Posts Tagged ‘Steve Carell’
5 items.
You can’t take a pot-shot at comic book nerds without calling forth their patron saint. It’s part of the nerd by-laws, or something. It’s just what you do.
Sidebar: The more I do this comic, the more I realize that I draw from the world of comic books about as often as I do from the world of movies and DVD. I was combing through the archives earlier tonight and it’s kind of funny how many of them refer to graphic novels.
I don’t know if that’s because Hollywood continues to make more and more comic-book movies in the wake of success stories like Spider-Man and X-Men or if it’s simply my alternate influences seeping in.
But I digress…
Main blog: Contrary to the statements of my illustrated avatar, I personally am VERY excited to see The 40 Year-Old Virgin this weekend. I think it’s going to be a hit akin to Wedding Crashers and hopefully the proof that Hollywood needs to cement the notion that R-rated comedies can be successful.
Advance reviews have been great and I don’t doubt it. It has Steve Carell in his first lead role and one where he finally hasn’t been propped up to do the anchorman thing that he cultivated so well from his years on The Daily Show. I think he’s been long past due to break out of that mold and I think he’ll prove exactly how versatile he is with this movie.
Second, Judd Apatow directs and was the co-writer with Carell. Apatow is one of my favorite comedic writers – he being the brain behind both Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, which I both loved.
Third, I’m hearing rumblings that Virgin’s effectiveness lies not within it’s ability to be raunchy or shock. But rather in the tenderness it shows it’s characters and the sweetness it allows them to exude. It fleshes them out a little more. Evolves them past the point of catch-phrase dispensers.
At any rate, I have another comic lined up for Friday relating to The 40 Year-Old Virgin, so be on the lookout for that.
A couple of other things you need to be on the lookout for are our two new advertisers – Make With The Funny and Deathfist Ninja GKaiser.
The former is a web comic that’s been around for a while now and I find it puzzling that more people don’t know about it. The art is clean, the jokes are funny and the site design is sharp as a tack. What’s the problem people? Get on the bus now and tell all your friends you’ve actually been reading it for the last 2 years.
The later is a relatively new comic to the scene. Largely manga inspired and heavy on a narrative structure. If you like your comics with an little more characterization, this one is for you. I think these guys do a really good job with both panel layout and color. Their talent is only going to get stronger. Their ad is currently running in the THorum<. A banner that currently isn't up there but probably should be is that I've gotten a whole batch of new shirts in from the printer. If you’re thinking about buying one, now would be a good time. I have a full stock in several sizes, but due to the hit I’m taking on lower ad rates, I’ll probably raise prices on t-shirts by the end of the month.
So like I said. If you want a good deal, now is the time.
Speaking of new, attention-getting ads and t-shirts… If you refresh the home page a couple of times, you might see an ad telling you about the t-shirt I designed for Threadless.com. For about a month or two it was out of print, so I posted an ad on Monday telling everyone to request a reprint.
I did it partially for the satisfaction of seeing if they would do a reprint and partly because I’m very proud that my artwork is on a site like Threadless and I’m trying to tell as many people about it as possible.
Anyway, two days after I put up my ad – wouldn’t you know it, they reprint my shirt! Anyway, if you had your eye on it from afar, better scoop one up now before they run out again! If I remember correctly, the first batch emptied out pretty quick! Looks like I’ll have to whip up a new version of that ad now…
That’s about it for now. I’m still working on my recap of Wizard World Chicago from two weeks ago. I have the recap of Wednesday, August 3 up in the THorum. But I need to get cracking and start detailing some of the action on the convention floor. I know some of you guys are curious to know what happened.
Take it sleazy.
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I thought today’s incentive sketch turned out really well, so I thought I would take a little extra time and finish it off with color. I hope you enjoy it!
So there is no confusion, I’m not making fun of virgins in this strip. It’s very important that I stress that. That’s why Tom and Jared don’t make a big deal about Jimmy’s admission. He assumed incorrectly that there would be a negative stigma. Meanwhile, these guys just wanted to see the movie.
