Posts Tagged ‘King Kong’
7 items.
Today’s strip has to do with a little bit of industry news. If you haven’t heard by now, Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has signed on with Universal to do a remake of the 1933 classic King Kong. For more details on the story, read this item here.
To be fair, this odd choice for a follow-up project didn’t completely come out of nowhere. King Kong is a project that has been on Jackson’s back burner since 1997 when it was shelved by Universal so as not to compete with Disney’s Mighty Joe Young or Sony’s Godzilla rehash.
I don’t doubt that Jackson will make an excellent movie. And if he’s got his LotR W.E.T.A team behind him (which looks likely), I’m sure the effects will be astounding.
But still, don’t you think you would take a little time off before trying to update one of the most beloved monster movies in cinematic history. I mean, if they screw this up, that’s a pretty big strike against him. Does anyone remember the 1976 version starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange? Okay. Well, maybe you do. But do you think anyone was standing around ASKING for that picture to be made?
With that out of the way, I wanted to move on to some business involving the site. Recently there’s been an influx of fan art and cameo appearances that you can check out in full detail on the Bonus Materials page.
I mentioned how Aric from Fish Strips is putting together an epic storyline featuring a lot of my pals in the community, but Beaner from Troy’s Bucket must have been sweating bullets when he put together this bad boy featuring over cameo appearances
I want to send a special shout out to my good friend Dave (just Dave) who put together a killer guest strip a few weeks ago. Dave contacted me to let me know that he has just started his own strip called Taking the Bi-Pass. He has only the first strip up right now, but take my word for it, this is one you’re going to want to bookmark and check often. If you don’t believe me, check out his extra bit of fan art that picks up where his guest strip left off!
The last bit of news I’ll mention is the rather grim message that was left over at No Pants Tuesday yesterday. Visitors to Zach’s site were led to believe he had died due to choking on a pizza roll. I would call everyone’s attention to yesterday’s date and give Zach a hearty pat on the shoulder.
…you know. To dislodge that pizza roll…
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Introducing a monkey into the comic kind of feels like a lame way to up our cuteness factor similar to how Diff’rent Strokes brought in that little red-haired kid after Gary Coleman stopped being adorable. But, hey. You try saying "No" to that face.
I haven’t decided if Dewey is going to be a permanent addition or not. I suppose that depends on your reaction to him. For now, he’s serving as a means to an end so that I can talk about King Kong this week.
I’m really excited about Kong opening this Wednesday. Moreso than I’ve been about any other movie opening this season. I’ve been talking a lot about movies with friends recently. Going over the year that was. Most of us agree that 2005 was a pretty dismal year for film. Here’s hoping Kong can send it out on a high note. After all, just like in the movies, you can have two acts that are nothing but crap, but if you can really push it over the top with a great ending, that’s what audiences are gonna remember!
I’ll likely have more to say about Kong as the week – and this storyline – unfolds. So stay tuned for more on that front!
Real quick, something you might have noticed this morning is a change to the front page. I’m experimenting a little bit with my advertising options. Trying to find a way to integrate them more seemlessly into the site. I haven’t decided if I’ve accomplished that or not. That 728 x 90 banner ad above the comic and below the navigation is kind of distracting. But I like the 468 x 60 banner below the comic navigation and above the blog.
I’m trying to find a way to still offer cheap advertising for other web comics and interested parties. I was thinking about somekind of insert within the blog space, but I don’t know what I’ll do yet. We’ll see how the 728 x 90 banner ad at the bottom of the page performs. I might end up placing sponsorship links there.
Or perhaps I’ll place them to the right of the logo and push the navigation down a little bit? I’m really interested in hearing from any past advertisers on your preferences. I’m not married to these 728 x 90 banners. Nothing is set in stone. E-mail me if you have opinions.
