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Posts Tagged ‘mid-life crisis’

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Aug01

THE INEVITABLE STRIP MINING OF A FRANCHISE

August 1st, 2003 | by Tom
  • Comics
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
(2 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
THE INEVITABLE STRIP MINING OF A FRANCHISE

Alright, it’s the first of the month, and I want to put this up front and center:

PLEASE VOTE FOR THEATER HOPPER AT TOP WEB COMICS!

Last month, we climbed all the way up to number 11 and we were within a handful of votes to the Top 10. Let’s see if this month we can actually do it. I know you have it in you. As a matter of fact, why don’t you click that link above you right now and take care of it before finishing the blog. That’s it. Thanks.

To help increase our odds of crakcing the Top 10, don’t forget to come back on Saturday and Sunday to vote again. I would really appreciate it. Thank you for your support.

Anyway, onto the movies!…

So I’m taking another dig at American Wedding and what of it? Frankly, I think it’s one big gimmick that they’ve made a wedding between two of the characters the “finale” (yeah, right) of the franchise. It’s like something a soap opera would do – a cheap grab for attention to boost ratings. Or, in this case, ticket sales.

I got a lot of interesting feedback from Wednesday’s strip. There were several supportive e-mails telling me I nailed what high school is really about. I even got an e-mail from a guy who went to school with American Pie screenwriter Adam Hertz. He said apparently a lot of stuff in the first movie was true (excluding the pie) and that he hated high school, too.

There were some people who took me to task for my insecurities – basically attacking a movie for rekindling grudges. That’s fine. I just make the point that if you ever break up with someone and you hear a song on the radio that reminds you of them, chances are you aren’t interested in listening to that song over and over again.

Probably the weirdest reactions I got regarded the comments I made about lacrosse. Several people told me that where they’re from, it’s a big deal. Even a few people said their high schools didn’t have a football team, but had a lacrosse team. I guess it must be an east coast thing…

Frankly, none of this has changed my opinions about high school or the franchise. I still hate both as much as ever.

The sad thing is, I’ll probably go to American Wedding tonight. Cami is really interested in seeing it, and we haven’t been to the movies in a while, so I’ll probably just bite the bullet and go. I’ve got my fingers crossed, hoping it’s somewhat tolerable. Even though it’s cheap, the wedding gimmick might play closer to home for me. THAT was an event in my personal life I happened to enjoy a great deal, and don’t mind reminiscing over. I’m older, the characters are older. Maybe this time things will be different…

└ Tags: American Pie, American Wedding, funeral, mid-life crisis, zombies
[ No Comments ]
Oct20

WHEN YOU FINALLY REALIZED YOU WERE OLD

October 20th, 2008 | by Tom
  • Comics
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
(14 votes, average: 8.21 out of 10)
WHEN YOU FINALLY REALIZED YOU WERE OLD

In today’s comic I’m using Jared as the conduit to express some of my own self-esteem issues. But before I get to that, let me backtrack a little.

A few weeks ago, I went to see Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Cami opted out citing that the movie would make her feel “old.” I thought the objection was kind of silly at the time. I enjoyed the film, but it left me with a certain melancholy. The movie does a really good job of transporting you back to a period in your life where all things seemed possible, but you had to dig deep to find the courage to make them happen. I also think it’s one of the handful of movies that understands the first few moments of infatuation turning into romance and treats it right.

Anyway, I walked out of the movie satisfied, but also a little sad that I’ve moved beyond that time in my life where spontaneity wasn’t something you planned for.

Watching Sex Drive this weekend has exacerbated things somewhat and made me realize for the first time in a long time that I’m just plain… old.

Now before anyone starts jumping to conclusions, I want to make it understood that I am very happy with the life I lead now. I’m really into my family, I’m enjoying my son and things are great. This isn’t a confession about me wishing I was 20 again, wanting to run around and party all night. I had that opportunity once and, frankly, it didn’t much interest me. Specifically, the whole horndog aspect of Sex Drive was never something I aspired to, either.

