Wow.
That's pretty much the only way you can describe this flick. Just plain Wow. I actually had very high hopes heading into this flick, having seen about 15 minutes of it in a preview at last year's Wizard World Chicago (Tag Line: "Now with even more BO!"). I'd also followed the comic, which came out at the brisk pace of about one issue every 21 weeks. I enjoyed the comic, and was duly impressed with what I'd seen at Wiz World, but neither prepared me for the bundle of awesome that the flick ended up being.
The basic premise is that a nerd high school student named Dave Lizewski (played by Brit Aaron Johnson) wonders why nobody has ever tried to actually put on a costume and fight crime. When you actually get past the insanity of that statement, there is some merit to the question. In a world of mental illness and insanity, the fact that somebody hasn't put on a skull t-shirt yet and gone all "Punisher" out there is a bit of a surprise. Anyways, after watching (and being a victim of) a few muggings, Dave decides enough is enough. He orders a wetsuit online, and creates a costume for himself. Training for a whole 2 weeks, Dave sets out to save the world, one shithead at a time. His first attempt goes awry when some muggers beat him down, stab him, and leave him for dead. As if this wasn't bad enough, Dave stumbles into the street and is promptly drilled by a toolbox in a sedan.
12 weeks later, with metal pins and screws throughout his body (plus some nerve damage that prevents him from feeling much pain), Dave takes another shot at it. This time, he's a bit more successful, helping a guy getting his teeth kicked in by a couple of gangbangers. The whole thing is filmed by a kid with a cellphone, and is posted on YouTube. Going by the moniker "Kick Ass", Dave becomes the latest internet sensation and is all over the tube. This attracts the attention of two other "super heroes" played by Nick Cage (Alias: Big Daddy) and his 11 year old daughter played by newcomer Chole Moretz (Alias: Hit Girl). He stumbles onto the radar of a mob boss (Mark Strong) and his son (Chris Mintz-Plasse aka McLovin) and the movie totally goes off the rails.
Chock full of action (some of it, especially at the end, completely over the top), humor, and ridiculously bad language courtesy of Scottish writer Mark Miller, Kick Ass never fails to entertain. I absolutely loved the flick, simply because it takes a premise that most of us have thought about doing before, and delivers it in a completely realistic manner. It shows us exactly why most of us never go past the dreaming stage when we consider becoming a costumed crusader. Most of all, it is just a good time at the movie theater. Check it out, because I give it a 9 out of 10. On the Butts scale, it would rate a "gooooooood".
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Yay Movies: Date Night
What do you get when you put two of the funniest people on television in a movie with an above average script and lots of funny cameos? I'll give you a hint: it's not another Will Ferrell movie, it's Date Night.
With Steve Carell and Tina Fey, you get exactly what you paid for. Hysterical comedy delivered by some top-notch talent. Both actors, having come up on the mean streets of the Second City comedy scene, have impeccable timing and excellent chemistry with each other. Not only that, but they are believable in their roles as a suburban New Jersey couple who have settled into their married life, and are shackled down by routine. In an effort to spice up their love life and be spontaneous, they take a trip into NYC and try to get a table at an exclusive seafood restaurant called "Klaw". Obviously on a Friday night in a trendy new restaurant there are no available tables. So they hang out at the bar, and after the "Tripplehorn" party of two never arrives, they steal the reservation. After enjoying their meal, they are accosted by a couple of thugs, who drag them out to the alley behind the restaurant. The pair (one of which is played by Common) demand the "flash drive" that the "Tripplehorns" are trying to blackmail them with. What follows isn't at all original, but extremely enjoyable nontheless. Fey and Carell carry the entire movie, and their banter and reactions to one another had me laughing out loud.
The hysterical cameos by Mark "say hi to ya mother for me" Wahlberg, and James Franco highlight the rest of the flick. Other notable names that appear throughout the movie are Ray Liota (who plays a gangster, big f'ing shock I know), Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig and Mark Ruffalo. William Fichtner (trust me, you know him) does a great job as a creepy sex-addict District Attorney ("Sex Robots" is one of the funniest lines in the film). The real glue here is Carell and Fey. Without those two, it's just a run of the mill mistaken identity film. For their outstanding work, Date Night gets an 8 out of 10 (or a "goooood" on the Butts Film Scale, hereafter referred to as the BFS).
