OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. OCTOBER 11,

2006

What the Girlfriend Says:

When a comedy makes you laugh so
little that you can count its funny mo-
ments on your right hand, you know its
not very good. I am a big Will Farrell
fan, but I must admit this time, Farrell,
you let me down,

Talladega Nights is a movie about a
NASCAR driver named Ricky Bobby
who must overcome his fear of driv-
ing after getting into a horrible car ac-

a ee ee ees

——

cident. To make matters worst, after
the accident his wife leaves him for his
best friend. This is a pretty good story-
line that would make a great movie if it
wasnt brutally slaughtered by the cre-
ators of Talladega Nights.

“ua large portion of this
movie is just filler.’

First of all, this movie contains only
60 seconds of racing scenes. I happen to
believe that a movie about racing should
involve some racing. Secondly, the char-
acterization is all wrong. None of the
characters are believable or consist-
ent. Ricky Bobby’s father, Reese Bobby
(played by Gary Cole) spends half of
the movie being a horrible dad who
abandoned his family and the other half
being a great father whose only goal is
helping his son get over his fear of racing
and get back on the track.

T also find that a large portion of this
movie is just filler, Its main slogan, “shake
and. bake,’ is used about five hundred
times, but it is only funny the first time.
As well, Farrell's moment of running
around naked after a car crash is funny
the first time, but not the second. Like
Old School, this movie contains plenty of
Farrell nudity with half the comedy.

The main goal of this film seems to
be cramming as many advertisements
as physically possible into one short slot

* ee HS = RS

Davan Macintire, Something Positive's main character

Something Positive (S*P) is a web-
comic that simply oozes cynicism and
bitterness. Right from the first comic, it
is quite clears that this comic is going to
slap you in the face, and you are going to
like it. The very first comic features the
main character, Davan Macintire, send-
ing a coat hanger to an ex-girlfriend as a
baby shower gift. From then on comes
an unending stream of anger and hate
directed at the world in general. Davan
is an unabashed misanthrope and has no
reservations about acting on it. His at-
titude towards humanity in general can
be summed up in the following quote
“There ate people I know who won't

of time. It contains so many product
advertisements that I stopped counting
after thirty. Wonderbread, Coca-Cola,
Budweiser, KFC, Taco Bell, Old Spice,
Perrier and Applebee's are just a couple
of the companies that took advantage of
promoting themselves in this film.

Because this movie is an incredibly
long and completely not funny commer-
cial in disguise, I give it only two “shake
and bakes” out of five.

What the Boyfriend Says:

Can Will Ferrell do anything wrong?
He has proven himself capable of mak-
ing some excellent comedies. His most
recent effort, Talladega Nights, is the
story of a man, Ricky Bobby, whose fame
is not his two first names but his excep-
tional speed on the NASCAR track.

Among the way Ricky has to deal
with the reappearance of his long-lost
dad, his badmouthed kids, and his “racer
wife’. There is also his best friend since
kindergarten. Together Farrell and his
friend, played by John C. Reilly, ‘shake
and bake’ their way around the track.

The film was crafted to make you
know you were watching a NASCAR
movie the entire way. As in NASCAR,

advertising is everything and the film

takes every opportunity to incorporate
an ad. As with real racers, sponsorship
is the means-by which Farrell makes his

R. K MILHOLLAND

hurt me. I call them corpses.” :
This is not to say that to read S*P is
an unending litany of horrors visited
upon the psyche (although “horrors vis-
ited upon the psyche” would be an excel-
lent description of some webcomics I've
stumbled across). The central force to
S*P is not its festering hate, but rather
the friendships that bond the central
characters. Although the main charac-
ters delight in causing pain and suffering
to others (Davan lit his boss on fire when
he quit his job), they are absolutely com-
mitted to each other. This is highlighted
again and again, from small things like
supporting each other after a bad day, to

Fee, A particularly ppoldesi moment
was the Bobby family sitting around the
dinner table, and while giving the grace
Ricky Bobby reveals that he has to men-
tion the products of Taco Bell and KFC
due to his contract obligations. The film
stays true to its theme creating a refresh-
ing consistent comedy,

‘A little less gay jokes and
a little more racing action
would have brought the
movie even higher.’

