Posts Tagged ‘candy’

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FINISH IT!

by Tom on November 6th, 2009
24 votes, average: 8.38 out of 10
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FINISH IT!

I know this is nothing new, but I am increasingly frustrated by our consumer society forcing the holiday season down our throats as early as they do. I really think there should be some kind of law that says stores need to keep Halloween decorations up at least until 6:00 AM on November 1. I think I went to Target looking for candy to give out on Beggar's Night two days before Halloween and they were already selling Christmas trees. Slow down, Target!

Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol is symptomatic of this kind of "FIRE, READY, AIM!" pre-holiday mentality. I think they've pretty much acknowledged it in the commercials I've been seeing for the movie. I swear I heard the voiceover guy say something along the lines of "Celebrate the holidays early!" Yeah, dude? They're a month and half away.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy watching holiday movies AROUND the holidays. Watching a Dickensian classic 6 weeks out isn't going to put me in the holiday mood any eariler. More than likely, I'm just gonna Scrooge it and forget about it completely.

I mean, I know that Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol is getting good reviews, but do they really expect it to have the momentum to carry it to December 25. I don't care how many digital bells and whistles you strap onto the thing, everyone has heard the story a million times. It's played out!

Frankly, my interest in the film is purely technical. I want to see what kind of improvements Zemeckis has made in the motion-capture animation technology that brought us the dead-eyed automotons from The Polar Express and Beowulf. It doesn't hurt that it's in 3D. That's the cherry on top.

I know it sounds like I'm down on this film. I'm not. Frankly, I hope it does quite well. Because the IMAX theater we have downtown trotts out The Polar Express every year for the kids and every time I see an ad for that movie, I wanna scream. Hopefully Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol will replace it. Find another cash cow to float you over the holiday season, local IMAX theater!

Humbug?

What about you? Are you excited for A Christmas Carol? Does it look like an improvement over what we've seen from Zemeckis so far? Does anyone else find it weird that he is the ONLY proponent for this technology?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

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HAVE IT YOUR WAY

by Tom on October 31st, 2008
12 votes, average: 7.83 out of 10
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HAVE IT YOUR WAY

I think if I made one mistake with this story arc, it's that I didn't push the idea that Tom wanted to defy expectations of him running around in an Iron Man costume far enough. The idea was really in response to my own catch-22 with my relationship to the movie and the character. On the one hand, I love talking about it. On the other hand, I know some of you are sick of Iron Man comics. Believe me, I understand. But in the meantime, many of you are very supportive of my love for the character. So what do you do when Halloween rolls around you need to put your character in some kind of costume? Bottom line, it would just look weird to suddenly have Tom running around as The Joker when he's spent all year talking about Tony Stark. I thought the cheeseburger idea was kind of a happy compromise. A way to talk about Iron Man without putting Tom in the Iron Man costume. I think, for the most part, it was effective. It was a fun little guessing game for the week to see what Tom was finally going to emerge as.

Switching gears for a minute, I wanted to talk to the people who donated money to the hard drive restoration donation drive a few months ago. I want to let all of you know that I'm still working on your artwork, but it's been slow-going. Between my 9 to 5 job, my night class, taking care of Henry and producing the comic, it's hard to find time. I often try to squeeze in doing some of the art work over my lunch hour during the week. I pretty much feel like I'm working not stop but without a lot to show for it.

The other part of the problem is that I've been investing a lot of time and effort into this art to make sure everyone gets what they pay for. So even the less-expensive sketches are getting the four-star treatment. I was going to show you some of the sketches that I've been working on lately, but I packaged them up and mailed them off before I remembered to scan them. That was kind of stupid. However, I did remember to scan one before mailing. It's a sketch of Charles Bronson a fan had asked for, so I drew him in his classic pose from the poster for Death Wish. Check it out...

The foreshortening on the arm is a little screwy. But, overall, I'm proud of this piece. I think I got the mood right and I was trying some different things with inking that turned out well.

At any rate, everyone has been very cool and very patient so far. I'm not getting angry e-mails or people kicking in my door with pitchforks and torches. But I wanted to let you know that I'm trying to keep up with things the best that I can and to take the opportunity to once again thank those who showed me great generosity.

That's it for me today. Zach & Miri Make A Porno is at the top of my list for movies to see this weekend. It might be a little tough for me to go, though. My car has a flat tire and I'm trying to get it into the shop this weekend. We'll see if the weather this weekend holds out or not. Maybe I'll ride my bike to the theater for once!

Have a great weekend!

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A COSTUME WORTHY OF A FULL-SIZED SNICKERS

by Tom on October 29th, 2008
5 votes, average: 8.40 out of 10
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A COSTUME WORTHY OF A FULL-SIZED SNICKERS

I bet the anticipation is killing you, isn't it? What could Tom possibly be working on? What is his costume that will SHOCK. THE. NATION? What is his Halloween surprise? You'll have to come back Friday to see!

Okay... I'll give you a hint. He won't be wearing an Iron Man costume, but it will be Iron Man related. THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA SAY!