Additionally, I’m polling the readership-at-large for advice on what to do with the navigation bar. Links inside colored boxes isn’t working and it doesn’t address the sub-navigation problems I’m sure to encounter on subsequent pages in the archvies. If you have any thoughts on how I could make that a stronger interface for you, please let me know.
I’m taking all kinds of feedback, so let me have it!
Talk to you all again soon!
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Reflecting on King Kong’s box office "failure" on Wednesday got me thinking about this noise I’ve been hearing about a software program that can predict a movie’s success. Have you guys heard of this?
Apparently, some egghead at Oklahoma State University wrote a software program that can predict whether or not the next Hollywood turd-burger is going to be hit by applying seven criteria to each movie and averaging them out – rating by censors, competition from other films at the time of release, strength of the cast (or Star Pow-ah!), genre, special effects, whether it is a sequel and the number of theaters it opens in.
Using a "neural network" (shades of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, here) to process the results, films are placed in nine categories. A "flop" meaning less than $1 million at the box office. A "blockbuster" meaning more than $200.
The study proved that 37% of the time, the network accurately predicted which category a film fell into. 75% of the time it was within one category of the correct answer. Spider-Man and Shrek were correctly identified as blockbusters. Waking Up In Reno and Running Free were pegged as flops. I guess it must be right, because I’ve never heard of either of those last two movies.
Professor Ramesh Sharda has been working on the program for over seven years and has analyzed more than 800 films before publishing a paper appearing in the journal Expert Systems With Applications, set to be published in February 2006.
Naturally Sharda is already in discussions with a "major Hollywood studio" (he wouldn’t say which one) to further refine the system to improve its accuracy.
I think any movie fan with a heart and a mind knows that this specific leap in technology can only mean bad things for audiences. Clearly Sharda is someone who actually HATES movies and doesn’t want you to have a good time spending your entertainment dollar. Apparently he believes your discretionary income should go to more college scholarships. Or perhaps the athletic program. GO OSU, COWBOYS!
A program like this could turn movie marketing on its ear. Think about all the little brain trusts studios currently hire to handicap the success of a film. It’s understandable to a degree. Studios and producers make increasingly larger investments. They want to protect those investments. But by using the criteria outlined in Sharda’s program, Hollywood money-handlers could potentially deep six a movie before even one roll of film is shot. If our good friend H.A.L. doesn’t think your movie has enough star power, you’re done. Too much potential competition at the time of your film’s release? We’ll bury it in September.
Film’s are already being treated more like disposable product and less like art. I’m not taking the shallow view on this. I know that as long as there has been entertainment, there are pictures out there that will be treated as such – nothing more than a mild diversion.
But at the same time, would a movie like Apocalypse, Now or even Citzen Kane be made today with all the market research and bottom-line thinking that seems to have poisioned the industry? Films for adults are dumbed down to PG-13 so studios can reach further into the pockets of teens with disposable income. Potentially great films are rushed into theaters prematurely without much care because, "Hey, we can always make it up on the back-end with DVD sales!"
A program like this will continue to shift the balance away from thoughful expression and more toward commerce. The two can exist side-by-side if given room to flourish, but that doesn’t seem to be the industry focus anymore. Movies will end up looking more and more alike. Celebrity status rather than good stories will play a larger factor into what films get made. There will be less films for adults who are seeking serious and intelligent options and the overall artistry of cinema gets dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Culture evaporates and America continues to earn its stripes as the home of dum-dum entertainment and overweight popcorn jockeys.
People wonder how films like Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo can continue to be made. It’s seeds like Sharda’s program that force us to reap the harvest of mediocrity.
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Carrying around all that extra monkey weight can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable situation.
Longtime fans of the strip will recognize the gag I’ve busted out of retirement for today’s comic. Can you believe the last time I used it was July, 2003? Seems like it’s been with us forever.
Cami and I were finally able to get our holiday shopping set aside and went to see King Kong on Saturday. We were really surprised that there weren’t more people in the theater. We went to the 7:00 show. We thought for sure it would be packed. Ended up that maybe a third of the theater was full.
