Savages is one of the most aggravating and downright terrible movies I’ve ever seen in theatres. When the best thing I could think up after leaving the movie was: “That sandwich that John Travolta ate looked swell”, then we have a serious problem.  I’m not saying this for hyperbole or even just to be funny, I’m dead serious. The sandwich John Travolta eats is the best part of this movie. The rest of it is awful. In fact, I’d be doing the world a service by not writing my thoughts on it down and pretending that it doesn’t exist. You’d be doing the world a service by acting in a similar manner and pretending that these words don’t exist. Because if my words exist than so does this awful movie (but seriously please read this).

It would be one thing if Savages was a bad movie that was short, or at least felt short. Unfortunately Savages is neither of these things, as it feels long, unbearably so. Savages clocks in at 2 hours and 19 minutes. Had this been a fast paced thriller or even a slower burning study of the drug trade and the people inhabiting it, this would be okay. However, Savages is neither of these things and it can’t make up its mind as to what it wants to be. Thriller? Action? Drama? It’s none of those. In a weird way it’s almost a hybrid of all these genres mixed together, which in this case makes for a terribly uneven movie. The vast majority of the movie is just dialogue. I have absolutely nothing against films which are primarily talking, however it’s hard to get into or care about any of the people talking when the plot is terrible.

On Sunday, Thomas Jane shocked fans in attendance at San Diego Comic Con, when he debuted his short film Dirty Laundry. The film stars Jane as a man who is doing his laundry at a Laundromat in a seedy part of town. While doing his laundry he hears a gang beat up a protitiute and then proceed to do the same thing a kid. Having enough of it, he buys a bottle of Jack Daniels and goes to town. The film ends with the beat up kid looking at a t-shirt that Jane gives him, which contains the Punisher skull.

The reason I bring up this short, is primarily because it harkins back to Jane’s turn as Frank Castle in The Punisher. Jane has always been upfront with his love for the character and this short film is quite evident of that.  Dirty Laundry has brought back memories of The Punisher for me. It’s a movie that while not perfect, does do a lot of things right and has just enough moments in it where you’re blown away by how well Thomas Jane plays Frank Castle.

Don’t panic, I’m not giving up on reading comics or enjoying comics or anything drastic like that but I am tired of comics. I love them and all that but the politics, crossovers, and general attitude around the comics community lately has been troubling and downright upsetting. There is nothing worse than seeing something you like become more and more distant from you. It’s emotionally exhausting, and it’s brought to the point where I just don’t care anymore.

My realization of my lack of emotions, has come around one of the biggest events of the year for comics, San Diego Comic Con. All the big names and publishers come together to host panels, and make big news announcements. Normally I’d be checking news sites and twitter constantly, so I could be up to the minute on what was going on. This year? Not so much. They’ll announce all of the same things, such as: “This crossover will change everything!” or “We’re bringing back the iconic characters you all know and love!” The problem is, that the things that should be game changers aren’t and the iconic characters are just creators popping their silver age boners.