Posts Tagged ‘War of the Worlds’
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In light of the revelation that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are now engaged, I feel as though my comic from last Wednesday is somewhat prophetic.
It certainly doesn’t seem strange that Cruise would propose the week Holmes’ movie opens and the week before War of the Worlds hits theaters, does it?
Please note heavy sarcasm.
If you’d like a little insight (or conjecture, based on where you stand) about how thoroughly creepy the whole TomKat affair has become, Jeffery Wells’ Hollywood Elsewhere column from this Wednesday is an interesting read.
And while we’re taking trips in the Way-back Machine, I thought you guys might get a kick out of revisiting this comic from September 15, 2003. It was a strip commenting on the announcement of Christian Bale being cast as the new Batman.
This is one of my personal favorite strips. Look how far we’ve come!
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Explosions really do make things better.
Are Cami and I really thinking about boycotting Tom Cruise and Stephen Spielberg’s newest sci-fi horror remake The War of the Worlds? Let me tell you – it’s crossed our mind.
This is kind of a weird thing to proclaim. Particularly in the light that I am a fairly large Spielberg fan and had begrudgingly come to respect Cruise as an actor in the last few years. I enjoyed what he did with the character of Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia. I thought the intensity he brought to Vincent in Collateral was layered and made a lot of sense. Hell, I was one of like, FIVE people who really enjoyed The Last Samurai.
But in light of his progressive meltdown taking place in front of any camera he gets in front of, Cruise has repulsed me to the point that I don’t much feel like supporting his latest effort.
I know, big deal, right? As if my paltry 8 bucks is going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things? War of the Worlds is one of THE tent pole flicks of the summer. A sure-fire blockbuster that brings together one of America’s most popular actors and one of its most popular directors.
At this point my disgust really has nothing to do with his laughable “engagement” to Katie Holmes. It has nothing to do with his beliefs as a Scientologist. It has nothing to do with the highly misinformed sparring matches he’s having with the press over the practice of psychiatry. At the end of the day, it comes down to one thing: Cruise is a smug bastard who DESERVES to be taken down a few pegs.
There seem to be very few people who can break the meniscus of Cruise’s very small world and let him know what everyday people think about him. His level of denial is deeper than a Nuremberg war criminal. It doesn’t help much that most people in the media continue to kiss his ass because he’s “Mr. Hollywood” and is good for ratings.
I think the other shoe dropped when Cruise appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman last week and Dave crawled so far up his ass I could barely see that gap-toothed grin.
It all had to do with the recent events in London where Cruise was squirted with water from a disguised microphone while at the UK premiere of War of the Worlds. Letterman applauded Cruise for not beating the crap out of the offending prankster and showing true composure.
Okay, points there. Because if he had taken a swing at the guy, it would have looked bad. But in all honesty, I got a real kick out watching it all go down. In turn, watching Letterman effuse his admiration of Cruise resulted in me losing a lot of respect for him. This was the guy who is ALL ABOUT taking celebrities down a few pegs with a few cutting remarks when they’re sitting right in front of him. All of a sudden he goes soft?
Then I realized it wasn’t Letterman’s fault. It’s the Culture of Celebrity. Cruise is high-profile right now and not just because of the movie. If you can snag him while he’s on his promotional rounds, that’s gonna bring great ratings because you don’t know what he’ll say or do next. Don’t piss him off or else he might not come back next time. NBC should FTD Cruise a basket of flowers for all the attention he brought to The Today Show after his spat with Matt Lauer.
But kissing Cruise’s ass doesn’t solve the problem, it makes it worse. Because it continues the notion that his public outbursts are acceptable. Getting sprayed in the face with water was the public saying “No it’s not.”
Don’t get me wrong. The implications of the water-squirting incident are really scary for a public figure. Because if someone can get that close to you and humiliate you that thoroughly, what are the odds the next guy will be a real nut who might try to take you out?
By no means do I wish any harm to befall the guy. Because despite how loony tunes he appears in public, no one deserves to have their safety threatened.
But at the same time, you can’t jump on couches, deride psychiatry, get engaged to someone after 10 weeks under questionable circumstances and not expect some kind of backlash.
The water-squirting incident was benign enough as to not frighten people while simultaneously being the utmost effectiveness tactic in knocking Cruise down a few pegs. It’s like throwing a cream pie at Ann Coulter or Bill Gates. It clearly communicates, “We don’t like what you’re doing. You’re abusing your status as a celebrity/commentator/entrepreneur/whatever.” It’s a way to punctuate the contrary opinion that isn’t being absorbed within the target’s circle of influence.
And, in its own way, reserving my entertainment dollar and saving it for something other than War of the Worlds is my cream pie in the face of Tom Cruise.
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So are you guys ready to see the lamest incentive sketch ever? Hey, you gotta understand, I was out celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday last night. I didn’t get home until 11:00 PM and then had to whip together a comic. But if you vote for Theater Hopper at Web Comics List, you know I’ll treat you like a brother.
Here’s to poor planning!
Yeah, yeah. I know today’s comic kind of recycles Wednesday’s comic. But I promise I’ll make it up to you on Monday. I have a good one in the bin involving a certain Mr. Affleck and his recently announced nuptials.