Apparently this is happening in a lot of theaters across the country. Last Wednesday’s $10 million take wasn’t a fluke. It really was an indicator of audience interest in this picture. Instead of the film earning in the $80 – 90 million range over the first five days (an a minimum of $60 million over the weekend) it underperformed and took in a hair over $50 million.
It’ll be interesting to see how the film does over the Christmas holiday. Maybe families are waiting until they have more free time to show up en masse. Maybe it was a marketing misstep on the part of Universal to release the film the week before Christmas because now – as I’m hearing it – audience reaction has been mixed. It’s having trouble living up to the hype and all those glowing reviews.
What was my take on the film? I’m not going to martyr myself and say I hated it, but I will admit there were things about the movie that I didn’t enjoy. I mean, things about the movie that flat-out disgusted me.
Okay, I’m gonna dive into this a little now. So if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want it ruined, be warned…
HERE BE SPOILERS!
The first act of the movie is ponderously slow. EXCRUTIATINGLY slow. You could argue that they’re setting up the exposition, and that’s fine. But there was easily 20 minutes of footage here that could have been tossed out to tighten up the running time. The relationship between the First Mate and the young sailor, for example. They toss that in there to add emotional weight to one of the later scenes on Skull Island. Except when that scene finally rolls around, it doesn’t deliver because we never cared about these characters in the first place.
The best part of the movie hands down is the second act on Skull Island. It looks as foreboding as it sounds and the place is totally out of control. The half-possessed natives on the island were truly terrifying. The anguished faces carved into all of the rocks was a brilliant touch.
Kong himself was a marvel to behold. Andy Serkis’ motion-captured performance as the great ape was totally naturalistic and I bought into it. I think it’s safe to say that those blokes in the Weta Workshop in New Zealand are giving ILM a SERIOUS run for their money when it comes to effects work. All the little touches to the scars on Kong’s face to the debris in his fur felt totally right. I believed in him as a character.
The fight between Kong and the two Tyrannasaurus Rex is worth the price of admission alone. It’s choreographed brilliantly and is the exact turning point in the movie where you start to root for the monster as he shows his protective instinct toward Naomi Watts’ Ann Darrow. When Kong cracks open the jaw of the dinosaur, twists his neck around then stands triumphantly over the giant leathery corpse – you half expect a ring announcer to step out, microphone in hand and shout "WINNAH! KONG!"
That said, as good as the dinosaur fight is… really, as good as all the giant critter footage is – you watch it and get the sense that things just keep unspooling with no end. Some of these chase sequences and fights go on FOREVER. Watching them, you’re not really bored, but you wonder when it’s going to end. There are two possible arguments to this. Either Peter Jackson has no sense of control and decided to throw everything up on the screen… OR it’s Jackson’s way of re-enforcing part of the movie’s theme that mankind cannot control nature. When you think you’re on top of things, nature will always find a way to surprise you. Nature always wins. I haven’t figured out which one of the two I believe.
I’ll say this; The scene with all the bugs is probably one of the creepiest, grossest and most uncomfortable I’ve had to sit through all year. I don’t think it’s a bad scene. Watching Andy Serkis (as the ship’s mysterious cook Lumpy!) be consumed by giant earthworms isn’t something you see every day. What made it difficult is that we had to endure it immediately after the rousing Kong/dinosuar battle. You aren’t given a chance to come down from that before Jackson steers you headlong into an entirely different set of extreme emotions. I think this is part of what’s contributing to the "everything but the kitchen sink" feeling you get from the picture.
Watching the movie, you start to notice that there are several long stretches where there is almost no dialogue. I think when Kong and Darrow are up on the high cliff watching the sunset, when Darrow says "Beautiful," it’s the first word uttered in the last 30 minutes. It’s jarring. It took me right out of that scene.
