Posts Tagged ‘coma’

3 items.

BIG TROUBLE

by Tom on February 3, 2010 at 12:00 am
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(21 votes, average: 6.86 out of 10)
Brian Carroll, Instant Classic, fight, aftermath, eye patch, ribs, John Cassavetes, coma, guilt

As much as it would have been fun to draw a protracted fight scene (not), it was time to stick a fork in this little story arc and move on.

My thanks to Brian Carroll for the inspiration to do these strips. Hopefully neither of us have damaged each other's reputations too much. ;)

I recognize the punchline to today's comic is kind of dark. But you'd be surprised by the thought process that led me to it. I spent serious time contemplating what was funnier - "coma ward," "burn ward" or "graveyard."

I certainly don't mean to make light of anyone who is in a coma, been horribly burned or is dead. But looking for something shocking and weighing my options, I decided to go with "coma ward" because, well, people come out of comas all the time, right?!

It might also fertile ground to harvest another story from later. Admit it - Who's a little curious to meet the guy that Jared put in a coma? Exactly. Y'see, you guys are just as twisted as me.

As you probably know, Oscar nominations were announced yesterday. The big news is that there are now 10 films in contention for the night's big prize - Best Picture.

I can't say I was particularly surprised by any of the nominations except for possibly District 9. Even though I thought it was a smart film with some original ideas, it kind of played like a sci-fi shoot em up by the end. I think of it more like a summer blockbuster than a Best Picture contender.

Naturally, I was pleased to see Up nominated. In my heart of hearts, I'd like to see it win. But I know it won't. Up is a good movie, but not Pixar's best. If they're going to take the award, I really want them to earn it. Wishing they would win is more of a reaction to Up being the first animated movie to be nominated in this category since Beauty and The Beast in 1992. But the nomination in itself is a reward and I hope the AMPAS continues to look at the field of animation when making their Best Picture nominations in the future.

What do I think will win? Avatar. It's not the best movie among the nominees. Not by a long shot. But I think Academy voters won't be able to resister rewarding director James Cameron for his technical achievement or his box office success. As of this writing, the movie has been number one at the American box office for nearly 2 months. It's made over $2 billion dollars in world-wide box office. These are numbers too big to ignore. As much as some people idealistically think the Oscar's should be about artistic merit, it's also about business. James Cameron is now the man with the two largest grossing films of all time. The story of his success alone will secure a win for Avatar.

Interestingly enough, I heard yesterday that Avatar is only one of three films in Oscar history that has been nominated for Best Picture without being nominated in any of the writing or acting categories. Some food for thought.

As for the other nominations? Well, I'll save some of my predictions for later.

In the meantime, if you'd like to download an Oscar ballot you can use to make your OWN predictions - and then compare them to the actual winners on March 7 - you can download it here.

What do you guys think about widening the field of Best Picture nominees to 10? Do you think all of the Best Picture nominees are deserving or are some just filler? What nominations surprised you the most? Do you think there is an opportunity for an upset in any of the categories? Share your thoughts and reactions below!

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GOING UNDER

by Tom on January 4, 2010 at 12:00 am
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(39 votes, average: 8.38 out of 10)
coma, hospital, ice, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Iron Man 2

Hey, guys. Today's blog will be short as I was up extremely late putting the finishing touches on today's comic. You'd think I would have taken the month off to build up a buffer or strategize how I was going to produce the comic while taking care of a new baby. But ohhhhhh no. I'm flying by the seat of my pants, as usual.

What's important is that I'm back, baby!

I thought it would be kind of fun to address my hiatus in the comic with a short story arc. And, as in most soap operas, a coma was an easy out.

I really thought about doing a comic a couple weeks ago when the Iron Man 2 trailer hit the web. It didn't seem fair that I was away from the site while that was happening. So this is a fun opportunity to revisit it.

If you haven't seen the trailer yet, by the way, here it is.

...and, really, I'm only adding it because - like I said - today's blog post will be extremely short.

