Posts Tagged ‘Eddie Murphy’
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Nov01
IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL MARKETING TIME OF THE YEAR
November 1st, 2002 |
(11 votes, average: 7.36 out of 10)
I gotta say that must be one of the longer titles to one of my comics in recent memory.
I hope all of you had a wonderful Halloween. Hopefully none of you are in a recovery room somewhere after eating razor leaden candy apples. Or worse, suffering the indignity of getting a bag of pennies from the crazy Cat Lady from down the street.
My goodness. Can it be November already. Terrifying. Normally I begin to look forward to this time of year because my birthday is December 21 (jot that down). But anymore, I just look past my birthday and that holiday for the big J.C. and focus on the end of the year. New Year’s has become more important to me now. I guess I just like fresh starts.
As Jared mentioned Wednesday, he’s finished up the Theater Hopper documentary. I had a chance to look at it and it is very, very good. Jared did an excellent job of setting up the story, what Theater Hopper is about and where it’s going. He did all of this in a very tidy 6 minutes.
With that in mind, it may be time to note that we probably aren’t going to be selling VHS copies of Jared’s work as previously promoted in this space. Since the length is so short, we can’t justify the expense of producing these at any scale.
That’s not to say we’re not sitting on some quality stuff here. But why get in a tizzy over 6 minutes?
We’re exploring the option of putting Jared’s short film up on the site in installments. Of course, bandwidth consumption is still a concern. Maybe we’ll have one big blow out at the end of the month where we’ll put the film up in it’s entirety and we’ll take our chances getting cut off. If anyone wants a permanent copy, they can save it to their hard drive.
If anyone has ideas, suggestions or preferences, please e-mail them to me. We’d love to get some feedback on this. In what format would you like to see Jared’s good work?
I’d like to give a shout-out to a few new link-buddies. It would behoove you to check out The Aylumantics, The Magic Armadillo, and the good folks of Next Generation Comics. They are all worthy of your love.
Spread that love like a fine cheese…
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The Haunted Mansion doesn’t look very good to me, but it looks like the perfect movie to nod out to after a gynormous Thanksgiving dinner. Fall asleep if you like! You’re guaranteed to have a perfect antiseptic experience.
The fact that Eddie Murphy is tied to this movie and that it’s a Disney production screams “PLAYING IT SAFE!” The fact that is was directed by the guy who did the two Stewart Little movies tells me there won’t be any genuine thrills, unlike that OTHER Disney ride based feature, Pirates of the Caribbean. Still, I was pleased to see Rick Baker doing makeup on the project. That guy always produces quality work.
Murphy, on the other hand, is a performer whose stock went way down for me after he started making kiddie flicks like The Nutty Professor and Dr. Dolittle. In a way, I kind of feel sorry for the guy.
He tries slipping into the old Axel Foley mode in movies like Metro and Showtime, but audiences have decided for him what roles they want to see him in. They want him to baby-sit their kids. Hence, The Nutty Professor II and Dr. Dolittle II.
As for me, probably the only role I found him remotely interesting in the last 15 years was his duel role of Kit Ramsey/Jiff Ramsey in Bowfinger – a highly underrated film if there ever was one.
Part of me thinks we might still see The Haunted Mansion just to see if they can pull one out of the hat. Plus, Cami and I love Disney World. It’s a guilty pleasure kind of thing. I’m curious to see how close they can get to the “feel” of the ride – which is one of my favorites in the park.
Of course, either that, or I can hang around the house and play more Final Fantasy X-2.
I wanted to take a minute to call everyone’s attention to two great web comics. The first one is Overcaffinated, a great comic about geeks and the coffee that fuels them. The writing is really sharp. You can tell the guys behind it are operating a few notches above the rest. Plus, it has a great site design. I guess creator Sergio Villarreal is a web designer. It shows. That site runs like a dream.
The other site I wanted to point you to was Taking the Bi-Pass. I’m kind of ashamed that I didn’t link to this one sooner. Dave has done some great guest comics and fan art for us in the past, and I guess I thought I had always had a link to his site. It’s been fun watching Dave’s art and writing evolve. He comes up with some of the best jokes entirely out of left field.
As always, if you have a site and would like to trade links, please let me know.
I know our Canadian neighbors have already celebrated the holiday, but for everyone in America, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a safe holiday. Be sure to check the site on Friday for a special Thanksgiving-themed comic!
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As you can probably tell from today’s comic, I kind of have something against Rush Hour 3.
Okay, maybe not the movie. It’s unfair to pass judgment on something I haven’t seen. But I feel I can certainly pass judgment on the antics of it’s cast and director.
