While waiting for Inception to start last night with Jodie and friends at the Regal in Waterford, I managed to jot down some quick thoughts on upcoming movies ...

Due Date
Oscar - Um. I don't really think Zach Galifianakis is very funny, so this looks 'ight to pretty awful.

The Social Network
Oscar - I typically consider Facebook a waste of time ... and, this movie will make a great companion to that consideration, me thinks.

Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps
Jodie - Oo! It's gonna be a thinker. I like those.

Tron - Legacy
Oscar - Awesome!
Jodie - Why is David Bowie not in this movie?!?

The American
Andy - And ... he isn't the only American!

The Town
Oscar - This looks exciting, but Jeremy Renner's accent is weird. Probably true to life, but still weird.

Here are a couple more trailers that I have had kickin' around in Evernote for a while ...

The Green Hornet
Looks like a crazy over-the-top good time! :D

Alien vs. Ninja
Um. What? But of course ... yes. Hehe.

Red Cliff
Thanks to Kane for pointing this trailer out to me ... looks fantastic!

Machete
Yikes, Steven Seagel! "When a man's got nothing to lose ... he makes a movie like this!"

Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows
I still haven't read any of these books or seen any of the previous films, but each one looks more and more intriguing. I guess at some point I'll have to give in to Jessica or Crystal and actually watch them. We'll see. ;)

A Film Unfinished
Hmm. Not really a movie for me, but I think Jodie would be really interested in seeing it, as she recently re-read Night(book) by Elie Wiesel.

Animal Kingdom
Oh. So this isn't about the Disney wilderness attraction? Odd. And while I understand Jacki Weaver repeating her line at the end of the trailer is for emphasis, why did the footage have to be mirrored? Again, odd.

The Concert
Yikes.

The Oxford Murders
This looks like an interesting story that is sadly being pushed to an unnecessary "epic" scale. Elijah Wood and John Hurt are both great enough actors that it may still work out in the end.

RED
Maybe its just me, but I'm not really interested in seeing old ladies firing automatic weapons. Single shot stuff, sure. But otherwise … it's just silly.

Batman - City of Scars
Wow! I didn't read the description carefully enough and at first thought this was just another fan-made trailer. There is definitely some camp here, but also some really interesting dark and unique interpretations on the classic DC characters. Definitely worth the watch.

Valhalla Rising
Geez. Have these guys never heard of the phrase "pause for effect"?

Takers
Someone please tell Hayden Christensen to put his hat back on, because he definitely cannot pull off the fuzzy white fro look.

The Twilight Saga - Eclipse
Of course I didn't watch this trailer, but I'll at least include it for Christie's sake. :P

Little Fockers
Yup. Skipped this one too.

South of the Border
(Yawn)

Knight and Day
I am excited for this one, though it is mainly because I miss seeing Tom Cruise as an action star. It does, however, look somewhat predictable, so if nothing else, it is at least a nice dollar Tuesday movie candidate.

Standing Ovation
Can I just assume that this is another Christie pick? Probably.

King of the Evening
There is some serious over-acting going on here, for sure!

Bal
This feels more like an abstract HP laptop advertisement than it does a movie about a honey-gatherer.

Spoken Word
A picture is worth a thousand words and this movie isn't worth the three minutes it took to watch the trailer.

Breathless
The lame. The goofy. The ridiculous. Leaving the theater!

Logan
Aaannnddd on the nose.

Cyrus
While Jonah Hill is pretty funny (though I serious fear his increasing weight and consequential demise), but I have never found John C. Riley even close to funny ... so it's a 'no' for me.

Friction
I assume that Mike Smith of FLickinstead only said that this was "the best film so far this year", because he went to a premiere on January 1st, because this looks simply awful.

Let It Rain
What's with all the movies about making movies? Enough already with the bizarre attempts at realism, people.

Conviction
Dang! One of my favorite actors (Sam Rockwell) with one of least favorite actresses (Hilary Swank), so that means I'm gonna skip it.

