In another disturbing example of how the Hulk Hands have taken a toe-hold (thumb-hold?) in popular culture, Neo-Raven from the forums posted a link to a recent NWA:TNA Wrestling contest where the phony forearms were used.
Follow the link for the disturbing photographic evidence
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I’m pretty happy with today’s comic – unusual for a Monday. It’s fun because I get to take pot shots at two of my favorite targets – The Wynnsong 16 theaters and those American Idol jokers. Meh. They’ll be off the cultural radar soon enough.
I had a very odd movie-watching experience this weekend. On Saturday night, Cami and I went to see the documentary Spellbound at a local arthouse. It’s about 8 kids all about middle-school age competing in the 1999 National Spelling Bee.
The film was interesting on several levels. One, it made evident what a horrible speller I am. Two, it cast its light on a subject that is uniquely American, but what very few people know of. And three, the level of talent in this contest cuts through class, race and social standing making it one of the most true representations of middle America in recent memory. I liked it a lot.
If you’d like to read a more developed line of thought about the movie, be sure to check out the reviews page. My good friend Nick Caster typed up a few words on the film I know you will enjoy. I’ve been sitting on his review for a little while now, so hopefully he won’t mind.
On the other side of the movie-going coin, I caught a matinee of The Hulk this afternoon. I hated it. A lot. I won’t bother going into it here, because I’ve also recently written up a review – which visitors to the site know only happens when I’ve had a very vicreal reaction to something.
I don’t know how my words are going to be received since there was a lot of build-up on my part to see and enjoy this movie. I don’t want to sound hypocritical. But where the movie falls, it falls hard and I had a difficult time even enjoying it.
If you have thoughts, please share them in the forum.
I thought I would just post a little reminder to vote for Theater Hopper every day at Top Web Comics.
No particular reason this time, except it kind of cheeses me to see Bob and George getting more votes than me.
More power to him, I suppose. But I’m just not a sprite kind of guy!
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I might be stepping outside of regular continuity a little bit with today’s strip. In fact, I could very well be brushing up against the 4th wall – which I usually try to avoid for fear of structural damage.
But this time out, I decided to do something different. I was little tired of the same mechanics of telling a joke and wanted to go in a different direction. Is it a little gimmicky? Sure. But you can’t fault me for trying new things. Actually, I’m kind of proud of the way it turned out!
For anyone who is sensitive to these kinds of things, I’m not making fun of Kabuki or of Japanese culture. In fact, like most people, I’m facinated by everything about the country. I even took a course on Japan in college. This is just a little homage – my way of tipping the hat without mentioning anime.
The overly-dramatic events of today’s strip aren’t too far from truth. At least the genesis of the conflict.
Cami and I have a system where we abuse each other with our movies choices. It’s actually working quite well for us. I drag her to something like The Hulk where she rolls her eyes for two hours. Then a day or two later, she shuffles me out the door to watch some clap-trap like Alex & Emma.
You all know my feeling about The Hulk, but I haven’t talked about Alex & Emma.
We should have picked up a clue when we read the film came in 7th on its opening weekend. We should have thought twice when we could only find the movie playing in ONE theater that wasn’t 50 miles away. This, in a town of a dozen multiplexes.
But no. The system is there for a reason. If the movie looked good once, by God, we’re going.
So we went.
And the movie was HORRIBLE!
The first hour and a half is basically watching Kate Hudson and Luke Wilson (two actors completely without chemistry) write a book. If you thought READING books was fun, then certainly watching a movie about people WRITING a book is going to be right up there with chocolate-flavored heroin.
WRONG!
The movie kept flipping between the dingy, busted down reality the authors live in, and the glossy, white, Gatsby-esque, flapper reality of the book. At what point the two real-life characters fall in love is kind of a mystery. It seems like they never have the time.
I could go on about it, but I’m really even too tired to recall it and it’s not worht the effort.
Just know that it’s terrible, director Rob Reiner is screwing up his career and that I expected as much from Luke Wilson, but Kate Hudson deserves better.
It’s kind of funny how the system failed us this time around. We both picked movies we were sure at least one of us would love. As it turned out, both of us hated both movies. I guess you win some, you lose some.
This weekend looks like Charlie’s Angels is on the docket. I think I’ve got a rant simmering somewhere, so I’ll save it for Friday.
In the meantime, the new Mars Volta CD is kicking my ass and I have a ticket to see Deftones next Wednesday. Yes – I rock.
I wish I could concentrate a little better on today’s blog, but I’ve been listening to the new Deftones album at full-blast and am having trouble remembering my last name. I get to see them live in less than a week! *GLEE!*
Time to focus.
Cami is really amped up to see Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle this weekend. The jokers marketing this picture totally have her number. I asked her why she wanted to see it, and she said “Because the girls are strong, they kick ass, and they look great.”
Girl-power packaged as summer entertainment. And for the men? A random ass-shot here and there.
Clearly this is not a marketing ploy I object to. Actually, the trailer for this movie is probably one of the best edited I’ve seen this year. It’s high energy, a little kitchy and it looks like a lot of fun.
Of course Bernie Mac looks stuck in a thankless role when the close the trailer with the poor man squeezed into a wetsuit complaining about sand up his ass, but oh well.