Truth be told (and I never thought I'd say this), I'm getting a little tired of doing all of the Iron Man jokes in the comic. But they're kind of easy for me to do. Inexhaustible fanboy glee is something I know a little bit about. "Write what you know," as they say.

Speaking of Iron Man, did you see yesterday that Marvel announced Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau have signed contracts for The Avengers. The movie is on track to hit theaters in 2011 after Iron Man 2 busts wide in 2010. It doesn't look like Favreau will be directing, but he will be an Executive Producer. It also appears that The Hulk will not be the main villain, as originally rumored. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Kang The Conqueror!

Marvel also confirmed the announcement made last week that Don Cheadle will be Replacing Terrence Howard as James "Rhodey" Rhodes. I didn't talk about this last week and that kind of surprised a few of you who e-mailed me. I don't know. I guess I felt like it was being covered from almost every other angle and I didn't have anything to contribute. I was also kind of taking a wait-and-see approach. Marvel claimed that Howard wanted more money and decided to cut him out. Marvel also originally dragged their feet signing Favreau to direct Iron Man 2 over money - despite how many fans felt he contributed directly to the film's great success. Eventually Marvel came to their senses and put Favreau back in the director's seat. Maybe they would come to their senses and give Howard his "next time" in the War Machine armor.

But even if they weren't going to put Howard in the sequel, it's not like I'm all that upset that Cheadle is taking his place. Personally, I think Cheadle is the better actor and I can see him really playing well into that "I'm just screwing with you" vibe that RDJ seems to like to put across in his performances. Kind of like in the Ocean's 11 movies. I have complete confidence in his performance.

I guess it just would have been nice to have a little consistency.

Gah... I start out talking about how I'm getting tired of discussing Iron Man all the time and look where we end up. Oh, well. That does it for me today. Gearing up for Beggar's Night tomorrow. We're having the whole family over for chili and taking Henry out to a few houses on the block for free candy. This is his first time. His costume? Henry's going as a cow. What can I say? The kid is 21 months old. He's all about animals right now.

Next year? IRON MAN!!!

Have a great Wednesday!

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SUGAR COMES FIRST

by Tom on October 27th, 2008
4 votes, average: 9.25 out of 10
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SUGAR COMES FIRST

RockNRollaI wanted to say thank to the people who sent me e-mails last week in response to my call for feedback. I had asked people for their thoughts on either continuing the Tom-tries-to-get-Robert-Downey-Jr.-an-Oscar-nomination storyline or if I should move on to greener pastures and focus on the upcoming Halloween holiday or Kevin Smith's new film, Zach and Miri Make A Porno.

The cross-section of feedback was interesting. It was pretty much split even between people who wanted to see what direction the RDJ storyline would go versus people that wanted Halloween hijinks. Most telling, however, was the number of people thanking me for not doing a Saw V strip. I guess I'm not the only person who thinks the franchise is suffering from overexposure. Then again, it looks like we're in the minority. Saw V pulled in over $30 million this weekend.

What Saw V didn't do was dominate the box office like I predicted last week. I had totally forgotten about High School Musical 3 coming out last week. But then, why would I remember it? I'm not a 15 year-old girl.

At any rate, you can see that I'm moving toward some Halloween goodness this week, so stay tuned for more. I think the expectation is that Tom is going to run around in his Iron Man gear for the third time this year. Don't count on it. Some of the other feedback I received was "Enough with the Iron Man stuff, already!" I don't exactly plan on avoiding it, but you'll have to hang around to see what twist I put on it.

That's it for today. Be sure to tune in to The Triple Feature podcast live tonight at 9:00 PM CST at TalkShoe.com. No doubt we'll be talking about Saw V, perhaps Guy Ritchie's film RockNRolla and more. Be there with your questions and if you have the capacity to call in, we might put you on the air with us!

Talk to you then!

 

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TRIALS OF THE CHOCOLATE JUNKIE

by Tom on April 21st, 2003
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TRIALS OF THE CHOCOLATE JUNKIE

For all you Donnie Darko fans out there, this one is for you!

I never really know what to make of Easter. I'm not a real relgious guy, so most of the meaning is lost on me. As the years go on, I can see Madison Avenue trying to turn it into "Christmas Jr." - what with all the candy and (sometimes presents) you get. I dunno. Feels wrong to me.

But I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth! Cami got me an Easter basket this year that included DVDs of Spirited Away and About A Boy, so I'm the wrong guy to ask.

Other than that, slow weekend. The only new release I wanted to see this week was A Mighty Wind, but it's not playing around here for miles. Lame. If one of our local art houses wasn't playing Ben Hur, we probably would have gotten it. Guess I'll have to hold tight for another week or to.

Enough of that crap. ONTO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS!

If you haven't heard by now, we are selling posters at Theater Hopper and TODAY is the FIRST DAY they go on sale.

If you're interested, skip on over to the posters page for all the details you will need to get your copy. Remember, there are only 100 of these and when they're gone, they're gone!

I also need to mention an addition to the situation. I am currently selling the posters for $5 a piece ($7 with shipping and handling), but that offer will end after one month. After 30 days, the cost will go up two dollars. So get on board now and take advantage of this great deal!

If you have any questions or concerns, as always, e-mail me.

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