Rio
Nope and nope, cuz I am definitely not a fan of George Lopez.

Farewell
Ooo, very intriguing. I'll have to remember to look this one up on DVD, since I'm sure it won't be playing at any theaters near us.

I Am Love
Oddest score I have ever heard set to an apparent love story …

The American
Um. I don't think I really buy Clooney as a shooter assassin. Just like I didn't buy him as Bruce Wayne or Batman.

The Killer Inside Me
Interesting ...

Middle Men
Really? Really? That's all people use the internet for? Just stupid.

Flipped
Cute.

Here is my entry for this week's Illustration Friday theme of "dip" ... it goes out to my wife, Jodie, who is convinced the time is right for swimming, sun-ing and in general heading to the beach. I say it's still spring.

This is all vector, mixing some Brush strokes, the Blob Brush, the new (but still lame) in-line Gradient tool and a tad bit of Illustrator's Raster Effects thrown in for fun.

You may have missed the announcement a few weeks ago, but one of my favorite games, Plants vs. Zombies, from one of my favorite Mac game developers, Pop Cap, has just spouted up on the iPhone. Now you can continue to quell some beautifully illustrated zombie madness on the go!

I know Jodie didn't install this on her iPhone, for fear of losing her life to it ... but I had no such qualms. Parcelling out one or two bite-size pea-shooter and mushroom-filled levels every day works perfect for me. Plus, if you were hesitant about purchasing the $19.95 desktop version (though, it is well worth it), you really can't beat the $2.99 price point for almost an identical game.

Check it out, you're bound to love it, but, of course, it has the same disclaimer as my last recommendation ... it's addictive. The music, the sound effects, the funny flower dossiers ... pretty much all of it. Addictive like yummy brain flesh.

It is always such a long time in-between when a bunch of us can get together and watch trailers as a group, so this last time we made sure to knock out quite a few ... and since we happened to be up by the mall, we started the night with some warming Starbucks. Yum.

Inception"I don't get it. All I can think of is MC Escher's paintings ... which usually give me headaches." - Oscar

Clash of the Titans
"Ooo a new trailer and this looks even better!" - Oscar

The Expendables
"Probably a little bit of cheesy, but there is going to be so crazy fun action in this one." - Oscar

The A-Team
"Oh yeah. I am ready for this one." - Oscar

The Karate Kid
"I am so not excited for this at all. This is one 80's franchise that I wish they had left alone." - Oscar

The Bounty Hunter
"Ugh. This looks like such ro'co drivel." - Oscar

Kick A**
"Oh, Spring can't come soon enough." - Oscar

The Losers
"Interesting ... I hadn't even heard of this movie before now, but the cast and story look pretty solid." - Oscar

Wall Street 2 - Money Never Sleeps
"I never saw the first WS, but I'm going to have to now because this looks pretty good." - Oscar
"Sometimes when movie trailers have really good music in them, I feel like I have to watch the movie." - Courtney
"Agreed." - Oscar

City Island
"This looks really stupid." - Oscar

The Ghost Writer
"This is will probably have a really big ghost audience ... but I definitely won't be seeing it." - Oscar

Daddy Longlegs
"Daddy ... can we not go see this movie?" - Oscar

Bass Ackwards
"You know how some people look like they would eat you?" - Oscar
"Yeah ... he looks like the cat from Alice in Wonderland." - Jennifer
"He just looks creepy." - Ben
"Oh! That guy looks even weirder." - Oscar

Our Family Wedding
"Ugh. So much garbage." - Oscar

My Name is Khan
"Is this Slumdog Millionaire"? - Courtney
"2?" - Jodie

The Last Song
"Um ... nobody gets into Julliard with their fingers crinkled up like that." - Jodie
"I just don't understand why she has that dumbfounded, stupid look on her face the whole movie!" - Courtney

Repo Men
"Oh that looks really fun ... especially cuz I like Forest Whitaker in action movies a lot."- Oscar

