If you missed the update late Friday, you'll want to step back to #315 to read that and possibly the Notes from the Manager, as well.
More details about the shooting have emerged since a hearing last Wednesday, when the attempted murder charge was thrown out by the judge (as I expected):
[Woffard] Lomax, 31, told the judge he was at the movie with his girlfriend and her three teenagers, enjoying the film and laughing, when a man in front of him — not Cialella — told him to quiet down.
"We can't laugh?" Lomax recalled asking.
A second man threw popcorn at the family, and a brawl ensued. Lomax said he was fighting with the first man when the second man pulled out a gun and fired, striking him in the left arm.
A defense lawyer argued that Cialella was being choked and punched as he tried to break up the fight and fired in self-defense.
"He's a marksman," lawyer Greg Pagano said. "If he wanted to shoot to kill, he would have."
Some of Lomax's new account of the incident sounds a bit strange to me, considering that he previous told police that "Cialella was walking toward his family when he stood up and was shot," but perhaps the discrepancies between the two versions are attributable to the newspapers' editing, not Lomax himself.
Happy New Year, y'alls.
The movie they're watching is, of course, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I enjoyed it, but it failed to resonate with me as a love story (which was, unfortunately, the heart of it), in order to really make me fall in love with the film — even my massive crush on Cate Blanchett wasn't enough to make me care about Benjamin, despite a solid performance by Brad Pitt, well-aided by fantastic aging (and de-aging) special effects.
David Fincher's visuals were terrific, as I had expected, and there are definitely moments of brilliance in the film, so it was worth seeing. Even at 2 hours and 45 minutes, I didn't feel that it was too long, which says something in and of itself.
The comment about Taraji P. Henson's Southern black voice in the last panel (from a new customer character I call "Broseph"; he's with Chad of Chad & Trixie from the Mission: Impossible III strip) is one I've seen here and there on the internet, although I don't agree with it. The role of Queenie (Benjamin's adoptive mother) could have been a fairly stereotypical "Mammy" role, but Ms. Henson fills it out well, giving Queenie a heart; she's one of the strongest characters in the film.
Multiplex is a twice weekly online comic about the staff of the (fictional) Multiplex 10 Cinemas and the movies that play there. Multiplex updates every Monday and Thursday.
A unique blend of humor, movie commentary and criticism, and heart-felt teen drama, Multiplex is best read from the beginning, either with the archives or with the Multiplex eBook. The first eBook collects the first 24 strips plus new, exclusive strips — sort of like Multiplex: The Extended Edition. You can read it FREE in your browser, here.
You can learn more about the characters in the Cast section.
SUPPORT / VOTE BUTTONS
MOVIE MAKE-OUT Movie news for people who love movies.
Fresh off a stunning (and award-winning) performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke is lining up an interesting slate of films for his follow-ups. He’s currently filming 13, a remake of the French thriller 13 (Tzameti) starring Jason Statham and Ray Winstone, and he’s just signed onto Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables — also with Jason Statham, as well as Jet Li, Randy Couture, and Dolph Lundgren — and starring Sylvester Stallone, of course. Forest Whitaker and Ben Kingsley are “circling the project,” meaning they’re in negotiations, I guess?
Rourke will play “an unscrupulous arms dealer who becomes the go-to guy for a group of mercenaries (the Expendables, duh) planning to topple a South American dictator.” The film begins shooting in March.
AICN recently ran a script review of the film and called it “a keeper.” Of course, action movies don’t really need great scripts as much as they need great action — and if you liked Rambo as much as I did, then you’ll agree that Sly can deliver that just fine.