Posts Tagged ‘Super Bowl’

4 items.

OR CHEST ROCKWELL

by Tom on February 10th, 2010
18 votes, average: 7.61 out of 10
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OR CHEST ROCKWELL

Although Cami didn't actually see Dear John this weekend, we had a conversation about it when I told her that the film had unseated Avatar's 7-week run atop the box office returns. The film raked in $30 million against Avatar's $22 million haul.

Avatar's downfall had to happen eventually, but a $30 million opening weekend for a romantic drama seems beyond the pale. Certainly some counter-programming against the Super Bowl played its part. But when I discussed the film with Cami, she felt that the film was probably buoyed by fans of Nicholas Sparks's book from which the film was adapted. Sparks also wrote The Notebook and, well, ladies LOVE The Notebook.

"Do you think Channing Tatum had anything to do with the box office," I asked Cami.

"That lunkhead? Uh, no," she replied.

This was the jumping off point for today's comic as we discussed how ridiculous and fake Channing Tatum's name sounds. It should be noted that Cami suggested a play on words and write a punch line that somehow involved Carol Channing.

Honey, I love you. But that was never going to happen.

I mean I never want to underestimate your intelligence and assume you guys aren't going to understand certain references. But Carol Channing? I have to draw the line somewhere.

That said, I'm pleased that Cami finds Channing Tatum as weird as I do. Not just the name, but his whole on-screen persona. Or, rather, NON persona. To us, Tatum is pure tapioca. The guy looks like he's sleepwalking through every performance. At this point, I don't know if his eyes being half-lidded all the time is an acting choice or a genetic anomaly. But even in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra from last summer, he looked bored. He's firing semi-automatic weapons, running away from explosions and he looks bored.

To me, Tatum is like a jock that somehow wandered onto a movie set and someone said "HIM! Put HIM in front of the camera! He'll do!"

I'm curious if any of you guys saw Dear John this weekend. Was it any good? How does it compare to The Notebook? Because as schmaltzy as The Notebook is at times, you'd have to be soul-dead not to be drawn in by that ending. Can Dear John hope to hold a candle to it? Any thoughts about the bland appeal of Channing Tatum?

BTW - Bonus points if you can guess the movie I'm referencing with the title of today's strip.

Leave your comments below!

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ALSO PORN

by Tom on February 8th, 2010
28 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10
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ALSO PORN

For me, watching football is like going to church. I do it once a year and I don't pay attention.

It's kind of hard for me not to get wrapped up in the Super Bowl, though. I have a lot of positive memories attached to previous contests. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with people who genuinely care about the game and watching them was almost as much fun as watching the game - if not more so. Since then, I've just kind of added it to the "tradition" file.

It was funny reading everyone's tweets and status updates on Twitter and Facebook yesterday. Almost everyone I know said something to the effect of "Today is the Super Bowl. I don't care."

Now, I've certainly been guilty of this from time to time. A couple of weeks ago when they were playing the AFC and NFC Championship games, I commented to Cami "Aren't you glad I don't care about sports? Seriously. Because if I did, you wouldn't see me on Sundays, ever." I've even posted my own "What's the big deal?" tweets and status updates in the past to this effect.

But reading the cacophony of disdain from my circle of friends regarding the Super Bowl made me wonder with whom were they trying to earn "Cool Points?"

The posts that kind of made me bristle a little bit were the ones that basically communicated "People who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials are dumb!" Maybe I just took the observation personally since the commercials are my favorite part.

I mean, I realize that it's sad that I've been conditions to eagerly anticipate commercials. It just goes to show how deep marketing executives have their hooks into me. But you know what, tonight I'll leave the TV off and read a book instead. Karmic balance: ACHIEVED.

(For the curious, I'm currently reading Chuck Klosterman's "Eating The Dinosaur.")

I've always looked forward to the commercials in part because it was always great one-stop shopping to watch the trailers for all of the upcoming blockbusters. I remember a few years ago when the trailer for Iron Man came out and I basically ordered everyone in the room to shut up before cranking the volume. People actually cheered for that trailer after watching it. Badass.

But this year, it didn't seem like there were any trailers to get excited about. I saw spots for The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

I'll admit to not being as invested in these movies as much as I was for Iron Man (how could I be), but none of these trailers connected for me. I'm not excited about any of these movies!

As I was thinking about this disconnect, it occurred to me that there really is no point in getting excited for these trailers during the Super Bowl because they've already been online for months. Oh, internet. Is there nothing you can't ruin?