Coming Soon:
A "Summer Movies That I Give A Shit About" preview, as I run down the flicks that have made my Summer "to see" list, including my expected grades. Also this weekend "Kick Ass" comes out, a comic book flick that I am very pumped to see. If you believe Mark Millar (and I do), it may be quite the sleeper hit. We'll see...
With Steve Carell and Tina Fey, you get exactly what you paid for. Hysterical comedy delivered by some top-notch talent. Both actors, having come up on the mean streets of the Second City comedy scene, have impeccable timing and excellent chemistry with each other. Not only that, but they are believable in their roles as a suburban New Jersey couple who have settled into their married life, and are shackled down by routine. In an effort to spice up their love life and be spontaneous, they take a trip into NYC and try to get a table at an exclusive seafood restaurant called "Klaw". Obviously on a Friday night in a trendy new restaurant there are no available tables. So they hang out at the bar, and after the "Tripplehorn" party of two never arrives, they steal the reservation. After enjoying their meal, they are accosted by a couple of thugs, who drag them out to the alley behind the restaurant. The pair (one of which is played by Common) demand the "flash drive" that the "Tripplehorns" are trying to blackmail them with. What follows isn't at all original, but extremely enjoyable nontheless. Fey and Carell carry the entire movie, and their banter and reactions to one another had me laughing out loud.
The hysterical cameos by Mark "say hi to ya mother for me" Wahlberg, and James Franco highlight the rest of the flick. Other notable names that appear throughout the movie are Ray Liota (who plays a gangster, big f'ing shock I know), Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig and Mark Ruffalo. William Fichtner (trust me, you know him) does a great job as a creepy sex-addict District Attorney ("Sex Robots" is one of the funniest lines in the film). The real glue here is Carell and Fey. Without those two, it's just a run of the mill mistaken identity film. For their outstanding work, Date Night gets an 8 out of 10 (or a "goooood" on the Butts Film Scale, hereafter referred to as the BFS).
Coming Soon:
A "Summer Movies That I Give A Shit About" preview, as I run down the flicks that have made my Summer "to see" list, including my expected grades. Also this weekend "Kick Ass" comes out, a comic book flick that I am very pumped to see. If you believe Mark Millar (and I do), it may be quite the sleeper hit. We'll see...
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Yay Movies: Clash of the Titans
Ahhhhh the beginning of the Summer movie season. In April. Oh well, who gives a shit. It's 70 degrees outside, and there are about 4 movies this month that I'm dying to see. Titans was one of them, and I suppose I should have just kept on waiting.
Clash of the Titans is a remake (or re-imagining, if you want to be picky) of the 1981 movie of the same name. The '81 flick was characterized by an average story with pitiful acting, combined with bad producing and horrible special effects. Naturally, it became a cult classic. This version has an average story with average acting combined with good producing and above average special effects. I'm guessing it will make $100 million.
The problem with Titans isn't that the movie isn't interesting, it's just your typical summer blockbuster movie, where the story is just there as an excuse to show you some sweet special effects. It starts with a fisherman who hauls up a coffin out of the water containing a dead woman, and a live baby. He naturally doesn't question how an infant could have survived living in an airtight box under the water (who would?). He just proceeds to raise the kid on his own. The kid grows up to be Perseus, played by Sam Worthington (he of the Avatar fame). He follows his adoptive father's path, helping him fish the seas for, uh, fish I suppose. You really never get to see, because as they are floating on the sea, they watch a bunch of soldiers toss a statue of Zeus off the side of the mountain. This pisses off a god (who we later find out to be Hades), who shows up and kills them all. Then for shits and giggles, he flips poor Perseus' pops boat, and they all sink to the bottom of the sea. Perseus lives, and is taken in by the remaining soldiers. This leads him into learning he is the son of Zeus and is a god and the only person who can stand up to the gods, who are total dicks and they want to wipe out a city, because they don't go to church enough (the people, not the gods).
And so on.