HEY! Something that I wanted to mention that should excite you! Tonight we're recording a new episode of The Triple Feature - our first since November 30. We have a lot of movies to catch up on and also a VERY. IMPORTANT. ANNOUNCEMENT.

So, if you want to know what's going on before everyone else, be sure to listen to The Triple Feature LIVE tonight at 9:00 PM CST.

Now, I must scurry off to bed. But please take this opportunity to discuss the Iron Man 2 trailer. I know it's probably been examined to death elsewhere, but I was bummed that I didn't have a chance to have this conversation with you. So let's have it now!

Leave your comments below!

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FOR THE ARTICLES

by Tom on March 16, 2009 at 12:00 am
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(10 votes, average: 6.90 out of 10)
Miss March, Playboy, Playmate, coma, research

When I told Cami I was doing a comic about Miss March, she had no idea what I was talking about. I think this teaches us an important lesson about marketing. Whereas I seemed to encounter a commercial for this film every four seconds on MTV and G4, it's evident that the studio was not doing much by way of advertising on HGTV or TLC.

Just an observation.

Then again, considering Miss March came in 10th this weekend, maybe they didn't advertise enough? I'm not even sure why I'm going out of my way to make a joke about it except I couldn't think of anything funny to go along with Race to Witch Mountain.

This has nothing to do with the movie, but writing a joke about Playboy got me thinking about the first time I encountered the magazine. I was 8 years-old and was over at a friend's house. He broke out a few copies that belonged to his dad. It couldn't be a more cliche telling if you tried. Although I remember this kid was maybe a year older than me and, even at my own young age, I found it unfair that he had access to this kind of stuff when I didn't.

In hindsight, I kind of have to wonder what kind of Dad leaves nudie magazines somewhere easily accessible for his 7 year-old son to find them.

I never really got into Playboy. I remember thinking when I got to college that I would get a subscription. But I didn't have a credit card to get a subscription and I didn't have the nerve to go to a magazine shop and to one. So, instead, I read Maxim for a year. Then I realized that Maxim is basically Playboy for guys that don't have the nerve to buy Playboy and gave up entirely.

Maybe it didn't matter. I had a roommate in college who had a poster of a woman taking her top off and he positioned it opposite the door so that you were greeted with it every time you waked in the room. It was a real crowd-pleaser on Parent's Weekend. Nevermind asking Cami to come over. I didn't spend very much time in my room that year. Seriously - where do you even buy posters of topless women? Even Spencer's Gifts draws the line at underboob.

You may have read the news that Watchmen wasn't able to hold on to the top spot at the box office this weekend. In fact, it was down 67%, which is kind of shocking for an event film like this. Or at least for a film with so much hype surrounding it. Even Speed Racer only dropped of 53%.

What does this mean? Well, I think it means that negative word of mouth not only caught up with Watchmen, but it dragged it into an alley and suffocated it. I guess David Hayer's plea fell on deaf ears.

I don't take in particular glee in reporting Watchmen's failure. If anything, I'm disappointed that it might keep Warner Bros. from releasing a more thorough Director's Cut.

But I'd be lying if I didn't admit some satisfaction for keeping my expectations at a level where I wouldn't end up feeling hurt by an inferior product. For better or for worse, Zach Snyder delivered pretty much what I expected him to.

And that's all she wrote.

That's about all she wrote for me, too. Incidentally, if you visited the site over the weekend and left a comment on any of the blog posts, they were probably tied up in Feedback Purgatory as I was out of town over the weekend on a little mini vacation. I went with Cami and my sister-in-law to the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.

This is how we kick off Spring Break in the Brazelton family. Not with warm-weather destinations, cocktails or wet t-shirt contests. We keep it educational.

At any rate, if you left a comment over the weekend, they've all since been approved. Most of them revolved around Watchmen. So you can either go back into those blogs and continue the conversation or pick up where you left off here!

Talk to you soon!

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