I shouldn't blame the internet. Really, I have only myself to blame. Obviously I'm more connected to what's happening online than most people. So if a new trailer hits, I'm probably watching it the second it comes out. I'm sure for some, the trailers shown during the Super Bowl were phenomenal. But for me, I've lost one of the tethers that convinces me to plop down in front of the television for three hours and watch a sporting event I really have no stake in.

That said, it was a good game. I wanted to Colts to win for no other reason than they represented the Midwest. That and also because all of the commentary beforehand led me to believe that Peyton Manning was the most important thing to happen to football since shoulder pads.

Since I have no stake in the outcome of the game, it would have been easy to root for New Orleans after Tracy Porter ran for a 74-yard touchdown after intercepting a pass from Manning. But it's pretty much been our tradition to pick a team and stick with them, even when you don't know what's going on. It creates the illusion of a vested interest in the game.

What about you guys? Did you watch the Big Game last night, or were you too cool for the room? What did you think of the commercials? What did you think of the movie trailers. If you must, tell us what you thought of the game. Leave your comments below!

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A GOOD REASON TO RIOT

by Tom on February 4th, 2008
5 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10
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A GOOD REASON TO RIOT

For some people, watching the Super Bowl is all about the football. For others, the commercials. I fall into the later category and last night I was interested in one commercial in particular.

The new trailer for Iron Man.

Go watch it. Right now. Done? Good.

Look, I know I'm probably setting myself up for a serious fall. I've got my hopes so high for this movie, they can't possibly be matched. I know I'm also opening myself up against would-be detractors who are ready and willing to crap on something I hold dear. It doesn't surprise me. I spend most of the year taking the piss out of all the big movies out there. For example, I didn't make a lot of fans when I said Spider-Man 3 was a huge let down. So if Iron Man sucks, I have to be prepared for others to rub it in my face.

But for now, I'm in a blissed-out state. I can't wait for this movie and every little snippet they release makes it look better and better and better to me. So right now I'm just riding a wave of good feelings until May 5. Don't harsh my mellow, dude.

Speaking of harshed mellows (marshmallows?), what about that Super Bowl game last night. Pretty boring during the second and third quarter, but an excellent finish! I think what was great about this particular match up is that there was a good story in it for everyone regardless of which direction the wind blew. If the Patriots won, we'd all get to see history repeat for the first time since 1972 when the Miami Dolphins played a perfect season. If the Giants won, we'd get to see the underdog triumph.

Well, the underdog won and I couldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Two spectacular last minute plays by both teams. Your heart has to go out to Tom Brady and the Patriots. Can you imagine being 30 seconds away from perfection only to have it torn from your grasp? I wonder if the NFL provides grief counselors to the losing team? Sad stuff.

I know people like to beat up on the Patriots because they have a lot of money and they've been winning a lot of Super Bowls in the last few years. It's like hating the Yankees. I get it. It's easy to root for the favorite. You're never in the minority.

While I typically align myself with the underdog out of a similar disdain for "sure things," it would have been really cool to have witnessed the end cap to a perfect season. That just doesn't happen that often anymore.

Anyway, enough sports talk. Can you guys believe that the Hannah Montana concert movie made almost $30 million? A new record for a film released over the Super Bowl weekend. I guess they said it pre-sold over $18 million tickets before Friday. That's crazy.

Personally, I can't wait for the whole Miley Cyrus gravy train to come to a screeching halt. I guess she's already making the move away from the Hannah Montana character and striking out as her own performer. But by the time she's ready to declare herself a "serious" songwriter, you know here teeny-bopper fan base will have grown up and moved on to something else. It's going to be spectacular.

But enough music talk! Now is the part of the blog where I would tell you to be sure and check out The Triple Feature podcast over at TalkShoe. But here's the skinny - there won't be a show tonight. Gordon, Joe and I discussed it last week and decided we needed a little break. Not a whole lot to talk about in movies anyway, so it was a good time for us to cool our jets a little and recharge the batteries. This will give all of you who are new to the show a good chance to go through the archive and download some of our old broadcasts. Lots of good stuff in there. I'm especially proud of our Cloverfield episode from a few weeks ago.

Did you know that you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes now? Really handy! All the latest shows are sent directly to you! Check it out!

It's probably a good thing we decided not to broadcast tonight because I'm pretty sure I would monopolize the entire conversation talking about the Iron Man trailer. And no one wants to listen to that for an hour!

In the meantime, for more Iron Man-inspired lunacy, check out this post from my LiveJournal account (friend me, while you're at it). I took pictures of my Iron Man action figure collection. That's right. I'm 30 years-old and collect action figures. Wanna make something of it?

Have a good day and I'll see you here again on Wednesday!

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YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M GEEKY

by Tom on January 27th, 2003
7 votes, average: 7.43 out of 10
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YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M GEEKY

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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