Posts Tagged ‘robot’
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In the fine animation tradition, Wall-E is a children’s movie featuring a protagonist on screen who refuses to wear pants throughout the film’s running time.
Oh, Donald Duck. What have you wrought?
I’m pretty pumped by the cinematic choices this weekend. Although, admittedly, I’m more excited about Wall-E than I am Wanted. I’m a huge animation nerd and all of Wall-E’s previews have been hitting the right mix of emotion, humor and wonder. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s going to be excellent and well worth seeing multiple times on the big screen.
That said, I still think Wanted looks very good. In fact, I’m kind of surprised that I’m anticipating it. I didn’t read the original graphic novel written by Mark Millar (who is, incidentally, one of my favorite comic book writers). I guess the movie has very little in common with the comics, so maybe that’s a good thing. And, despite my grand disinterest in the heartthrob status of James MacAvoy (The Last King of Scotland excluded) and Morgan Freeman in what appears to be his fourteenth consecutive “wise man leading the guileless white boy” role) the effects and the action sequences I’ve seen so far look promising.
Oh, yeah. And you see Angelina Jolie’s backside for, like, two seconds.
Probably from the waste up.
The few advanced reviews I’ve read suggest that the plot device of an unassuming nobody who becomes a secretly-powered somebody should be enough to tweak The Wachowski’s and their set up for The Matrix – especially during a cubicle-exiting freak out on behalf of MacAvoy’s character. The main idea of the film being “do you accept complacency or do you reach for something greater?”
I’ve also read that Russian director Timur Bekmambetov comes from the more-is-more Michael Bay school of film and that Wanted is positively dripping in burly, chest-thumping Russian machismo. That can either be a good or a bad thing depending on your proclivities. But the point is that the movie does not let up.
As I mentioned last Friday, I will be at Wizard World Chicago this weekend – At Artist Alley table #4308! – and with the friends I attend the convention with, part of our tradition every year is to go out and see a movie together. We have two great films to choose from, but I kind of hope we see Wanted just so I don’t get in trouble with Cami back home. She’s as big of a Pixar nerd as I am and I know she’d be disappointed if we couldn’t see the movie together.
Wanted, on the other hand. She will never want to see. So we’ll have to see how that one shakes out.
In the meantime, be sure to listen To The Triple Feature podcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe.com. We’ll be talking about Get Smart and the savage beating The Love Guru took at the box office this weekend. How bad was it? People are already predicting the end of Mike Myers career. Ouch! Wasn’t this guy supposedly invincible 6 year ago?
Call in live and share your two cents! See you then!
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I was up late Sunday night working on today’s comic and right now I’m at home watching Henry as he’s now going to day care three times a week.
As such, I’m going to need a little bit of sleep before I dive into the blog post that will accompany this strip. I have a couple of important things to talk about and I want to be sure I have my ducks in a row mentally before I proceed.
You can expect an update to the site in the afternoon while Henry is down for his nap and I can dedicate a little concentration to what I need to say.
In the meantime, please enjoy this interview of Shia LaBeouf from last Friday’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Apparently, Shia was being paid each time he used the word “outrageous” because I counted 6 times his vocabulary made employ of the word.
Then again, I probably shouldn’t be surprised considering how fond he is of repeating certain words.
Enjoy. It’s outrageous!
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To me this comic is funny not because Jared doubts Tom’s story about being assaulted by an anthropomorphic piece of audio/visual equipment. Instead he finds the story questionable because Tom’s injuries are not consistent with the length of his beating.
Hate to spell it out for you, but it makes me smile.
I’m coming to a close on this little story line, so I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Not much for me to talk about except that Cami and I saw neither Moon OR Food, Inc. Saturday night as my parents had Henry stay over at their place. Neither of us could muster up the enthusiasm for Food, Inc. and we missed the only showing of Moon that evening before we left my parents house.
Instead we watched my review copy of I Love You, Man on Blu-ray. I’ll be reviewing it for the site and you can expect to find it here tomorrow. I’ll be sure to remind you on Twitter in case you forget.
I’m sure my lack of commitment to new movies will get me in trouble with Joe and Gordon tonight during our recording of The Triple Feature at 9:00 PM CST, but we’re probably going to talk about 500 Days of Summer, which isn’t even in wide release here until Friday. So what can you do?
I’m kind of annoyed because both 500 Days of Summer AND Funny People come out here on Friday and I can’t see either of them because Cami will be out of town with her Mom and Sister celebrating my Mother-in-Law’s birthday. I guess I’ll have to get caught up in the week before the Chicago Comic Con.
If you’re looking for something to do between now and The Triple Feature at 9:00 PM CST, I encourage you to swing over to my good friend Zach Miller’s web comic which you might remember is called Joe and Monkey.
