Archive for ‘Blog’
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The Des Moines Register – Iowa’s largest daily newspaper – is looking for applicants for a new team of community movie reviewers.
I am totally gunning for this job.
The initial requirements are kind of tricky. They want you to submit a review of 100 words or less before they select the best reviews and post them online for readers to vote on. The most well-received reviewers get a spot on the team.
Part of me thinks I have the inside track on this. Theater Hopper already appears in Juice – a weekly youth publication put together by members of the The Des Moines Register’s existing staff. Also, I know the guy who is accepting submissions. I actually used to write for him on a freelance basis a few years ago reviewing concerts for The Register. The devil you know, right? How can they overlook me?
But the real ace in the hole is going to be you guys. After Cami and I see Reign Over Me this weekend, I’m going to burn lean tissue putting together a tight review so it’s a lock for the online voting round. When my review is posted, I’m going to call on your support to put me over the top. I know we can do it together.
Keep your eyes peeled!
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I was reading this short profile on Mike Binder, writer and director of Reign Over Me on EW.com this morning and I wanted to gouge my eyes out.
In the introductory paragraph, the article’s author Neil Drumming misidentifies Don Cheadle’s character as Alex Johnson (it’s Alan) and says Adam Sandler’s character loses his wife and two children in the 9/11 attack (he had three children). Do these writers even see the movies they’re profiling? Do they have editors? Hell, a quick search over at IMDB would have at least gotten the name of Cheadle’s character right! I thumbed around the site for a little while to see if I could send an e-mail to Drumming to point out his mistakes. I don’t know if that’s anal, obnoxious or both.
I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t complain. After all, I can barely spell. But on the other hand, I don’t have the resources of the mighty Time Warner empire behind me, either.
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Okay, I feel a little guilty for enjoying this as much as I did because it depict what Will Ferrell does as an interchangeable series of predictable routines and I think that’s oversimplifying things a bit.
All the same, check out College Humor’s Will Ferrell Movie Generator and prepare to laugh.
It was the inclusion of the completely random catch phrases and quotes that did it for me.
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Before I forget, I wanted to direct everyone’s attention to a great movie-themed web site I think you’ll all enjoy.
It’s called The Burgg and it was created by my good friend Bernie Hou who also created the web comic Alien Loves Predator.
The concept of The Burgg is deceptively simply and grossly addictive. A member of the community draws a scene from a movie – any movie. You’re then left to guess what movie they’re referencing. Most of the images you’ll guess right away. But every once in a while there will be one that stumps you. It’s a lot of fun to play along and they have a movie discussion forum on the site as well. One of these days I need to get off my butt and submit a drawing of my own!
At any rate, check it out. The Burgg. A lot of fun!
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Hey, guys. I have another quick favor to ask. I know I ask for a lot of stuff from you guys, but this one is more personal.
Cami has been at home with Henry for the last 8 weeks and she’s having a really hard time imagining going back to work. I mean, she *has* to go back to work. There’s no getting around it. But she’s dreaming of a day where she can work from home and take care of Henry full time.
She’s taking a run at starting her own eBay business. We’ve been reading up on it and we’re taking the initial steps into making this work. Right now, she has a handful of items up for auction. Nothing fancy. Just stuff we’re getting rid of. But if you could take the time to look over her auctions and maybe considering bidding on something, it would go a long way to boosting her confidence. Cami’s never done the eBay thing before. If nothing else, I want to do what I can to ensure she has a nice experience.
A list of her auctions can be found here.
Even if there’s nothing listed you want, please consider forwarding the link on to others who might find something they like. Cami will be posting new auctions throughout the week, so keep an eye on things.
Thanks again for your help! We appreciate it!
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Apologies for the delay of this news post. I meant to post it earlier this evening but was held up partially by the conversation I was having with Cami about it, partially out of fear and partially by denial. However, I need to get this information out there and I need to get it over with.
