Kick-Ass (2010)

Tags

Aaron Johnson, Action, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clark Duke, Comedy, Drama, Kick-Ass, Mark Strong, Movie, Nicolas Cage

trick or...treat?

R

Aaron Johnson, Clark Duke, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong

Dave: The comic books had it wrong.  It didn’t take trauma or cosmic rays or a power ring to make a superhero…just a perfect combination of optimism and naivety.

A regular high school kid, Dave (Aaron Johnson), decides to try to become a superhero.  It doesn’t go very well, but he still becomes an internet sensation while also making enemies with some very dangerous criminals.

I had heard a lot of good things about this movie, so I had high expectations going in.  Despite some up and down moments, overall my expectations were mostly met.  Especially in the second half of the movie.  It gets sillier, but very entertaining and even kind of moving at times.

After a rough start where we have to listen to A LOT of voice-over by Dave, telling us just how normal of a teen he is, things finally get rolling.  I liked his initial attempts at superheroing and how mostly he was a failure at it.  I wish the movie had stuck to that premise more.  I was a little sad to see everybody acting fairly superhuman by the end of the movie, but once I came to terms with that disappointment, I was able to just sit back and enjoy it.

Aaron Johnson is pretty likable in the lead, and it’s good to see Nicolas Cage using his oddness to good effect once again, but I’d have to say that little Chloe Moretz steals the show as Hit Girl.  She gets quite a few good lines (often obscenity filled) and is usually at the center of all the best action sequences.  Again, I would have liked to see her abilities be grounded a little more in reality (I don’t think an 11 year old could kick an adult male across a room), but whatever, it works.

As you can probably tell from the title, this is just a fun movie that sets out to entertain the audience in about any way it can.  It mostly succeeds, though I must say it was more violent and intense than I was expecting.  Yet, the comedy, seriousness, violence, etc are all balanced pretty well.  If it had stuck with the idea that real life people could never hope to emulate superheroes, it would have gotten an even higher rating from me.  As is, it’s still a solid recommendation…just don’t try any of it at home.

Body armor…always wear body armor when you do your superheroing.

10 – 1.5 for giving some of the characters too many superhero-like abilities – .7 for some unevenness in tone = 7.7

Robin Hood (2010)

Tags

Action, Cate Blanchett, Drama, Kevin Durand, Mark Strong, Max von Sydow, Movie, Oscar Isaac, Robin Hood, Romance, Russell Crowe, William Hurt

fortunately for you, I just love boring men...

PG-13

Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Kevin Durand, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Milking a dried udder gets you nothing but kicked off the milking stool!
Prince John: Mother, spare me your farmyard memories.  You have none, and I don’t understand them.

After King Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) is killed, his younger, more obnoxious, brother John (Isaac) takes over the throne.  He is immediately duped by a traitor, and French loyalist, in his court into inciting a civil war that will weaken England and allow the French army to conquer it.  Meanwhile, Robin Longstride (Crowe) is returning the sword of Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge), who was killed in an ambush, to Loxley’s father, Walter (Sydow).  Walter requests that Robin pose as his dead son, which leads to Robin’s involvement in all kinds of action and battles and stuff.

If I were to review this movie based on the reaction to it by the person sitting directly to my left in the theater, I would have to call it the best movie of the year.  There was laughter, there were tears, and there were several fist pumps.  She loved it.  But this is not my friend’s blog, it’s mine, so I have to write about my own reaction to it, which was much more subdued.

Sure, it had a few good triumphant moments, and a laugh here and there, but I think it was just too derivative for me to get too excited about.  There’s some Braveheart, some Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, and even some Saving Private Ryan.  The romance is predictable, the battles are routine, and I don’t recall anything else that really surprised me.

Lack of originality is more easily forgivable, though, than the fact that Robin Longstride is a dull character.  They try to give him a touching past involving his father, but that comes off as derivative as well.  Robin really has no personality at all.  I’m not sure how much of that is Crowe’s fault and how much is the writer’s fault.  It’s probably a combination of both.  Crowe seems to be sleepwalking through the role a bit, and doesn’t bring the fire that he did to Gladiator.  But then again, he doesn’t have any cool “My name is Maximus” type speeches in this one.  Instead, Robin has to yell about unfair taxation, people’s rights, and getting some sort of charter, or something, signed.  It just doesn’t quite have the same impact.

The most interesting characters in the movie are Marion Loxley (Blanchett) and King John.  Starting as a Prince before having the crown forced upon him by his brother’s death, John goes through the most interesting character arc in the movie, though ultimately they make him too cartoonishly evil in the end.

The battle scenes are Braveheart-light, as there’s only a PG-13 level of blood and dismemberment.  I think that adds to the movie’s overall feeling of being just lukewarm.  The whole thing just seems toned down and flat.

It’s not a bad movie really, but it’s not a memorable one either.  That’s especially true of its lead character, which is a shame because this is a guy that’s supposed to be legendary…and I can barely even remember any of his dialogue.

Maybe you wanna wear some armor around your neck if you think there will be arrows used in the battle you’re entering…

10 – 2 for a boring lead character – 1 for a lot of derivative scenes – 1 for a generally flat/dull tone = 6.0

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Tags

Action, Drama, Eddie Marsan, Jude Law, Kelly Reilly, Mark Strong, Movie, Rachel McAdams, Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes, Suspense

wait...where are your hats!? why am I always the only one to remember to wear a hat!?

PG-13

Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly

Watson: You do realize what you’re drinking is for eye surgery…?

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr.) attempts to catch a murderous man with seemingly magical powers.

A quick summary would be – entertaining at times, but ultimately somewhat confusing, flat, and overlong.

Robert Downey Jr. is pretty much always going to be good for some entertainment value, and that’s certainly the case here.  This is not a stuffy, methodical Sherlock Holmes that Downey is playing.  He’s an expert at hand to hand combat, using smaller, but damaging, hits to disorient his opponent before striking a finishing blow.  I like that aspect of the movie.  Carrying his calculating mind over to all sorts of areas makes sense.

Jude Law is alright as Watson, but that character seemed fairly one dimensional to me.  Actually, everybody in the movie, besides Holmes, seemed a little one dimensional.  Holmes’ former love, and nemesis, Irene (McAdams), could have been a very interesting character, but she seemed underwritten as well.  I’m a Rachel McAdams fan, but she just doesn’t have much to do for most of the movie.

There are some nice sets and fairly well staged action sequences, but none of it ever really connected with me for some reason.  Doesn’t seem like it was as fun as it should have been.  It definitely has its moments, but overall it seemed like a confusing collection of scenes that has already started to fade from my memory.

A good, solid slap to the ear can disorient your opponent long enough for you to land a more damaging punch to the neck or face.

10 – 2 because it just seemed sort of jumbled and overlong – 1.5 for most of the characters being too one dimensional = 6.5