Posts Tagged ‘Daredevil’

5 items.

JUST DUCKY

by Tom on February 19, 2003 at 12:00 am
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
(5 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)
Nick, Daredevil, Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell, duck, Tourette's Syndrom, petting zoo, AFLAC

I'm sticking my neck out on today's strip. If you're not familiar with the annoying ad campaign for AFLAC, you're S.O.L.

For those not in the loop, the ads feature a duck voiced by Gilbert Godfried is attempting to extol the virtues of supplement insurance to clueless humans by screaming the name of the company at full volume. Typically, these individuals are sitting on park benches, oblivious to the helpful tips of this thoughtful water foul. Instead, they dismiss his quacking like so much noise.

Anyway, it's a long way around for a joke, but I figured AFLAC = Affleck -- what's the difference? If all else fails, you've got a duck calling me a jackass. You don't see that everyday.

I went to see How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days with Cami last night. It was my penance for dragging her to see Daredevil. How this system works, I don't know. She was asleep during Daredevil for at least 30 minutes. Hey, I didn't fall asleep during Maid in Manhattan!

There was too much to make fun of! :)

But I digress. How to Lose A Guy was actually much better than I expected. A lot of my other guy friends were dragged kicking and screaming and came back reporting it wasn't that bad. I thought they were full of it. Now I am a member of their chorus.

The film is loaded with standard romantic-comedy cliches, but you don't really mind because the execution isn't insulting to the audience. Clearly it presents a stylized version of New York where things are glossy and fabulous and there are about 3 black people in the entire city, but what are you going to do?

Dialogue is really the strong point in this movie. All of the characters are intelligent and well-spoken. Sliver-tongued, they string together sentences confidently and sincerely. It's a refreshing twist on some of the leaden garbage that passes for prose these days.

Watching How to Lose A Guy reminded me of how good an actress Kate Hudson really is. Remarkable for her age, she's already surpassed her mother, Goldie Hawn, in terms of pure, radiating talent. I gotta go back and watch Almost Famous for a second helping.

Matthew McConaughey wasn't half bad, either. He can't act his way out of a paper bag if things get too complicated, but when the writers get out of his way and allow him to work his charm, he is entertaining to watch.

I've finally decided to end the "What Would You Buy" survey. The results were about what I expected. The majority of you - over 1/3 of the 300 who replied said they would like to donate, but didn't have money. The next closest contender was a t-shirt with 17% of the vote.

I would like to make t-shirts, but I'm kind of on the fence about it. I have a lot of concerns about quality. Sure, I could slap a logo on a t-shirt sold from CafePress, but we all know those shirts are second-rate crap and will start fading after three washes,

Brunetto Shirts, on the other hand, are high quality silk screened tees that will stand the test of time. The down side, is that I need 40 pre-orders from you guys before I can put in my work order to Brunetto.

Unless there are people flooding my inbox clamoring for them, I think for now, I'm going to shelf the idea of doing any merchandising. I may do some stickers down the road. Wallpaper sounds nice. I just need something equivalent to dipping my toe in the water. Something where I don't have to put a bunch of money up front.

In the meantime, the poll has changed to "Which Film Will Win Best Picture?" It's pretty self explanatory.

Last thing I'll mention: Checking my referral logs through my counter, I noticed I was given a brief mention over at Briworld. I don't know how many people are tuned in to this web comic, but it's high time more people know about it.

I love the art style of the characters and if I could get the crew of Theater Hopper to look more like them, I would. Check out Briworld. It's a real treat.

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BUT WHAT ABOUT J-LO?

by Tom on February 14, 2003 at 12:00 am
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(11 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
Daredevil, Elektra, dress up, costume, Valentine's Day, love, thin ice, Ben Affleck, stabbed

First things first. Yes, today's strip is a Valentine to my lovely wife Cami. I was going to go into a big, detailed explanation about how I decided to do this for her, but I think it stands on it's own two legs.

If that doesn't cut the mustard for you, let's just say that I really like making a public spectacle out of myself. Sometimes it can come out in very bad ways that may embarrass Cami (she knows what I'm talking about). But in other ways, it is a powerful tool I can use to let the whole world know how much I love and appreciate her.

I have a web site. I have an audience. I followed my heart to the ultimate conclusion. I love you, Cami. Happy Valentine's Day.

That being said, my Valentine's Day got off to an excellent start Thursday night while I was preparing today's strip. Checking the site statistics on a whim, I decided to look at my referral logs. Lo should my eyes damn near pop out of my head to discover that I had been linked from the main page of NEWS ASKEW!!!

For those of you not in the loop, News Askew is the web site for all things relating to Kevin Smith. Yes, that Kevin Smith. The writer/director of such favorites as Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy.

