…AND THE REST

January 14th, 2010 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I kind of had a hard time compiling my list for the Top 10 Movies of 2009 because 2009 was kind of a lackluster year and very few movies stuck out to me.

So, as I was going month-by-month through 2009’s releases on IMDB, I decided to write down ALL of the movies I saw this year and rank them accordingly. I ended up seeing 37 movies this year – not bad for a guy with a 2 year-old. For your entertainment, I am posting 11 – 37 here. Enjoy!

  1. District 9
    I admired the movie for it’s craft and inventiveness. But the squalor of a South African shanty town was so oppressively authentic, it’s not a place I ever want to visit again.

  2. Adventureland
    A very relaxed and personal “coming of age” movie that isn’t strictly about getting laid. I mean, that’s part of the movie. Just not the only part. Killer soundtrack, too.

  3. Away We Go
    Sam Mendes, John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph aren’t names you would see billed together under normal circumstances, but this isn’t normal romantic comedy. More of a road movie than chick flick, its simple lessons about family and maturity stay with you long after the credits roll.

  4. Crank: High Voltage
    In all honesty, this film is straight up garbage. Grossly violent, racist and sexist. But I admired the film for what it laid on the line. It’s pretty much daring you to hate it and doesn’t care if you do.

  5. Public Enemies
    An oasis in the middle of the summer – a smart film for adults! Another charming rouge from Johnny Depp. If only Michael Mann hadn’t chosen to shoot it in digital video!

  6. Angels and Demons
    The addition of Ewan McGregor and the subtraction of Tom Hanks’s mullet make this follow up to 2006’s The DaVinci Code more enjoyable than the original.

  7. Whip It
    Another boilerplate story about an awkward girl trying to shake off the shackles of her dusty, boring town. But first-time director Drew Barrymore gets points for bringing something new to table – the culture surrounding roller derby leagues. Who knew I would find it so interesting!.

  8. It’s Complicated
    Normally I avoid Nancy Meyers and her films about cavernous kitchens, stocked high with copper kettles like the plague. But the combined charms of Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin made this one a winner.

  9. Watchmen
    One of 2009’s most hotly anticipated movies. Zack Snyder brought impeccable attention to detail and solved the squid problem from the original graphic novel. Yet, at the same time, I felt strangely disconnected from the experience.

  10. Where The Wild Things Are
    Spike Jonze’s love letter to childhood packs an emotional wallop with it’s ending, but the rest of it feels like a hazy dream.

  11. Julie & Julia
    Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci deliver fascinating performances as Julia and Paul Child that make them feel like historical characters of importance. Amy Adams is shamefully wasted, forced to turn off her effervescence to play a damp dishrag of a character.

  12. Monsters Vs. Aliens
    Monsters, aliens and animation. My inner 6 year-old thanks you, Dreamworks.

  13. Ponyo
    The layered fluidity of the animation in Hayao Miyazaki’s modern reinterpretation of The Little Mermaid was astonishing. But damn if I could follow the plot.

  14. Earth
    Granted, this is basically repackaged footage from the excellent BBC/Discovery Channel documentary Planet Earth. But it looked amazing on the big screen and was a fairly optimistic cinematic journey about the nature of things.

  15. The Proposal
    A romantic comedy done right. Likable stars, a large and easily recognizable supporting cast and just enough quirks to make it cute.

  16. Funny People
    I wanted this movie to be better than it was. The first half about Seth Rogen and his ascent as a struggling comedian in Los Angeles is intriguing. The second half about Adam Sandler’s comedy superstar – despite having recovered from a bout with cancer – is depressing. The movie’s major failing is that it’s basically asks you to root for Sandler as he tries to break up the marriage of a former girlfriend.

  17. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
    This film wanted to be the next Anchorman or Walk Hard, but is sunk under the weight of Jeremy Piven’s bloated ego. If this movie had been made before Entourage, maybe we would have had something. Instead, watch this movie for the cavalcade of comedy stars in their supporting roles.

