Kick now, ass questions later

Based on the fiercely original graphic novel by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita Jr, Kick-Ass follows the story of a teenage fanboy Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so. After being caught on camera saving someone from a beating, Kick-Ass becomes a YouTube phenomenon and a media frenzy descends on the story of a masked vigilante. It is not long before he meets real superheroes in the form of a Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), plus newbie Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Together they work to bring down gangster Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and his many cronies.

This is one film that does exactly what the title suggests; it kicks ass.
Fans of the graphic novel will be pleased to see it keeps the pacing and many of the quirks of the original story. The actors are all perfectly cast, none more so than Brit Aaron Johnson as the title character. After playing a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy and now a geek-turned-hero, he is really proving himself to be a remarkable talent. Nicolas Cage always tends to balance on the line between cool and neurotic, but he delivers what is undoubtedly one of his coolest performances to date as the Adam West-esque Big Daddy. The young Chloe Grace Moretz is also a stand out, backing up her dramatic turns in The Poker House and (500) Days of Summer with meaty role few child actors would have been comfortable tackling.

Director Matthew Vaughn's experience working with Guy Ritchie on several films shows here, with the smutty dialogue and expertly choreographed action sequences. He integrates music from The Prodigy to The New York Dolls seamlessly, giving the film more attitude than it seems humanly possible. No doubt parenting groups will be up in arms about the character of Hit Girl, an 11-year-old mass murdering dynamo whose potty mouth makes Gordon Ramsay look like a nun.
But the film as just as ultra violent, ultra awesome and, in some cases, ultra offensive as its source material. Produced by Brad Pitt (among others) and his production company Plan B Entertainment, it has not lost any of its bite in the transition to the silver screen and as a film, it delivers a one two punch to the traditional comic book movie. Like the bastard child of Tarantino and Spiderman, Kick-Ass proves you can make adult entertainment from a juvenile concept, with a sprinkling of social commentary. The ending leaves opportunity for a sequel, so you can only pray enough people see and support this ballsy film that makes no apologies for what it is.

Kick-Ass opens in cinemas next Thursday, April 8.

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Kick-Ass holds reviewers ransom with its awesomeness

Ooooo the first reviews for Kick-Ass are hitting the net and it looks like the film is living up the fit-inducing excellence hinted at in the trailer. My favourite review so far comes from Michael Moran at the Times Online. You can read the full review here , but here’s an extract:

"The action is Tarantino meets Batman, the characterisations are Superbad meets Napoleon Dynamite, and the military hardware on display is an unbalanced loner’s fever-dream. I'm not in the habit of awarding star ratings for films but if I were, in this case I'd be tossing stars around like a tipsy ninja.

I've never said this before in a review but please see this film. For two reasons: First, I want you to be happy. Second, I want it to make enough money to finance a sequel."

Squealllllllll.

Kick-Ass is released in cinemas on April 8 in Aus.

For previous posts on the film visit here and here.

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Kick Ass by title, Kick Ass by nature

I’ve been on an indefinite hiatus for a while now, but let me make my glorious return with this; the final Kick Ass poster aka . . . .

THE. BEST. MOVIE. POSTER. EVER.

The fact star Aaron Johnson has knocked up the 42-year-old director of his last film Nowhere Boy seems almost insignificant in comparison to the brilliance of this poster. Almost.
Suffice to say, Kick Ass is going to be just that come its April 8 release date in Australia.

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Well, since you assed

Good news, the Kick-Ass teaser trailer went online today . . .hooray!

It's painstakingly short, even for a teaser trailer and I'm hungry to see the full length version soon. Looks great though.

For more info on Kick-Ass (aka the comic-book movie you have to see next year) check out previous posts here and here.

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I see you baby, shakin that ass

Here I am coming to you with the latest comic book to movie adaptation that has attracted my interest. It’s called Kick-Ass and frankly, the film sounds like it will do just that. After seeing the very interesting still (below) in UK Empire magazine I sought out a bit more info on this project and when it will be hitting our screens.

Kick-Ass was released as a comic early last year and is the brainchild of Mark Millar (with artwork done by John Romita Jr). I know what you’re thinking, that’s a super quick transition to film! And it is, but you can understand the appeal to audiences who are desperate for a different take on the whole super-hero thing.

The story centres on ordinary New York high school student Dave Lizewski, who transfers his love of comic books to real-life and decides to become a masked vigilante. After basic training, he sets off to fight crime and ends up getting beaten, stabbed and eventually hit by a car. Telling his father he was mugged and hiding his costume before paramedics arrive, Dave undergoes four operations. Upon hospital release he’s back fighting crime.

