Posts Tagged ‘Fourth of July’
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As part of this holiday weekend, today’s incentive sketch is an image of Jared wishing you and yours a very happy AND SAFE Fourth of July. Click here to view it!
In case you’re wondering what product I’m referencing in today’s comic, you can find information about it here. This isn’t the first time that the Theater Hopper crew has suffered injury caused by carefully marketed comic book movie licensed merchandise. And if you forgot, here’s a refresher.
Does everyone remember back in the day when Silly String used to be flammable? I know you’ve all seen that footage from America’s Funniest Home Videos where some dude is about to blow out the candles on his birthday cake just before someone unleashes a wad of Silly String in his face when his lips are inches from the flames. The dude lights up like a stack of dry twigs.
I guess these days the makers of Silly String learned it’s a good idea not to physically scar people for life and went ahead and made their product non-flammable. I was at least hoping to find a video of that footage somewhere so I could link to it. Oh, well.
Wanna talk about Spider Man for a minute? I know I do!
So Cami and I saw the sequel opening night and I couldn’t have been more excited. I’ll spare you the full-length review because I think everyone should go out and see this movie with fresh eyes, if possible – but I enjoyed it immensely!
You can tell that Raimi and company really settled into a groove on this one. The action sequences are very fluid and astounding. And for fans, there are tons of small references to the comics littered all over the place.
“Hey? Is that Dr. Conners, AKA ‘The Lizard?’ And isn’t that shot a recreation from the classic cover to Amazing Spider-Man #50?”
Oh, yeah. You comic book fans are going to love this one!
Just as the first movie was able to do, Spider-Man 2 is peppered with several great scenes. After losing his powers and landing on a rooftop, Spidey has to ride the elevator down to street level and has an uncomfortable conversation with the individual he’s riding down with! And when Doc Ock’s tentacles first spring to life, it’s truly a terrifying moment! (Be sure to keep an eye out for the Evil Dead reference).
I like how the story allowed for the secondary characters to breath a little more. Aunt May, Harry Osborne and J. Jonah Jameson all have a chance to really expand their range.
Of course it’s Tobey Maguire who sells it as Peter Parker and his alter ego. He perfectly captures the conflict and guilt he suffers trying to balance his two lives. The scene where he admits responsibility for his Uncle Ben’s death to Aunt May is heartbreaking and the core of the movie.
I don’t often see the same movies twice while they’re in theaters. At least not anymore. Even though I love the first movie, I only saw it once before buying it on DVD.
The sequel is everything I could have hoped for and more. MUCH better than the original, it improves upon it’s formula in nearly every category. Don’t be surprised if you see me standing in line to watch it again this weekend!
That’s it for now. For all my American readers, have a safe and happy Fourth of July! See you here on Monday!
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After drawing today’s comic, I realized that I had originally planned on doing a comic about my IMAX experience at Superman Returns. But then, in hindsight, it really would have been more of a rehash of this strip. Basically, the image takes up so much of your field of vision, you can’t hope to see everything at once. During that plane crash where Lois is being tossed around like a rag-doll (seatbelts, people!) you can’t see anything that’s going on. It’s all a blur. So instead of being wowed by the effects, you’re looking for a pause button so your eyes can settle a little bit.
I used to be really annoyed by IMAX films because they are often so short. Like, 40 minutes tops. I think I understand why now. Because anything much longer than that and you risk a neck sprain. At two and a half hours, watching Superman Returns in IMAX was like watching the world’s longest tennis match. I mean, I had an inkling that we might be in for it when the opening title card came up with all that exposition explaining how Superman had been away for five years and you could see everyone in the audience turning their heads from left to right as fast as they could to absorb all the information – laughing nervously all the while. If this movie had subtitles, we would have been screwed.
So, I still have it in my head to check out SR for a second time on a more properly proportioned screen. Only problem is, I don’t know when that will be considering Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest comes out on Friday!
I don’t know if it’s me or if the film’s marketing team is doing a deft job, but Pirates is probably the one movie of the year that I’m most excited for and yet seen little or nothing about it. I’m serious. I just sat down to watch the full trailer maybe a day or two ago. I mean, I get the gist of the plot. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow owes his soul to a octopus-like sea ghoul Davy Jones played by Bill Nighy. Adventure ensues. I’m there.
But usually this close to a movie’s premire, I’ve soaked myself in the salty brine of advance promotion. I know what all the costumes look like, I’ve read set reports, I’ve seen enough “teaser” clips combined that only 20% of the actual film will be new to me when I see it in the theater… Basically, I ruin things for myself.
But not Pirates. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of it and I think that’s a good thing. I’m really looking forward to Friday. I loved the first film so much. Stands to reason this one should be just as good. Fingers crossed!
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Hey, guys. Sorry that this comic was late. As you can see, it was inspired by The Fourth of July and I meant for it to go up yesterday.
My plan was to take the oddly placed vacation day here in the middle of the week to do something extra fun for you. It didn’t work out like I planned because I’m still having computer problems. Maybe you can help.
As you know, my computer crapped out on me last week. So, last weekend I installed a new 320GB HD in my machine. I put Windows XP on it and the computer is booting up fine.
The only problem is, now the computer things that the old 20GB HD I was using to store Theater Hopper stuff is the C:/ drive and it identifies my new 320GB HD as the G:/ drive.
Is there anyway I can get the computer to recognize the new HD as C:/ so I can remove the old 20GB?
I’m sure your first response will be “Just remove the 20GB HD, ya dummy!” But when I attempted to do that, Windows wouldn’t start up. The computer thinks it needs it to make it run.
I’ve talked to Dell customer service. They’re useless. They want me to reinstall the operating system and all the drivers. After everything I’ve been through this week, I’m not enthused with that option. So I’m turning to you guys for help.
I talked to a friend who told me to buy a program called “Ghost” that will take a snapshot of the 320GB HD, then he instructed me remove the 20GB HD, reformat the 320GB HD and run Ghost. He said I would be back to normal in 15 minutes.
Does anyone here have thoughts or suggestions? It pretty much seems like another reinstall is my only option, but I don’t wanna.
For the time being, my computer is working fine. I’m able to scan in, color and upload comics. It’s just not working to my complete satisfaction. The 20GB drive is old. It came from the computer before last. It’s also very loud when it’s running. Plus, I’m afraid if the thing ever does fail, it’ll be inevetable that I’ll have to do a complete reinstall on the new drive. So if I’m already digging around in there, maybe now is the time to do it. I just want the most effective solution.
So, let me know!
Sorry that today’s post doesn’t have all that much to do with movies. Between these computer problems, the holiday and everything else, I’m really disjointed.
I was hoping to see Transformers last night, but the computer issues put the kibosh on that one. I think Cami and I might try to see it this weekend. Originally, neither of us were interested, but I felt compelled to go because I knew it would be the movie everyone would be talking about. Cami has since read some reviews and I think she’s more open to seeing it. So, that’s an option.
Incidentally, there will be a third (!!!) comic for Friday about Transformers – so you have that to look foward to!
Talk to you soon!
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