In concert with this, I am very much aware that these films promote a kind of hyper-actualized reality. So it’s not like I look at them and wish “Gee, I wish my life were more like that.”

Rather, what bums me out about these movies is that they remind me of being a certain age where I was able to operate in a vaguely consequence-free environment. I’m not talking about the lack of culpability. Just the room to test the waters, make some mistakes, learn from them and still recover.

The older you get, the more and more you feel is at stake. Your reputation, your livelihood, your relationships. Its like a game of Jenga. When you’re younger, you can pull out the wrong piece and the tower can come crumbling down. No big deal. Plenty of time to rebuild and start again. When you’re older, you become much more careful about the pieces you chose lest all of it come tumbling down.

A lot of this feeling racked into focus after Henry was born. That was certainly a clear signal that you can’t goof around anymore because your actions have consequences and you certainly don’t want to set a bad example for someone else. Have fun, sure. Keep it light, enjoy life. Just… don’t screw up – because it’s more than just you that you have to be worried about now.

I dunno. I feel like I’m only articulating this half as well as I should be. Some of this goes without say. Although, when you’re younger, it’s certain not advice that you want to hear. It just stings a little bit when you realize that every time you heard “Youth is wasted on the young” and you rolled your eyes, you were really short-changing that wisdom.

I’ll probably have more to say about Sex Drive tonight on The Triple Feature. So if you want to listen to me stick my foot into my mouth further, you can check it out as we record live at 9:00 PM CST.

Incidentally, I also saw W. this weekend and thought it was pretty good. Although I think Oliver Stone got sloppy in the second act and basically makes the audience sit through re-enactments of “Dubya’s Greatest Hits.” Josh Brolin knocks it out of the park, though. His version of George W. Bush is very subtle. He does the mannerisms without descending into total caricature. Excellent work from the former Goonie.

That’s it for now. Take care, everyone and I’ll see you here on Wednesday.

└ Tags: aging, depression, feeling old, mid-life crisis, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Sex Drive
[ No Comments ]
Jan13

HOW SPIDER-MAN GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

January 13th, 2010 | by Tom
  • Comics
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
(29 votes, average: 7.90 out of 10)
HOW SPIDER-MAN GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

People are kind of losing their minds about Sony announcing plans to cancel Spider-Man 4 and going with a straight up reboot instead. But as much as I love the first two Spider-Man movies, I’m not really bothered by it.

I mean, it kind of sucks that Raimi won’t have a chance to redeem himself after Spider-Man 4. But watching a 37 year-old Tobey Maguire run around as Peter Parker seems kind of disingenuous to me. Maguire still has his baby face, so maybe he could pull it off. But that little factoid would be gnawing at the back of my brain.

I certainly won’t miss Kristen Dunst as Mary Jane – one of the worst casting decisions I’ve ever seen. The less said about her, the better.

What I find kind of annoying is Sony’s emphasis on “rebooting” the franchise. The first film came out in 2001. It doesn’t really NEED a reboot. It’s not like any of us forgot Spider-Man’s origin story, or anything. It just seems like a waste of film to go through ALL of that exposition of the origin story again.

Frankly, I wish they would just recast the part and go about telling NEW Spider-Man stories. I hope they just go full-bore into the story like Superman Returns did and not bother telling us about Peter Parker, his Uncle Ben, power and responsibility all over again.

Similarly, I hope they cast an unknown to play Spider-Man like they did with Brandon Routh and Superman. I don’t think the Spider-Man needs a “name” actor like it did in 2001 to help get the franchise off the ground. Experiment a little bit. Just don’t cast Zak Efron or else I’ll have to torch my collection of Spider-Man comics and never look back.

What do you guys think about Sony’s decision to reboot Spider-Man? Leave your comments below!

└ Tags: age, Corvette, mid-life crisis, reboot, Sam Raimi, Spider-Man 4, Tobey Maguire, used car salesman
[ 24 Comments ]

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