There are a lot of little moments that broke the suspension of disbelief for me. Ironically, it wasn’t the fantastic over-sized creatures that I found distracting. I thought they were the most realistic things in the movie. Instead, it was the emotional stuff that felt fabricated to me.
I had a hard time believing that Adrien Brody’s screenwriter character Jack Driscoll could care so deeply about Darrow after only having kissed her once. We don’t really see any deep bond between the two. Just some awkward courtship. Now suddenly he’s willing to risk life and limb – being EATEN – to save this stranger? Maybe he’s answering to some more grandiose sense of chivalry that existed in the 1930’s, but I’m not buying it. Nor am I willing to buy that so many of the ship’s crew would also risk so much. As she’s written, Darrow doesn’t seem like anything special. If anything, she comes off a little dumb. What’s worth rescuing? The answer is they HAVE to because the script says they do.
I don’t believe for a minute that Driscoll could switch gears from big city screenwriter to balls-out action hero like he did. Kicking Velocoraptors in the face, firing machine guns. Nope. Sorry. Not plausable. I also didn’t believe that the actor character played by Kyle Chander could retreat in cowardace, only to return at the last possible minute as the leader of a rescue party, swinging on vines and shooting up the place like Rambo. Perhaps if Jackson had framed these heroics within the context that inside this fantastic situation, these individuals dug deep to uncover fantastic abilities and resources within themselves – but I didn’t feel like this was established.
Additionally, Darrow’s near-romantic relationship with Kong also felt forced. I can understand that they have this bond because she provides an emotional connection for him where there has been none for ages (Kong appears to be the last of his kind). For Darrow, Kong provides protection against and uncertain and dangerous environment. But once the action moves back to New York, that Darrow someone how instinctively knows to go to Kong when things go haywire seemed a little convienient. Also, that whole scene with them spinning around on the frozen lake like it was some kind of first date just felt weird.
Do you have any idea how cold it would have to be to freeze the ice to the point where it was thick enough to support the weight of a 25 foot tall gorilla? Meanwhile, Darrow in her little silk dress seems as comfortable as can be. Watching her in that costume – especially atop the Empire State Building where winds are probably, y’know… about 30 miles an hour – I kept thinking "Isn’t she cold?" Then I became annoyed. "WHY ISN’T SHE COLD?!"
I think the thing that really tweaked me about the movie and left me with a bitter taste in my mouth was the delivery of that last, classic line. "Oh no. It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast." They gave that line to Jack Black’s dispicable Carl Denham. The line is supposed to reflect that Kong wasn’t really a monster. It’s we, the humans who are the savages. But by giving the line to Darrow, it comes off less as commentary on humanity’s potential for cruelty and more like he’s trying to pawn off his responsibilty for capturing Kong and putting him display to a gawking public on Darrow. The act would be within character for Denham, but it kind of spits on the idea of the source material.
END SPOILERS
Overall, I thought the movie was good. I was wrapped up in a lot of the action seqeunces and certainly fell for the "WOW!" factor of it. But the emotional stuff really bugged the crap out of me. Maybe I’m off base. Cami thought that was the best part of the movie. She was totally captivated by Darrow’s relationship with Kong. I don’t know. Maybe I missed something.
If you have thoughts about King Kong or want to leave your own review, please check out our User Movie Review Database. You can leave your thoughts on nearly every movie Theater Hopper has discussed in the last three and a half years. We’re adding new movies all the time. Here’s the link to King Kong’s specific listing.
Review away!
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One might ask themselves, "How is a tiny primate like Dewey able to lift a full grown woman over his head?" The preliminary answer is because he works out. The secondary answer is because it’s a comic, silly.
Despite the rudementary finishes on today’s comic, it took me forever to draw and put up on the site. I was really dragging my heels. I think part of it was because the punchline was part of a foregone conclusion. At least in my mind. But it serves it’s purpose in advancing the story arc to the point we can wrap things up on Friday. After that, it’ll be business as usual, I swear.