Jury is still out on whether or not to see War of the Worlds. I think Cami has sincerely fallen in love with the idea of boycotting the movie on principle, but the hard core movie fan in me keeps saying “You should at least see it – just so you know what you’re hating.” I can talk myself into anything.
From what I’ve heard, the bulk of the movie is spectacular. Wrought with tension, fun to watch. It’s the beginning of the movie that’s lame and the ending that’s a real clunker. Again, it appears Spielberg can’t stop himself from heaping on the schmaltz and it totally deep six’s the atmosphere of dread he built up to that point.
This is only what I’ve read, but the criticism wouldn’t surprise me. He does this in all his films. I was particularly offended by the shiny, happy robot ending of A.I. – Artificial Intelligence.
I’m sure most of you remember that the movie was originally the pet project of the late Stanley Kubrick. After his death, Spielberg took it over to honor his friend. Let me tell you, that movie does Kubrick no honors. The first time you think the movie is over, eject the DVD and don’t look back, because the rest of it is just going to ruin it for you.
Anyway, back on track. I doubt we’ll have time to see War of the Worlds this weekend anyway because Cami and I will be taking the holiday weekend to pack up all our crap for the big move we have coming up on the 12th.
You guys know all about this, right? We’re moving to a new house about 5 minutes away from our old house. Of course, they say it’s the short moves are the worst. They’re probably right. I predict we’ll probably run about 30 or so car trips between homes before the professional movers come in on the 14th to carry out all the heavy stuff.
But this leads me to my next point – I’m REALLY gonna need guest strips from you guys before July 10. So if you’re interested, draw something up and send it to me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com. If you can keep your images in JPG format, that’s best. And the strips can be as long as you want, just no wider than 525 pixels. Otherwise, they break the site layout.
That about does it for me. I hope everyone has a great weekend!
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If I had my own clone, in all likelihood I would be overly critical. What a lousy father I would make.
Today’s comic is short on the lengthy exposition. Partially due to time constraints in my personal life, I set out to see if I could write an economical punchline.
Theater Hopper – Now with 20% less fat!
Personally, I think Tom’s complaint in the last panel holds water. There have been an unusual number of remakes this summer even without counting the quasi-meta Bewitched. Don’t forget the sequels, either. Batman Begins and Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith could be considered guilty parties since they’re also peddling the same characters and stories we seen before.
Does anyone in Hollywood remember how to write an original screenplay anymore? The Oscars only give out 5 nominations in this category every year. Not because five is some kind of pre-determined cap. But because there were literally only five movies last year that had an original idea. Concepts that weren’t mined from a book, television show, or previous film.
To be fair, Hollywood has been strip mining other mediums since the invention of celluloid. If it wasn’t Gone With The Wind they were adapting, it was some Broadway musical or Vaudeville act.
But all of these recent remakes are really turning me off. There have been all these reports that box office numbers are down from last year (as has been the trend since about 2001) and analysts can’t figure it out. Even with rising ticket costs, overall sales are down.
I suggest the industry put itself under the microscope and realize that people by-in-large aren’t willing to spend $10 to see The Dukes of Hazzard when it hits big screens in August because they already had enough of the television show 20 years ago!
Of course, true cinemaphiles like myself will go out of plan curiosity. But the Mother with 3 kids and no time to spare? The cash-strapped college student? The casual movie-goers? It’s no wonder they’re saving their money when Hollywood keeps trying to pass off old as new. It’s insulting!
Something else that is insulting is not thanking all of the guest comic artists who helped me out last week like I said I would on Wednesday. So it’s time to amend that mistake right now.
Big thanks to Beefy, Vic Taplin and Ding, The Bros. Porter, Phil Khan, Ali Graham, Dan Beeston, Krishna Sadasivam and Dave Buist for their contributions. Without them, things would have been pretty dire around here while I was moving to my new house and totally without internet access for the week. Be sure to show them your appreciation by visiting their web sites and sending them many hugs and kisses.
Something else I don’t want you guys to forget is that I will be attending Wizard World Chicago on August 4-7 with a bunch of really cool people.
In fact, my table is smack in the middle of an awesome sandwich as I am sitting in between my friends Joe and the Digital Pimp Online crew, Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey and Mitch Clem from Nothing Nice to Say.
What? I like an extra slice of bread on one end of my sandwich!
All of us will be on Artist’s Alley, so you should certainly plan on visiting us if you’re in the area. It will be a good time.
Sidebar: I keep forgetting to post what my table number will be. Gotta remember to put that up in the near future. I want as many of you to visit as possible.
Sidebar #2: I’m planning on taking every t-shirt I have in stock to the convention, so if you’re on the fence about wanting to buy one from the store right now, I would get off the fence and make your purchase if I were you. I can’t promise that when I come back from Chicago that I won’t be totally sold out of merchandise. Just a little head’s up.
Also, if you’re in town for the convention, I’m informally trying to set up a little excursion to one of the local theaters on Friday or Saturday night. It’s been the tradition of Zach, Mitch and myself to see a movie whenever we get together for a convention. I think it would be a real trip if we tried to pull together as many of our fans as possible so we can all go as one giant web comic mass of nerd! So when people see us strolling through the lobby, they’ll ask “Who are they?” And we can respond, “We read web comics!”
Oh, yeah. So nerdy.
Anyway, swing by our booths the day of the con for the details. Like I said, we’ll probably play it by ear.
Everyone have a good weekend!
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