Posts Tagged ‘ninja’
3 items.
If you saw Kill Bill this weekend, no doubt you immediately became enamored with the Cruel Master Pai Mei.
I have no idea where today’s comic comes from. Probably from the fact that Cami and I did – in fact – see Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Saturday night and then spent most of Sunday afternoon cleaning up the house. I guess I thought it would be funny if Cami was treating me like a 5 year old “playing ninja” by shooing me out of the house with a broom. I dunno!
My opinions on Vol. 2 are pretty consistent with the majority. I thought it was a great film. Tons of wonderful movie moments dotted all throughout the film. “OH MY GOD!” moments, as I like to call them. Mostly because it’s been quite a while since I have exclaimed that phrase out loud in a public theater for quite some time. That’s how well Kill Bill Vol. 2 grabs your lapels and shakes you until you hand over your undivided attention.
I enjoyed the pacing of this film much better than the last. There were several slow, drawn out dialogue pieces – but I never felt they weighed the production down. The film is all about tying up loose ends – and the story works in such a circular manner, it’s fun making the mental leap from the last outing to the first outing.
In retrospect, I can see why Tarantino opted to split his movie into two volumes instead of risking the possibility of delivering a single, watered down version. Make no mistake, this IS one movie. It just took a little extra time to tell.
Uma Thurman is a revelation in this movie, but you don’t realize it as you watch it. She inhabits The Bride so thoroughly, you forget that this is – in reality – a pampered actress that is flying around on screen, emoting and screaming her heart out, crying and heaving and on fire with passion. And when she draws a bead on you, she stares through you. It’s a thoroughly convincing performance, all the more astounding considering it’s an action movie.
I could go on and on about KBv2, but I’ll leave it for you to see for yourself. You OWE it to yourself. Don’t have this movie spoiled by me or anyone else. Go to the theater and see it now.
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Jun22
I have to be honest with you. I had no idea what I was going to do for a sketch today. Evan Almighty failed to inspire and the only other quasi-high profile movie this week is 1408 – which seems to be on NO ONE’S radar screens.
So, I came up with this!
He’s the movie ninja and, as you can see, instead of throwing shuriken, he throws movie reels. DANGEROUS! It was an idea I had for a shirt that I would probably polish up if was actually going to produce it. As things stand, I’m still waiting for Movie Law #948 to come back from the printer. So we’ll see how that one sells before I introduce a new design.
By the way, you can still place an order for Movie Law #948. The pre-order is complete, but it gave me a sense of what the demand will be. So I should have enough in all sizes.
Actually, I have another idea in mind to produce before this one. But if you think it might fly, tell me what you think of the movie ninja in the comments below!
I don’t really have a lot of movie stuff to talk about today, so I thought I would tip you off to a great contest surrounding the DVD release of the movie 300 on July 31. I know that’s a ways off for the DVD, but I wanted to give everyone first crack at the contest.
Visit the website http://www.JoinThe300.com and enter for a chance to win a trip to the San Diego Comic Con to compete for a chance to visit the set of 300’s director Zach Snyder’s next big project – Watchmen!
If you’re a comic book nerd like I am, this is a big deal. So toss your hat into the ring. Even if you don’t win the grand prize, there are other giveaways including signed mini-posters, iPod shuffles and 300 copies of the DVD.
I’m working right now on getting a review copy of 300 so I can tell you guys all about the special features of the two-disc collectors edition. If there was a movie ripe for extra content, 300 would be it. This will probably be the biggest DVD release of the summer, so I’m really looking forward to it.
That about does it for me. But check back later in the day. I want to share with you some artwork I’ve created for my good friends over at Juice – where Theater Hopper is run in regional syndication each week. It’s art for a coloring contest! That doesn’t happen every day! I’m really proud of how it turned out and I want to share it with you.
Stay tuned for more!
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Ah, it feels good to get back in the swing of things.
Real quick, thanks to Wes Molebash, Brandon J. Carr and Clay & Hampton Yount covering for me last week while I was away helping to see my Dad through his open heart surgery. I took off Monday as well and filled in with a review of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. We were having some site isues on Monday, so it was posted late.
For those of you who are wondering, we brought Dad home on Sunday, less than a week after his operation. Everything went better than expected. They were able to repair my Dad’s mitral valve and he was out of the ICU in less than 24 hours. I was amazed that they had him up on his feet and walking so soon after surgery.
Right now Dad is at home, building his strength back up. Even the little things wipe him out completely. But, fortunately, we found that he doesn’t have to do physical therapy and only needs to walk on a daily basis to help build him back up again. After 6 weeks, he’ll be clear to go back to work part time.
Everything leading up to the surgery was pretty scary. There was a lot of invariables. Turns out the surgery was the easy part. It’ll be a long road to recovery, but my Dad’s young age plays to his advantage and I know he’ll be up and around in no time.< I wanted to reiterate my thanks to everyone who sent positive messages of support. I really appreciated them. I wish I could respond to everyone individually. But, at this point, I'm just trying to get caught up. Thanks again. It means a great deal to me. ... Back to movies, I was able to catch Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull Friday night before Cami and I left for Rochester to visit my Dad. We left Henry with my in-laws for the weekend and it was a nice break for the two of us. As I mentioned in the review, I liked the film. I left feeling entertained and that the film - at least partially - lived up to the hype. HOWEVER, I'm not turning a blind eye to some of the more ostentatious "WTF" moments. Most notably during the jungle chase when Shia LaBeouf character gets knocked off a moving vehicle and gets tangled up in some hanging vines. In true, implausible fashion, it’s not long before he extracts himself from the situation by mimicking the CGI monkeys that have surrounded him by swinging vine to vine, Tarzan style. I turned to Cami during that scene and say “Boy, you can really see George Lucas’s Ewok-lovin’ mitts all over this one!”
There’s been a lot of hullaballoo on the internet about these credibility straining moments in KotCS and some of them I’m willing to give a pass on. But I haven’t talked to ANYONE who thought that vine-swinging sequence with the monkeys was kosher.
It’s symptomatic with the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach Spielberg took to the film. Truthfully, that whole jungle chase sequence is a perfect example. It’s not enough to have a chase sequence. You have to have a chase sequence where people are constantly falling off the roof of the car, rear-ending each other, throwing passengers from one car to the other, firing hood-mounted machine guns at each other, engaging in a 50 MPH sword fight with each other, nearly ramming each other off steep cliffs before finally ending up in a river and plunging down three impossibly large waterfalls.
Oh, yeah – and monkeys who know the difference between the greaser good guy and the Soviet dominatrix bad guy and will help in a fight.
Truthfully, if you want to talk overblown, don’t forget the CG gophers in the opening sequence of the movie. I don’t know why real gophers couldn’t have been used. CG gophers strip credibility from the film when their inclusion offers nothing of value. Do we REALLY need a CG gopher to give Harrison Ford a quizzical look after a harrowing escape? REALLY? Because guess what? That shot just cost $50,000.
It’s bloated and wasteful and indicative of filmmakers over reliance on this technology. Especially when the director vows up and down to use practical effects whenever possible in a year’s worth of interviews. If you’re going to use CG, at least make it so I can’t TELL if it’s CG!
I’m kind of beating up on the film a little bit. Actually, a lot – especially for a movie I professed to enjoy. I started to fall into the same trap during last night’s recording of The Triple Feature. If you missed that show, you can download it here. I encourage you to do so. We had a very lively exchange. I had a lot of fun.
Beyond that, I’ll leave you with an illustration I found over at the Digital Pimp Online forum. It comes from illustrator Jolly Jack and I think it sums things up nicely…
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