Truthfully, I think today’s incentive sketch is funnier, but that’s just me.
Another reason I think I was dragging my feet last night is because today is my birthday and Cami and I are taking the day off. Working on a comic with the knowledge that you don’t have to be alert for your day job the following morning is freeing in a sense. But it also removes the threat of a deadline, which is also dangerous. How these guys who produce five times a day keep up with it is beyond me.
Then again, if I didn’t have a day job and were able to take my time with a comic over the course of the day, maybe I wouldn’t feel so rushed in the last four hours I spend awake before starting the cycle all over again.
Not much special planned for my birthday. Basically just kicking back and spending the day with Cami. We’ll get lunch, probably buy comics, hang around the house for a while, get dinner. Then, this evening, we’re going sledding. There’s a place south of Des Moines with a 16-story hill and a tow line that carries you to the top. We don’t have a lot of snow on the ground right now, but this place makes their own snow every day. I’ve wanted to go there since I was in high school, but it’s never worked out. This time, I’m MAKING people go!
Thursday we’re going out for dinner and drinks with Jared and his wife. Jared’s better half also has a late December birthday, so we’re kind of doing the joint celebration thing. It’ll be fun.
Friday we’re going to see Fun with Dick and Jane with my parents and in-laws before going to dinner together. I don’t know why I keep falling for Jim Carrey movies. I should know better by now that when he’s in manic-crazy mode, there’s a certain quality deficiency. Am I weird because I tend to prefer him in dramatic roles? Don’t get me wrong – I think he’s funny. But these kind of movies tend to become all about *him* and I think the rest of the production suffers.
I shouldn’t think so hard about it. I just wanna laugh.
At some point this weekend I’m sure we’ll see The Family Stone and possibly Rumor Has It… if the reviews are any good. Those are a couple of warm, fuzzy, non-threatening movies for the holidays.
Check in with you guys later. If you’re stuck at work today, hang in there!
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Truman takes to the skies! Afterwords, he takes a little nap. He deserves it.
Apologies for the tardiness of the strip. Thursday night I went out with Jared, his wife Patti and Cami as part of a joint birthday celebration. We didn’t get in until way late and I wasn’t able to start working on the comic until yesterday morning. Then, yesterday afternoon we went out with my parents and in-laws to see Fun With Dick and Jane and then have dinner. It’s been hectic!
I suppose there was something to be said for the complexity of this strip. For some reason, I was under a total block in terms of how to stage the panels. Plus, not really knowing what a bi-plane looked like and being too stubborn to do research made me keep second-guessing my design. I suppose it turned out well.
And with that, we conclude the Dewey/King Kong storyline? What was Dewey’s ultimate fate? We may never know. Will Dewey ever return? Perhaps.
One of the great things about the holiday break is catching up on movies you’ve missed. Cami and I have been watching stuff at home like Roman Holiday as well as going out to the theater to see movies like The Family Stone as well.
If you haven’t seen The Family Stone, I would recommend it. The ending is a little sappy and, frankly, a bit of a downer. But I liked how the movie unfolded in these interested ways. Basically, it’s the story of a very liberal Massachusetts family coming together for the holidays. The eldest son brings home the very stuffy, uptight businesswoman he intends to marry and everyone butts heads. That’s the high level look. But what motivates the characters reaction to this interloper are very interesting. The ultimate conclusion I felt was pretty satisfying.
Something I wasn’t expecting however was how easily Luke Wilson walked away with the whole movie. I don’t know what it was about his performance that I found so enjoyable. He was essentially doing the same laid-back philosophy dude he does in every movie. But perhaps the chemistry was right this time around. Compared to the other actors, he certainly sticks out.
Something else? Dermot Mulroney isn’t looking very well these days. Looks a little rough around the edges. That’s a scary proposition for an actor who’s pretty much cast in roles for his looks, because it CERTAINLY isn’t his acting. The stairwell banister has more personality than he does.
