The two movies Tom is referencing in today’s strip are Catch and Release (starring Jennifer Garner) and Smokin’ Aces (with Ben Affleck). Smokin’ Aces is really more of an ensemble piece, so I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a “Ben Affleck movie.” More like a movie Ben Affleck happens to be in.

Does it surprise you that Catch and Release is the film I’m more excited about seeing? It surprised me. A few years ago, I would have been chomping at the bit for a film like Smokin’ Aces. Large cast full of actors I like, lots of mayhem. Looks like fun. But recently when I look at the commercials or the trailer, all I can think about it how it looks like a Pulp Fiction rip-off a decade warmed over.

Catch and Release, while still wearing the comfortable trappings of a traditional romantic comedy, looks much more interesting to me simply for the inclusion of Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Smith. I’ve been a fan of Olyphant since Doug Liman’s Go and I always found his quiet menace as Sherrif Seth Bullock on Deadwood. He’s not the conventional choice to play a romantic lead and I like that kind of twist in casting.

Of course, Kevin Smith as the wise-acre sidekick adds shading. It’s interesting to see him act in movie that aren’t his. So I’m curious to see how he performs when it’s someone else’s words coming out of his mouth.

Something interesting I learned about the production of Catch and Release is that Jennifer Garner was newly pregnant with Ben Affleck’s child (shudder) and was just starting to show a little. So apparently there are several scenes in the movie where Garner is either standing behind something or wearing baggy clothing to obscure her mid-section. Call it the Steven Segal technique.

I totally didn’t get the impression that Garner was pregnant during filming when looking at commercials, so I guess that’s movie magic at work. But now that I have this information in my back pocket, I’m going to be looking for it during the movie.

I don’t really have much for you today besides that. Real quick, though – does anyone have experience with RSS or, more specifically, Ryan North’s RSSpect application? I’m trying to get Theater Hopper running a little bit smoother on the feeds (in particular the LiveJournal RSS feed) so that the comic will appear with a portion of the blog.

My hope is that people who have friended TH in their LiveJournal accounts will read the comic, see a little bit of the blog and then be inspired to visit the site and read the rest. You know, make it less of a passive experience while still giving them what they want. Plus, I think there is value in people actually being able to SEE the comic in the feed rather than just a link. Who knows? They might end up visiting the site and leaving comments under the blogs! To that end, if you have comments of your own, you’d know I would love for you to share them. What movies are you excited about seeing this weekend? Am I wrong about Smokin’ Aces? Let me know!