Kick Ass

REVIEW: Kick Ass IMDB

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MOVIE INFO

• Producer -
• Director - Mathew Vaughn
• Actors:
  • Aaron Johnson - Kick Ass/Dave Lizewski
  • Mark Strong - Frank D'Amico
  • Lyndsy Fonseca - Katie Deauxma
  • Christopher Mintz Plasse - Chris D'Amico / Red Mist
  • Jason Flemyng - Lobby goon
  • Chloe Moretz - Mindy Macready / Hit-Gir
  • Nicolas Cage - Damon Macready / Big Daddy

INTRO STUFF

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• CHUCK
  • Updated the news page -
  • fixed car - MAF
  • a visit to the dentist...dropped $5K on invisiline Bah!
• MIKE
  • Ran my first 5K today, 32 minutes...
  • Break-in for new car over - no tickets

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  • Back into Mass Effect...trying to get though on Insanity...

SYNOPSIS

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• There will be no 30 Second Spoiler, the joke in the 30SS is that movie are so darned preductable...this one is out there in many ways: some good some bad, but it is certainly not a canned Hollywood story...

WALKING IN F&T (FEARS & THOUGHTS)

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• CHUCK
  • It felt like it was going to be a bad mix of Spy Kids and the Matrix
  • Fear of the little girl being annoying
  • Previews didn't ruin the movie - a few surprising twists
• MIKE
  • Unfunny Comedy...too violent for it's own good...
  • I love Superhero Stories, just don't like comics...strange but true...
  • Did you ever have your superhero identity? Makes your weaknesses into strengths?

FIRST ACT

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• A little too strong about his personal habits...
• Do kids cuss like that today?!
• Orders his outfit from a scuba store - and the boots...
• His first fight he gets stabbed...didn't he ever see Karate Kid? The mask and an attitude isn't going to scare anyone away.
  • He said it best I guess...optimism and naivity
  • Interesting comparison of a vigilante to a serial killer "Every serial killer knows that their fantasies just don't do it"
  • Comes back to school with a rumor he is gay - makes a new friend
• Introduction to the girl and her father (shooting his little girl so she wouldn't be afraid...very real desensitizing exercises)

• Better Buckle up, there will be blood...
• The citizen who turned away when he was getting mugged was the one who ran him over???
• I love that they used the term "Mathlete"
• Mister Bitey...love the insanity, cat's usually scratch...
• A really fast deconstruction of Superhero Movies - the power, the act of violence...you know...

...LATER SCENES

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• Loved the way they told the back story to the girl and her father using the other 'good' cop.
  • Comic book
  • Almost thought that the dad was drawing the comic book of the story itself...hoping for a strange twist.
• Big Daddy is the man
  • Coolest man cave, wow.
  • Awesome fight scene at the warehouse
  • Spotting sniper for his girl
• Chris & Katy
  • Start as a gay BFF
  • Chris finally gets the girl and his first kiss is an awkward full frontal grab
  • They couldn't say 'I love you', but 'I care about you a lot' - cute
• Kick Ass and Red Mist
  • Kick Ass tells Red Mist about 'other' super heros when he knows that they could easily kill him....hard for me to believe, but he's a kid
• Bloody
  • Microwave a guy
  • Crush a guy while in his car
  • Stab, shoot, explode, stab again, slice off a leg, etc
• The first person shooter feeling to Hit Girls infiltration of the warehouse...begs for a video game - Don't see is as playing from Hit Girl's Perspective...

• Comic ending
  • "With no power comes no responsibility" - opposite of Spiderman's uncle
  • No flying Hobgloblin, but we had a flying Kick Ass with two gatlin guns -
  • "wait till they get a load of me" from Batman
• Great music, interesting transitions
• Sponsors -
  • Ford Flex - pretty, I think that Red Mist's Mustang was a much larger Ford Promo there...TRUE

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  • HK, Armalite, etc - Seriously doubt they were sponsors.definitely agree, but just had to mention..it was not like we saw their logos...not like Dirty Harry whoring for Smith and Wesson (and awesome!)

• Car crusher scene was hard to watch...
• Most of the kills in the movie are by an 11-year-old-girl...what does this say about many things...my wife thought the concept was horrifying...
• The movie presents a number of sociopathic, anti-social, and downright crazy people who are dangerous to themselves and everyone around them, but by the end of the movie, I cared about each of them...
• Red Mist attempting to get his father's approval in any way he could...even though that meant gunning down a little girl.
• Big Daddy and Hit Girl is a strange dynamic, it actually would have been less strange if they had not been related...what he did was horrible - and selfish.
• Kick Ass is really a terrible superhero...well, he is fine of he has a gatling-gun-jetpack on...but otherwise Big Daddy said it best - "Ass Kick"
• Don't comment on this too much, but I really loved the music...even the cover of J. Jett's "Bad Reputation" by the "Hit Girls"
• Superbad meets Watchman...

...THE ACTORS

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• Jason Flemyng - funny to his cameo here
• Nicolas Cage - like his performance - Agreed, he was really good...for once...Did Big Daddy make you think "Bioshock?"

• Chloe Mortez - Thought I would hate her, but ended up loving her. Give her the performance medal for this movie, especially for her age. Didn't like her cussing, but I guess that was part of the weird 'feeling' of this movie. She was awesome...tried and succeeded to be Natalie Portman from The Professional.

• Mark Strong - Wasn't as dark as Morarti and did a good job - He was an interesting mix, the hands-off mobster who is essentially powerless...

• Kick Ass - He was alright...not like that guy from Napoleon Dynamite, but he was alright I guess (reference Scientology episode of Southpark)...didn't do a bad job.
• Yancy Butler was Momma D'Amico, have not seen her in some time...

QUESTIONS:

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• Was his girlfriend Katy an ex-hooker? Why would Razul bother her? Ex-boyfriend....doesn't fit. - she met him from the needle clinic...he is a junkie...she likes "lost causes..."

• Katy volunteered? Yes, she was deeper than the average high-school love interest...

• Wonder if comic books will get a raise in sales? Sold out in all Barnes and Nobles within 30 miles of me (thought of reading it as a primer..GOOD IDEA.)

• Fake or real vigilante, what was the message...or was there one? We begin with Kick Ass getting stabbed and barely holding off a group of people and move to Hit Girl flying around the room...
• Why was Big Daddy going to such elaborate means to get D'amico...he could have just sniped him from a distance...simple as that...plan was almost super-villan in nature...
• What the heck was Xander Berkley even doing in this movie? Cutting Room Floor Fodder?!?

THE MACGUFFIN:----

• An idea - the superhero?
• Jet Pack...though not much of a macguffin...

 CLOSING THOUGHTS

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CHUCK Rating: 3.0

• Positives
  • Loved the action, good surprises, previews didn't give it away, great ways to show the backstory of the characters, absolutely love Big Daddy's man cave...I guess I said that already
• Negatives
  • Everyone cusses about everything in this area of New York City? I didn't like it. Wanted to see Big Daddy crush everyone again and now he can't be in part two.

MIKE Rating: 4.5

• Positives
  • It is amazing that the movie ever got made in the first place...
  • Unclassifyable...something that I love in a movie...
  • Surprises all around, the biggest one was that I really cared about the characters by the end...

• Negatives
  • Some of the themes (destroyed childhood) were quite uncomfortable.
  • Was this movie supposed to be funny?