I’m not a religious guy, so I’m not necessarily bound by the convictions of the faith. I’ve just seen enough people regret their actions later down the line that I applaud anyone smart enough and emotionally mature enough to wait for the person they plan to be with the rest of their lives.
In terms of my introduction to such matters, you’ll get no such information from me!
In that regard, I feel badly for the star of The 40 Year-Old Virgin – Steve Carell – because I’m sure he has to put up with a litany of dumb questions about his own virginity while he’s making the promotional rounds for this movie. I’m certain that every interviewer who asks him how and when he lost his “special purpose” things they are being bold, original or clever. But Steve’s a sharp tack. I’m sure he has some deadpan comebacks ready for them.
Things have been… interesting for me the last few days. I don’t know if I can explain much more than that without giving away information I don’t want to share. But our family has been through the wringer the last few weeks. This weekend is all about recharging the batteries and staring down some challenges ahead of us. We’re seeing The 40 Year-Old Virgin, of course. But Broken Flowers finally opens in Des Moines this weekend and I’m really excited to see that. A Sunday matinee there awaits us.
Seems like this summer has been such a drag for movies. Anything I’m interested in seeing arrives in theaters in bulk. So I’ll go a few weeks without seeing anything, then go to 2 or 3 movies in a weekend right on top of each other.
I want to be sure and remind everyone about the Theater Hopper LiveJournal syndication feed we’re rockin’. So if you have an LJ account, add us to your friends list and get all of the updates posted to the site as soon as the occur.
Also buy some t-shirts if you’re so inclined. I just got a bundle of them in on Tuesday so it’s very likely that I have your size and can send you one! I have a bunch of orders I wasn’t able to fill because I ran out of inventory, so those guys come first. But I deliberately over-ordered so I would have some ready to go.
I hope you and yours are well. Have a great weekend.
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Oh, sure. They changed the names of the characters, the location and updated it for the modern day – But don’t delude yourself, screenwriter Steve Oedekerk. Evan Almighty is outright theft of The Book of Genesis and you will incur the wrath of The Almighty!
You don’t think the Good Lord will garnish wages? You just try Him, buster!
Okay, so maybe not. But you have to think at some point it crossed the mind of some shyster to file a lawsuit on behalf of God. Certainly more ridiculous things have been done in His name…
Evan Almighty comes out this weekend and I’m torn because I’m a big Steve Carell fan. I love The Office – watch it ever week – and I think he hit it out of the park with The 40 Year-Old Virgin.
However, Evan Almighty has the earmarks of such an obvious money grab, I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to see it. In fact, I’m worried that it might burn up a little of the good will Carell has earned with his previous roles and cameos.
The movie has two strikes against it, in my mind. First, that it’s director is Tom Shadyac. He made a great first impression with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. But I think most sensible people can see that his direction had little to do with the movie’s success. Unless, of course, you count pointing the camera at Jim Carrey and letting him do whatever the hell he wants some kind of intuative genius.
Since then, Shadyac has made a string of family-friendly, generally broad comedies that fail to inspire. He had another successful follow up with The Nutty Professor. But again, he skates by on the strength of his lead performer in Eddie Murphy. Liar, Liar was a modest hit. and Patch Adams was almost universally despised.
To me, Shadyac is one of those guys who happens to be in the right place at the right time and hitches his wagon to whatever comedy star is big. He’s doing it again with Steve Carell and the whole thing stinks of a hack job to me.
The second strike against the film are reports of it’s bloated $250 million budget – the largest ever for a comedy.
That’s a big red flag for me. Throwing money at an action movie or a science fiction epic is fine. The results typically show up on screen in the form of larger explosions or more ships in a space battle. But NEVER has comedy been made more funny by being given a larger budget. It speaks to gross mismanagement. Or worse, that the film doesn’t have it’s head on it’s shoulders.