Daybreakers
"This is a definite dollar watch for me." - Oscar

Along with Norm, I have been on this kick lately to drink more water... whether it's of the tap, iced or vitamin variety. For the most part it has been great ... you feel less thirsty, gives you something to put in your "I Heart Jim Halpert" coffee mug ... all that good stuff. Sadly, though, it also has the side-effect of forcing me need to visit the restroom like every 1/2 hour. And sometimes, the bathroom isn't always available and I make funny faces like these ... just less cartoony ... or maybe the same cartoony. Hmm ... not sure which it is, but I do know that more water intake definitely equals more bathroom breaks.

Oh and I hope you like the style on this one ... I was going to for really simple and quick ... which it kinda is, though it did take three tries getting it like that on paper.

Dare
I watched the trailer because it had Emmy Rossum and I really liked her in Phantom of the Opera, but this just looks silly. Especially that I guessed if there was a play in this movie, it would be A Streetcar Named Desire ... and oh lookee, there it is.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Despite how great the animation looks for this, because of the awfulness that was Burn After Reading, I really can't stand George Clooney anymore and probably will skip this.

More Than a Game
I barely cared about the "game" when it was hot this spring, so there is no way I'm gonna bother watching this ... though I did like the title sequencing and type treatment here.

From Paris With Love
I don't know what it was that I saw John Travolta in that made him silly to me, but I can no longer take him seriously ... no matter how bald he becomes. Gonna skip it :)

Whip It
I love that Weezer's "Pork and Beans" was playing in this trailer, but I won't be able to endure the entire length of this sweating, brawl-y women-power romp ... or having to listen to Drew Barrymore laugh like that ever again. Blah!

Toy Story: 3D Double Feature
Hehe! I am so stoked for this!

Jodie and I saw this guy walking down John Young yesterday, and I kid you not ... this is exactly what his beard and mustache combo looked like. It was big, fluffy, and so crazy long. It was also a misty white, with yellow/creme brown colored ends, but that is besides the point.

I'm not at all sure where he was headed or what was in his plastic bag, but he looks like a special breed of man, who probably spends long nights alone combing crumbs out of his Rip Van Winkle-esque facial hair.

This 8 × 10" piece is on a heavy white paper, started with 6B pencil and Sharpie/felt pen inking. I'm really liking drawing so big and on such nice paper that I'll probably keep at it for a while ... though my lil' Canon scanner doesn't really fit these pages and I have to piece-meal it in Photoshop. No biggie though. I still like its general portability, so I don't plan on updating it any time soon.

How I Got Lost
Jimison - "I just got lost in that trailer"
Oscar - "This movie is like eating at a bad buffet ... it's kinda like food and kinda like a meal, but really, you just don't want to be there."

Law-Abiding Citizen
Jimison - "Gerad Butler as the Joker ... with less makeup."

St. Trinians
Jimison - "I guess St. Trinians is the patron saint of crappy movies"
Jodie - "Straight to VHS!"

Legion
Oscar - "Too bad nobody cast this movie into a dying herd of pigs."

Gentlemen Broncos
Oscar - "That looked a little silly ..."
Jimison - "A little?!?"
Courtney - "I probably wouldn't go see that in the theater ..."
Oscar - "Why not? ... anous"

The Burning Plain
Jimison - "What was that even about?"
Jodie - "Promiscuous women ..."
Oscar - "and their burning plains!" :)

Street Ballers
Courtney - "That looks just like 'White Men Can't Jump' ..."
Oscar - "Yeah ... meets Final Destination."

Whiteout
Oscar - "Liquid paper death, any way you like it! Brush n' bottle, pen .."
Courtney - "Oo! And those roller ones with the little strips!"

It is Jessica's idea, but this is what I drew up for Margie's birthday. I did an initial version, then worked ye ol tracing paper overlay magic to clean it up before a proper scan.

I still don't know where the quote is from, but I like it: "One by one, the penguins slowly steal my sanity".