What's Not To Like?

Last night I went to see Hancock with Scott and – eventually; he showed up after the movie had started – Casey.
Despite how well it’s done at the box office, most of the reviews I’ve seen of the movie have been negative.
I don’t get it; the movie was extremely entertaining, and Will Smith was his usual likeable self (as was Jason Bateman), and, also as usual, Charlize Theron was hot. So what is there to bitch about?
I mean, yeah, it wasn’t some dense existential exploration of the nature of heroism and the human condition, but it had a solid plot, a lot of humor, and some great effects.
(And some amount of existential exploration of the nature of heroism and human nature thrown in for good measure.)
The high concept aspect of the movie was, I think, brilliant, and was executed much more effectively than the equally brilliant high concept behind My Super Ex-Girlfriend (which I also liked).
As a comic book geek, I’m probably biased, as I’m frankly thrilled to see Hollywood coming out with original material that puts a new twist on elements that, while not directly adapted from the comics, are at least drawn from them, without resorting to the tired old clichés that have been the hallmark of Hollywood’s treatment of comics for decades.
So, yeah, I liked it, and I don’t know what’s up with the people who panned it.
Other than seeing the movie last night, things have been pretty uneventful since my last entry.
I’ve been doing some thinking about designs for a new version of the Heroic Portraits site that can serve as an improvement in quality over what’s in place now, and as something of a placeholder until I either miraculously become skilled in Flash, or hire somehow who has the skills that I’m unlikely to miraculously develop to build a new site.
Tonight looks to involve more of the same.
Tomorrow evening I’ll be seeing Hellboy II with Scott and several other people. All I can say is “It’s about damn time!” We’ve only been waiting four damn years for a sequel.
(I will say that the direct to DVD movies that have come out in the interim have been excellent. But then I’ll add, “More of those, too, please!”)
I neglected to mention that on Saturday, after watching the awfulness that was Tribulation Force, Scott and I watched a few episodes of The Venture Bros. as sort of a tonic, or as a kind of palliative.
It did the trick.
I watched a couple more episodes after Scott left, and found my mood much improved and found myself feeling much better about the collective worth of humanity after watching Tribulation Force – which is supposed to be hopeful and inspiring – had left me with a feeling of soul-crushing hopelessness and despair for the state of the world.
My point? Despite the extreme, over-the-top, casual violence, and the deplorable, but intensely human, behavior that can be found in every episode, The Venture Bros. is better for your soul than anything related to Left Behind and the nihilistic, death-obsessed, utterly inhuman, culture that produces and consumes it.
Or, to put it another way, Go Team Venture!
Of course, now that I think about The Venture Bros. and Left Behind, I can’t help but think about how awesome it would be to see Brock Sampson beating the crap out of Buck Williams and Rayford Steele (most likely beating one with the other).
(Note to Christopher McCulloch and Doc Hammer: make it happen! Also, seriously, you need to get Bruce Campbell to guest star as Ash on an episode.)
Still, here’s the next best thing: a collection of the 10 Best Brock Beatdowns.

Not The Kind Of Change I'm Interested In

My car is desperately overdue for an oil change.
Not having weekdays off has seriously cut into my ability to get things done at a time when no one else is out getting those same things done.
I had to go to Wal-Mart today to pick up some stuff, and remembered that they do oil changes, so I decided to try there.
It would have been a two hour wait.
Every other place I went by had huge lines, so I decided that if it’s waited this long, my car can wait a little longer.
Honestly, at this point I’d really prefer to just forego changing the oil and actually change the car, but I really don’t feel like taking on a car payment again right now, so I guess I’ll just have to put my teeth in and then grit them and put up with it.
There’s nothing wrong with my car – strike that, I’m sure that there’s plenty that’s wrong with my car that will be revealed next month when I get the safety inspection – but…well, I hate it. I’ve always hated it.
Still, not having to make payments on the thing is nice, so I guess I’m stuck with it.
When I went to Wal-Mart I had the sense to write up a list of the things I needed, and for a change I even remembered to take said list out of my pocket and look at it.
Once.
I figured, “It’s a short list; I can remember what’s on it.”
For those of you who wonder, this is a prime example of why I lack confidence: every time I managed to muster some up, I invariably misplace it.
It was indeed a short list, but not quite as short as the list of items I actually bought.
Oh well.
Yesterday Scott came over to watch Left Behind II: Tribulation Force and to give it the MST3K treatment.
It was truly abysmal; much worse than even the first movie.
You would think that, in the context of a movie based on the Left Behind books – dubbed by Fred of Slacktivist as “The Worst Books Ever Written – the words “Bloopers and Outtakes,” appearing in the special features menu, could potentially be the greatest, most cringe-worthy phrase known to man.
Such was not the case. Even the bloopers were terrible.
I’d planned to grill up some brats for dinner, but it seems that’s what Scott had for lunch, so we opted to go to Fridays.
As a lingering after-effect of my dining experience in Kansas, I was in the mood for ribs. Of course, compared to the ribs I had in Kansas, the Friday’s ribs were sadly disappointing. They weren’t bad, they were just sorely lacking compared to what I had in Kansas.
Apart from my adventure in misplaced confidence, I didn’t do a whole lot today.
I talked to my mom, did some more mysterious drawing, and did the laundry.
I also grilled up yesterday’s brats for tonight’s dinner.
And that’s pretty much it.

So I hope everyone survived the Fourth intact, with the same number of fingers, toes, and eyes that you had back on the third of July.
For my part I didn’t do a whole lot.
I spent most of the day working on some pictures (more on that in a bit), eschewing any Independence Day-related activities, as activities=people, and then in the evening headed over to Jamie and Casey’s house (based on Scott’s invitation) and had dinner.
They were all wrapping up a round of D & D when I got there, and after dinner they went back into gaming mode, and I went back into anti-social mode and headed home to do some more drawing.
I appreciated the invitation, and was glad to not have to feed myself, but I wasn’t really in the mood to be social – I know; what else is new? – and not being into the whole gaming thing, I didn’t have it in me to hang out until it got dark enough for them to light off the truly massive amounts of fireworks they had.
As for all of the drawing I’ve been doing, you may be wondering why you aren’t seeing the results here.
So why is that?
Because.
You’ll see them eventually, just not yet, and I’m not inclined to say anything more about it. Not trying to be mysterious, I just don’t feel like writing about it just yet. Trust me; you’ll be bored when you do find out, so you’re not missing anything.
I got up this morning and reminded myself for the first of many times that it is, in fact, Saturday, not Sunday.
After sitting around for a while I went out and did some shopping, then came home and cleaned up the house a bit.
Scott’s coming over later on for a screening of Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.
As my only real exposure to the books has been reading the dissections on Slactivist, and given that after five years Fred has yet to complete dissecting the first book, I don’t know much about the plot of Tribulation Force, and will not be able to see where the movie diverges from the book.
I have to say, I’m almost eager to watch it, but then I remember that it’s going to be absolutely terrible – there’s no way for it to not be terrible – and my eagerness fades.
I bought some brats to grill for tonight, so after cleaning up in the house I decided to clean the grill, which was an annoying, messy pain.
A while back I mentioned that I’d lost my stylus for my smart phone, and given that it was the spare stylus, that meant having to buy a new one. In fact, I ended up buying six.
Getting into my car on my way home last night I was, as I so often am, distracted by something shiny. In this case something shiny on the floor between the seat and door. It was my stylus.
I’d assumed that I’d lost it somewhere at work, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
So where I once had none, I now have seven.
Now, if only what holds true for smart phone styli held true for girlfriends…