  18. A Christmas Carol
    A fine retelling of the Dicken’s classic. But the trappings of Zemeckis’s motion-capture animation was distracting. I was more interested in Jim Carrey, Colin Firth and Gary Oldman performing in the flesh.

  19. Ninja Assassin
    It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a straight-up ninja movie. This one is serviceable if you ignore Rain’s terrible acting. Even if it does insist on making these ancient warriors more like supernatural shadow-crawling boogeymen.

  20. The Time Traveler’s Wife
    This weepy chick flick leaves you questioning Eric Bana’s time-traveling ability than it does resolving any of the emotional subtext.

  21. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    I’ve seen all 6 Harry Potter movies and not one of them is memorable. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince continues this tradition.

  22. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
    A lumbering, stupid summer action flick summed up perfectly in the slack-jawed gaze of it’s star – Channing Tatum. But it manages to keep a little bit of the wonder from the 1980’s cartoon by being a cartoon itself.

  23. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
    After 3 X-Men films, Hugh Jackman has Wolverine down cold. It’s the rest of the movie that lets him down. Too many characters, several continuity editors, the bastardization of fan-favorite Deadpool and Wil.I.Am added to the cast makes this movie one of the biggest misfires of the year.

  24. Terminator Salvation
    A bleak – if slick – post-apocalyptic trek deeper into the Terminator mythology Someone needs to tell Christian Bale to knock it off with the gravely Batman voice. Cool to see a T-800 in up close and extended combat during the film’s climax. But I left the theater with an overwhelming feeling of “so what?”

  25. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
    It’s hard to be overly critical about a movie meant for kids. But why does a movie about The Smithsonian make me feel dumber after having watched it?

  26. Brüno
    Sacha Baron Cohen tries to expose the ignorance of homophobia with his over-the-top fashionista character Brüno but instead makes homophobia look justifiable when Brüno tries to dry-hump Ron Paul or walks into a redneck’s tent buck naked on a hunting trip. The film’s contempt for its audience is palpable. Worst of all, it’s simply not funny.

  27. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
    Michael Bay takes everything I hated about the original Transformers and multiplies it by 10. Louder, dumber and less comprehensible. This movie would be completely forgettable if it weren’t for the racist caricatures applied to new additions Skids and Mudflaps. Worst movie of the year. How bad? Not only am I angry that I saw it, I’m annoyed that I have to write a recap of it.

    28. So, there you have it! Every movie I saw this year packaged up in a bow.

    Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments below!

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TOP 10 OF 2009

January 13th, 2010 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Monday was the last recorded episode of The Triple Feature. It was kind of a bittersweet moment for me because, after a month away from the show, coming back for two more felt like someone yanked the rug out from under me. I find it weird that I won’t have a show to do next Monday.

But at any rate, it was our last show and the three of us named our picks for the Top 10 Movies of 2009. If any of you missed it, I decided to repost them here.

Now, I need to preface this list by letting you know that I am fully aware of it’s complete lack of “serious” films. The reason for that is, well, I didn’t see and serious films this year! This was not from a lack of wanting to see such films, but more a matter of circumstance.

You see, whenever there is a great film with a lot of buzz around it that both Cami and I want to see, it usually takes an Act of God for us to see it together. We need to find a babysitter, a day in the schedule that works for everyone… It can be a real pain. So if there’s a movie that both of us want to see and we can’t go together, I don’t go at all.

But if it’s a movie that is complete garbage that Cami has no interest in seeing, then I’m more likely to catch a late showing by myself after the kids are in bed. As a result, I don’t see a lot of “quality” films these days.

But I compiled a complete list of the films I did see plus the films I wanted to see and… we’ll get into that later. For now, my picks for the Top 10 Movies of 2009!

