Posts Tagged ‘fight’
11 items.
Nov26
I know there probably won’t be as many people visiting the site today since it’s the day after a holiday. But if you managed to make it to the site today for a dose of funny, I applaud your for your vigilance.
For those of you who are part of our international audience, it occurred to me that you might not be familiar with what “Black Friday” is. Essentially it’s the start of the Christmas buying season in America. It’s the day where retailers have insane sales on all their merchandise and open their stores at five in the morning to try and get a jump on their competitors. Suburban housewives become deal-seeking warriors who claw and scratch for savings. That’s why the comic is funny for me. Heading out into a shopping center on Black Friday kind of *IS* like preparing for war.
Incidentally there are a bunch of movies already with the title Black Friday. But the only one on the IMDB that I thought was worth mentioning was this one starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi from 1940. It’s pretty much a horror story about bad science gone wrong when Karloff implants part of a dead gangster’s brain into a friend who is dying. The result are Jeckll and Hyde mood swings and the half million dollars the gangster has squirreled away. I haven’t seen this movie, but now I’m thinking maybe I should!
Don’t forget that shirts are back on sale. The new “Professional Movie Goer” shirt and hoodie, the “Truman in a Purse” baby doll and – in what looks to be a classic – the “Spoiler” shirt and hoodie which are being offered for a second time.
I know you also don’t want to forget our weekly community event we call The Friday Five that’s being hosted in The THorum. Participating is easy! Just sign up for a THorum account. We ask you five questions, you answer them! It’s a great way to introduce yourself to the community and learn something about the people that are already there! Check it out!
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May29
GUEST STRIP – BEEFY
May 29th, 2006 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(8 votes, average: 6.25 out of 10)
Once again my good friend Beefy comes through in a clutch? Is there anything this guy can’t do? First it’s awesome nerdcore rap (found only at Beefyness.com) and now it’s guest strips! I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. After all, he’s sent guest strips before. Don’t you think his art has gotten a lot better? I do!
It never really occured to me the Joe from Joe Loves Crappy Movies and I would get into a dramatic showdown, but I suppose, like Highlander, there can be only one. But one thing Highlander didn’t have going for it were the patient wives standing off to the side while their immortal warriors tussled in a giant cloud of smoke, throwing up the devil horns.
RAWK ON!
Thanks again to Beefy for the great strip. Remember that we’re doing a full week of guest strips. So if you missed the contribution of M.C. Man – the creator of The Adventures of Masked Cape Man – then his excellent comic is one click on the ‘back’ button away!
See you here tomorrow!
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In the life of a web comic, there is typically a time where an artist or writer will call on high to Gods that sit atop Mount Olympus in a futile attempt to gain their favor. Some of them fashion crude duplicates of their image in order to invoke their power. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail.
Yes, at some point in the career of many web comic artists, they will toss in an unsolicited Penny Arcade cameo.
Truthfully, with nearly 700 comics to my credit, I’m surprised it’s taken this long. But, y’know… ever since Tycho wrote that wonderful essay about fatherhood for the site a few months ago… him and I are like “this.”
You can’t see it, but I’ve crossed my fingers to represent closeness.
I suppose I can’t say that I’ve gone completely without referencing Penny Arcade in the past. I borrowed Div for a couple of strips where I was lampooning the trend of anthropomorphic appliances. At any rate, it’s all in good fun. If anyone takes exception to my characterization of Gabe and Tycho as violent hooligans, I don’t think they’ll mind if Monday’s Penny Arcade is any indication.
Speaking of Monday, I mentioned that Cami and I had an opportunity to see Reign Over Me this weekend. Kind of an odd choice for our first movie-going experience since Henry was born, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. Writer/director Mike Binder did a very good job of dissecting grief and the responsibilities of men in the modern age. He side-steps the whole 9/11 issue very carefully and doesn’t exploit the memory of that day in the least.
Adam Sandler is getting high praise for his work in this film and I think it’s deserved. He’s done a good job of picking dramatic roles that don’t announce “I’M DOING DRAMATIC ROLES NOW! TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!” like Jim Carrey has in the past.
