Escape to the Movies: Kick-Ass

[TomOfTheCross]

Saw it last week, one of the best movies in a long time.
Best character has to be Big Daddy, Hit-Girl was awesome but not as awesome.
Also has anyone read the review which the Daily Mail did on this?
If not here it is
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-1262948/Kick-Ass-Dont-fooled-hype--This-crime-cinema-twisted-cynical-revels-abuse-childhood.html
I don't know whether this is more twisted than the film in question or bloody hilarious.

I wouldn't take anything the Mail has to say too seriously. I'm surprised they momentarily stopped talking about immigration figures long enough to write a review about what seems to be a genuinely good film.

OT : Chances are I will get around to watching this at some point, but I will most likely wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray release.

Wait for Blu-ray? Seriously, go watch at the cinema. It benefits from the big screen SO much.

 

[Donrad]

filmed near my home and i recognized most of the areas.
also i loved the movie!!

 

[Deadlydorito]

Idiot reviewer, you seriously just made yourself sound like a pedophile.

Well done, Bob.

 

[littlewilly91]

I would have liked to have gone through the thread so I could contribute to the discussion, but there are six pages of it. )-:

Seriously good review & piece of criticism. Every important angle covered and intelligent response. I've sifted through a few kick ass reviews and you express everything they tried to, wonderfully. Really liked the Jurassic park comparison. Does anything execute this elusive combination of juvenile glee and dark cynicism well?

There must be something. It sounds like it could be really great if done well doesn't it?

 

[ANImaniac89]

just read the book and Loved it

 

[Cannorn]

I was going to avoid this like the plague thinking it would be an awful AWFUL American teen parody mind number but the review just confirms what my friends that have seen it have said and I'll be giving it a shot

 

[Klepa]

I was going to avoid this like the plague thinking it would be an awful AWFUL American teen parody mind number but the review just confirms what my friends that have seen it have said and I'll be giving it a shot

This is exactly what I thought. I'm now kind of interested, but I hate Nicholas Cage, and I heavily doubt I can get any of my friends to come in and watch this with me.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm known among my peers for hating on a lot of movies, and especially the superhero "fad" movies of the last decade or so. With all that in mind, I can tell you confidently that comic fans and movie nerds alike will not be disappointed by Kick-Ass.

No, it's not 100% like the comic, but it stays true to heart. What I mean is that the sacrifices made to adapt the comic into film didn't also remove the very soul of the work (both comic and film). This is something that few superhero movies have managed to do in the last 10 years, and the big studios could learn a valuable lesson if people would get out and support this movie by watching it in the theater.

Release the Kryptoniiiite!

 

[Sephiwind]

I have to say that seeing the trailers on TV made me think this was really some dumb kids movie, but after watching this review I really want to go see this movie now.....

Also anything Rodger Ebert calls "Morally Reprehensible" screams must go and see.

 

[Gaming King]

Hit Girl is so awesome! That's how I'm going to train my daughter.

She'd be the only thing attracting me to this movie.

What does Cage do as "Big Daddy"? :/

And I heard there's a graphic scene of bonin' down? What's that all about!? >_<

 

[Gaming King]

I have to say that seeing the trailers on TV made me think this was really some dumb kids movie, but after watching this review I really want to go see this movie now.....

Also anything Rodger Ebert calls "Morally Reprehensible" screams must go and see.

LOL, an excellent point since he must see a WHOOOOLE lot of fairly morally sick movies. That must invoke curiosity in some people, although I myself don't like to shock myself silly.

 

[Faulty Turmoil]

I saw this for my birthday and it was well... kick ass!

I admit when I saw an advert for it I though it would be another pile of crap like epic movie.
But it's now one of my favorite action comedies. I can remember thinking that it should be an eighteen whilst watching some of the particularly violent scenes.

Oh and Big Daddy is BAD ASS!

 

[wolfshrimp]

Also, I knew you wouldn't let this one get away without a mention of Watchmen. And as I always do when presented with such an opinion, I have to respectfully disagree that Watchmen was 'awesome'.

THANK YOU for saying this before me. I actually felt that the characters in Kick Ass were far more psychologically believable than anything Watchmen could pull out of its hat. Watchmen just... I don't know, didn't have the flair and the selfawareness of how ridiculous and unattainable the superhero icon is that Kick Ass provided. And yes, I have read the original Watchmen comic and that in no way improved or enhanced my understanding of the film.

If the same form of cynicism that was present in Watchmen was removed from Kick Ass, then I am glad of it. Kick Ass wins, hands down.

 

[Sephiwind]

I have to say that seeing the trailers on TV made me think this was really some dumb kids movie, but after watching this review I really want to go see this movie now.....

Also anything Rodger Ebert calls "Morally Reprehensible" screams must go and see.

LOL, an excellent point since he must see a WHOOOOLE lot of fairly morally sick movies. That must invoke curiosity in some people, although I myself don't like to shock myself silly.

Ever since I watched Clockwork Orange back in high school it takes a lot for a movie to actually shock me.

 

[DrEmo]

Movie Bob, I respect you three times as much as I did before. You did a Kick-Ass review without using the line "Kick-ass kicks ass".
Thanks, mang!

 

[Zombie Nixon]

This would have been a good movie if not for big daddy and hit girl.

 

[titankore]

The movie kind of trails away from the comic somewhere around the middle making it a lot more cheerful then the comic. Normally I would go hulk and start smashing the movie but it was so cool I'll spare it.

This just goes to show you that you can stray from the comic as long as you make it awesome enough to compensate. Although it does feel weaker then the comic it doesn't completely fuck it up.

 

[adafuns]

I should porbably give this one a look then. By the way bob, what did you make of Roger Ebert's review of the film?

Honestly, I was dissapointed to read it. NOT, I stress, because I "wanted" him to like it - generally speaking, "eff-the-world" satire isn't Ebert's thing (he didn't like Fight Club, either) - but because his review basically boiled down to "the violence involving children shocked me so much that the rest of it isn't worth commenting on," and... I dunno, I guess I expect him to be more thoughtful than that.

Ebert is THE most important American film critic still working. His breadth of knowledge is unmatched, his ecclectic experience as a onetime screenwriter and "man of the world" is legendary, and NO ONE - including me - would be able to make a career of doing film criticism as TV/web entertainment without Siskel & Ebert having existed.

But on this one... I don't think that "moral outrage" is a particularly worthwhile form of art critique. He didn't like the movie, fine, but I'd be more interested in knowing what it was in the execution of it that lowered his opinion of it instead of just "ick, kids and guns, no thanks." That's weaksauce. That's the sort of non-criticism you get out of "morality police" websites like CAPalert or the "parent's guide" folks. Hell, Ebert is a guy who made his early bones as the lone voice championing "Bonnie & Clyde" when all the other critics were dismissing it as "too violent;" so it's distressing to see him on the other side of that attitude on this.

Ebert is getting old, letting his prejudices get in the way of being a critic in a "kids and their damn rock n roll music..." sort of way. just curious, what did you think about his thoughts on video games as an arts media? don't mean to high-jack the thread, just curious on your thoughts on it.