  1. Zombieland
    I’ve made no secret of my distaste for zombie movies. I don’t like gore and a I don’t like cheap scares. But there was enough buzz around Zombieland that I felt compelled to check it out. Turns out the buzz was right as writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick turned in a sharp-witted and entertaining script that lived up to the hype.

  2. I Love You , Man
    If I never hear the word “bromance” again, it’ll be too soon. But because of I Love You , Man hopefully I never will. The film is quite possibly the nadir of the emerging genre. A sweet, likable movie about nice people and their insubstantial problems. But the movie is funny is a way that isn’t forced. It doesn’t rely on outlandish situations but rather character idiosyncrasies to find humor. Count me in for a sweet, sweet hang, Jobin.

  3. Princess and The Frog
    A grand return to form for The House of Mouse that features a strong female lead, a beautifully painterly style, upbeat musical numbers from Randy Newman and a message you can take to the bank, literally. “Wish on stars all you want, but wishing will only take you half-way. Hard work is really how you make your dreams come true!”

  4. Inglourious Basterds
    I admired (but didn’t expressly enjoy) Quentin Tarantino’s hyper-violent “What If?…” version of World War II the first time I saw it. But the film has grown on me with time. Watching it again on DVD, I was impressed by how well the three main set pieces slowly build the tension and keep it suspended until it breaks. Christoph Waltz devours the screen as Colonel Hans Landa in the best supporting performance of the year

  5. Avatar
    Despite its weak plot and somewhat uninspired dialogue, director James Cameron did an exceptional job with the visuals of this film and showing audiences something they’ve never seen before. In film, it is always better to show than to tell and Cameron over-delivers with Avatar. With over a billion dollars at the box office in 4 week’s time, he’s obviously done something right.

  6. Star Trek
    Star Trek defined the summer for me. Big, loud and a little bit dumb – but damn if I didn’t have a good time. J.J. Abrams reboot not only makes the franchise accessible to a new generation, but it does a good job placating the existing fan base – no easy task. A tip of the hat to the casting department. Nearly every actor is note-perfect in the role. Considering the potential for this film to land flat on it’s face, the fact that it soars is a testament to the enduring legacy of Star Trek.

  7. The Hangover
    The highest grossing comedy of all time is a modern comedy classic. That sounds like boilerplate critical hyperbole, but trust me. People will continue to watch and rewatch Hangover for years and years to come. Part of it is due to the outrageous situations of three heroes find themselves in, but mostly it’s because I think every guy either has (or wishes they had) a story like theirs to tell to their buddies.

  8. Taken
    I don’t think anyone expected Liam Neeson to kick ass an take names as well as he did in Taken, but the movie was a left-field home run for me. Sure, it’s hard-boiled Eurotrash cheese, but if Qui-Gon Jin had been this badass in The Phantom Menace, it would have been a whole new ballgame.

  9. Up
    The only reason Up isn’t number one on this list is because it becomes a little too much of a madcap adventure that gets lost within itself near the end. I mean, dogs with special collars that allow them to talk… I’m on board with that. Dogs that can fly biplanes? That’s where I draw the line (present company excepted). Up finds exceptional human truth in the opening montage that captures the marriage of Carl and his wife Ellie. In what results as the most raw and emotional scene of any children’s movie in recent memory, that truth is what carries the movie aloft.

  10. Fantastic Mr. Fox
    For me, Fantastic Mr. Fox was simply the right movie at the right time. I was charmed by it’s hand-made sensibility and lo-fi approach. I was swayed by director Wes Anderson’s trademark dry snark and obsessive attention to detail. I admired the film for taking it’s time, going at it’s own pace and presenting us with something joyfully different than the barrage of digital 3D wonders that have saturated movies right now. I’m all for the progression of technology. But sometimes tried and true techniques in the hands of a visionary that cares about craft and attention to detail the medium requires is the perfect little love letter to film goers.