So, effective immediately, Theater Hopper comic updates will be scaled back to once a week with comics running every Wednesday.
The reason for this change is simple. Since Henry was born, it is important for me to keep my focus on him and the well-being of my family. For a short period of time, I deluded myself into thinking this was possible while continuing to maintain three full-color updates a week. After nine weeks with Henry in our lives, it has become clear to me this is no longer the case.
While I have proven that it is physically possible for me to create three comics a week, emotionally I was short shrifting my family and that is unacceptable. These delusions of grandeur led me to believe that I could have it all. Unfortunately, I did not weigh the complete cost of my actions.
This decision has been over four months in the making. I agonized about it before Henry was born and continued to question myself after. A large part of my reluctance to do the right thing was the deep sense of responsibility I felt for you – the reader. Over the last four and a half years, your generosity and support has kept this site going and I consider myself lucky to have some of the nicest fans anyone can hope for. I pride myself on the fact that Theater Hopper has been largely immune from the some of the more juvenile and petty aspects of fandom in this genre and that can all be attributed to you.
However, my life has entered into a new phase that unfortunately eclipses that . If Theater Hopper were all that I did, this wouldn’t be an issue. But between a full-time career outside the home, being a responsible father and contributing member of my family and being a cartoonist… well, there’s only so much room in my life.
In a way, I knew something like this would happen someday. In interviews I’ve given in the past, people would ask me how long I planned to continue Theater Hopper. I was realistic about it. I would tell them that I would probably have kids and then stop.
Well, I’m not stopping entirely and that’s the compromise. For now, this is a short term solution that hopefully leaves the window open for me to come back to it full time. I find it a much more attractive option than going on a semi-permanent hiatus or closing the doors completely.
I also want to let you know that even though I am reducing my comic output to once a week, that will not alter the three-times-a-week update schedule for the site at large. I still want you to continue checking in as I plan to continue supplementing things with sketches for the immediate future and DVD and movie reviews in the near future. In the coming weeks and months, it is my goal to restructure Theater Hopper to become more than just as web comic, but to become a multi-dimensional piece that covers many different aspects of movies.
I know to some of you, this might sound counter-intuitive to the reasons I gave you for reducing the output of comics. If I’m only updating comics once a week to be with my family, why am I replacing it with new and varied content. The answer is simple. Sketches I can do anywhere. DVD and movie reviews I can do anywhere. All of these options take CONSIDERABLY less time than a full-color comic that takes a few hours each night to complete. Writing for me has been no great trick. I think I can communicate my ideas clearly and quickly. The evolution of my art has been much more of a struggle.
Please bear with me while I make this transition into a new role. With any luck, Theater Hopper will become more of a resource to film as well as an entertaining commentary on it. I appreciate your patience and understanding and hope that you continue to check the site.
Thank you for your support. I look forward to entering into this new phase of Theater Hopper with you!
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Hey, guys. I wanted to be sure and create a second blog post for this because I’ve got an awesome opportunity for you that I don’t want you to miss.
Be sure to tune in and listen to The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 PM. In addition to the awesome hour-long content about movies you’ll be getting from yours truly, Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex will be in the house to add to the mayhem. Tonight’s topic of discussion will be… well, I don’t know what tonight’s topic of discussion will be. I’ll have to check with Joe and Gordon! Luckily, I downloaded last week’s episode, so I know that Joe planned on seeing Kickin’ It Old School. There’s also a possibility we’ll be talking about Nic Cage’s latest bomb Next and The Invisible.
But I won’t lie. I just wanna talk about Spider-Man 3.
That uncertainty aside, there are TWO big reasons to listen to the show tonight because we’ll be giving away copies of TWO big movies.
Our first contest is for the Academy Award winning Dreamgirls. This was a big hit last December and I loved it for the opportunity it gave Jennifer Hudson to upstage Beyonce Knowles and Jamie Foxx – two entertainers that could stand to be knocked down a few pegs. Dreamgirls is available on DVD this Tuesday, May 1 so be sure to check out the performance that catapulted a cast off from American Idol into Oscar history! Either that, or you can listen tonight’s episode of The Triple Feature for a chance to win a FREE copy for yourself!