That said, I think Don Cheadle steals the show with his performance. Cheadle has much less to hide behind in his portrayal of a man burdened by his responsibilities. In the movie, he ends up spending a lot of time with Sandler’s character trying to draw him out of his shell at the expense of those responsibilities. In one scene, his wife calls him out on his behavior and accuses him of coveting the freedom Sandler’s character has after losing his entire family in the 9/11 attacks. It’s a sick and twisted accusation and Cheadle’s character addresses it as such. But if you let the idea sink in, it’s kind of true.
In the hands of a less competent actor, Cheadle’s character could have been GROSSLY unlikable. But I think Cheadle deftly brings to the surface dark taboos about the conflict between the responsibility of a father and husband versus man’s almost innate need for freedom and independence. It adds a dimension to the movie that enriches it beyond “Adam Sandler wrestles with grief.”
At any rate, I go into my opinions of Reign Over Me with greater detail in this week’s Triple Feature broadcast. If you missed the show on Monday night, you missed a doozy. Not only did we talk about Reign Over Me, but we also talked about TMNT, rumors surrounding Netflix distributing through local libraries, the death of the traditional movie-going experience in the face of streaming movie downloads and more. We actually drew Scott Kurtz from PvP into the fray and he had some great observations about the movie-going experience. It was a real treat to have him participate in the show.
Man, I’m just name-checking the A-listers left and right today, aren’t I?
Download this week’s show and savor in it’s glory.
Another big reason you’ll want to download this week’s show is so you can get the first half of the two-part clue you’ll need to submit along with your full name, age and mailing address to participate in the Copying Beethoven DVD giveaway. I’m not going to tell you what the first half of the clue is here, but I will give you the second half for those of you participating.
The second half of the clue is “OUT.”
Again, you’ll need the whole clue to be in the running for the giveaway. Send the clue along with your information to theaterhopper@hotmail.com with the subject line “Beethoven” by NEXT MONDAY to be part of the raffle. Winners will be chosen at random!
We really want to get a lot of people to participate in this because the more people we have who put their name into the hat, the more likely we’ll be able to do bigger and better promotions like this in the future!
Remember that Copying Beethoven starring Ed Harris comes out on DVD next Tuesday, April 3 and thanks again to 20th Century Fox for helping us set this up!
That’ll do it for me. I hope everyone has a great Wednesday. I’ll see you here again on Friday!
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I don’t care how many times I pull the joke out of storage, I will never grow tired of seeing Tom wearing the Spider-Man mask along with his street clothes. He can afford the mask, just not the body suit. It’s very innocent and charming to me. Plus, a lot of fun to draw.
Are you guys getting as hyped up as I am about Spider-Man 3? Man, I hope it lives up to the hype. This was actually something Gordon, Joe and I talked about on this week’s Triple Feature talkcast. If perhaps we’ve been waiting and thinking and salivating over Spider-Man 3 for so long, it’s lost some of it’s verve?
I haven’t seen a lot of television commercials for Spider-Man 3, which I suppose is good. Either that, or I’m just not watching the networks that run the bulk of the advertising. Oh, no! Am I culturally irrelevant?
For me, however, a lot of air was let out of my tires as soon as the marketing blitz took shape for the movie. I remember being in the toy aisle at Target a few weeks ago (looking for playthings for Henry, I swear!) when I came across the full line of Spider-Man 3 action figures.
The first thing I noticed is that they looked like ass. The SECOND thing I noticed was the Venom action figure. Production had been keeping things under wraps for so long and they were doing such a good job about it, seeing Venom on screen was probably 50% of my motivation to see the movie (even if he only gets 10% of screen time).
But then there I was, standing face to contorted plastic face with the tiny avatar of fictionalized evil and I thought to myself, “Hmph. Okay, so that’s what he looks like. Mystery solved.” I walked away almost defeated by my own apathy.
I’m turning 30 this year and I won’t pretend for a minute that it’s more than likely the window is closing in regards to my interest in such things. But I can’t help but imagine what delivering a movie like this would have been like in the days before the internet. The first Spider-Man kind of took people by surprise. X-Men was the first of the “nu comic book” movies to land in theaters and people were somewhat impressed. But I don’t remember people expecting great things from the first Spider-Man movie. When it arrived post 9/11 during a period where we REALLY needed heroes, people were over the moon about it. Since then, it seems like we’re all on the same page in terms of our Spider-Man love.
