Film Review: KICK-ASS (2010) – 2nd Revisit

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writers (Screenplay): Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Writers (Comic Book): Mark Millar, John Romita Jr.
Running time: 113 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Comedy/Action/Thriller/Comic-book
UK Release date: 26^th March 2010

Watched on DVD Saturday 22^nd November 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I saw this film when it first came out in the cinema and really enjoyed it. It then appeared on TV back in March 2011; a second viewing ensued (also enjoyable). This week (having some free time) presented an ideal opportunity to re-acquaint myself with this minor masterpiece as I now possess the DVD. It was one of the best films I saw in 2010 and Hollywood will have to work hard to beat it! If anything, I enjoyed it even more third time around (if that’s possible!). But enough of my prattling on, here’s a brief summary before I give you my thoughts (summary haters and those that don’t wish to know anything about the plot please practice swearing with Hit Girl while I write the next paragraph).

Dave Lizewski is an average teenage school kid, he says he has one superpower, he’s invisible to girls. He and his friends, Marty and Todd, are into comic books in a big way and after hanging out one evening they are mugged by a couple of scumbags. It seems this is not the first time this has happened and Dave is getting a little fed-up with it. He goes online and gets himself a costume, a green wet-suit. After a bit of self-training, he decides he’s ready and ‘Kick-Ass’ is born. He confronts the two muggers who held up him and his friends but things don’t go well and he ends up having his ass kicked. After recovering in hospital and being screwed together with metal plates he finds his nerve endings are damaged, which means he can take a bit more of a beating than before. Meanwhile, a real Superhero known as ‘Big Daddy’ is training his eleven year old daughter, ‘Hit Girl’. They have a grudge against crime boss Frank D’Amico who framed ‘Big Daddy’ some years before. D’Amico’s son, Chris, who is disillusioned with his father, decides to become a Superhero himself, called Red Mist, in order to lure Kick-Ass out of hiding. They blame Kick-Ass for some losses they have been suffering recently. Kick-Ass eventually gains notoriety when he beats up three guys picking on another guy. The fight is filmed and put up on the internet, bringing a lot of media interest in Kick-Ass. Dave is also noticed by Katie Deauxma, although she doesn’t know his secret identity, and thinks he’s gay. I won’t say too much more, but needless to say all of these various characters are destined to meet, and when they do… I’ll have to leave it there or I’ll be having a knock at the door from the ‘Spoiler Police’ (& I don’t want that).

I must first say that it is a really well made film with some excellent stunt work. I thought the music chosen for the score was really great as well. Excellent performances from all of the leading cast, Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass, Nicolas Cage as Damon Macready/Big Daddy is excellent, Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl (also superb), Mark Strong as Frank D’Amico, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D’Amico/Red Mist and Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma.

There is a lot of humour in this film, both spoken and visual. It’s also very very violent, so I wouldn’t recommend it to those of a nervous disposition. I don’t usually enjoy teen comedies, but this is very original, very different and it’s very refreshing to see a film that pushes the boundaries somewhat. It’s a film that any superhero film fan should try to watch at least once a year, just to see how it should be done!

SteelMonster’s verdict: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

My score: 9.3/10

IMDb Score: 7.8/10 (based on 233,147 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/

MetaScore: 66/100: (Based on 38 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 76/100 (based on 242 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 83/100 ‘Liked It’ (based on 211,361 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1217700-kick_ass/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE
Dave Lizewski: Jesus, guys, doesn't it bug you? Like thousand of people wanna be Paris Hilton and nobody wants to be Spiderman.
Marty: Yeah, what's with that? She has like no tits at all.
Todd: Maybe it's the porn tape; he doesn't have a porn tape.
Marty: You guys never saw "One Night In Spiderman"?

Hit Girl: Okay you cunts... Let's see what you can do now!

Dave Lizewski: How do I get a hold of you?
Hit Girl: [sarcastically] You just contact the mayor's office. He has a special signal he shines in the sky; it's in the shape of a giant cock.

Damon Macready: Mindy, no more homework, Babydoll. Time for Frank D'Amico to go bye-bye.

Dave Lizewski: Even with my metal plates and my fucked up nerve endings, I gotta tell you, that hurt! But not half as much as the idea of leaving everything behind. Katie, my dad, Todd and Marty... and all the things I'd never do. Like learn to drive or see what me and Katie's kids would look like or find out what happened on "Lost". And if you're reassuring yourself that I'm going to make it through this since I'm talking to you now, quit being such a smart-ass! Hell dude, you never seen "Sin City"? "Sunset Boulevard"? "American Beauty"?

Dave Lizewski: With no power, comes no responsibility. Except, *that* wasn't true.

Chris D'Amico: As a great man once said... wait 'til they get a load of me.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site (for the new Kick-Ass movie out in 2013): http://www.kickass2movie.co.uk/
Trailer:

Film Review: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010)

Co-Writers/Co-Directors: Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders
Running time: 94 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy
UK Release date: 31st March 2010

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 29th May 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I had heard a lot about this film before seeing it; after all, it was a huge hit when it hit the screens last year. Now showing on TV, I thought it was about time I saw just what all the fuss was about. You’ll be pleased to know I wasn’t too disappointed, I really enjoyed this tale of Vikings, Dragons and friendship. There were just a couple of niggles, but I’ll get to them later.