Beyond that, nothing more insightful. I don’t really have any strong opinions about Fun With Dick and Jane (which I mentioned earlier). It was serviceable, but not laugh out loud funny. Kind of disappointing for a Judd Apatow screenplay, really. I mean, compared to the strength of Wedding Crashers and The 40 Year-Old Virgin, this one doesn’t really register on the Richter scale. If you’re a fan of Jim Carrey, you’ll probably enjoy watching him mug across the screen. There’s a manic vibe that he emits that becomes contagious to the rest of the cast and that picks up the pace of the storytelling, which is good. But I pretty much forgot everything I watched immediately after leaving the theater.
I’ll be away from my computer for the next two days. Going over to the in-laws tonight for our Christmas, then over to my parents house the next day for another round.
If you’re celebrating this weekend, stay safe and have a happy holiday!
If you’re not celebrating, know that I love you just the same!
Best wishes to all!
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On Sunday I read the news that there was a huge fire on the Universal Studios backlot and my heart sank. I was shaken by it; I don’t know why. And then I felt ashamed by it because it doesn’t seem like there is a year that goes by that huge wildfires rip through the state of Califorinia, decimating homes and leaving families with nothing… but the thought of a movie studio burning to the ground! *GASP!*… It just felt very selfish in comparison. Nevermind the other natural disasters that seem to be happening with greater and greater frequency all around the world. The earthquake in China — even the F5 tornadoes that recently hit here in Iowa. And I’m worried about a movie studo?
I seem to have lost my perspective. Have I bummed you out yet?
All the same, the events on Sunday (ignighted by workers using a blowtorch, incidentally) inspired this comic. So art is born again! Can you see The Circle of Life? I have a few other comics that will be posted in a short storyline, so I hope you appreciate them over the next few days. It’s not often one gets an excuse to do a Back to the Future parody, so I’m taking this flux capacitor and running with it.
I remember going to Universal Studios in Hollywood almost over 20 years ago – and in no way is that depressing. I believe I was 13 years old. My parents and I had gone to Arizona to visit relatives for Thanksgiving and then we hopped a flight to L.A. as part of an extended vacation.
I remember L.A. being very plastic and very fake. And this was during the early 90’s, pre-grunge. So everything was awash in bright neon green and pink. It was like some kind of Revlon candy land. It didn’t help that we were there over the weekend the Santa Ana winds blew into town. We didn’t know anything about it and were almost trapped outside of our hotel with sand and debris whipping down the street. They had locked up the glass doors in front to keep the vaccum of the high winds from blowing them out. We had to get inside through a service entrance. It was like our own mini disaster movie!
I’ve not had a strong desire to return to L.A. since, but if I *were* to go there, Universal Studios would be the main draw. We went there first-thing when we arrived in the city and I loved it.
Going to Universal Studios – Hollywood is a much more stratifying experience than going to the one in Florida or even MGM Studios (re: Disney Hollywood Studios) because it’s so much more authentic and so much less of a theme park experience (despite the theme park elements). We didn’t run into any filming productions when we were on the back lot tour, but several of the outdoor sets were immediately recognizable from other films. I remember when our tram turned the corner into Clocktower Square from Back to the Future and the spectacle of fantasy colliding with reality was almost too much for a young nerd to handle. It was so cool.
I feel kind of lame admitting it. I mean, I’ve since traveled the world and I’ve seen amazing, indelible, historical structures. But I speak with such effusive praise for a movie set? For a facade? I have no excuse for it. Seeing Clocktower Square from Back to the Future had as much impact on me as when I was standing 10 inches away from “Sunflowers” by Vincent Van Gogh at The National Gallery in London. I felt like I was face-to-face with history.
Kind of says a lot about the truncated American time line when a movie set from 30 years ago blows your mind.
That’s about all I have to say for today. Be sure to check back on Friday for the next installment of this Back to the Future mini-arc.
Have a great day!
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