The other big movie we’re giving away is Diggers. Okay, it’s not that big of a movie. In fact, it’s being relased on DVD and in theaters on the exact same day. But it has pedigree! Diggers is written by Ken Marino, who you may or may not remember from the sketch comedy group The State. It stars Paul Rudd as a Long Island clam digger who tries to maintain is small town way of life in the face of social change in the 1970s. I know it doesn’t sound like a laugh riot, but this film has a lot of heart to it and some great character moments along the way. It’s kind of like Wet Hot American Summer, but with a brain. It has that same nostalgia feel, but with some more drama to it. It’s a really unique film and it has a ton cool actors in it. A few of Marino’s buddies from The State show up and it also features performances from Maura Tierney and Lauren Ambrose.
Again, you can win your free copy of either one of these movies by listening to The Triple Feature, tonight at 9:00 PM CST. All you have to do is listen to the program and wait for the secret clue. Since we’re giving away two movies this week, there will be two individual clues. Hold on to those clues and then come back to Theater Hopper on Wednesday for the second half of the clues. E-mail the complete clue along with your name, age and mailing address to theaterhopper@hotmail.com and winners will be selected at random.
Most importantly, since we’re doing two giveaways this week, it will help me to keep things straight if you send in your submissions independent of each other. I know that makes you guys jump through hoops, but it will improve your odds of winning if you send one e-mail for Dreamgirls and one for Diggers. I take all the submissions I get and organize them in a folder. If you’re entering both contests with one e-mail, I’m going to have to toss out your entry. Sorry.
Remember, if you’re unable to listen to tonight’s broadcast live, you can always download completed recordings from The Triple Feature page over at Talkshoe. We have almost 20 shows under our belts and there’s a lot of good stuff there. So if you’ve never listened in before and want to get a sense of what we do, download a couple of episodes and get familiar. They’re only an hour long a piece, so they won’t take up a lot of your time. Besides, they’re a lot of fun.
Incidentally, our contests for Copying Beethoven, Deja Vu and The Queen are still running because we haven’t received the giveaway copies from the distributors yet. I’ve been reassured they’re coming soon, but technically, that still leaves a window open for you guys to win free stuff! Download the April 2 broadcast for the first half of the clue to Copying Beethoven and the April 16 broadcast for the first half of the clue to Deja Vu. Access the April 4 blog and April 18 blog respectively for the second half of the clues to those two contests. The complete clue for The Queen was given in the April 25 blog.
Hope to hear from you guys during tonight’s broadcast and thanks again for supporting The Triple Feature!
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Okay, I know I said to come back later in the day for this story, but I couldn’t wait to tell it. At least this way, it’s kept away from the main site-related stuff and is organized.
Remember about a month ago when I told you I was applying to be part of The Des Moines Register’s newly formed team of community reviewers? Well, I got word back yesterday that I was NOT one of the 30 finalists selected from the field of 150 who participated. Incidentally, from that group of 30, 10 will be chosen by a reader vote to be a part of the team.
I’m kind of bummed because I’ve been informally reviewing movies for five years and I thought that would be great experience for them to tap into. I mean, who better than me, right?
I went through this weird analytical cycle. At first I thought they turned me down because they were aware of Theater Hopper and the freelancing I do for their sister publication Juice. The must have figured my legion of fans would skew the voting round.
Then I got kind of suspicious. The editor who made the decision as to what contestants made it to the voting round is the same editor I worked for a couple of years ago when I did freelance concert reviews for The Register. Interestingly enough, he contacted me out of the blue a few days before I got the notice about the movie reviewer thing when he asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a Stone Sour contest this Friday and an all day metal festival called LazerFest going on May 13. I accepted the Stone Sour gig. I’m not available for LazerFest. Was this meant to soften the blow?
