Posts Tagged ‘Keanu Reeves’
3 items.
So before you start freaking out and wondering who Patti is, let me just clear the air and inform everyone. Patti is Jared’s wife and a very nice person to boot. I don’t draw her in the comics often because… hey, man. That’s my best friend’s WIFE!
Seriously though it more likely because I would hate to have her speak a line of dialogue she found offensive or make her the butt of any jokes. Even though I know she would be good-natured about such things.
As is such, today’s strip was an honest-to-goodness real life declaration on Patti’s part. I thought it insightful enough to put into cartoon form.
It’s true that when we went to see The Matrix Reloaded, we were forced to sit in the second row. And for the entire running time of the film, we were subjected to a distorted picture due to our proximity. When it was over, my back was stiff from looking up for so long. I honestly don’t remember some parts of the movie because, at that low of a perspective, the quick cuts were even MORE of a blur.
When are theater owners going to realize that packing in their audiences like sardines diminishes the movie going experience? It’s more than likely I’ll have to see The Matrix Reloaded again just so I can have another crack at understanding it all.
And now THIS is the part where I segue into my opinions of the film (WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN)…
I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t think Reloaded would have split the fan base so severely into the camps that adored it and the camps that loathed it. But after thinking about it over the weekend, I’ve come to determine neither of them are right. It is not the end all, be all of sci-fi nor should it be the focus of your utter contempt.
I think the source material is great and the concept of The Matrix is top-shelf. But the execution this time around was average.
My complaints are similar to a lot of the others you’ve probably read. I felt many of the fights scenes didn’t serve to push the story, but were mere exercises in “Lookie what we can do!”
The 100 Agent Smiths fight was impressive and I liked the way they kept ratcheting up the insanity. But, inevitably, it wore out it’s welcome.
I wasn’t impressed with Zion. I felt it looked a little too CG. Actually, it looked a little to Attack of the Clones for my tastes. Especially when the hoverships were docking.
I REALLY had a negative reaction to Morpheous’ speech to the masses and that weird rave they threw in celebration. The sex scene they threw in also felt out of place.
And speaking of sex, that whole scene with the smarmy French guy and the piece of “Coded Cake” was just – icky. It didn’t prove anything. It just creeped me out.
But to be far, after that scene, the movie really started picking up for me and there were several scenes that I enjoyed.
Obviously the freeway chase scene is a classic and they’ll be figuring out ways to outdo it for years to come. I got a real sense of danger from what was going on during that chase – the hallmark of any great action sequence is when they can get you to think people are under the real threat of death.
I also enjoyed the fight between Morpheous and the agent on top of the 18 wheeler. When he does that handstand on the edge of the trailer… Wow!
I liked the twins. I thought they were interesting villains and was curious how their whole intangibility trick worked.
And I really, REALLY enjoyed the scene where Neo makes it to The Source and converses with The Architect. The way the explained how “The One” came to be and how they’ve already destroyed Zion 6 times coaxed a very Keanu “Whoa” out of me. Did anyone else notice how The Architect was dressed and groomed in a manner similar to that of Sigmond Freud?
As time goes on and I think about the movie more and more, I realize how much I liked it. I probably liked it more than I originally thought I did. I’ll probably see it again if anything to correct the distorted experience I had the first time around. This time I want to make sure I’m seeing EVERYTHING.
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I think the title for today’s strip is quite possibly the biggest groaner in 6-plus years of Theater Hopper. It’s delicious. I love it.
I was thinking about The Day The Earth Stood Still and the quote I took from Owen Gliberman’s review from Entertainment Weekly that I grabbed last week. Y’know, the one about how Keanu Reeves “seems to be trying to wriggle out of the charge that he’s a flat actor by acting flat on purpose.”
The more I got to thinking about it, the more I decided that it was kind of an unfair stigma. I mean, there are plenty of actors who only have one or two moves and audiences love them for it. Maybe Reeves inate sense of distance is something that makes him unknowable to some audiences – and that makes him interesting or sexy. There are dozens of different reasons why people gravitate toward one actor and not another.
Look at my interest in Will Ferrell. Some people might find that inconcievable. And, truthfully, I can see it from their perspective. He plays a lot of the same roles, he does a lot of the same tricks. But, for me, it’s all about his line delivery. Earlier this year in Step Brothers when he’s burying John C. Reily and states simply, “I’m burying you!” just the emphasis he puts on “burying” puts me in stitches every time.
I’m weird.
I didn’t see TDTESS this weekend. I couldn’t bring myself to it. The whole movie looks big, dumb and loud. Reviews didn’t help, either. Especially those that claimed it was heavy-handed.
TDTESS is the THIRD movie I can think of off the top of my head in recent months that has promoted some kind of environmental message or made eco-terrorists the bad guys. First it was Quantum of Solace, then it was Transporter 3. Now (instead of nuclear proliferation), Reeves as the alien ambassador Klaatu has come to warn the human race to clean up the environment… or else! It turns out WE’RE the villains! *GASP!*
What I really wanted to see this weekend was Milk, but Cami and I didn’t get the chance. I’m bummed because I think we’re going to be talking about it on The Triple Feature tonight and I really wanted to participate. Gordon saw it last week and was chomping at the bit to talk about it. I’ve seen him posting across social networking sites all last week chatting it up, so I know he’s ready to go. My birthday is on Sunday. Maybe we can snare a babysitter this weekend and check it out then.