It's a great place to go to get the inside scoop on all the projects he's working on as well as have a little fun with the View Askew cannon of films. It's a great community and I've been trolling around the site for years. That, and his new site Movie Poop Shoot are two stops on my daily web rounds. I'm totally bugging out just being recognized because I'm a big fan of Kevin's. Just getting the link is like a brush with greatness!

So to all of the new readers coming in from News Askew, WELCOME! Please feel free to take a look around. You may need to start here to get a handle on the current story line and figure out why Ben Affleck is even hanging around in the first place.

If you like, you can start from the beginning and work yourself up to the present day. Ours is a fairly green operation. We've only 87 strips under our belt since opening in August of 2002. But hopefully Theater Hopper will be a place you check in on from time to time. If you can manage to swing by every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when we post new strips, that would be even better!

For any Ben Affleck fans out there, I hope you know that the last two strips where he is featured have all been in good fun. Of course, having him make a pass at one of my main characters probably doesn't do much to dilute the "Ben's gay!" perception among those who like to slag our resident Daredevil. But what are you going to do with a guy who played a character named Chesty Smith in School Ties? If that isn't a gay porn name straight out of 1976, then I don't know what is! :)

To all of my regular readers, I hope you have enjoyed the week of strips I've put together for you. I had a lot of fun doing them.

This whole week has been a real trip. Even before getting this link from News Askew, I was getting lots of positive feedback which is something I don't get that often. Hell, I hardly get any feedback! So when I get an e-mail from one of you out there is a great validation. To know that you took time out of your day to pass along a compliment is very humbling to me. I want you to know I print off every one of those suckers. So then I can show them to my kids one day and say, "See?! Daddy WAS a success back in his day!"

Of course, they'll be, like really young and won't know the difference. But still...

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Here's hoping you have someone warm to share it with.

And because I'm in such a lovey-dovey mood, I've posted a new review written by my friend Nick. It covered How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. A very fitting romantic film for the occasion.

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BUT HE WAS THE BOMB IN PHANTOMS, YO

by Tom on February 13, 2003 at 12:00 am
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
(13 votes, average: 8.23 out of 10)
Daredevil, hospital, publicity, punch, Reindeer Games, first appearance

I'm going to keep today's blog short because I just spent the last 6 hours drawing and inking today's and Friday's strip. I'll be away from home tonight, so I won't have time to do Friday's strip in the evening. I had to put it together Wednesday night. I think you'll like it, though. I've made it extra-mushy for Valentine's Day.

Awwww...

Hopefully, you are all enjoying this full week of strips. It's been a lot of fun putting them together, but I'm glad my regular shift is only three days out of the week. I think I would be really stuck for ideas if I had to come up with something every day. In this instance, I just got lucky with a story line I could stretch out. You gotta strike while the iron is hot!

I've been getting some good feedback lately, which is nice. I want to let everyone know that I really appreciate your kind words and support and feel free to e-mail me any time you like. I try to respond to each e-mail I get. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) Theater Hopper's popularity is at a sustained level right now and I can still do that.

A lot of you have been writing in with your reactions to the Oscar nominations, which I think is great. I'm always down for listening to a differenet set of opinions or being clued in on a movie I've yet to see. It's times like these that I wish we had a forum to discuss things more in depth. There's only so much ground I can cover in a blog.

That being said, I'm going to wrap it up. Jared is back on the scene, so I'm gonna let him do his thing. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the excellent Valentine's Day conclusion of the Daredevil storyline. And, just because I love you, expect to see a new review from Nick posted soon!

Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy!

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NOT PROPS

by Tom on February 10, 2003 at 12:00 am
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
(22 votes, average: 8.41 out of 10)
dress up, costume, Elektra, Daredevil, stabbed, Valentine's Day

Sometimes when I'm coming up with content for the strip, things are pretty lean. Early winter is a notoriously slow time for movies because studios have already dropped their "quality pictures" (re: Oscar bait) back in December. Subsequently, it makes it difficult to come up with things to make fun of.

This week is different. It's like a damn buffet of options. First, there is the pending release of Daredevil this Friday - Valentine's Day. And I can think of NO other movie to take your sweetheart to.

Secondly, Oscar nominations are going to be announced on Tuesday. This fits in perfectly to the strip schedule, because I'm always working on stuff about 24 hours in advance.

Third, My Big Fat Greek Wedding comes out on DVD Tuesday. I think my stance on this steaming pile has been well documented, so I won't go into it here. But that being said, I think we can all identify the comedic potential.

But when it was all said and done, I decided to make this week all about Daredevil. Be sure to check back on Wednesday and Friday. I've got continuity on deck and everything!

Daredevil is a movie that has swung left to right in terms of my level of excitement. When it was first announced, I kind of rolled my eyes because it was obvious that they were trying to capitalize on the success of Spider Man. Add to that, not many people know much about the character or his gothic style. Would it even translate to film?