Then I entered into acceptance. Well, obviously they can’t pay me freelancing fees for BOTH my contributions to Juice and for my concert reviews. It’s just not fair! Spread the love.
And then I felt superior because I had “let it go.”
At one point early on I thought I would contest my rejection and give a laundry list of reasons as to why I would rock the community movie review team the hardest. But I stopped when I realized that I didn’t know if the community movie review team paid well (if at all) and that I might be shooting myself in the foot if I said “I don’t want to do paid concert reviews! Put me into the voting round for the community movie review team where I may or may not be voted in as a finalist!” Seemed kind of like a dumb gamble.
All the same, I would have rocked it hard. I just know I would have….
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This has nothing to do with anything, but since it’s the weekend, I thought you guys might enjoy a little linkage to kick things off.
Cracked.com runs down comparisons between some of the most obviously similar movies released in the same year. Dante’s Peak and Volcano, for example. Or A Bug’s Life and Antz. It’s pretty amazing to see how long stuff like this has been going on and how often it happens.
Incidentally, this was something we touched on by total happenstance during this Monday’s Triple Feature talkcast. So I was pretty psyched when I ran across it later in the week. What’s your favorite pair of suspiciously similar movies?
Speaking of The Triple Feautre talkcast, don’t forget that’s where you need to go to get the first clue in our Dreamgirls and Diggers free DVD giveaway. You can get the second half of the clue here. Send in the complete clue for each giveaway to theaterhopper@hotmail.com with your name, age and mailing address to have your entry submitted into a random drawing. My free copies of Dreamgirls were delivered earlier in the week, so I’m picking winners on Monday. I haven’t gotten a lot of entries, so your odds are good if you throw your hat into the ring now!
Good luck and have a great weekend!
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Since we’re on a super-hero movie kick (sorry, high-minded movie fans) I was wondering if you guys caught the first image of the armor from the forthcoming 2008 Iron Man movie over at EW.com?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HARD CORE Iron Man fan. As I type this, no less than 13 different Iron Man figures are staring at me from atop a nearby shelf. I would even go so far to say that I’m a bigger fan of Iron Man than Spider-Man. I mean, Spider-Man will always be my first love. But I have a thing for the second-tier characters. Of course, that’s less and less the case with Iron Man these days.
There is something I’ve always found very visually appealing about Iron Man and I think it’s because the technology he utilizes allows artists to create variations on a theme for his signature look. That’s a lot of fun. Even the crap armor designs I love because they’re trying something new and it fits within the motivations of the character.
I mean, you can slap Spider-Man into a dark suit to make him more “moody” and it looks cool. But we all know that’s not who Peter Parker is. Iron Man, on the other hand, is constantly upgrading and improving his armor and the look progresses because of it. The only thing non-progressive about the character is his origin story. In the comics, he was wounded by a piece of shrapnel selling arms and munitions during the Vietnam War. He was held captive and forced to design a chest plate to keep his heart beating. He built the armor around it and escaped. Timely when the character was introduced, sure. But a little stale 40-plus years later.
In recent years they’ve tried to update the conflict placing him in Afghanistan. But in another 40 years, it’ll be the same problem.
At any rate, the topic I really wanted to address was the armor design for the movie. Stan Winston is doing visual effects. He’s the guy who created the Alien, Robocop, the Predator, the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park and the Terminator. So you know you’re in good hands. I just want to breathe a huge sigh of relief that they’re staying faithful to the armor design from the comics. The smartest thing director Jon Favreau did was hire artist Adi Granov as a technical adviser. Granov was the last artist to update Iron Man’s look and it’s probably one of my favorite interpretations yet. To me it says they’re taking it seriously.
Anyway, I could geek out for hours. But I didn’t want to let this slip by without saying something about it.
Is anyone else excited for Iron Man in 2008?
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