The whole story just goes flying by, and not a single character is developed or given a backstory beyond a footnote or a quick sentence. The thing that I've always loved about Greek and Roman mythology is that it has a rich and complex history with it's god and heroes. Everybody has a story, and they usually have ties to the rest of the pantheon of characters. In this movie, you never even get to know Perseus' pops name before he becomes the flair at the bottom of the gods' fish tank. The other main characters include the king's daughter Andromeda, who Perseus goes off to fight for, despite knowing her for approximately 4 seconds. The captain of the king's guard Draco (who's name I had to look up on IMDB because they never say it in the movie) played by the guy who cried blood in Casino Royale. Decent attention is paid to the 2 main gods in the show, probably because they had it written into their contracts. Zeus is played by Liam "Qui Gon" Neeson, and Hades is done by Ralph "Voldemort" Fiennes. The two are actually a bright spot in the acting department, as they ham it up to the point where it becomes fine art.
The action is pretty cool, but without any emotional attachment to any of the characters, it comes off somewhat hollow. The end of the movie shows the appearance of the great beast known as The Kraken. Hugely hyped up in the commercials, the Kraken lasts all of 30 seconds before it's dispatched by Perseus. Whoopeeee!
The fact that I've given this review more than 20 minutes of my life proves that I could totally be a screenwriter in Hollywood, because they couldn't have spent more than 15 writing Clash of the Titans. It's hard for me to give this movie anything higher than a 6.5 when the preview I saw for The Expendables before it was way better. Observe: (sorry about the Geico Commercial)
Clash of the Titans is a remake (or re-imagining, if you want to be picky) of the 1981 movie of the same name. The '81 flick was characterized by an average story with pitiful acting, combined with bad producing and horrible special effects. Naturally, it became a cult classic. This version has an average story with average acting combined with good producing and above average special effects. I'm guessing it will make $100 million.
The problem with Titans isn't that the movie isn't interesting, it's just your typical summer blockbuster movie, where the story is just there as an excuse to show you some sweet special effects. It starts with a fisherman who hauls up a coffin out of the water containing a dead woman, and a live baby. He naturally doesn't question how an infant could have survived living in an airtight box under the water (who would?). He just proceeds to raise the kid on his own. The kid grows up to be Perseus, played by Sam Worthington (he of the Avatar fame). He follows his adoptive father's path, helping him fish the seas for, uh, fish I suppose. You really never get to see, because as they are floating on the sea, they watch a bunch of soldiers toss a statue of Zeus off the side of the mountain. This pisses off a god (who we later find out to be Hades), who shows up and kills them all. Then for shits and giggles, he flips poor Perseus' pops boat, and they all sink to the bottom of the sea. Perseus lives, and is taken in by the remaining soldiers. This leads him into learning he is the son of Zeus and is a god and the only person who can stand up to the gods, who are total dicks and they want to wipe out a city, because they don't go to church enough (the people, not the gods).
And so on.
The whole story just goes flying by, and not a single character is developed or given a backstory beyond a footnote or a quick sentence. The thing that I've always loved about Greek and Roman mythology is that it has a rich and complex history with it's god and heroes. Everybody has a story, and they usually have ties to the rest of the pantheon of characters. In this movie, you never even get to know Perseus' pops name before he becomes the flair at the bottom of the gods' fish tank. The other main characters include the king's daughter Andromeda, who Perseus goes off to fight for, despite knowing her for approximately 4 seconds. The captain of the king's guard Draco (who's name I had to look up on IMDB because they never say it in the movie) played by the guy who cried blood in Casino Royale. Decent attention is paid to the 2 main gods in the show, probably because they had it written into their contracts. Zeus is played by Liam "Qui Gon" Neeson, and Hades is done by Ralph "Voldemort" Fiennes. The two are actually a bright spot in the acting department, as they ham it up to the point where it becomes fine art.
The action is pretty cool, but without any emotional attachment to any of the characters, it comes off somewhat hollow. The end of the movie shows the appearance of the great beast known as The Kraken. Hugely hyped up in the commercials, the Kraken lasts all of 30 seconds before it's dispatched by Perseus. Whoopeeee!
The fact that I've given this review more than 20 minutes of my life proves that I could totally be a screenwriter in Hollywood, because they couldn't have spent more than 15 writing Clash of the Titans. It's hard for me to give this movie anything higher than a 6.5 when the preview I saw for The Expendables before it was way better. Observe: (sorry about the Geico Commercial)
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