But is third time NOT the charm? You get the vague sense that with three villains in the mix and all the rumors about Raimi and the principle cast not coming back for a fourth movie that they’re really going for broke and adding everything imaginable. That worries me. Because I can’t think of a single blockbuster that was best served by a “What the hell – throw that in, too” mentality. Look at the latter Batman flicks or even the most recent King Kong. Sometimes, to have a great popcorn flick, you gotta show a little restraint.
Of course I’ll see Spider-Man 3 this weekend and of course I will love it. All the nit picking at this stage is just a nervous fanboy tic. But if the rumors are true and Raimi and the cast really decide to hang it up after this, I think I’ll be okay with that.
As mentioned above, Gordon, Joe and I completed another successful broadcast of The Triple Feature talkcast on Monday. I strongly encourage you to download it along with all of our other episodes. They’re a lot of fun and hopefully it will motivate you to participate in them as they occur live.
Since most of the free world will be seeing Spider-Man 3 this weekend and since that’s what we plan to talk about for the full hour this coming Monday, it’ll be a great opportunity for you to check out the show and call in live. We want to get your thoughts and reactions in real time. So set aside some time on your calendar, Monday, May 7 at 9:00 PM CST.
Another thing we had hoped would draw in more listeners are our contests and I announced two giveaways on Monday – Dreamgirls and Diggers (which both came out on DVD yesterday and – incidentally, was giving a glowing review on Ebert & Ropert this weekend). You need to download and listen to Monday’s show for the first half of the clue for these giveaways. I’m hear now to give the second half.
For Dreamgirls, the second half of the clue is “HIVE”
For Diggers, the second half of the clue is “BAKE”
If you’ve participated in a few of these, you know the drill. Send in the complete clue along with your name, age and mailing address to theaterhopper@hotmail.com. And for the sake of organization, please send in your entries in two separate e-mails. If you submit both clues in one e-mail, I have to throw it out because I won’t be able to keep them straight.
Sound good? Good! Fire away!
Oh, and by the way, I received in the mail my giveaway copies of Copying Beethoven, Deja Vu and The Queen and the winners have been chosen and mailed out. Don’t worry, I’m not going to post your name if you won. I just wanted to let everyone know that those contests are now off the table.
Come back a little later in the day. I have some news regarding that freelance movie review job I was shooting for with The Des Moines Register that I talked about about a month ago.
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So this marks the end of the week-long story sprung from The Invasion of The Body Snatchers remake – The Invasion. I hope you liked it. Any opportunity I can take to throw in Victor acting weird, I’ll take.
Not much new in theaters this weekend to get excited about. I guess since all the kids are going back to school, it’s going to be slim pickin’s until fall. That’s when all of the sensitive indie movies I love so much start cropping up.
Early box office projections are pitting War against The Nanny Diaries for the top spot this weekend. My money is on War (and I have a comic about that coming up on Monday!) Despite the fact that The Nanny Diaries has a strong cast, to me it looks like a warmed over reinterpretation of Raising Helen – and no, that’s not a compliment.
Plus, I think you have to fess up to the fact that Scarlett Johansson is not a big enough star to open movies on the strength of her name alone. I think she’s a serviceable actress and the 22 movies to her credit in her short time as an actress are impressive. But no one sees a movie she’s in strictly for her performances. She’s not Sandra Bullock, or whatever.
And no, that’s not a compliment.
This weekend looks like Cami and I will finally get around to seeing Superbad, which I’ve been looking forward to ever since I watched the red band trailer online a few months ago. If the red band trailer is any indication, the commercials and TV spots aren’t doing the movie justice.
As excited as I was to see the movie, there’s certainly been a lot of hype surrounding it. So I was pleased somewhat when I was talking to friends this week about it. They love the film, but couldn’t get into specifics. That’s a good sign. It means the majority of the movie is so funny, they’re not going to be able to pick their favorite lines until it comes out on DVD.
Of course, that doesn’t stop people from trying. I’ve already seen five or six different web sites peddling their own McLovin t-shirt designs. Everyone has appeared to latch onto that as a comedic touch point for the film.
All the same, I’m expecting to have a good time.
Real quick – I made a change in the store over the weekend where all items are now $15 and I am now providing discounts on shipping for bundled purchases. Save 50% on shipping on any two purchase, 65% off on any three purchase or 75% off on any four purchases. This system was a lot easier than the bundling system I had previously installed. Plus, since I’m planning on adding more t-shirt designs in the future, it’ll be easier to maintain.