So, there you have it! My picks for the Top 10 Movies of 2009! Stay tuned for my complete list of films watched in 2008 (ranked in order) as well as the movies I WANTED to see, but haven’t.

Please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments below!

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TRAFFIC

January 11th, 2010 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I don’t really look at my site traffic like I used to. I used to be quite obsessed with it.

I suppose it’s a good thing that I don’t look at it much anymore because I think if you put too much emphasis on it, then you might not be doing the work for the right reasons. Clearly, after nearly 8 years in the game, it should be evident that Theater Hopper is a labor of love.

But at the same time, because I love what I do, I want other people to love what I do. I won’t deny that it’s an ego boost to know people are reading and enjoying your work.

So it bummed me out a little yesterday when I looked at my traffic statistics and read the monthly averages by year since 2002.

Theater Hopper’s boom years were 2004 – 2006. These days, I probably see a third of the traffic I saw back then. Obviously my life is much different these days. I have two kids, I’m taking night classes for my Master’s degree. I’m a pretty busy guy. I don’t have the time to promote the comic like I used to or brainstorm ideas on how to market it.

I think part of the traffic decline can also be attributed to the sheer sizes of the archives. If I were a new reader, I don’t know if I could stand to read through 1,000+ comics.

Certainly you don’t NEED to read through the archive to “get” what Theater Hopper is about. I think the topical nature of the comic sees to that. But, still… It’s daunting. So I’m always impressed when I hear from new readers who invest the time to check out the history of the comic.

But I think my biggest problem is that I don’t advertise the site. Like, at all. I’ve never been very good about advertising Theater Hopper. I’ve always relied on the relationships I’ve established with other creators and the fan base to establish word-of-mouth. So, I suppose by those standards, Theater Hopper is very successful!

I don’t think it would hurt for me to advertise the comic a little bit, though. But the reason I haven’t done it in the past is because I’m terrible at designing ads for my site and I am awful at deciding which sites to put them on.

Some of this should be obvious. “Advertise with other web comics. Advertise with movie blogs.” But when you start talking about popular web comics and movie blogs, advertising costs an arm and a leg and I psych myself out of doing it because I’m not confident that the banner ads I’ve designed will attract new readers.

I’ve been thinking about designing banner ads that parody popular movie posters. Tom holding up a piece of soap that says “Theater Hopper” instead of “Fight Club.” That kind of thing. Designing a bunch of those kind of ads would certainly keep me busy. But beyond that, I’m lost. I feel like I need to talk to a consultant, or something.

Does anyone out there have web site marketing experience? Even if you’re not a paid professional, what would you do in my situation? I need to step outside of my own head a little bit. Maybe there is a very obvious solution that I’m overlooking.

Just trying to stir up a little discussion. Please leave your comments below. Thanks

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NEW FACEBOOK PAGE

January 6th, 2010 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I wanted to let everyone know I have a new Facebook page and you can check it out here:

http://www.facebook.com/theaterhopper

The new profile page more effectively pushes updates to you news feed as opposed to the old Facebook group we had on there. Joining the new Facebbok page is a great way to be notified about site updates, news and random thoughts related to the site.

Check it out!

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KICKSTART MY HEART

December 14th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

The first post was running a little long, so I thought I would break thing up a little bit before talking about the fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three.

You guys are kicking all kinds of ass with the pledges lately. Thank you so much! On Friday, we were 52% funded. Now we’re 62% funded! We making big gains, but we only have 17 days left to make goal.

Let me put this out there for you… Next week – Monday, December 21 – is my 32nd birthday. It would be a real treat if we could raise $324 by then. With that amount, we’d be up to $2,500 pledged and that would put us $1,000 away from goal with 10 days left in the campaign.

Extrapolate that… $1,000 with 10 days to go means that if we raised $100 a day after that, we’d be funded!

It’s all about the little things. Measurable goals, milestones. If we can take the next step now, we can take a few more steps after that!

