Sorry for the delay in getting today’s strip posted on time. I have a good excuse! Honest!
I didn’t plan ahead!
That’s really about half of it, actually. I didn’t plan ahead and I celebrated my 27th birthday with my family last night. I didn’t get home until about 11:30. I stayed up until 1:00 am drawing and inking the comic before hitting the hay.
I woke up this morning and added a few more touches, but I actaully had to go out and brave the cold to complete some holiday-related errands I needed to run. I actually took a vacation day from work to accomplish this! I got back about mid-afternoon and posted the comic to the site.
Some of you might complain that today’s comic is not movie-related. Please note Exhibit A: Popcorn! You can’t have a movie without popcorn! And you can’t do anything popcorn-related without risking Tom ingesting all of it.
Meet the Fockers comes out today and everyone I know wants to see it. I don’t understand the appeal and I didn’t particularly care for the first one. The minute Ben Stiller flushed the toilet he wasn’t supposed to and the septic tank flooded the backyard with stinky-stink, I pretty much tuned out.
Still, any movie that can pull Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand together must have something going for it. Let’s hope the script lives up to the level of talent they’ve corralled.
The movie I’m really looking forward to this weekend is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Advance reviews accuse it of being too clever and too inside for it’s own good. They say writer/director Wes Anderson’s script sacrifices characterization for these cute, little set pieces. I say, “Who cares!” I love Wes’ vision. He’s one of my favorite modern directors. I think you either get his dry sense of humor or you don’t. It’s no coincidence he’s cast Bill Murrary in his last 3 movies. The man is a master of the deadpan delivery. I worship at his alter.
What about the rest of you? What are your holiday movie-going plans? Let us know in the THorum!
I’m not anticipating a lot of people coming to the site today, but if it turns out you sought reprieve from your cheek-pinching aunt, thanks for logging on and checking out the site.
I love this time of year because it seems like movies are on in the background all the time. Cami and I were preparing food to take over to our relatives houses today and tomorrow. We enjoyed a double-feature. Miracle on 34th Street (1994 Dylan McDermott remake, not the original) followed promptly by Steve Martin’s and Carl Reiner’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. I’ll give you two guesses who picked which movie.
Not much else to say except “Enjoy the Holiday!” I know I will. See you back here on Monday!
SOMEONE WHO DIDN’T LEARN TO COUNT TO 10
December 27th, 2004 | by Tom(4 votes, average: 9.25 out of 10)
Everybody kind of gripes and grouses about the stress of the holidays. But for some reason, once Christmas rolls around, we think it supposed to end there, don’t we?
But it doesn’t.
Traffic still sucks, lines are still long, everyone and their brother is trying to shoehorn themselves into a movie theater and God help you if you need to return an item without a gift receipt.
The events in today’s comic essentially befell me on Sunday when Cami and I went to see The Life Aquatic Steve Zissou. Normally my baser instincts would have screamed “STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!” at the prospect of fighting the crowds over a holiday weekend, but the lure of a new Wes Anderson movie was too strong to resist! Pray to the altar of Bill Murray!
What was annoying about the whole thing were the lines. First you’re funneled into this massive line, roped off with those little nylon straps. Of course there are only two people working the register. After about 20 minutes, you get your tickets.
Then, deciding it might be nice to have popcorn, you go to the concession stand and wait in line another 20 minutes. “Oh, wait! We have to pop another batch. Oh, wait! We’re out of ice for the drinks.”
And, of course, without fail… the five people in front of you are buying enough food for a family of eight, but they’re the only one carrying it and they’re about 4 hands too short to maneuver the line without any complications.
And all of this was at a matinee.
Next time, I should just listen to my instincts and wait until the Tuesday 10:00 PM showing…
As far as the movie was concerned, I thought it was great but Cami felt like she had wasted two hours. She thought they advertised it differently than what it turned out to be. I suggested that it’s pretty hard to advertise “quirky”. She also felt like it was too long.
It was a disappointment for her because she’s actually a Wes Anderson fan. She really loved Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.
I don’t know why it went over for me and not for her. Maybe my geeky fan boy love obscured my vision from the duller aspects. Maybe I just fell in love with its vision so thoroughly I was able to ignore its problems with plot and characterization.
I’ll admit the film can be a little herky-jerky at times and maybe a little too cute for its own good. It plays very inside and the characters seem to mostly be speaking at each other and not really conversing. Probably the most glaring issue for me was Owen Wilson’s Kentucky accent, which dropped in and out of his dialogue to the point of distraction.
