Review: Kick Ass

I had not seen the trailer, now did I know anything at all about Matthew Vaughn’s latest flick. Needless to say, I enjoyed every single minute of it.

The film narrates the story of a young comic book fan who is sick of being weak and getting mugged and decides to make something of himself, to become a super hero. After a failed attempt, he tries again and becomes the hero: Kick Ass. Oh, then there is the sub plot of revenge seeking ex-cop and his killer 11 year old daughter who absolutely tear through, with exacting severity, the bad guys, one at a time.

Unlike the tale of most super heroes (even Batman), Kick-Ass’ predicament is closer to our realities (It reminds me of listening to Kanye West’s College Dropout, which reached such a large audience due to fact that most people could relate to him. He was not a gun toting, hip, gangster wannabe but a guy who dropped out of college and wanted to pursue a dream, and had to work so hard for it). What really got hooked me was the sad realisation you experience while watching this film. Kick Ass attempts to stop 3 men beating another senseless in one scene. After he receives a thorough arse kicking, one of the men ask him why he is protecting someone he doesn’t know.

He points to the store behind the men (you can see 5 or so people watching the violence and doing nothing about it. Some are filming it on their phones). He answers the man’s simple, logical question: I’m doing this because people are all to happy to let this happen to someone else, someone they don’t know.

(Maybe we are scared – we don’t want to intervene because we fear for our lives. Or maybe we are frozen on the spot, and don’t know what to do.)

I felt that there was a brilliant sadness and reality to this film. However, Vaughn manages to mix in, and rather superbly may I say, Tarantino-esque action (extreme, distorted violence). Each real moment, each heartfelt moment is countered with a bit of ultra-violence or jaw dropping action. This doesn’t take away from the film however. We are sitting there to be entertained, and that’s what happens.

The cast are all fantastic, and hilarious. A special hand goes to Chloe Moretz for being a tough, serious little actor. Some people have mentioned that it is awful to have such young girl saying some fairly serious swear words and killing people, but they need to grow up. It is art. Art pushes boundaries, and if that bothers you, then good.

There are worse things in the world then an 11 year old girl saying “cunt”.

Part 54 - Clash of the Titans

I had no expectations, so I had very little to be unhappy about during this film. Louis Leterrier’s film really couldn’t go wrong. The story was written before people wrote stories, and is so grand and complex, that even a superficial re-telling is adequate.

I experienced the 2D version of this and was thankful for it. A friend felt the 3D version was too chaotic, with things being bombarded at you all the time. As we have learned with Pixar’s Up and then James Cameron’s Avatar, 3D is a much better and richer experience if it’s not forced on you, not rammed down your throat. Surely the days of arrows and rocks hurtling at you are over.

But back to the film. The acting style employed was Over-the-Top, but it was fine. The film was fun and didn’t pretend to be too serious. Liam Neelson has demonstrated his complete and utter contempt for acting in a ridiculously flat, re-hashed performance. This was hilarious.

So, sure, it sucked, but for some cheaps laugh, okay special affects and popcorn, go see it. Or maybe just play God of War

Part 52 – Washington and Animals

It was warm night, an even before the band room at the Toff was full, the air was stuffy, and a little lethargic. Credit card, arm stamped, bar for beer.

Rat Vs. Possum. A terribly bad name. They opened with a (mostly) keyboard, drone/noise with drums intro to their first track. The build up was pretty good, and probably would have been a lot better if the sound techs had done a better job. After the indulgent 2 or 3 minutes, the track kicked in. It was fun. Really fun. Their songs sounded like Animal Collective/Octopus Project sounding, synth infused, poppy yet slightly inaccessible art-wank songs. Things heated up when the played a (more) melodic cover of My Disco’s You Came To Me Like A Cancer Lain Dormant Until It Blossomed Like A Rose, which I love.

The audience however, were not interested, and sat in a dormant like state until the very last song, when they decide to rise on their haunches in anticipation for the main act.

Washington emerged from the curtains with her band and very quickly leapt into her music. Her songs were mostly catchy, poppy and sweet, and were enjoyable. Most songs however were backed up my her band – their music was boring. It felt like they had to write in the ‘band music’ to add a more poppy, friendly feel to her music (possibly). It didn’t work. I am not critising the band, they were fine, but it didn’t work. It was dull and predictable.

The best part of her show was at the end of another guitar-boring song where she finished by slowly moving away from the microphone as she repeated the last line again and again and again. In this 20 seconds, we got to experience her wonderful vocal range without the encumbrance of a loud, boring band. I am not crapping on the members of the band either – the “band” music was just dull, boring and so predictable.

Washington did not have enough material for a whole show. So much of the second half’s songs were carbon copies of each other. Overall, her gig was disappointing. She seemed to be enjoying herself, which was nice, but the show was, at best, mostly dull.

The show changed at the half way point however. It seems that she doesn’t have enough good material to play a full gig. Most of the songs in the second half felt like fillers, and the band was not working in her favour.
Overall, Washington was disappointing.