me. A few years ago, I would have been chomping at the bit for a film like Smokin’ Aces. Large cast full of actors I like, lots of mayhem. Looks like fun. But recently when I look at the commercials or the trailer, all I can think about it how it looks like a Pulp Fiction rip-off a decade warmed over.
Catch and Release, while still wearing the comfortable trappings of a traditional romantic comedy, looks much more interesting to me simply for the inclusion of Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Smith. I’ve been a fan of Olyphant since Doug Liman’s Go and I always found his quiet menace as Sherrif Seth Bullock on Deadwood. He’s not the conventional choice to play a romantic lead and I like that kind of twist in casting.
Of course, Kevin Smith as the wise-acre sidekick adds shading. It’s interesting to see him act in movie that aren’t his. So I’m curious to see how he performs when it’s someone else’s words coming out of his mouth.
Something interesting I learned about the production of Catch and Release is that Jennifer Garner was newly pregnant with Ben Affleck’s child (shudder) and was just starting to show a little. So apparently there are several scenes in the movie where Garner is either standing behind something or wearing baggy clothing to obscure her mid-section. Call it the Steven Segal technique.
I totally didn’t get the impression that Garner was pregnant during filming when looking at commercials, so I guess that’s movie magic at work. But now that I have this information in my back pocket, I’m going to be looking for it during the movie.
I don’t really have much for you today besides that. Real quick, though – does anyone have experience with RSS or, more specifically, Ryan North’s RSSpect application? I’m trying to get Theater Hopper running a little bit smoother on the feeds (in particular the LiveJournal RSS feed) so that the comic will appear with a portion of the blog.
My hope is that people who have friended TH in their LiveJournal accounts will read the comic, see a little bit of the blog and then be inspired to visit the site and read the rest. You know, make it less of a passive experience while still giving them what they want. Plus, I think there is value in people actually being able to SEE the comic in the feed rather than just a link. Who knows? They might end up visiting the site and leaving comments under the blogs! To that end, if you have comments of your own, you’d know I would love for you to share them. What movies are you excited about seeing this weekend? Am I wrong about Smokin’ Aces? Let me know!
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