Part of me wants to be elitist about the whole affair and say “Oh, you just don’t get it.” But I think that whitewashes the issue. Certainly I think there’s a wavelength to Anderson’s films that you’re either predisposed to or not. But there’s something about The Life Aquatic that is more off-kilter than usual. It’s the largest budget Anderson’s ever been given ($50 million) yet the film feels more internalized than anything he’s done before. As if the narrative thread had been pulled out from under all these little vignettes and the audience is left to piece them together themselves.
Certainly the fact that I’m still thinking about it the next day is a good sign. I really wouldn’t mind seeing it again, actually.
Anyone who is interested in buying a t-shirt, baby doll or a hoodie has until January 7th to do it. That’s when the next pre-order period comes to a close. I anticipate those shirts to be delivered before the end of the month, in case you were looking for an estimate.
No real news besides that. I hope everyone had a happy holiday!
Apologies for the late comic today. I’m getting into a unusual habit where I am doing more than my requite four panels and adding a ton of effects and emotion to my comics lately.
This would not normally be considered a problem if I were able to plan somewhat in advance and produce the comic on time. But I’ve definitely been playing catch-up lately. Sorry about that.
The good news about today’s delayed comic is that you get to hear my opinion about Tron: Legacy! I finally had a chance to see the film Monday night with some friends and I’m still kind of… processing it (see what I did there?)
I know I’m a little behind the curve, since the movie came out last week. But it’s been interesting monitoring the reaction to it online. The general consensus is that the film is amazing to look at, but light on plot. I’m inclined to agree, but I wasn’t really bothered by the deficiencies in the storyline.
Maybe it was a case of managed expectations, but when compared to a similar feast for the eyes that was light on plot like James Cameron’s Avatar, I was far less disappointed.
If I could make one complaint, the first act of the movie establishes that Jeff Bridges’s character discovers something inside “The Grid” that would change every idea mankind ever had about science, medicine or religion. Once Bridges’s discovery is revealed, the Earth-shattering ramifications aren’t really explored.
I think it’s because the filmmakers would rather have us extrapolate the meaning of his discovery, but I would have preferred a little more discussion around it. I really think it would have helped anchor the story and raised the stakes in terms of why this discovery was worth defending. Instead, it feels a little bit tacked on.
And I guess if I could make one additional complaint, it would have to be about Jeff Bridges’s performance. Basically, he channeling a digital version of The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Trapped inside The Grid for over 20 years, Bridges’s contemporary take on Kevin Flynn has him adopting Zen principles and an odd delight in calling everyone “man.” For me, it comes off as a little too colloquial and flippant. Again, it diminishes the stakes.
But, truthfully, these are petty squabbles. Like I said before, the plot deficiencies in no way subtract from the overall experience Tron: Legacy brings to the screen. The visuals are astounding. Even Bridges’s rubbery, digitized performance as his younger self has an odd allure.
It easy to see why Disney didn’t promote Tron: Legacy with a re-release of the original Tron on blu-ray. The visuals Joseph Kosinski’s film blow the original out of the water. While there are several clever references to the original film, this sequel is an entirely different beast.
I ended up seeing the film in 3D and I don’t know that it particularly added anything to the experience. I don’t think I felt any more or less “immersed” in the world of Tron than I would have if I had watched it in 2D. Frankly, that’s a compliment toward Kosinski’s direction. I felt like I was leaning into the film the whole time. Despite being somewhat dreary, Tron is a place I wouldn’t mind inhabiting for a while!
One more thing I’ll say… there was a lot of hype around Daft Punk providing the soundtrack to this movie. It seemed like a natural fit and something that fans could get excited about. I bought the soundtrack before the movie came out and it left me a little cold. I was hoping for a little more funk and a little less orchestration.
I can say now that I’ve watched the movie, the context for the soundtrack has been completely re-contextualized for me. It is much better than I originally gave it credit for because I was too busy focusing on what I wanted it to be instead of enjoying it for what it was. If you enjoy soundtracks, I strongly encourage you to pick it up. Great stuff.
I’ve run out of things to say about Tron: Legacy, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed it greatly and leave it at that. I have designs to see True Grit sometime in the near future. Although Cami has been trying to pull together a date night so we can see The King’s Speech. Truthfully, I’m good either way. It’s a win-win! But we’ll see what happens.
Thanks for your patience with today’s comic. If you have additional thoughts about Tron: Legacy, feel free to leave them in the comments. See you in 2011!