I understand that there is probably a lot of effects work going into making the ark look real and it’s a big boat. So a big boat would cost more. I’m also sure it was a headache to get a bunch of animals to do what you want them to on screen and that took a lot of time to shoot. Time costs money. I get that.
But so what? If I can see a movie like Knocked Up – which cost $30 million to make – and laugh my ass off for, let’s say, 90 minutes, is it plausible to assume that a film that cost over eight time more money to make will result in me laughing eight times as hard?
That’s a screwed up measuring stick. I know. But I think it’s indicative of what’s wrong with the big budget Hollywood movies. If you can make more with less, why wouldn’t you? It doesn’t always have to be about spectacle. Even if your story is Biblical in proportion.
On the plus side, the production made a concentrated effort to reduce the impact of it’s carbon footprint by going green on many aspects of assembling the film. In an effort to “walk the walk” of the film’s themes of social and environmental responsibility, materials used in the film were donated to Habitat For Humanity, the cast used two-sided scripts to reduce the amount of paper consumed, Shadyac gave bicycles as gifts to reduce car usage and the production planted trees near the site in Crozet, Virgina where the movie was filmed as a thank you to the community.
Since it typically costs more money to do the responsible thing, it’s possible this is where most of Evan Almighty’s $250 million budget went. If that’s the case, than I’m a little more hopeful. But it doesn’t hold water when you get down to business. At the end of the day, does the movie entertain? No amount of money for special effects or environmental initiatives are going to offset that. These are all issues anciliary to the point of this kind of entertainment and it’s not a good sign that Almighty is getting more press for this than for the quality of it’s script or the ability of it’s performers.
I guess it’s wait and see.
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In my estimation, if you’re a child of the 80’s and a huge nerd, there are two de facto references from science fiction films that are fun to drop randomly into conversation… usually.
The first is Terrance Stamp’s commanding delivery instructing Superman (and pretty much the rest of the world) what he expects them to do in Superman II.
The second is this.
Kind of funny how they both come from the vastly superior sequels of original franchise movies?
Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with Get Smart except for the fact that Terrance Stamp plays the main bad guy. And if Terrance Stamp is your main bad guy, it’s only a matter of time before someone mentions Zod. It’s like the pop culture equivalent to Godwin’s Law or something – "Stamp’s Law?"
As far as Get Smart is concerned, I suppose it doesn’t bod well for it’s likelyhood of me seeing it that I’ve spent this much time cross referencing it with Superman II. I’d like to see it. I think it looks like fun. And I am generally impressed with the cast. Adding Alan Arkin to any movie immediately ups its cred, in my opinion. Although, didn’t this guy just win an Oscar? What’s up with Oscar winners turning around and taking the next biggest studio-backed picture they can find?
I also find it interesting that Get Smart is going up against The Love Guru this weekend. Even though The Love Guru is taking a drubbing from critics, Get Smart is being taken to task for trying to mine laughs from the spy genre – something that Mike Myers pretty much exhausted with the Austin Powers films.
So, if you think about it, this is really a Battle of the Leftovers – Get Smart reheating what’s left of the spy parody genre versus Mike Meyers plaigarising himself into nothingness.
That said, Cami and I are still on a collision course to see The Love Guru this weekend. Partially out of morbid curiosity by also because we’re in complete denial that it could ever be that bad. I guess it shows that despite Myers’ difficult reputation, he still has some good will and credibility built up with his fans.
We’ll have to see if The Love Guru dashes it to bits or not.
SWITCHING GEARS
Real quick, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be appearing at Wizard World Chicago next week, Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be sitting in Artist’s Alley at table #4308. Here is a map of the convetion floor. I’m pretty much smack in the middle of Arist’s Alley, which I’m excited about.
I’m also excited because my table will be situated next to my good friends from Digital Pimp Online – Joe Dunn, Phil Chan, Rich Dinan, Irvsher Fabor and Joe Walerko. They’re great guys and I look forward to seeing them every year.
