Take a break from work: watch a trailer…
I understand why the geek community is very very very very very very psyched for this movie. I don’t see how this movie is much different from Mystery Men, however.
Kick-Ass opens in the U.K. on April 2, and in the U.S. and Canada on April 16.
Oh, man. If you haven’t seen the red band trailer, you have no idea what you are in for. People will be picketing this movie when it comes out. I guarantee it.
In Mystery Men, super-heroes were an accepted part of society, and powers/abilities/ridiculous crap was the norm.
The attempted concept of Kick-Ass is to ground it in reality; basically the kid who plays Kick-Ass decides one day to put on a costume and fight crime. He gets filmed defending someone, the film goes to YouTube, and it sets off a craze of people getting into costumes and becoming vigilantes.
That’s why that idiot dies in the first 5 seconds. He’s an idiot, not a super-scientist with flight armor; those don’t exist.
MaryAnn, you really need to go read the comic book source material.
The book is more Watchmen/Punisher than Mystery Men, trust me. Where Mystery Men was more akin to “affectionate parody” and “camp”… Kick-Ass is more “JEBUS did that kid just blow someone’s (expletive) off?!” and “OHGOD that is SICK AND WRONG!”
Be prepared to hate Nicholas Cage (oddly enough in a good way for once) when you see this film.
I was in love with this movie until I saw that Nic Cage was in it.
Now now, she doesn’t need to read the source material. If she does, the director has failed in his job. Reading the source material may increase or decrease enjoyment, or it may better prepare her for the movie, but it should stand or fall on its own.
I am confused by the little girl who very much appears to have super powers. Someone want to explain that, or should it wait for the movie?
I’m having a hard time getting interested in this. Looks too damn weird. And I generally like weird.
She doesn’t actually have super-powers; they just movie-kewel’d her acrobatics, and apparently she’s very well trained.
The world is much more grounded in the comic. I do hope the movie leaves in the cocaine-usage scene. I hear they add a slight twinge of semi-believable sci-fi in the film.
It was released here in Ireland last Friday. I’m sure there will be slightly different edited versions for the US vs. UK and Ireland markets. And yes, they did leave in the cocaine-usage scene, but I’m not sure why that seemed important to the previous poster – you’ll see. I think I’ve seen more drug usage on American network television. There is another scene involving drug utilization that I am sure will be more controversial…
I can say however, I was shocked by the violence in the movie. Not necessarily the fact it existed, but rather, that they made it enjoyable. And that I enjoyed it. At first I felt slightly guilty at being the only American in the theater – reveling in the American-ness of it all (look kids – guns! violence!). To being ashamed for the movie and America (now it’s guns, violence AND children!) as if we were an embarrassing Uncle at Thanksgiving who always drinks too much and is forgiven for his verbal gaffes and tasteless comments because everyone knows he always makes them. To finally wondering if I should be concerned for myself or society that this is the type of movie that we release and people find *entertaining*.
So I can’t wait to see what MaryAnn will have to say about the movie, as I’m still trying to figure out exactly why I did find it enjoyable. Perhaps because it enjoyed destroying most of the typical superhero type movie plotlines to comedic effect (at least in the beginning) before falling prey to them. And perhaps I enjoyed it more because I didn’t have any knowledge of the movie before I went to see it. And so it was completely not what I was expecting.
At any rate, can’t wait to see your review, MaryAnn!
super powers or not, she’s a frickin’ KID. Why is there a kid kicking adult ass in this movie. Even in a comic(as in funny) sense I never buy it. If this was all teens and adults trying to be superheros I wouldn’t mind. Inject a kid into the mix and you lose me. Especially if said kid appears to actually be successful at said ass kicking.
Reminds of those terrible looking Spy Kid movies.
Ugh.
Finally, someone else mentions my own problem. I want to see the movie, but I can’t stand when movies have little kids able to effectively fight an adult. If they have a gun sure, but kicks and punches… I never buy it, no matter how well they’re trained. One good solid arm into their body and they’re flying backwards. What’s odd is I’m not a stickler for accuracy in movies, except on this point alone.
Normally, I’d agree with the last two posters….because I hate it when kid sidekicks are introduced into pretty much anything. However, when I watched this trailer, the girl and “Big Daddy” just made me chuckle. I think that’s because parents today are encouraged to protect their children from EVERYTHING these days, to the point of hysteria, and the Nic Cage character seems to be the absurd antidote to that. He’s spending quality time with his little girl, you know? :) And he’s nuturing her talent. I find the “nerd decides to empower himself” aspect of the film more tiresome.
I think the whole point is how entirely ridiculous the idea of an 11-year-old girl being an assassin really is.
I still feel that way about Inglorious Basterds. To be honest, I really only enjoyed that film because of Christoph Waltz and Mélanie Laurent. This is because some of the violence really unnerved me despite how fantastical it all was. Yet, it’s the one film from last year that has stuck with me more than any other. I think it’s the irony (and Maryann pointed this out in her review) that we’re cheering on a movie about American soldiers killing Nazi’s in which the Nazi’s are enjoying a movie about a German soldier killing Americans.
The cocaine scene was in the comic, and the comment made during it’s usage to disguise it as anything else was a little hilarious shocker to read while on the can.
I was hoping it had made the cut, as opposed to the eBay abuse that I hear takes place in the film, which is not in the comic, but doesn’t help ground the story in any way.
One of the points made in the comic was the morality of a parent training his own daughter to become a virtual killing machine. The comic book as a whole has this nihilism that both condones the violence and condemns the crapsack world that allows such violence to be tolerated (even celebrated).
They better keep that drug reference in, it was pretty much the exclamation mark to how twisted Big Daddy and Hit-Girl were.