I’ve also recently talked to the 3rd party vendor that wrote the code for the shopping cart I use for my site and they’re coming out with a discount code option in the next few weeks. So that means if you input a special code at checkout, you can save extra money. I plan on running promotions every so often to people who sign up to the mailing list. So if you want to be ready when that comes around, sign up now.
Since Wizard World Chicago, I’ve gotten the itch to make some changes to the site. I’m meeting with a web design company here in Des Moines on Monday for a consultation on some more air-tight features for the site. Hopefully I can bring back the comments section soon plus do a better job of integrating the Top 50 voting, social bookmarking, “share this comic with a friend” and so on.
Something that’s been bugging me a lot lately are the banner ads. I’m sure they’re no favorite of yours, either. I’d like to get rid of them, but frankly, I’ve come to rely on them. The revenue I make with them helps cover hosting fees as well as afford me the opportunity to do things like t-shirts, books and make convention appearances. All of this feeds into the site and either helps maintain it or helps it grow.
If you look at any of the big guys, they have advertising to help support them. So, in my instance, I don’t think ads will be going away any time soon. I just need to find a better way to make them harmonious with the site.
What is your opinion about advertising? Do you find the ads I’m running now intrusive? Excessive? How would you feel if they were removed and replaced with in-context text advertisements? Links that appear over key phrases in the blog copy that lead you somewhere off site? I have a strong lead on the latter option and I’m thinking it’s a viable solution moving forward.
This is an instance where the comments field would come in really handy for some quick and dirty feedback. But as such, you’ll have to e-mail me with your thoughts. I’m soliciting your feedback. If you have strong opinions either way, I would like to hear from you!
That’s about it for me. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!
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This is the part of the story we like to call “building the drama.” I was half-way through inking it when I realized, “Hey, this comic has no punchline!”
That’s okay. Never every comic has to be fortified with your daily allowance of 10 comedy nutrients. Certainly not when compared to Friday’s comic – which was more of a visual gag than anything else.
At this point, I just want to cement the idea in your head’s that Jimmy was kind of a tool in his youth and the best way to do that is show you and not tell you.
I’m going to explore that idea a little more on Wednesday, specifically as it pertains to Jimmy’s relationship(s) with the opposite sex.
Much to my chagrin, I didn’t have an opportunity to see ANY of the myriad of new films released this week and I harbor a secret shame.
Cami’s folks offered to watch Henry Friday night so she and I could see He’s Just Not That Into You, but we only got as far as dinner before Cami wasn’t feeling well and we had to go home. We diluted ourselves into thinking maybe we could catch the late showing. But we both ended up crashing on the couch before 9:00 PM before waking up later, Rip Van Winkle style, and cursing our feeble bodies for being old and run down.
After that, I found it difficut to get motivated to see anything else. Cami had a social function Saturday night, so I was holding down the fort at home. She came back around 10:00 and I had about 15 minutes before Push started at the theater down the street. I couldn’t get myself up and out the door.
Henry took a nap on Sunday afternoon and Cami suggested I see Coraline. But it was 58 degrees outside and I decided to take the opportunity to sweep out a winter’s worth of sand and silt from the garage.
You know that scene in Old School where the college kids are telling Will Ferrell’s character to chug a beer, but he tries to worm out of it with the Home Depot / Bed, Bath & Beyond / “nice little Saturday” excuse? I’m starting to feel that way, but with movies.
If you want to listen to a couple of guys who KNOW what they’re talking about reflect on this week’s new releases while I moderate, be sure to listen to The Triple Feature this evening at 9PM CST over at TalkShoe.com. I’m not sure what we’ll be talking about specifically (since I’m such a flake). But, if nothing else, Joe can share with us his experience at the New York City Comic Con this weekend!
If you have a question for the show, we’ve gotten into the habit of soliciting those through e-mail and answering them at the top of the show. So send all of your movie-related questions to group@thetriplefeature.com. We WILL answer them!
Or, you can listen live and ask your question in real-time. If you want, you can call-in and ask it in person! So many options!
That’s all for me this morning. I’ll catch up with you guys soon. Got a comment about today’s strip? Leave it below and I chat you up!
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This week has been a weird amalgam for me. I haven’t quite shed the trappings of a story line, but have succeeded in omitting most of the dialogue. It’s been a fun little exercise in writing visual gags.
