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

Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Tags

Action, Bangkok Dangerious, Charlie Yeung, Drama, Movie, Nicolas Cage, Shahkrit Yamnarm

and I pray you send me a man with better hair next time, k?

R

Nicolas Cage, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Charlie Yeung

Joe (Cage) is a hitman who is in Bangkok, working his last job.  He hires a street thief, Kong (Yamnarm), to be his expendable help, but eventually grows closer to Kong and becomes his teacher.  This relationship, and a growing romantic relationship with a deaf woman who works in a small store causes Joe to start violating some of the rules he’s always lived by.  Rules that have kept him alive.

Definitely not the worst Nic Cage movie I’ve seen, but far from quality cinema. Cage just isn’t very good at these kinds of serious characters.  He’s much better in quirky roles, like in Raising Arizona, Matchstick Men, etc.

The direction seems a little lackluster too.  Everything feels so subdued and low-key.  There’s no real emotion involved in anything.  Not in the romance, not in the teacher/student relationship, and certainly not in the convoluted plot about the people who hired Joe apparently betraying his trust.  Everybody just seems to be sleepwalking through the whole production.

I thought Kong’s story would have been much more interesting to follow than Joe’s.  At least he’s an interesting character with some charisma.  Instead we’re subjected to Joe’s dull, rambling narration, bad hair, blank stares, and awkward dates with Fon (Yeung).  Plus, we’re left with an ending that just doesn’t seem in keeping with the character that has been established as Joe.

So yeah, not a particularly good movie.  Boring, drab, ugly, confusing…and not at all dangerous.

Try not to take a job running errands for a hitman.

10 – 3 because it’s dull and ugly looking – 1.2 for some lackluster acting throughout – 1 for that ending = 4.8

Next (2007)

Tags

Action, Drama, Julianne Moore, Movie, Next, Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage’s Hair, Science Fiction

I should have seen the bad haircut coming...

PG-13

Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Nicolas Cage’s Hair

Cris: I’ve seen every possible ending. None of them are good for you.

Cris Johnson (Cage) can see two minutes into his own future.  The government is after him because they think he can help them stop a terrorist plot to detonate a nuclear device in the U.S.   The terrorists are after him for the same reason.

I knew this was going to be bad going into it, so it’s a good thing it was free on-demand!

Where to begin…?  It really seems like the writers just bent Cris’ future-sight gift to suit whatever plot developments they needed it to.  Also, how am I supposed to believe that Jessica Biel’s character is going to trust creepy-looking, creepy-acting Nicolas Cage enough after 5 minutes of knowing him to give him a ride somewhere?

Lame dialogue, lame special effects, lame ideas stolen from other movies, lame romance, vague villains…it all adds up to…not much.

There was one good action sequence near the end, but even that was almost ruined by some scenes that made little or no sense.

10 – 6.5 for being unoriginal, dull, and confusing – .5 for Cage’s weird hair + .2 for Biel being easy on the eyes = 3.2