There were times where I thought
the story was getting in the way of the
humor, but the movie would soon turn
itself around on me and Id be laugh-
ing again. The subplot with Ricky's dad
wasnt too great, seeming to only be a
means to incorporate more random
jokes rather than an actual useful plot
device. Yet when the film goes back to
racing, and the network has to cut to a
commercial during a particularly long
car crash, you know the film hasn't failed
yet.

‘This isn't Ferrell's greatest comedy, but
it is a good comedy nonetheless. A little
less gay jokes and little more racing ac-
tion would have brought the movie even
higher.

3 and a half baby-Jesus’ out of 5.

hiring call girls to accompany Davan to
his 10° anniversary high school reunion,
to make him appear successful.

If not already obvious, the humour
of S*P is extremely offbeat. It can be
incredibly offensive at times, but not
because it is particularly trying to. It's
not that the characters are trying to be
offensive, it’s just that they don't par-
ticularly care what they talk about, so if
they happen to talk about menstruating
coffee, that's just how it is. It's the same
with the utterly bizarre humour that
commonly takes place. When the “Can-
adian Trap Door Gator” pops out of
the ground, eats a minor character and
then states that he's going to show the
true meaning of Kwanzaa, that doesn't
seem to be terribly out of place, Davan
sees the world as an angry, strange and
offensive place, so when strange or offen-
sive things happen in the strip, it doesn’t
seem too terribly out of the ordinary.

“The central force to S*P
is not its festering hate, but
rather the friendships that
bond the central charac-
ters.”

‘The strip’s creator, R. K. Milholland
(or Randy), is the basis of Davan, the
main character. It’s implied that Randy
is even more vitriolic than Davan is, but
on the other hand, there is no webcomic
artist with as much dedication to his
readers as Randy has. Randy is, after all,
very indebted to his readers. In 2001, he
was the first webcomic artist to use the
concept of a donation drive to support
his site. This was simply to offset the
cost of hosting a webcomic on a server.

TABATHA LUNDHOLM
ARTS EDITOR

This pseudo-chick flick of a movie
isn't as bad as it seems. Sure, it's about
a guy whos down on his luck, and sees
a“Doctor’” for help in he situation. Then
he gets the girl, but his mentor wants to
steal his girl, so crazy hijinx ensue. In the
end, the guy gets the girl. Sorry for ruin-
ing it for you, but cmon, we all saw it
coming.

Other than the somewhat lame plot,
it’s fairly well written, with some funny
character attributes, such as Roger's
habit of passing out when he gets nerv-
ous. Poor guy.

All in all, this is a pretty funny movie.
3/5.

Then, in 2004, after many complaints
about the lateness and sporadic nature
of updates, (indeed, only Megatokyo
has a less reliable update schedule, of
the semi-professional webcomic world)
Randy challenged his readers to donate
his entire year's salary, so he could quit
his job and work on the comic full time.
Much to his surprise he had made an
entire year's salary in less than a month,
so he quit his job and the updates be-
came more stable. It was based on this
example that many other webcomic art-
ists quit their day jobs and began rely-
ing on income from donations and mer-
chandise.

S*P is a very worthwhile webcomic
to read, if only for its bitter outlook on
the world, coupled with its sentimental
attitude towards friendship. Seeing the
two combined makes for a very inter-
esting read. If, for example, all you've
ever read are gaming comics, this is an
excellent introduction to the world of
“Slice-of- Life” comics (probably the best
“Slice-of Life” comic currently running).
If, alternatively, you commonly read
webcomics about daily life, and you have
not read S*P, I’m afraid I'll have to dis-
own you until you do,