Truthfully, after Monday’s comic, I just went where my imagination led me and I like how things turned out. I like this comic a lot for the pacing, the action and the overuse of blue – which hardly seems to appear in Theater Hopper, now that I think about it.
I probably could have been making more jokes about Watchmen, but I was more entertained by the idea of people having a fight using spray paint instead.
Speaking of Watchmen – and I know I said I was all Watchmen’d out – have you guys seen this? It’s a letter from Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter begging people to see Watchmen in the theater a second time this weekend.
Long story short, it’s basically a call-to-arms of the geek nation. Hayter implores us to see Watchmen a second time not only because “everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week” but because if you don’t, you aren’t supporting “movies that have a brain, or balls.” Begs Hayter, “if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.”
Gee, I had no idea that the fate of the comic book movie as a genre hinged entirely on Watchmen. Ugh.
Hayter discloses that he doesn’t see any extra money from Watchmen doing extra business. So, taking the cynical view, one has to assume that he’s trying to save face or keep his name from being too closely associated with Watchmen’s potential failure.
Hayter says that he makes his plea on behalf of “people who love smart, dark entertainment, on a grand, operatic scale.” But let’s be blunt. Watchmen is nearly dead on it’s feet. It underperformed in it’s opening weekend against NO competition. Box office analysts were expecting it to take in $70 million last week and instead it limped across the finish line with $56 million. Divisive reviews and bad word of mouth caught up to it by Saturday night and now, faced with a potential 50% drop off (as most second week movies encounter), Watchmen is in danger of being unable to match it’s $150 million production budget in domestic box office. When you factor in the additional marketing and merchandising tied into this movie, a lot of people stand to lose a lot of money.
I’m not saying Watchmen won’t make it’s money back eventually. But compared to the juggernauts of ’08 – Iron Man ($98 million opening weekend) and The Dark Knight ($158 million opening weekend) – it’ll look like the red-headed stepchild of super hero movies if it doesn’t pick up the pace.
Watchmen has been labeled “the greatest comic book of all time.” If it can’t make money, what does that say about the quality of the film or – in Hayter’s assertion – comic book fans, in general.
When you think about it, it’s kind of insulting to put the success or failure on the backs of comic book fans. Hayter claims that if Watchmen isn’t successful in it’s second week, you’ll never see such an uncompromising, harsh and gritty vision of super hero antics on screen again. But my assertion is that his plea just put a big, fat target on the back of comic book movies but assigning more importance to the adaptation of Watchmen than it deserves. Now there is a greater likelihood that people will be looking more closely than they would have for a movie that did $56 million on it’s opening weekend. Instead of studios saying “Well, it underperformed, it must not be very good.” Now they’ll look at Hayter’s plea, see Watchmen tank after the second week and say “Well, it was the comic book nerds’ fault. They didn’t come out to support this movie.
Incidentally, did Hayter miss the memo about The Dark Knight’s $1 BILLION dollar world wide gross?
Granted, people are a little more familiar with Batman than they are with Rorschach, but Nolan’s version of The Caped Crusader wasn’t exactly piffle. It dealt with some pretty lofty issues, too. The duality of man, the nature of good and evil… high test stuff. It wasn’t (for lack of a better comparison) Batman & Robin or Superman III. And it was also JUST AS LONG as Watchmen, so do cry to me about there being less opportunity to show the film and claiming that impacts box office.
If people want to see the movie, they’ll see it. But begging comic book fans to see it a second time out of some misplaced sense of duty? That’s just desperate and insulting. Bad form, Mr. Hayter.
Truth be told, I might see Watchmen a second time. But only if I can catch it in IMAX. Maybe if they can get the directors cut into theaters – the 5 hour version promises a more in-depth analysis of the characters- I’d see it. Otherwise, I’ll wait for it on DVD when it’s loaded down with extras and packaged with the animated Tales of The Black Freighter (because you know that’s coming.)
But I’m not going to see the Watchmen a second time as-is. Because, frankly, I didn’t think the theatrical cut was all that good.
I’m a card-carrying nerd. Will be for life. But don’t exploit me for your short term gain. I’ll stand up for a movie that I think deserves it. I’ll stand up for quality. But standing up for Watchmen at this point would not be a defense of “uncompromising vision.” It would be a permission slip for directors with more style than substance to run roughshod over future properties and ultimately short change the genre. Sorry, I don’t want to see a version of Y: The Last Man with slow-motion explosions and awkwardly staged sex scenes. I’ll stand up for quality.