ANOTHER reason I’m excited is because I found out who is sitting two tables down from us. It won’t impress you, but it has me psyched up. ADI GRANOV!
In case you don’t know who Granov is, he’s an amazing digital illustrator who worked on the relaunch of Iron Man with Warren Ellis a few years back and has generally been doing a lot of work on comic book covers recently.
More importantly, this is the guy who has pretty much set the tone for how Iron Man is interpreted visually through multiple mediums. He redesigned the armor during his run with Ellis. He was also hired by Jon Favreau to be an consultant on the armor design for the Iron Man movie. So, if you’ve seen Iron Man, you’ve seen Granov’s work. He’s an amazing talent and I can’t wait to meet him! I’ll try to get pictures.
Anyway, I also wanted to let you know that in addition to the books and t-shirts we sell on the site, I’ll also be selling two new items.
The first will be a custom sketch that I will draw OF YOU as your favorite movie character! I printed up some sketch cards with the Theater Hopper logo and URL and they look pretty sweet. It’ll be a nice, customized takeaway for fans of the strip.
Second is a sampler booklet that collects the collects the 25 most popular Theater Hopper strips – the one’s you voted on, remember? Brief commentary for each of the strips is also provided.
There will be an extra incentive for convention attendees to pick up this sampler booklet, because printed in the back is a coupon for $3.00 off one of the Theater Hopper books! Pretty cool, huh?
Don’t worry – I plan on offering both the sketch cards AND the booklets online after the convention so you guys get to see what all the fuss is about.
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Apr09
Incidentally, the quote Cami is talking about came from an interview Tina Fey did with Esquire Magazine. But I guess she was on Oprah earlier this week with Steve Carell, too, and repeated it there.
I guess I just like the idea of Cami sitting around reading Esquire, for some reason.
For those of you that think I’m making up that story about a Korean man marrying a body pillow, that actually happened and it seems to be somewhat of an emerging trend in Eastern cultures. 2D Love, is what they’re starting to call it. Men falling in love with anime characters beyond what’s appropriate or… normal.
Interestingly enough, the phenomenon was referenced recently on an episode of 30 Rock where James Franco tried to arrange a shame marriage with Jane Krakowski’s character Jenna to keep the press from learning about his infatuation with a Japanese body pillow.
I mention that, I guess, because it also involves Tina Fey. I feel like I’m playing Six Degrees of Separation with body pillows, or something.
Back to the matter at hand, let’s talk about Date Night for a little bit. Certainly the film looks great on paper. Tina Fey and Steve Carell in the same movie? It would seem like they would have a very compatible sense of humor and a natural chemistry and I think that’s what Fox is counting on when (or if) you buy a ticket this weekend.
But if you scratch the surface, there is cause for concern. The first red flag is that it was directed by Shawn Levy who is one of the worst paycheck directors currently in Hollywood. He is to comedy what Chris Columbus is to children’s movies. Everything about Levy’s approach takes things that are otherwise funny and squeezes the life out of them. His work is safe and predictable and you only have to look at his directing credits for the proof. Just Married, Cheaper By The Dozen, the remake of The Pink Panther and BOTH Night at the Museum movies.
The second red flag is the script written by Josh Klausner – whose IMDB profile does not inspire confidence. Klausner only has 4 writing credits to his name and TWO of them are Shrek movies.
In other words, proceed with caution.
Fey and Carell have been all over the place doing press for Date Night. It seems either one or both of them have been on television every night this week. While that’s good for television – since they’re both always fun to watch in an interview context – it doesn’t exactly communicate quality in Date Night. They’re basically promoting the heck out of it now to drum up interest because (I’m willing to be) word of mouth won’t be very good afterwords. I hate to be a pessimist, but I’ve seen these kind of maneuvers before.
What do you guys think? Have I unfairly passed judgment on Date Night? Do you still want to see it? Leave your comments along with your thoughts and reflections about Japanese body pillows below!
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