Until then, don’t forget to tune in to The Triple Feature tonight and do my best to either moderate or keep up. As always, we record live at 9:00 PM CST. Be there and ask questions in real-time. Or, if you have a Skype connection and a microphone, call us yourself and ask it!
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you here on Wednesday!
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First things first, guys. I have a bit of site business to attend to.
Whether or not you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook and the myriad of updates I’ve posted pertaining to the matter, there has been a long-standing drama unfolding over the last few months. Specifically, I’m talking about the development of… A NEW T-SHIRT DESIGN!
Check it!
The design of this shirt has been going on for so long, I don’t even remember when I first came up with the idea for it. I want to say last Christmas. That may or may not be true.
What IS true is that I need to give a big shout-out to Joel Watson from Hijinks Ensue and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex for helping me refine the idea. This shirt would not look at all good without their influence. If you guys know Joel at all, he is like a t-shirt making machine. He’s knows his stuff and he provided me with a lot of great art tips as well. So thanks, guys! I’ll be pestering you again real soon!
Anyway, I’m running a pre-sale on this shirt now through Friday to help me raise the funds to print up the first batch. The goal is to take this new design to Wizard World Chicago – which I will be attending – August 11 – 14.
Shirts are $12.00 and I would really appreciate it if you bought one now rather than later. Plus, don’t you want to be the first on your block to have one? Thanks, guys. You’re the coolest!
Now, onto the comic!
Despite taking all kinds of box office records and breaking them over it’s knee like dry kindling, I’m not doing a comic about Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. I just… don’t care. Sorry, Gryffindor. I stuck it out through six moves, but totally gave up after The Half-Blood Prince. While I applaud the continuity that director David Yates brought to the series (it was sorely lacking), there’s just something about his murky style that flattened the franchise for me and made the last few movies completely unmemorable.
And for the record, no, I never read the books (please consult recent t-shirt design above). I don’t have the knowledge of the characters and events that help fill in the gaps within the movies. So, sorry. Just not my bag, baby.
I have a Harry Potter in mind for another comic, but I’m worried it won’t be timely for next week. So we’ll see what can be done about a bonus comic this week. After all, I have to keep that pre-sale up in the air, don’t I?
As for today’s comic, lots of people were steamed about Netflix’s price increase last week. I was actually sent more than one e-mail asking me to sign a petition against the company or to add my name to the disgruntled customers who are walking out on them.
I don’t begrudge these individuals their right to be mad about this situation. Certainly I am just as easily offended in other matters. But this time around?… I’m coo’ with it.
Look, even before I read the reports about how the studios were putting the squeeze on Netflix for licensing right (an estimated $2 Billion with a “B” projected for next fiscal year), I was already pretty much on Netflix’s side anyway.
Netflix is a monster of the first order. It clogs up the USPS and it sucks down bandwidth from servers like mad. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to adjust their pricing to compensate.
Yeah, nearly doubling their prices is pretty severe – and I was one of the DVD + streaming combo customers affected – but when you look at the big picture, a movie like this is necessary to keep the company afloat.
Frankly, I hope this pushes Netflix further into the realm of streaming. That’s where it’s all going anyway. Typically I’m the kind of guy that says companies should provide content in every conceivable format people expect to find it. But Netflix opened the bottle when it made streaming available. They can’t stuff it back in now and go back to mailing out discs. Not gonna happen.
So, yeah. I’m not signing any petitions. But I did drop my service package from streaming + 1 DVD to strictly streaming. And I’m okay with that.
Don’t work, folks. It’s ALLLLLL going to be okay.
SIDEBAR: Today’s comic was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had with Dustin Rowles over at Pajiba. He originally made the comment about download movies directly to one’s brain. Immediately, my thoughts turned to Johnny Mnemonic – a “cyberpunk” movie about a mnemonic courier played by (who else) Keanu Reeves with an 80 gig hard drive implanted in his head.
Man, remember the days when 80 gigs was considered to be a lot of storage? Like, an inconceivable amount of storage? Oh, 1995. You were adorable.
Fair warning, Johnny Mnemonic is horrible. Probably the worst of the mid-90’s “internet” movies that got the technology all wrong. Granted, at least Johnny Mnemonic is set in the future so they have a little wiggle room when it comes to depicting an internet built completely in Virtual Reality. It’s not like Sandra Bullock in The Net, y’know. But still… pretty bad.
Wanna taste? Here you go…
Johnny Mnemonic gets a pass from me thanks to a cameo from Henry Rollins – one of his first movie roles, I believe. And he’s as hammy and over-the-top as you would expect him to be. But I love it anyway.
I remember making a bunch of my friends watch Johnny Mnemonic when we were in high school. Not just a bunch of guys, but guys and girls together watching this awful, awful movie. BEGGING for it to be over. I’m shocked I wasn’t thrown out of the group when it was over. I’m pretty sure they all hated me at that moment.
Anyway, lots of fun for all.
Don’t forget to pre-order the new shirt and be on the lookout for another comic this week. Fingers crossed!
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