I’ve been talking to Zach lately and he’s been drawing panels like a fiend preparing for JaM’s return. If I’m not mistaken, he’s already several weeks ahead and plans on updating every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the foreseeable future.
It brings me great joy to make this announcement because I am constantly being approached by Zach’s fans about when he is going to bring Joe and Monkey back. Zach and I are friends and speak on a semi-regular basis, but I’m usually as much in the dark about this subject as the rest of you. So I always feel like I’m disappointing the person asking the question when I can’t give them a definitive answer.
But Zach is back on the horse and updating again. So be sure to swing by Joe and Monkey to see what he’s up to.
Incidentally, Zach and I will be sharing a table on Artist’s Alley at Chicago Comic Con August 6 – 9. You can find us at table #3414. If you plan on attending the show, it would mean a great deal to both of us if you came by and said “hello.” We are both very friendly and will likely chat your ear off.
Cheers!
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I knew at some point I wanted Tom’s fantastic story to be uncovered as a lie. In terms of bringing David “back,” it was really the best of both worlds. I got to dust off an old character without actually keeping him in continuity.
It was also a great way to cover any gaps in logic there might be. People asked pretty early on how Shia could possibly mistake Tom for Jared when they’ve never even met. Frankly, I never thought that was something that would come up. I should have my characters lie more often! It’s the perfect catch-all solution!
I realize that the punchline to today’s comic is kind of “hur-hur,” but the great thing about it is that it was something literally said by real-life Jared after I posted to my Facebook page about my adventures in the ER. At the time, I kind of groaned at the pun. But now I appreciate it for what it is. Thanks, good buddy!
Not much else for me to talk about today except if you’re trying to find Monday’s recording of The Triple Feature, we had to scrap the show. Joe had to back out for personal reasons and that left us at a disadvantage. Joe and Gordon were going to talk about 500 Days of Summer but I haven’t seen it yet because it doesn’t come out in theaters here until Friday. No offense to Gordon, but it would be kind of a boring show if he was the only one talking about the movie (and I think he’d be the first to agree with me on that point.)
The other thing I’ll mention is that my good friend Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey found the floor map for Chicago Comic Con so now you’ll know where to find us on Artist Alley. Zach and I will be sharing table #3414 and we’ll be standing right next to our friend Joe Dunn and the rest of the Digital Pimp Crew at table #3416.
If you’d like to view the map, you can do so here.
Chicago Comic Con is being held at the Rosemont Convention Center in Rosemont, IL August 6 – 9. If you’re in the area, please stop by our booth. It would be a thrill to meet you and I’m giving out free buttons!
Until then, stay frosty!
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First, I totally have to give credit to my good friend Joe Dunn of Joe Loves Crappy Movies for making the observation that the robot avatars in Surrogates look like the creepy family from the Duracell commercials. Joe noted the similarity during Monday’s episode of The Triple Feature – which I highly encourage you to download!
If you have no idea what this reference means, here’s a handy video to help educate you:
If you grew up in the ’90’s, you’re probably very familiar with the Putterman family (as they were called). If you grew up in any other era, I’m sorry that I’ve now scarred you for life.
The Little Dutch Boy? Let’s hope that everyone has some cursory knowledge of his fable. If you don’t know who he is, then your parents must not love you.
In either case, I’ve created this visual aid to help put it all together for you.
I think it’s the hair that really trips me up. Like I said, if you could walk around in a robotic avatar that looked 20 years younger, why would you give it a haircut that exposes a high forehead and make it look like it was wearing a bad wig?
Maybe I should talk about the movie a little bit…
I like the idea for Surrogates and I certainly like seeing Bruce Willis in action hero mode, but I think this film is suffering from some bad advertising – especially the first trailer, which is heavy with exposition explaining exactly what surrogates are.
I don’t want to hold the marketing against the movie too much, though. I realize that it’s necessary for the film to establish “the rules” of the society depicted in the not-too-distant future if they’re going to bring people on board. I just wish it weren’t so cheesy – what with the robotic female voice literally selling us the concept of surrogacy. It’s not very clever.
If the advertising is anything to go by, I fully expect the exposition in the opening act to be boring and things won’t get interesting until we get to see the “real” Bruce Willis stomping in robot heads.
Once again, however, I have to give credit to Joe for pointing out a unique trend in avatars at the movies this year. First it was Gamer. Later in the year is Jim Cameron’s aptly named Avatar. But right now, it’s Surrogates. All movies about a separate consciousness controlling the body of another.
Is Hollywood trying to send us a warning about technology. Should I stop posting to my Twitter account? Should I drop off the grid entirely?! Time will tell.
What’s your thought about Surrogates? Are you planning on seeing it this weekend? Are you excited to see Bruce Willis back in an action movie two scant years after Live Free or Die Hard? What do you think about that plasticine look? Leave your comments below!
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