I know that if I go to see Charlie’s Angels this weekend, I’ll have fun while I’m there – but hate myself in the morning. I wish we had something more cerebral lined up on deck to swab the mind afterwords, but since 28 Days Later is the only other new offering, it looks like I’m going to have to rely on alcohol instead.
Speaking of which, 28 Days Later is NOT the sequel to that Sandra Bullock movie where she plays an alcoholic, it’s a zomibe flick. Although I would wager such a sequel would be scarier…
For the record, I was never a big fan of the first Charlie’s Angels movie. It stunk with Drew Barrymore’s influence. Every frame screamed “Lookit me! I’m a PRODUCER now!” I doubt this offering will be any different.
The only thing I liked about the first movie was Crispin Glover’s performance as The Thin Man. He was the LAST actor I would have picked for that role and he really impressed me. Sam Rockwell as the villian did a good job, too. But I’ve always liked his work – even in Galaxy Quest.
Everyone is talking about Demi Moore’s role in the film, heralding it as her “comeback” role. If that’s the case, I feel friggin’ sorry for her. What? She couldn’t get a role in The Hours?
To me, Demi Moore is the ultimate in negative female stereotypes. Just the amount of fuss people are making over her “spectacular body – and at 40! no less is proof of that. I don’t care what anyone says about her as an actress. Her legacy is Striptease – end of story. Just like Elizabeth Berkley’s is Showgirls. That’s all anyone will remember either of them for.
And the less said about it, the better.
Not to toot my own horn, or anything – but I was kind of skimming through the most recent strips and I have to say I’m really proud of the last two weeks of work in terms of the art. I’m not trying to be pompous, but I’m just very pleased with the way a lot of these strips turned out.
I just wish there were more people seeing them. Maybe if you could extend a little vote love we can work Theater Hopper up the charts on the TWC?
I started Theater Hopper last August, so it’s not yet been a full year of work. But I have this sneaking suspicion that in the web comic world, things start to slow down over the summer.
I think it has something to do with all of the college kids not having as much time to kill during the day. They probably all have summer jobs and aren’t visiting as often as they do in the winter.
I don’t know why I’m sharing this. Just thinking out loud, I guess.
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The title of today’s strip pretty much sums up my reaction to Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. We saw the film this weekend and I could have sworn any semblance of a plot was overwritten by the copious number of Cameron Diaz ass shots. When that parody came out at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards earlier in June, they weren’t kidding about the number of butt shots in this movie!
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching the movie. It moves along at a zippy pace and you can tell they had a lot of fun making it.
But exiting the theater, I asked myself “What the hell did I just get through watching?” and immediately dumped it from my memory. Only upon revisiting it for today’s blog have I concluded what an awful waste of time it was.
To that end, does it please me that the sequel did less business in its opening weekend than the original? Yes. Yes it does.
There are a lot of big movies coming out this week for the holiday. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde as well as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Cami is seeing Legally Blonde 2 on Wednesday when it opens with some friends. I’ll be out rocking my ass off at the Deftones concert.
I’m a little bummed because I really enjoyed the first one. It totally caught us by surprise when we watched the original while on vacation in Kansas City. I remember it clearly, too. We walked in just killing time (we were in town for a Janet Jackson concert) and were floored by how funny it was. It’s my hope the sequel can capture some of that same magic, but I have a feeling it’ll just be a retread. I’ll have to wait for Cami’s verdict to find out.
One movie I KNOW Cami won’t want to see is T3 and I’m not too sure I want to see it, either. I think I’m going more for the love of the franchise and less because I think it will be any good. There were too many cheesy lines in the trailer (“Desire is irrelevant! I… AM… A MACHINE!”) to make it look any good.
Still, I have hope that director Jonathan Mostow will do something interesting. Both his films Breakdown and U-571 really did a good job in the suspense department. You can say he’s inexperienced if you want, but the man knows how to establish mood. It should be interesting to see how he handles a big-budget picture.
In the meantime, I’m counting down the minutes to the 4th of July. We’re having a bunch of friends over for drinks and a BBQ. It’s a big deal for Cami and I because we don’t do this very often. We lucked out this time. It looks like a lot of our friends will be able to make it. Don’t you just love it when a holiday falls on a Friday?
Hey everyone! I haven’t written a blog in quite some time, so I think it’;s time to re-introduce myself. I’m Jared, real life friend to Tom since the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were swimming in a fishbowl. In the strip, I am immortalized as Tom’s other other-half; appropriately named Jared.
I live in Des Moines, Iowa with my lovely wife Patti. We just bought a house (hence the absence of all free time and presence in the forum.)
I work in the media department of a major insurance company. I shoot and edit video, assist people with A/V equipment, and I am the admin for the company’s video conferencing network.
Every once in awhile, I write blogs for this website detailing the latest gut feelings about the recent films I have consumed. I don’t know if anyone reads them, but I try to make them at least a little bit interesting.
If you want to contact me, please do so at brinkmeyer@hotmail.com please reference Theater Hopper in the subject line so that your message doesn’t go the way of the make money fast while enlarging your penis messages. I’d be happy to hear from you.
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