There’s something inherently wrong about Chris Tucker being paid $25 million (that’s a $20 million payday with back end percentages) in a deal that makes him more valuable than proven A-listers who have been in the business 20 years or more. Tell you what, Chris – do a movie OTHER than a Rush Hour film, and we’ll talk. Until then, you’re still firmly on the B-list in my mind.
I guess more power to you if you can fool the studio into thinking you’re worth it, but will audiences fall for it? The first Rush Hour was fine. The second one was a little better. But that was six years ago! Does anyone still care?
What I find most distasteful are the trailers with Roman Polanski as a French detective. If you’ve seen it, then you’ve seen the whole rubber glove/cavity search bit, then you get the gist of it. Apparently Polanski’s character is supposed to be “comically sadistic” and performs “terrible acts” on Tucker and Jackie Chan.
If you know anything about Polanski and his troubles with the law here in America in the late 1970’s, you know that he was indited for rape and fled to France where he has avoided extradition. I won’t go into the details of his charges, but you can read about it here.
My point is any movie lowbrow enough to cast Roman Polanski in this winking manner is a movie that is giving me less and less reasons to see it.
That’s a very specific thing to be outraged by and I recognize that the dichotomy will be lost on most people. To the general movie-going audience, it’ll just be another action-comedy romp. But to me, it looks like nothing but a fast grab for cash.
Switching gears, I’m busy getting ready for Wizard World Chicago this weekend. If you’re going to be in the area, I’ll be exhibiting on Artist’s Alley at table 3704 B. I’ll be hard to miss because I’ll be hanging out with my web comic buddies Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey, Joe Dunn and the rest of the Digital Pimp Online Crew and our mutual friend, Taki Soma. Rumor has it that Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex and Brandon J. Carr formerly of The Kenmore will be hanging around, although not exhibiting in an official capacity. I think Joe, Gordon and I are going to try and record an impromptu Triple Feature podcast to post to TalkShoe next Monday. So keep your eyes peeled for our little con report!
You’ll want to swing by my booth because I’ll be giving away free DVD’s to anyone who buys $50 or more in merchandise. So that’s a nice little incentive!
Speaking of buying things, as you guys are aware, Theater Hopper celebrated it’s 5th year anniversary on Sunday. So, in honor of the fans, I’m slashing prices on the Theater Hopper: Year One and Theater Hopper: Year Two books. Now, instead of buying them for $15, you can get them for $10. And if you bundle them together, you can save a buck and get them both for $19.
The promotion only lasts until Friday, so if you want to take advantage of the deal, act now!
As a side note, it’s been interesting to see the slight uptick in t-shirt sales this week. That’s smart thinking, savvy shoppers. Because I’m taking my entire shirt inventory to Chicago. So I can’t make any promises that I’ll have the design you want in the size you want once I get back. If you’ve had your eye on any shirts, now is the time to place your order. I’ll set them aside for you.
Remember, you can always bundle t-shirts together with books or other shirts for more savings!
That about does it for me tonight. There will be a guest strip from my good friend Rex on Friday since I will be “out of the office,” as it were. Rex does a great comic called Make with The Funny that you should check out if you want a little preview of the action that’s to come.
Real quick, thanks to everyone that have sent messages of congratulations and support on the five year anniversary and also thanks to those of you who have been sending in suggestions on how we can fight spammers in the comments section! I would really hate to see the comments section go, so we’re going to do what we can to try and salvage it.
If you have any thoughts about how we can fend off the spammer horde, send me an e-mail and have a great Wednesday!
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In today’s incentive image, Tom and Cami enjoy a refreshing summertime treat. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to see for yourself!
I don’t know how fair it is to compare Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That to Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories. The children’s imaginary world translated into a fantasy/reality situation. They weren’t the source of out-and-out business predictions like they are in Imagine That .
Still, it’s noticeable that there are two movies with such similar thematic elements coming out so close to each other.
Maybe it’s not so weird when you consider how different studios have outright stolen from each other and put competing films back to back over the years.
A Bug’s Life and Antz. Volcano and Dante’s Peak. Mission to Mars and Red Planet. It happens a lot. I’m sure there’s more if I actually sat down to think about it. Maybe you guys have some similarly-themed movies you can share in the comments section below?
I don’t have much more to share except we’re still trying to get to the problem of this malware error people are getting when they are trying to access the site.
From what we’ve learned, it seems to be only affecting Safari and Google Chrome users. I’ve been doing some searches online and have discovered we’re not the only one suffering this problem, but I’m not finding much in terms of solutions.
I’ve been bombed with e-mails and Tweets from people telling me that they can’t access the site. I feel personally responsible to everyone who notifies me of the error and is trying to help. But I can’t respond to all of you. I’m sorry. Please don’t take it as a snub. I’m just trying to focus my efforts on solving the problem.