Think about it! Let’s try to bump the campaign up to $2,500 in the next 7 days. We only need $324 to do it!

Thanks again to everyone who has pledged so far. I appreciate your support!

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A GIRL LIKE YOU

December 5th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

You know yesterday when I posted an update about how David Byrne’s “Girls On My Mind” cam up on my iPod before I drove down to the hospital?

Okay, no lie – when I started my car this morning? Edwyn Collins “A Girl Like You.” I’m not kidding.

If John Mayer’s “Daughters” come up on my iPod Sunday morning, I’m going to pass out.

Just so long as Motley Crue’s “Girls, Girls, Girls” doesn’t crop up, I’ll be happy.

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GIRLS ON MY MIND

December 4th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

This has nothing to do with anything, but…

I drive with my iPod plugged into my car’s stereo system. I guess when I came back to the house last night, I didn’t press pause. So, when I got into the car this morning to go back to the hospital, it was still “playing.”

Turning the key in the ignition, the car sprang to life and David Byrne’s song “Girls On My Mind” from his album Uh-Oh came through the speakers.

I consider it a weird coincidence since thoughts of both Cami and Pearl were swimming through my mind before leaving the house today.

Life is pretty cool.

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HENRY’S FIRST MOVIE

December 1st, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog
polar-express

Over the holiday weekend, we engaged in a “first” as parents and took Henry to his very first movie – The Polar Express in IMAX at The Science Center of Iowa.

Every year The Science Center shows The Polar Express on their gigantic IMAX screen as a holiday tradition. I’ve seen the movie on TV, but never really enjoyed it (Those dead-eyed children… So creepy!). After seeing it in IMAX through Henry’s eyes… Well, I feel a little different about the movie.

We’ve been wanting to take Henry to a movie for a long time, but we wanted his first movie-going experience to be a good one. A lot of the children’s movies that were out this summer didn’t inspire confidence and, actually, we were going to wait for Disney’s The Princess and The Frog until we realized the movie was coming out the Friday after Cami’s scheduled C-section.

But when Cami suggested The Polar Express, it seemed like the perfect solution. Because right now, Henry is really into trains and just last week he saw Santa Claus at the mall. Perfect!

More importantly, we wanted to do something special for Henry before the baby is born because his world is totally going to turn upside down once that happens.

We showed up a little late to the movie because Henry’s napped a little longer than we expected. So when we arrived, it was already dark in the theater. As I scaled up the steep incline with Henry in my arms, he whispered in my ear, “I wanna go home, Daddy.”

“It’s going to be fine, Henry. We’re going to see a movie!” I assured him.

“I wanna go home.”

We plopped Henry into the seat between myself and Cami as the movie fired up. We were worried that the IMAX experience would be too intimidating for Henry. At the very least, we fretted that the sound would be too loud and might scare him.

Let me tell you, Henry did great during the movie. He didn’t fidget in his seat, he didn’t wander around, he didn’t scream or cry. The movie kept his attention throughout its 99 minute running time. He smiled, he laughed and he squealed with nervous anticipation during some of the film’s more harrowing sequences.

If you’ve seen The Polar Express, you know it’s a little bit of a roller coaster ride. During these action scenes, Henry would clench his fists and tense up his arms. So Cami and I made sure to lean in close and remind him it was just a movie. Putting my hand on his chest to reassure him, I could feel his heart pounding through his chest.

After the movie, Henry told us totally unprovoked “That was a good movie!” When we asked him what his favorite part of the movie was, he said “the Elf center” – presumably the scenes involving the three children running around on conveyor belts as they try to get back in time to meet Santa.

As parents, I think we (collectively) put a lot of pressure on ourselves to provide a “perfect” experience for our children. Sometimes we lose sight of the experience they’re having versus the experience we WANT them to have. It’s a definite tight rope walk between living vicariously through your children and (if you’ll pardon the pun) railroading their own experience with your own expectations.