Then, of course, learning that Mr. Chin -- Ben Affleck -- would be playing the title role sent me into a tizzy. I felt certain that I wasn't going to believe him as the character. He's a bloated jock to me. Too busy coming up with lines to get into a girl's pants than being tortured and fighting crime. If you've seen him as the angsty yuppie in Changing Lanes, that's about what I think he's like all the time.

Some of the other casting choices were interesting as well. Jennifer Garner as Elektra? Not Greek, nor a proven actress. Michael Clark Duncan as The Kingpin? Uh, wasn't the Kingpin white? All they got here is the bald head and a penchant for fancy suits. Colin Farrell as Bullseye? Interesting actor. Definite "bad boy" chops. But what's up with that scar on his forehead and the iridescent, blue snake-skin trench coat? What were they thinking?

But as time goes by, I'm warming up to the cast and am genuinely excited about seeing the movie.

Lately, I've been watching a lot of Alais on ABC. Seeing Jennifer Garner in action has convinced me there really is no other woman "action hero" who could handle what's required of Elektra's ninja/assassin history.

Michael Clarke Duncan is making more sense, too. If anything, remember that this guy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor once. Damn shame he was involved in The Scorpion King, but I've also read that the studio went with him after several white wrestlers gave poor screen tests. When it comes down to it, I'd rather have a guy who can act.

I'm beginning to step around the poor costume design on Bullseye because I've heard Colin Farrell practically steals the film with his performance. There's really a sick glee in his interpretation of the character, which I think will be fun to watch.

And finally, ole Benny-boy. Well, I take that back, I still can't see this chuckle head as DD.

One last thing I'll mention. If you'd like to test the awesomeness of your girlfriend of wife, draw a picture of them in a leather catsuit and see how they react. If they tell you "My character needs more cleavage." like Cami did when I showed her today's strip, then you'll know exactly how awesome she is.

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YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M GEEKY

by Tom on January 27, 2003 at 12:00 am
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(7 votes, average: 7.43 out of 10)
Super Bowl, football, commercials, trailers, Hulk, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Daredevil, testosterone

For the record, I am painted green in today's strip because I want to be more like The Hulk.

And yes, I am wearing pants.

I didn't get an opportunity to watch this, the first-ever all-pirate Super Bowl mostly because I have been spending the weekend installing laminate flooring in my kitchen. Most of my spare time has been spent recuperating.

But consider yourself lucky that you got a strip today. I could have very easily sawed off a thumb. I was dealing with circular saws, compound miter saws, even tiny handsaws for three days straight.

This basically makes Cami's one-liner in the last panel perfectly moot in the real world. I operated power tools, dammit! POWER TOOOOOOOLS!

All things the same, I did get to see the trailers in question... just not during the Super Bowl. All of them I caught on line long before Sunday.

I saw the first few Hulk teaser trailers a while ago and think they're very well done. The don't show much of ol' Jade Jaws, and that's good. The people involved in this movie know half of the draw is seeing how they put a 8 foot tall green behemoth on the screen.

I'm still pretty amazed that Ang Lee is directing this thing. I mean, this is the same guy who directed Sense and Sensibility. It doesn't add up.

The latest Daredevil trailer makes the movie look really good, but I'm still afraid Ben Affleck is gonna screw it up. He wouldn't have been my first choice to play The Man Without Fear. Hell, Matt Damon would be better! But, like I sucker, I go see it.

Terminator 3 looks lamest of the bunch. For some reason, this seems like Ah-nold's last hurrah as an action hero. I don't seem him making any more pictures like this.

The plot of Rise of the Machines looks predictably lame. To up the ante, there is an even MORE advanced Terminator coming after John Conner - the T-X. And, of course, it's a woman. So what do they send back in time to protect him? Another T-800 which, by this point, must be shockingly behind the curve-technology wise. And why are the outsides of these things getting more wrinkled and leathery? Hmmm...

Anyway, that's it for current stuff. Here's some gristle to chew on...

Last Friday's strip got a very strong response. Apparently a lot of you feel just as strongly about Jerry Bruckheimer as I do. But I'm beginning to think it's less and less the fault of producers like him, but instead, the sweeping gullibility of the American public. Did anyone else see that Darkness Falls was #1 at the box office this weekend? Expect some commentary on that this Wednesday.

Secondly, last Friday I made mention of an e-mail I received from "a certain Carmike Cinema employee" who told me how Kangaroo Jack sold out two showings in his theater. I was mistaken when I thought he wished to remain nameless. That was not the case.

So, credit where credit is due, Adam Douglas is the one who provided me with that heart-stopping statistic. Sorry, Adam.

I guess you could say I'm just trying to put right what once went wrong. Kind of like Dr. Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap...

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