Posts Tagged ‘Diane Keaton’
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If you’ve been reading the blogs at all – and if you’re reading this right now, chances are you have been – you’re aware that I made a deal with Cami to see Because I Said So when it comes out in two weeks in exchange for her seeing Pan’s Labyrinth with me this weekend. The more I think about the arrangement, the more I’ve been able to mine humor from it. All I know is that when this movie finally comes to theaters and we go see it, it can’t possibly live up the level of awefullness that I’ve made it out to be. It’ll probably end up being a really good move and I’ll be eating crow. But that’s cool. It’s all entertainment.
Cami and I saw Pan’s Labyrinth on Saturday and I think I’m still processing it. The movie certainly as fanciful as I had hoped. There is a certain level of harsh contrast set against the Spanish civil war. But, in terms of it being an effective fairly tale, I think it accomplishes it’s goals. Frankly, when you compare what Guillermo del Toro has created against many other popular fables, the level of violence is appropriate. I mean, Hansel and Gretel are nearly cooked alive! Pretty scary stuff when you’re five years-old. That said, I don’t think your average five year-old can appreciate some of the political and societal references made in the movie, so it’s very much a fairy tale for adults.
I read a review that complained that the movie spends a little too much time focusing on the villain and finding ways to punish him rather than focusing on the small girl for whom the fantasy realm reveals itself to. I have to agree a little bit. Mostly because there is only so much cruelty that can be shoved in my face before I have to step back and say “Alright! We get it! He’s not a nice guy!”
Of course, I’ve also read reviews that have said the villain is supposed to be a representation of director Guillermo del Toro’s brutal relationship with his father. So, within that context, it makes a little more sense.
Cami enjoyed the movie and recognized it as fine film making, but noted that it doesn’t leave you with much of a warm fuzzy feeling. And, in that sense, the movie oversells itself. The wonderment. It comes in small doses. The rest is fairly tough to digest. Still good work all around.
If you’re interested, we’ll be talking about Pan’s Labyrinth tonight at 9:00 pm CST in the third installment of The Triple Feature talkcast at Talkshoe. By “we,” of course, I refer to myself, Joe Dunn and Gordon McAlpin. We’ll also be talking about the announcement that the MPAA has been hosting open discussions with filmmakers at Sundance this weekend about revising the ratings system. This is a monumental change. There hasn’t been a change in MPAA policy in the organization’s 40 years in existence.
I hope you guys join us this evening. Joe, Gordon and myself have been having a lot of fun putting these shows together.
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Sorry about the comic being late. The reason this keeps happening is because I actually put together Wednesday’s comic the week before to meet my deadline for the regional publication Theater Hopper appears in, Juice. I finish the comic late at night, e-mail it to the editor and completely forget to upload it to the server.
That’s it! From now on, I’m putting a Post-It note on my monitor!
At any rate, here’ s the comic with the joke I’ve been sitting on for two weeks. I had to wait until it was timely to unfurl it. I hope it was worth it.
The conversation in this comic pretty much took place word-for-word after Cami saw the advertisements for Because I Said So on TV a while back. No, I can’t remember if we we watching Lifetime: Television for Women at the time or not.
I’m not particularly concerned if this comic comes off as ageist or sexist because I know in my heart of heart’s that’s not the point that I’m making. There is an audience for this movie and I don’t deny it. They’re the same people who vote in local-level elections and have the time to write Letters to the Editor. I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT THE ELDERLY, PEOPLE!
And my wife ain’t one of them.
Oh, sure. They try to make the movie look like it’s skewing younger by tossing in Mandy Moore and a Gilmore Girl (albeit the older “girl”). But don’t be fooled! That’s eye-candy for the gentlemen trapped in the audience. Roped into going by their wives who want to see Diane Keaton complain about hot flashes because “that’s totally what it’s like!”
I was tricked into seeing the last Diane-Keaton-gets-laid cinematic offering because Jack Nicholson was in it. Never again! Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on Hollywood for churing out the exact same crap.
What do you think of that little banner? It was totally an idea I stole from Joe months ago, except I forgot to implement it. Who’s laughing now?
First bit of site news; Everyone needs to go check out You’ll Have That today. I have a guest strip running over there I think you’ll get a kick out of.
I love You’ll Have That. Why it’s not in newspapers is astounding to me. If any of our web comic brothers would make the leap easily, it would be this one. It’s relationship humor centered around a young couple and I see a lot of myself and Cami in it. If you’re not reading You’ll Have That, you should correct the situation as soon as possible.
Joe, Gordon and I wrapped up another successful Triple Feature talkcast Monday night. We talked about last week’s Oscar nominations and made our picks. I think it was one of the best shows we’ve ever done. I think they’re getting better and better and better. Download some of our past episodes and tell me I’m wrong. Tune in next Monday at 9:00 pm CST and witness history in the making.
Truthfully, we could use a little more participation. I mean, you have THE three largest creators of web comics about movies getting together once a week and talking about the movies they love. That’s prime entertainment right there! Get in on the ground floor!
Last bit of site news I have – You might have noticed that I’ve been slapping a few new banners around the site to draw your attention to site features. You’ll see banners in the upper left promoting The Triple Feature, my MySpace page and soon much more like a link to the Theater Hopper LiveJournal RSS feed. Watch that space for information pertaining to the web site. How you can interact with me in different ways, convention attendance and even new merchandise items.
I’ve also taken care to revise the “E-mail this comic to a friend” image between the comic and blog and – more importantly – there’s a new image drawing attention to the mailing list.
I got some feedback from people telling me that they didn’t know we had a mailing list. Well, now you have no excuse! My goal is to get as many of you as possible on the mailing list so I can update you with all the Theater Hopper-related news that I can.
Here’s the deal: One e-mail a week recapping everything that happened with the site. If you check irregularly, you’ll get a handy update all at once. But something else I’ve wanted to do with the mailing list has been outside my grasp.
Until now.
I’ve always wanted to offer discounts to items in the store for people who signed up for the mailing list. Paypal was kind of, um… NOT helpful developing a coupon code system that I could use.
Well, that’s all changed because I am using a new store interface that will let me do that. Over the weekend, I applied the new interface to the store and it’s really slick. It factors your shipping charges based off your zip code and it will even discount items that are shipped together! I love it. It’s taking out a lot of the guess work for me. Even better – you can designate exactly what kind of shipping you want. So if First Class is alright by you, that’s the cheapest option. But if you want to sent it overnight Fed Ex, we’ll do that to! And shipping rate is totally authentic to wherever you’re ordering from. No more “catch-all” shipping rate applied to all orders. It’s totally customizable, just like you’re used to with other online vendors! Because the guesswork has been taken out of the business side of things, I really feel like now I can focus more on being creative and hopefully bring new t-shirt designs to you soon!
So, yeah. The store is WAY better than it used to be. And now, with this coupon code option, I really have the power to start treating my die-hard readers right! So if you haven’t signed up for the mailing list yet, I strongly encourage it. There’s a good chance there might be a discount offer in your future. Maybe to celebrate the birth of a certain Baby B?
Just sayin’!
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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