When young Hiccup, son of the town of Berk’s leader, Stoick the Vast, decides he wants to fight dragons, he disobeys his father and goes into battle with an invention of his. He brings down a rare dragon, a Night Fury, but finds himself unable to kill it when he finds it the following day. He releases the dragon, but it is injured and needs Hiccup’s help to be able to fly again. He calls the dragon Toothless and it’s not long before they become friends. Through Toothless, Hiccup learns more about the dragons that have been plaguing his town and that it is not through their own choice. When Stoick discovers the dragon you can tell there’s going to be conflict, but will it end well for the boy and his dragon? Well, you’ve probably guessed I’m not going to tell you here.

This film has two things in its favour, a decent plot and some top class animation. It’s all beautifully drawn in a similar style to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), which I also enjoyed very much. Well voiced by the talents of; Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, Gerard Butler as Stoick, Craig Ferguson as Gobber the Belch, America Ferrera as Astrid, Jonah Hill as Snotlout and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs… to name but a few.

I said at the beginning I had a couple of niggles, well, we’ll start with accents. I was always brought up to believe Vikings came from Scandinavia (that’s Sweden, Finland, Norway or Denmark). These appear to all come from Scotland for some reason. Also, despite the fact that all their parents speak with Scottish accents, all the kids speak with American accents (very confusing). Furthermore, on a technical note, although I saw it in 2D, the picture seemed very dark, even the outside scenes looked a bit muted. Probably an after-effect of it having been 3D’d for those that like parting with the extra cash. It may have got a higher score were it not for the niggles I’ve mentioned here.

Over all though, it’s the story that’s important, and this film really delivers on that count. The animation is beautifully done, when it’s not too dark to see and the characters are well thought out, despite their unusual choices of accents. I really enjoyed it!… Highly recommended.

My Score: 8.4/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0892769/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1194522-how_to_train_your_dragon/
Official Site: http://www.howtotrainyourdragon.com/
Trailer:

Film Review: KICK-ASS (2010) - Revisited

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Running time: 113 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Comedy/Action/Thriller/Comic-book
UK Release date: 26th March 2010

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 26th March 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I saw this film when it first came out in the cinema and really enjoyed it. This week it came to our TV screens in a slightly cut version (about 4 minutes shorter than the theatrical release) but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of it. It was one of the best films I saw last year and the filmmakers will have to work hard to beat it again this year! If anything, I enjoyed it more second time around (if that’s possible!). But enough of my prattling on, here’s a short summary before I give you my thoughts (summary haters and those that don’t wish to know anything about the plot please practice swearing with Hit Girl while I write the next paragraph).

Dave Lizewski is an average teenage school kid, he says he has one superpower, he’s invisible to girls. He and his friends, Marty and Todd, are into comic books and after hanging out one evening they are mugged by a couple of scumbags. It seems this is not the first time this has happened and Dave is getting a little fed-up with it. He goes online and gets himself a costume, a green wet-suit. After a bit of self-training, he decides he’s ready and ‘Kick-Ass’ is born. He decides to confront the two muggers who held up him and his friends but things don’t go well and he ends up having his ass kicked. After recovering in hospital and being screwed together with metal plates he finds his nerve endings are a bit damaged, which means he can take a bit more of a beating than before. Meanwhile, a real Superhero known as ‘Big Daddy’ is training his eleven year old daughter, ‘Hit Girl’. They have a grudge against crime boss Frank D’Amico who framed ‘Big Daddy’ some years before. D’Amico’s son, Chris is disillusioned with his father and decides to become a Superhero himself, called Red Mist in order to lure Kick-Ass out of hiding. They blame Kick-Ass for some losses they have been suffering recently. Kick-Ass eventually gains notoriety when he beats up three guys picking on another guy. The fight is filmed and put up on the internet, bringing a lot of media interest in Kick-Ass. Dave is also noticed by Katie Deauxma, although she doesn’t know his secret identity, and thinks he’s gay. I won’t say too much more, but needless to say all of these various characters are destined to meet, and when they do… I’ll have to leave it there or I’ll be having a knock at the door from the ‘Spoiler Police’ (& I don’t want that).

I must first say that it is a really well made film with some excellent stunt work. I thought the music chosen for the score was really great as well. Excellent performances from all of the leading cast, Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass, Nicolas Cage as Damon Macready/Big Daddy, Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl, Mark Strong as Frank D’Amico, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D’Amico/Red Mist and Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma.

There is a lot of humour in this film, both spoken and visual. It’s also very very violent, so I wouldn’t recommend it to those of a nervous disposition. I don’t usually enjoy teen comedies, but this is very original, very different and it’s very refreshing to see a film that pushes the boundaries somewhat. It’s a film that any superhero film fan should try to watch at least once a year and I recommend it very highly!

My score: 9.2/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1217700-kick_ass/
Official Site: http://www.kickass-themovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1572603673/