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Attention Film Strippers, in case you didn’t notice or are new to the site, the comic is currently on hiatus.
My wife an I welcomed our first child in August, and I’ve set down my drawing utensils to focus on our growing family. The comic archives are definitely available for you to go back and read Film Strip from the beginning.
Also, as I’ve been away from the many adventures of Scott, Kevin, Hope, Penny, and Dan, I’ve been casually making notes, sketching, and working on an original graphic novel. Once that is more definite, you will al know about it.
Thanks for all the support!
I’m sorry, but while the rest of the Marvel movies are tying together to form the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the X-Men “franchise” is spinning out of control. The first movie was decent, the second movie was good. The third movie was horrible as it seemed like 58 people had a say in what should go in the movie, and they put it all in. They even killed Professor X. Yes, that movie was stupidly bad. I’m not even going to comment on the Wolverine movie.
But now this. X-Men: First Class. The idea is fine. Have an “origin of the X-Men” movie. Unfortunately, they are making it a prequel to the recent movies that they already screwed up.
Scott’s ranting is blocking out the text of panel 3 in today’s comic, but it’s basically saying all the stupid things I inherently know about this movie without even seeing it.
It’s not using the original X-Men, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel, because they used them all in the bad movies they’re prequeling. Because of this, they have to use other mutant characters in a movie set in the early 60′s that weren’t introduced until the 70′s or 80′s.
“Who cares,” you say? Well you should. One of the characters is Havok, who happens to by Cyclops’ younger brother. How can the character from the movies set in the 2000′s have a younger brother back in the 1960′s? I don’t know, but some Hollywood idiot thinks they can change it and make it work.
I’m sorry, but the X-Men should’ve got on board with these Avengers tie-ins. I know X-Men and Spider-Man are currently owned by different studios, which is idiocy in and of itself, but get a clue. Haven’t we learned from Lord of the Rings that if you put in the effort to make a good movie then it will make a boat-load of money anyway?
Don’t give me a crappy superhero knockoff and call it “X-Men.” It should be called Hancock so that we know to avoid it.
And really, you have an X-Men movie where Professor Xavier is not bald. Whoever made that decision should be fired and never allowed to even think about watching a movie again.
Here in America, this past weekend was Memorial Day. It’s where we remember and honor those who served and lost their lives in the United States Armed Forces. It gives the country a great and noble reason to be able to take it easy and remember why we have it so good.
I was able to spend the weekend really getting a chance to do a lot of relaxing, reflecting, and getting in touch with all things Comics and Movies.
For this weekend was Comicpalooza!
Comicpalooza is a comic and pop culture convention held in Houston, TX. It’s not quite the San Diego Comic Con which most people are familiar with, but it is a large-scale comic convention nonetheless. I was able to hit up the con after work on Friday and then most of the day Sunday with my best friend. We toured the dealer floor, walked through artist alley, saw a real life Quiddich match, and I think I caught a flash mob of some sort. I couldn’t tell, we just walked up on it.
I was able to grab some great toys that I had been searching for, much to the eventual chagrin of my wife 
I got this Rowlf from the Muppets for super cheap. I bought a huge collection of Muppet toys earlier in the year, and this must-have piece wasn’t in the set. My collection is getting more and more complete. I’ll have to post pictures of the whole thing some time. The baby grand piano that came with Rowlf is one of the best toy accessories I’ve ever seen. (The bust of Beethoven is pretty cool too.)
I also nabbed these Japanese Transformers imports. These types of figures are called Revoltech by Kaiyodo and are extremely posable, as you can see. I only found Hot Rod (now called Hot Rodimus for trademark purposes) and Ultra Magnus (who is just an Optimus Prime repaint). One day I hope to get Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream
I also finally got a Star Trek: The Next Generation toy of Captain Piccard as the Borg, Locutus. I’ve been casually looking for this toy for years and a nice dealer sold it to me for cheap.
We also got to check out Steve Jackson Games, which is currently my favorite game company because they publish both Munchkin and Revolution! Both of which I highly recommend. They made a big Munchkin announcement this weekend that they are going to have a tie-in to the new Conan Movie. Very Cool. Also extremely cool was that I won a copy of their board game, Frag, in a raffle. I am super pumped about this. Frag is a basically a first person shooter…as a board game. So that means I might actually be good at this type of FPS. Plus, I got Steve Jackson to sign my game!