These thoughts aside, I feel our experience watching The Polar Express was absolutely perfect. It couldn’t have gone any better. I’m not just talking about Henry’s behavior in the movie (because, really, who can predict what a two year-old is going to do at any given minute). Instead, I’m talking about what he seemed to take from the experience. Looking over at him as he watched the movie, he really seemed to be enjoying himself.

That’s all I could have asked for.

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JLCM IS BACK!

November 20th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Something I was remiss to point out earlier in the week is that my good friend Joe Dunn has posted a brand new comic over at Joe Loves Crappy Movies!

I feel particularly embarrassed for not mentioning it on the homepage because 1.) Joe is a friend and 2.) because, for a while, I was probably getting 2 to 3 e-mails a week asking me if Joe was ever going to update his comic again.

This isn’t exactly a new thing for me. For a while I was getting e-mails asking me when Zach Miller was going to bring back Joe and Monkey. Before that, people were sending me e-mails asking me when Mitch Clem was going to bring back Nothing Nice to Say.

It puts me in a weird position because I certainly don’t want to speak on the behalf of any of these guys or accidentally share too much information about whatever is happening in their personal lives that may preclude them from creating new comics.

However, at the same time, I’m a fan and I understand the need for a fan to stay connected to their favorite artists. So you end up sharing what you think is appropriate and maybe it gives that person a little extra hope that the comic will come back sooner than later.

People started talking about this a little bit over in the Digital Pimp Forums. I talked about the e-mails I was getting and Joe said he never saw a single e-mail asking him about Joe Loves Crappy Movies. Many of his readers came back saying that they didn’t want to pester or annoy Joe for not producing the comic. They didn’t want to make him feel guilty or come off too demanding. So in that context, it makes sense that a fan would say “I don’t want to upset Joe, let’s see what Tom knows.”

I dunno. I found it interesting.

Anyway, I’m obscuring what’s important about this blog post which is that Joe Loves Crappy Movies is back! Check it out!

And if you’ve never read it before, Joe has almost 500 excellent comics in his archive. SO GET TO WORK!

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KICKSTARTER UPDATE

November 20th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Since I didn’t mention it on Wednesday, I wanted to check in with everyone and remind them about the Kickstarter fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three. Pledges have slown down a little bit and I want to make sure we haven’t lost the momentum that we built up last week!

I notice that a lot of people have been pledging on Friday’s. I don’t know if that has anything to do with people getting paid, but I thought I would just float that out there. If you think you can pledge $5 from your paycheck today, that would be awesome. You can always increase your pledge later!

I’ve been trying hard to maintain a level of engagement surrounding the project by posting updates on the Kickstarter page. If you haven’t been reading them, it’s a good way to stay connected without me having to badger everyone on the homepage.

Most recently, I posted a video update where I discuss the mini grant I applied for from the Iowa Arts Council. I submitted my proposal before I heard about Kickstarter and I got my notification letter this week. If you want to know the outcome, you’ll have to watch the video.

I’m also taking suggestions on topics to address with my Kickstarter updates. It’s kind of hard to do actual “updates” because the book is already finished. So it’s not like I can post something telling you how “I’ve written commentary for the first 50 comics and I only have 100 more to go!” All of that work is done. The book is ready. I could have it sent to the printer today, you know?

If you have questions about the book that you would like answered or have suggestions to help me promote the book, leave your comments on the Kickstarter page.

…or here, too. That’ll work.

Someone had the simple suggestion that I need to be a little more aggressive about how I promote the campaign here in the blog section of the site. They advised that I need to put Kickstarter updates ABOVE the main blog post so you are at least giving the Kickstarter updates a cursory glance.

It’s a good idea, but I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. I’m trying not to be to overbearing. But at the same time, the closer we get to the deadline, the more paranoid about it I’m going to get.

There are 41 days left in the campaign. Please consider pledging today. Thank you.

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