I’m doing everything to update security on my own machine, we’ve combed through the code of the site, we’re trying to isolate ads from our network that could be causing the problem. We’re even looking through the THorum to see if it could be originating there. It’s a lot of trial and error, but it’s all part of the regular maintenance that goes into the site.
If it’s any consolation, please know that I am not DELIBERATELY trying to infect your machines with malware. Frankly, I’m not that smart (which is probably how the site ended up in this position to begin with.)
Please trust that we’re doing everything we can.
In the meantime, let me know your thoughts about Imagine That. Are you planning on seeing it, maybe taking your kids or a younger sibling? Or have you grown tired of Eddie Murphy’s family movie shtick and are secretly hoping he makes a sequel to Eddie Murphy: Raw instead?
Thanks again for everyone’s patience and have a great weekend!
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Today’s incentive image is of Eddie Murphy’s character from Up Yours taking a swig from a bottle. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics if you’d like to see it.
I was kind of at a loss for what to do about today’s comic. I feel like last week we were in some kind of weird holding pattern in terms of interesting movies. Between The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Imagine That, a great case of “Meh” washed over me.
I guess I wasn’t the only one. The Hangover and Up basically held their positions as the number 1 and number 2 movies at the box office this weekend. Most notable? The Hangover is the only movie so far this summer to hold on to the top spot two weekends in a row. That’s maybe not an indicator of quality as much as fantastic word of mouth, but it’s still a pretty amazing achievement – especially when you consider that there are no real “stars” in the movie. Familiar names, sure. But not an actor you would hang your movie off of.
I think what shocked me most is how far down the list Imagine That really was. 6th place. That’s pretty bad considering that it has an A-list star with Eddie Murphy, is a family movie (which generally do great when the kids are out of school), an it’s in it’s first weekend.
To give you some further perspective, Imagine That did $4 million less than Land of the Lost did in it’s second week. And Land of the Lost lost more than 50% of it’s audience.
Need further perspective? Imagine That is Murphy’s second worst performing film since The Adventures of Pluto Nash – a film SYNONYMOUS with Hollywood bombs. That movie earning roughly $1.3 million less despite inflation and the fact that The Hangover played on nearly 1,000 more screens.
$5.7 million is what Imagine That ended up taking home this weekend. Between the out and out failure of this movie and the robust success of The Hangover and it’s strong “R” rating, you have to wonder if Murphy is reconsidering that hissy fit he threw after he didn’t win Best Supporting Actor in Dreamgirls a few years ago.
Switching gears, I want to let people know that I think we’re making some headway on the malware error message Safari and Chrome users are seeing. I got a tip from Phil Chan over at Martriculated as to what the problem might be. I’m just doing a little cross-referencing at the moment to make sure I don’t delete something important by accident. But we’re close to getting this thing resolved.
It’s been tough for me to field e-mails and tweets the last few days from readers telling me about the malware errors. I feel like I’ve been letting people down by not addressing it sooner. It’s not out of laziness. Just a general lack of availability. I was at my cousin’s wedding in St. Paul over the weekend and that slowed things down a bit.
Not that I regret going to the wedding, of course! We had a blast! Oh, and if Paul and Jill are reading, congratulations again. You make a lovely couple and we can’t wait to see you again in August!
Not much more to talk about right now except for a few links I wanted to point you to.
First, be sure and check out the list of Top 10 Sci-Fi movies over at Movie Make-Out that I contributed to. In case you didn’t know, Movie Make-Out is a movie news and opinion site run by Gordon McAlpin of Multiplex. Gordon runs a tight ship and he has a few people writing for him as well, so you know he’s taking it seriously. Check it out.
Also don’t forget to listen to The Triple Feature podcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe.com. Not sure what we’re going to talk about, but I’m sure The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 will be in the mix there somewhere. We might also be talking about our Top 10 Sci-Fi list, as well.
If not, I might be talking about Death Proof, which I plan on watching later today. We got a suggestion from someone over at The Triple Feature Facebook community that a DVD review from time to time might be a nice change of pace. I agree! So we might be adding that to the show soon!
By the way, we love answering listener questions on The Triple Feature. So if there’s something you’d like to ask the group, feel free to send it to us by e-mail at group@thetriplefeature.com.
Joining our Facebook group is also a great way to submit questions. Plus, you get the added benefit of a quick reminder just before we record the show. That way, if you’re at your computer, you can come and listen to us live!
If you’re a fan of the show, listening live only enhances the experience. There’s a chat field where you can interact with other listeners and ask the rest of us questions in real time! Give it a try and I know you’ll be hooked. We see a lot of the same people in the chat field from week to week and I know they enjoy it.
Anyway, that’s it for me. Have a great day!
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