The big crossover between Theater Hopper and Movie Punks is still going strong. If you haven’t checked out Part 2 at Carrington’s site, well, you won’t have to because I’ve already saved it to our bonus materials page.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be standing in line first thing Thursday morning at Movie Punks to check out Part 4.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. For Part 4 to make any sense, you’ll have to read Part 3, my strip, which has also posted today in the bonus section. Don’t forget to check it out!
Today’s strip calls to the fore a basic subtext of movie-going motivation in our household. Sure, Solaris will probably be a fun movie to see. George Clooney and director Steven Soderberg have done so many movies together, by this point they’re sharing the same brain. I have no question to its quality.
But at the same time, Cami has a major crush on Clooney and won’t object in the least to the reported ass shots he has committed to celluloid.
I like George Clooney. I like him a lot better now than I did in his old ER days. I think Clooney has used a lot of the power behind his celebrity to do some good within the industry. And I really respect him for not taking flack from that right-wing pinhead Bill O’Riely after then whole 9/11 benefit thing.
Clooney is also keenly aware of his appeal versus studio interests. In a recent interview, he commented on the leak about his derriere making a cameo appearance in Solaris. He cited the film’s distributor Fox as the source of the leak. He basically made comments along the lines of how Fox doesn’t know how to properly market and film for adults, so to generate interests, they let it slip that there was going to be some Clooney tush-action going on.
From a purely marketing perspective, you can’t blame Fox for the move. Look how people are talking about it. The news HAS generated buzz. But kudos to Clooney for calling them on their “marketing of least resistance”. It would have been more refreshing to watch a good film pitched at more refined levels.
I don’t know if Cami and I will get a chance to see Solaris this week, what with all the holiday shenanigans (we still haven’t caught Die Another Day), but I plan on making time. Even when Soderberg is off his game, he’s still 90% better than anyone else out there right now.
Last thing I’ll mention: Rick Brose of The 2econd Opinion was kind enough to review our site. It’s fair and balanced and well worth your time to read. If not for his take on our work, but for the very thorough collection of reviews he has assembled on other topics far-flung as video games, movies, music and DVD’s. It’s a real treat. Check it out!
No sensible person would ever confuse Wild Things with Where The Wild Things Are – and therein lies THE COMEDY!
BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
Okay, admittedly, it’s a cheap set-up to the joke. But I like the dialogue in this strip. I like the back and forth between Jared and Tom. So I had a lot of fun writing it.
Am I alone in the Wild Things/Where The Wild Things Are connection? Was I the only one that tripped a trigger for? One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. I’m just trying to figure out on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird I am.
I don’t have a lot to say about Where The Wild Things Are in today’s post, so I’m hoping you greatly enjoyed today’s comic and I can coast by without a blog.
If you’d like a little more in-depth discussion, I suggest you download Monday night’s episode of The Triple Feature. We had a very productive discussion about Where The Wild Things Are as well as Paranormal Activity. I think you will enjoy our broadcast.
In the meantime, I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to the two blank Project Wonderful ads we have near the top of the page, to the right of the comic.
I recently dropped the minimum bid from $2.50 a day to $1.70 a day. That’s a steal no matter how you slice it, so I’m a little perplexed as to why I’m not seeing more advertisers in that spot. Is it the irregular ad size? Tell me it isn’t so!
If you have a web site you’d like to promote, please consider the open Project Wonderful spots on my site a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the exposure it gives you.
And I’m talking about the GOOD kind of exposure. Not the creepy kind of exposure you get from that guy in the trench coat at the bus stop.
Since I have nothing else to say at the moment, I’ll wrap things up here.
Thanks and I’ll talk to you again soon!
I knew about five minutes into James Franco and Anne Hathaway’s opening monologue at the Oscars last night that we were in for a long evening. Scripted within an inch of it’s life, their words hung in the air momentarily before dropping like lead weights at their feet. The monologue became symptomatic of what would be an odd and listless ceremony. One that commanded the bare minimum of my attention.
Franco has done a good job of cultivating a very relaxed, go-with-the-flow vibe in the last year and a half. But he was practically sleepwalking through his hosting duties. That is, when he could be bothered to show up at all. From where I was sitting, it looked like Anne Hathaway was doing all the heavy lifting.
As a matter of fact, she may have been over-exerting herself. Yelling with unrestrained glee in a desperate pitch to compensate for Franco’s lazy-eyed delivery. Hathaway literally yelled “WOOOOO!” like a sorority girl after almost every presenter she introduced. When she was giving high fives to the kids from P.S. 22 in Staten Island after their performance of “Over The Rainbow” at the end of the show, I was convinced the force of the blow was going to knock some of them off the stage. Franco may have been on auto-pilot, but at least he was being authentic. Not that I blame her for trying, but Hathaway was trying way, way to hard to inject energy into the ceremony where it didn’t need it and it came off as unnatural.
On several occasions, Hathaway referred to her hosting alongside with Franco as an effort by the Academy to make the show “young” and “hip,” but she was undone at nearly every turn. Bringing back 8-time host Billy Crystal to introduce a package showcasing the first Oscar telecast in 1953? Nothing screams “young” and “hip” like projecting footage of Bob Hope behind a podium for 10 minutes.
As far as the awards themselves, there weren’t too many surprises for me. I scored 18 out of 24 on my Oscar scorecard, which I think is the best I’ve done in a few years. I missed the boat on Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film, Documentary Short, Documentary Feature, Visual Effects and Supporting Actress.
I’m kicking myself for thinking Alice in Wonderland would win Best Visual Effects and not Inception. That rotating hallway fight sequence was legendary. I guess I assumed since every last frame of Alice had be manipulated in the computer in some way that it would be film the Academy would recognize.
I also should have known better regarding Supporting Actress. I picked Helena Bonham Carter for her work in The King’s Speech even though I knew Melissa Leo had the inside track for The Fighter.
Typically, Best Supporting Actress seems to go to a Brit while the Academy saves Best Actress for an American. I mean, is there really any other reason Sandra Bullock has an Oscar? I was also certain that Leo’s unprecedented individualized campaign would torpedo her chances. Actors NEVER campaign for themselves by taking out ads in the trades. They let the studios do that on her behalf.
Proactively battling against what Leo identified as ageism in the industry, she submitted two ads to industry publications asking them to “CONSIDER… Melissa Leo.” It was an odd (if somewhat narcissistic move) that immediately turned me off to Leo as a contender.
I think that knee jerk reaction was somewhat justified when Leo went on stage to collect her Oscar from presenter Kirk Douglas. I found her feigned shock completely contrived and was amazed she was being awarded for acting, considering how badly she was hamming it up on stage. Even dropping the f-bomb felt like a calculated move to me. Cynically, I can imagine Leo thinking of ways to draw attention to herself that would guarantee prominence in post-Oscar analysis. She came off like a classless outsider trying way to hard to act genuine.
If these observations sound like sour grapes, I apologize. I caught myself at the end of the night being excessively negative about the evening on Twitter. But it looks like those criticisms have become justified in the morning light. Several reviewers are calling this year’s telecast one of the worst in recent memory. In the words of Roger Ebert, “This was the worst Oscarcast I’ve ever endured. It’s time for the Board of Governors to have a long, sad talk with itself.”
What were your take-aways from this year’s ceremony? Am I being unfairly harsh? Leave your comments below!