BAD MOVIES AND BAD SHELLFISH DON’T MIX
November 24th, 2003 | by Tom(7 votes, average: 8.29 out of 10)
Myself, Cami, Jared and his wife Patti didn’t actually see The Cat in the Hat this weekend, so maybe it isn’t fair to bash it. But if most of the reviews are correct (as I believe they are), I think we’re in pretty safe waters.
I’m not particularly impressed that the movie made over $40 million this weekend. Expect that number to drop off dramatically in the next two weeks. At the end of the day, it just isn’t a smart idea to make a feature-length movie out of a children’s book with only 200-some words in it. There’s a lot of extra exposition to fill.
I was watching Ebert & Roeper this weekend and they both panned the film. No surprise, but they made an interesting observation: The people who made The Cat in the Hat also produced The Grinch. What they fail to realize is that people don’t want to see Mike Myers or Jim Carrey buried under mountains of make-up and special effects. As two of the most able comic actors currently on screen, they themselves are the special effect. Handicapping them with prosthetics and fur suits prevents them from trumping the material and bringing it up a notch.
There aren’t too many movies I’m worked up for right now. I’ll admit that I’m interested in seeing Ron Howard’s The Missing, but mostly because I’m a big fan of Tommy Lee Jones. The Haunted Mansion comes out this week, but I don’t think that looks very good. Neither does Timeline (admittedly, I’m not much of a Michael Crichton fan).
Bad Santa has been getting some interesting reviews. Apparently the subject matter of the film is quite adult. I was all but ready to write it off because of it’s awful trailer, but that was before I found out that Terry Zwigoff directed it. Zwigoff also directed Ghost World and the documentary Crumb. He’s a bit of an odd-duck, but I think his sensibilities are similar to mine. If they can get the word out that a first draft of the Bad Santa script was handled by Joel and Ethan Cohen, I think it’ll build more buzz.
Speaking of buzz, if you guys could throw a little vote-love my way over at buzzComix, that would be great. We’re kind of teetering on the cusp of the Top 10 and are in danger of falling off without a little support. I’d like to hang in there before the month ends. I promise to kick off December with more great voting incentives.
Like the rest of you, I’m gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday, so my head is in quite a few places at the moment. Holidays always have a way of throwing your routine into upheaval. But don’t worry. You can expect strips on Wednesday and Friday – even if I AM swimming in a cloud of turkey-induced tryptophan.
If you haven’t already, you should really check out the forums. We’ve seen a recent influx of people registering. It’s a good time to join!