I wasn’t able to attend the con on Saturday because my wife and I attended a super fun wedding. The most interesting thing about the wedding, besides the amazing food at the reception, was that there was about a three hour break between the ceremony and the reception. So what did my wife and I do? We went to see a movie of course! That’s right, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in the middle of a wedding wearing our formal wedding clothes. I thought the movie was incredibly fun, but the again I’m a sucker for all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
I unfortunately was not able to see The Hangover: Part II this weekend due to my own time constraints with chores and this comic. We did however get to watch Inglourious Basterds for the first time. It arrived in the mail on our Netflix queue a few months ago, but we hadn’t been able to watch it until now. I have to say it was a decent movie. I expected it to be more historically accurate, but that was my own fault. As far as Tarantino movies go, I’d rank it in the middle of the pack. Kill Bill (Vol. 1 and 2) is still the best. Followed by Pulp Fiction, then Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, Reservoir Dogs, and finally Jackie Brown. You can disagree with me all you want, but Reservoir Dogs does not hold up over time, and I would rate Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2 in my personal Top Ten of all time almost any day of the week.
Oh, and my wife and I bought new kayaks (yet to be delivered) and got to use our new grill. So all in all, this was a great weekend, and now you know why there was a short hiatus in comics here at Film Strip. Don’t worry, back to regularly scheduled comics on Wednesday.
Have a great week everybody!
“What’s Friday’s Entertainment” continues! As is the custom, we will look at 1) What movies are coming out, 2) What movies are tops in the box office, 3) What DVD/Blu-Ray might be better, or 4) a Wildcard of my choosing.
1) What movies are coming out?
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
2) What’s tops at the box office?
- Thor
- Bridesmaids
- Fast Five
- Priest
- Rio
3) What DVD/Blu-Ray might be better?
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
4) Wildcard!
- Barbecue
Another week, another blockbuster as the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie is coming out. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited. I’m in the minority of people who liked the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Sure, they’re “going to the well” again, but their well is better than most.
If you’re not up for another Jack Sparrow installment, Thor is of course still in theaters, or you could rent the first Pirates of the Caribbean and have a blast all over again with that movie.
I’m going for the Wildcard though. The weather has been great down in Texas, so that means we get out and barbecue. I encourage you to invite some friends over, throw some burgers on the grill, and then have a movie night.
Have a great weekend everybody!
“What’s Friday’s Entertainment” continues! As is the custom, we will look at 1) What movies are coming out, 2) What movies are tops in the box office, 3) What DVD/Blu-Ray might be better, or 4) a Wildcard of my choosing.
1) What movies are coming out?
- Bridesmaids
- Priest
2) What’s tops at the box office?
- Thor
- Fast Five
- Jumping The Broom
- Something Borrowed
- Rio
3) What DVD/Blu-Ray might be better?
- Wedding Crashers
- The Hangover
4) Wildcard!
- Game Night
This weekend could be pretty good for your entertainment. Bridesmaids is coming out, and it looks pretty darn good. I’m going to try to catch it this weekend. It’s good to see a Rated-R female comedy clocking in at two full hours. There are so many things that are right with that last sentence.
Gentlemen, if you think you won’t like it, drop of the ladies and go see Thor, which was a good fun movie. I have not yet seen Fast Five, but it could also be a good alternative if that’s what you’re into this weekend.
If you can’t make it out to the theater, you could get your Rated-R wedding comedy from a movie like Wedding Crashers or The Hangover. But I’m still going to give Bridesmaids a solid chance.
As for the Wildcard, I’m recommending a Game Night. I’m going to a meeting that I’m hoping to turn into a Game Night, but we’ll see. The trick is, if you’re past a certain age, you may have 1) forgotten how much fun board games can be, or 2) don’t know how good board games have gotten over the last 15 – 20 years.
Hopefully if you’re a fan of this site, you’re aware of IMDB, The Internet Movie Database. If not, please click that link and peruse the site that is going to help you win at trivia games from now on. Well, now I’m going to point you to Board Game Geek. It’s basically the IMDB of Board Games. The site isn’t as pretty, but it’s no less robust with information. Board Game Geek will tell you everything you need to know about any game from the newest trends in board games to that weird board game you played at your friend’s grandma’s house back in the day.
And if you really want to dive deeper into what board games have become lately, I’d check out some Podcasts, like The Spiel and The Dice Tower. Different takes on gaming, but both great, despite nerdy
To make an extremely long story short, board games have come a long way since Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, and Clue. About 15 years ago a game called Settler’s of Catan came over to the US from Europe, and we were introduced to what are now called Eurogames, or German-Style Board Games (as opposed to our American-Style or “Ameritrash” games). Now you can even find Settler’s of Catan and other Eurogames like Carcassonne and Ticket To Ride at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Target.
Be warned though. Inflation has set in and games are produced in better quality than they used to. Be prepared to pay $35 – 50 for a good board game these days. But don’t let that deter you. Think of the actual time spent with friends and family playing these games rather than staring at a TV while not conversing at all. Plus, if you’ve taken my advise and checked out Board Game Geek, you’ll have all the information at hand to make a solid purchase and be happy with your gaming experience.
Have a great weekend everyone!