Point Break 2: Pointer Broken

Point Break is one of those movies that’s so fucking perfect, so sublime in its idiocy, so saturated with action cliches that it cannot be improved upon. It does not need a sequel. I certainly doesn’t need a Keanu-less, Swayze-less sequel.

Point Break is a “must stop what you are doing and watch when it comes on TNT or TBS or whatever” type of movie.

Do me a favor. Watch Point Break (sober) sometime. Just pay attention and count all the crazy inconsistencies, and plot holes and complete impossibilities in that movie.  It boggles the mind. Then watch it again (this time probably not sober) and try NOT to have fun. I dare you.

The guy directing it was also the director for Speed (yay!), Twister (meh!) and Tomb Raider 2 (horf!).

Dear Hollywood Jeebus, please abort this movie fetus before it can shit its deadly venom on little orphan children (this is how it feeds). And please drown all men responsible for its conception in boiling vats of their own bile and testicle blood. Amen.

Grand Theft Art Imitating Life

This was one of those rare occasions where the universe wrote the comic, and I just had to draw it. I asked Josh to show me “GTA IV” so I could see what all the fuss was about. I hadn’t played a GTA game since Vice City, and even then I pretty much ignored the missions and just blew stuff up until the cops chased me into the ocean. We literally sat there for 30 minutes watching in game cartoons on Nico’s TV. Then when he finally started to play the game, there was this whole complicated courting process he had to go through with Michelle. He actually said, “The nicer the clothes I buy, the more likely she is to put out on the first date.” You have to manage the expectations of your in-game girlfriend? This is scary shit people. That is WAY too real for a game that’s supposed to be about stealing cars, and then using said cars to murder their previous owners. I know I wouldn’t be able to play through the actual missions of this game because the moment it asked me to buy clothes and get a haircut to impress the fluzey I just met on the street, I would be reaching for the nearest blunt implement, or machine gun, or chainsaw or machine gun that fires chainsaws…on fire to murder her with.

I know the game is excellent. You don’t have to convince me of that. I just wouldn’t ever get past the parts that were as boring as my real life in order to complete it properly. At no point during Sonic 2 or Street Fighter was I asked by the game to go to the store and pick up cat litter (or hedgehog litter).

This reminds me of when my friend Wes had overclocked his P3 to play the first “Deus Ex.” He opened the computer case and turned the AC (in the abandoned apartment he was squatting in) down as low as it would go. It was September and you could see your breath in there. Wrapped in blankets we watched him play this revolutionary game. My turn came and I chose to start over from the beginning. About 5 minutes in I was supposed to sneak into a medical complex and do something important. I walked in the front door, guns a blazing and killed every person in the lobby. Alarms sounded and troops were dispatched. I died and the game was over. The whole thing lasted under 6 minutes. I just remember breaking the icicles off my nose and saying, “This game sucks. I’m out of here.”

I guess that’s why I’m a Wii Tennis man. Pick it up, play for 10 min, put it down…whatever. Just keep it casual.

UPDATE:

Apparently Yahtzee agrees with me:

2008-05-13-gta-4.jpg

We named the dog Indiana

Things are looking the opposite of up for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Whatever Whatever“. At least, if you believe the netmotrons (as I am inclined to do). All of the reviews I’ve read are from die hard fans of the franchise, desperate to give the film a fair shake. One reviewer gave a quote that struck a chord with me (pardon the pun):

This is the “Free as a Bird” of Indiana Jones movies. 

Merciful Robot Jesus, if that is the case I am sad because I know EXACTLY what he means. He means, “Yes, we had the ability to make another Indy movie, and we have the money and the actors were on board… but we didn’t have any reason to do it.

I’ve never been a fan of “sequels for the sake of sequels.” If you have a story to tell, then by all means, get to tellin’. If you are just squeezing those last precious drops of life blood from a beloved entertainment entity for no other reason but to see if you can, maybe you should rethink your motives.

I was only 7 or 8 when i saw “Last Crusade.” It made a huge impression on me. I got a bull whip at the state fair, and spent many an afternoon recovering lost treasures from my back yard. Seeing the movie again as an adult, it held up to the deepest scrutiny. It’s up there with my all time perfect geek flicks. I’d rather walk away from Dr. Jones with those fond memories in tact, but chances are I will see “Kingdom of Such and Such” with it’s aliens and psychics and Labeoufs and what not eventually. I hope the early reviews are 100% wrong and it’s a very enjoyable film, but past experience leads me to keep my expectations on the lowest side of low.

I had this idea that the 4th film should feature an adult Short Round as the villain. He’s still 4 feet tall but he’s old and grizzled and has a robot eye or a claw or something. Also he still talks like he’s 9. He and the “homnomshbop” heart stealing guy team up to steal the Shroud of Turin. Speaking of, “The DaVinci Code” would have made a pretty good Indy Jones movie. The plot fits right in with “Ark” and “Crusade.” Plus, unlike Tom Hanks, Indy would have banged the last of Christ’s bloodline. Oh well.

I’m pretty disappointed I didn’t work “He chose poorly” into the comic.

ArmNomNomNomNom

So, cannibalism?  Haven’t done that yet, have I?

If you are desperate for context, read about the man with the magical piGxie dust finger, then read about how it probably never happened (or at least not how you would think).

Josh’s relationship with bacon is a long and lustrous one. Whether he’s eating a Baconator from Wendy’s (I’d like to point out that the word “Baconator” is derived from the word “Terminator.” As in the robot sent from the future to kill John Connor and lead the Republicans of California. Think about what that implies regarding the sandwich in question), or mainlining bacon greese into his eyeball (which is really the only way he can get high now) he’s usually… well, ingesting bacon. Like always. If they offered a complete bacon transfusion, he would be in the trials. If it was legal to marry bacon (is there gay bacon? Gaycon?) he would lawfully wed, then devour is crackling, sizzling bride.

Much like Tony Stark needs an electromagnet near his heart to keep the shrapnel out, Josh requires a similar device to prevent the years of bacon build up from strangling his aorta. If it were also able to power a suit of robo-bacon armor, villains worldwide would fear the crushing might and delicious aroma of BACirON Man. Or Iron Bacon, or Cast Iron Skillet or whatever.

Hmmmm…. a bacon super hero? I might be on to something.

UPDATE:
Clown Face Ham!

They’re just jealous

Wow, this comic is almost a day late. Consider it an early Saturday edition. It was inspired by “How Iron Man Gets Dressed.” It wouldn’t be nearly as cool if Tony Stark had to sit there for 45 minutes with an impact drill and a torx driver and put the whole thing together by hand.

Yesterday was weird. I ended up talking to my friend Tom, from the band Spiraling, until 2 or 3am about what he is doing with his band and how it coincides with what I’m doing with the comic. I started working on the comic afterwards but fell asleep at 5am.

Woke up at 8am so I could finish the comic and get to some lunch plans at 1:00. Lunch was cancelled (FOR EVERYONE!) so I went right back to sleep and woke up again at noon or so. 7 hours of drawing later and here’s a comic about Iron Man.

That sounded more like a Livejournal post than I intended.

Tonight I actually get to see Iron Man (Josh and Eli saw it at Midnight last night).  Tomorrow Eli and I will be walking around at CAPE here in Dallas for “Free Comic Book Day.” I’ll be wearing a “Roslin ’08” shirt in case you want to say, “Hi (I was sent here by Satan to kill you).” Hope to see a few Fancy Bastards there.