5. The problem with "Kick-Ass" is that it spends its first act telling us this just isn't another superhero movie and then quickly becomes just another superhero movie -- well, that and the movie stinks.
4. When would-be hero Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) dubs himself Kick-Ass, dons his green goofball gear and runs out to fight crime, he's nearly killed in a scene which, alas, provides the narrative's high point and leaves the audience wishing that the kid had bought the farm rather than make us endure the rest of this garbage.
3. In Kick-Ass' universe, nobody has superpowers, but a fellow can be a superhero if he is a gun-toting, revenge-bent psychotic a la Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) who creepily trains his daughter to be a Munchkin murder machine called Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz.)
2. The film's second act, complete with the obligatory "team-up," is dull and followed by a third act riddled with nearly every superhero movie cliche possible from a dumb gadget perfectly suited to the crisis of the moment and the same series of slow-motion fight scenes and martial arts nonsense that's plagued every action movie since "The Matrix" circa 1999.
1. "Kick-Ass" is a stupid movie pretending to be a sly parody and fresh take on genre of films that may well have run their course in popular culture.
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"Kick-Ass"
- 1hr 57min - Rated R - Action/Adventure/Comedy/Drama -
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage
Finney's Flicks Grade: D
I love movies. They are my favorite non-sexual thing to do. I own more than 200 on DVD, not including TV series. They are our cultural language. When you ask someone if they've seen a movie, you're not asking them if they've spent money to see moving pictures. You're asking them if they have the same experiences that you have had – if you speak the same language. As Roger Ebert says, "Never marry someone who doesn't like the same movies as you."
Finney, this is a great format, perfect for the web. The Register (or someone) should make you its movie critic (well, if newspapers still had movie critics). Still, with some SEO & Google ads & Amazon DVD sales, this could become a popular blog & bring in a little money for you.
ReplyDeleteBut I disagree with the line about never marrying someone who doesn't like the same movies you do. From a recent blog post of mine: This was before Farmville and Mafia Wars caught on, but Facebook friends kept inviting me to play games like one (can’t remember the name) that pronounced us soulmates if we liked the same movies. I’m sorry, but your soulmate is someone with whom you go to a movie (chick flick) even if you don’t think you’ll like it.
http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/syncing-social-tools-especially-foursquare-requires-some-thought/
Anyway, cool blog. Keep it up.