That’s my two cents. I’m sure some of you will disagree. That’s what the comments section is for. Leave your thoughts below. Does anyone plan to see Watchmen a second time this weekend? Did Hayter’s plea have anything to do with your decision? Let us know.
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For the record, I have to state that I do not PERSONALLY think Orson Welles is a failure. But in order to create conflict and move the plot forward, I have to put comic-Tom in an aggressive stance and have him say something inflammatory to provoke our guest – Brian Carroll from Instant Classic.
Comic-Tom is taking the short view on Welles’s career. One mired by depression, morbid obesity and borderline alcoholism. All of which are handily (sadly) represented in these infamous out-takes from a commercial Welles did for California Champagne company Paul Masson.
Of course, it doesn’t help that the most visible representation of Welles in the last 15 years comes from this parody piece from The Critic. Which, I have to admit, played a role in defining Welles as a individual for me several years before I studied him or even knew who he was…
This, of course, being a satirical twist on the also infamous audio outtakes from a radio spot Welles did for a company that sold frozen peas.
Think about this for a minute: The director of what is argued to be The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time arguing with some marketing guy about the copy he’s being paid to read in a frozen peas radio commercial. It’s just… bizarre.
Of course, these late-career foibles are easy to reach for when you’re trying to make an argument against Welles and his impact. Personally, I think he was a genius. If maybe a genius who got in his own way a little too often.
But put it in context. If you made Citizen Kane and followed up with The Magnificent Ambersons, I think that means you pretty much get a free pass career-wise for the rest of your life. Those were two big, important, stylistically rich films that everyone not only needs to see, but to own. It’s important film history – work the set the template for countless films that followed.
There’s a reason everyone recognizes “Rosebud,” even if they don’t know what it means.
I don’t know if I would have been compelled to add this disclaimer under normal circumstances. But I’ve already gotten a few people writing to ask “Why do you hate Orson Welles.” I don’t hate Orson Welles. I think he’s awesome. I’m just sacrificing my comic avatar for the sake of moving the plot forward.
I think I’m going to wrap up this story line on Wednesday, so be sure to come back for that. Afterwords, it’ll be back to making fun of what’s currently in theaters!
See you then. Have a great day, everyone!
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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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So as you may have heard, Shia LaBeouf got in a bar fight over the weekend. I read the headline in my Twitter feed on Sunday and immediately said “Well, there’s my comic for Monday!”
Yeah, yeah. I know it’s Tuesday. Sorry about that. I had the comic drawn and inked Sunady night, but my eyes were giving me trouble. They wouldn’t stop watering, so I had to call it early. Better late than never, right?
At any rate, LaBeouf got in a bar fight with a guy that was laughing at him and called him a gay slur. He got in the guy’s face, tried to take a swing at him and got popped in the lip. Cops showed up, cuffed both combatants but let them go when neither of them wanted to press charges.
I don’t particularly care to rake LaBeouf over the coals for the altercation. But it does stand as evidence toward every negative impression I have of the guy. The level of insecurity on this guy must be pretty high if he immediately feels the need to get in a fight because some random dude insults his masculinity. Also, I doubt LaBeouf would have been so tough if he weren’t being backup with with the dozen or so friends he brought with him that night.
I guess what I find most befuddling is why LaBeouf is hanging out in bars when he’s an admitted alcoholic?
Then again, that never stopped Charlie Sheen.
Oh, well. Just another night on the town in Young Hollywood, I suppose. He has his fun and I have mind.
Tell you what, Shia, just to make it up to you, how about I share the Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon Super Bowl spot with everyone. Looks like another signature Michael Bay explode-o-thon to me. I caught the commercial during the game on Sunday and really couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It doesn’t tease anything. It doesn’t tell you much at all. It basically tells you, “Hey, this movie exists.” Oh, and “BOOOOOOOM!”
But you can make your own decisions…
So, what did you think? Why not leave your comments below? Oh, and don’t forget to keep your eye on the Bonus Materials blog for more reactions to some of the Super Bowl trailers that came out this weekend. It should be a good time.
Not a fun as a bar fight, but still a good time.
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