This time, he doesn’t get completely owned and becomes an overnight sensation when an onlooker catches him saving a man and posts the video on YouTube. He’s dubbed with the name Kick-Ass and sets up a MySpace account so people can contact him for help. Anyway, without spoiling the remainder of the plot, a bunch of other stuff happens and he runs into a range of unusual characters during his crime fighting efforts. In particular, an 11-year-old assassin named Hit Girl who is trained and guided by a man named Big Daddy. Creepily enough, they’re a father and daughter team and no doubt the creep factor will be taken up a notch (or seven) in the film with Nicholas Cage playing the father character. Christopher Mintz-Plasse aka McLovin also has a role as Kick-Ass’s crime fighting pal Red Mist and the lead is being handled by Aaron Johnson aka the teen eye candy in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.

The film is being directed by Scottish fella Mark Vaughn and his company Marv Films and Plan B Entertainment privately financed the production when Hollywood studios found the material too risky. In a ballsy move, Vaughn took footage of the film to Comic-Con recently to try and interest buyers. After an enthusiastic response from fans, Universal, Paramount and Fox Searchlight are among the companies chasing the international rights for the movie but Lionsgate have secured Canadian and American distribution rights.

Kick-Ass is likely to have a mid-2010 release.

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Like a two-leaf clover with swine flu

When it comes to movie-making, you would think luck wouldn’t have much to do with the success or failure of a film. After all, you make sure you have great subject material, a well-adapted script, plenty of money in the budget for marketing, sturdy actors and most importantly an awesome director and crew. If the film turns out like Gigli, odds are you fucked up on one of the principle elements along the way. However, there are a handful of films who, due to no fault of their own, have been released on the worst dates. Like the little girl crushed to death by a piano which has fallen of a two-storey building, some people (or films) are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Below is a list of films I’ve put together that have been released on the worst possible days.
Collateral Damage Ahh yes, who could forget this oily, sweaty Arnie vehicle? Everyone apparently. And why is that you ask? The aptly title Collateral Damage had a September 11, 2001 release date. So you can imagine why audiences didn’t really feel like going to see a movie while arguably the largest terrorist attack of our time was occurring. If, by chance, they did want to go to the movies for a bit of escapism on said horrific day, I don’t think a film titled Collateral Damage would have been the pick. Then there’s the whole iffy plot issue about Arnie’s character who is trying to bring down international terrorists after they killed his family in a dramatic bombing scene. Several bombings of important government buildings ensue baring an errie resemblance to the actual events and trauma of 9/11. At the last minute studio execs managed to delay the release of the movie and pump it out a few weeks later accompanied by a press release preaching the anti-terrorism slogan of the film. Needless to say, Collateral Damage ddidn’t damage the box office, just the investors pockets.
World Trade CentreParamount studios had a splash of bad luck on the day they announced they would be making the first Hollywood dramatisation of 9/11. Ready and politically corrected as they were back in July 2005, unfortunately the day they announced World Trade Centre would be made starring Nicholas Cage, the London bombings occurred. Lets just say it didn’t exactly warm everyone to the idea.
Disaster Movie Admittedly Hollywood spoof movies are never going to be a major critical or commercial success but the following situation didn’t help. Lionsgate copped a back lashing (or 12) when they announced Disaster Movie would be released on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Maybe they thought the coincidence/unfortunate timing would slip under the radar or maybe it was intentional and therefore like most of the jokes in the film – tasteless.
GlitterOkay, I know this is possibly the most hated movie of all time and my tireless efforts to defend it and Mariah Carey are futile BUT (and there is a but) did I mention Glitter was released on September 11, 2001? Oh no, unlike Collateral Damage Glitter didn’t get the chance to reschedule a release date thus giving it a chance to gain an actual audience and a warmer critical response. I’ll stop now.

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What do you want to Know-ing?

You know what majority of film critcis are like? High school students. They all want to be respected and appreciated in their own right but none of them want to stand out from the masses. Instead, majority of them agree and disagree together, always wanting to fit in amongst the others. Of course this is a broad generalisation, it's like saying all black people love Obama or all women love Sex and the City when that is simply not true. Therefore I don't understand why majority of critics are quick to condemn Nicholas Cage films without judging them properly. In the weeks leading up to the release of his latest movie, Knowing, all I heard from online bloggers and critics was how this is going to be another schlocker, Cage is such a joke and wo' is me the reviewer for having to sit through a re-hash of Next. Therefore, you could imagine my suprise when ABC icon David Stratton called Knowing a "contemporary sci-fi classic" last Wednesday on At The Movies. Entertainment poster-boy Richard Wilkins went on to give an equally glowing review and so, along I trotted on Saturday evening to judge for myself.
And judge I did.
It’s rare that you can go to the movies today and be genuinely surprised by a film. Well, Knowing is one of those rare films that fools you in to thinking you are heading in one direction when in reality you are spiralling off in the opposite path. It’s beautifully executed by visionary Australian director Alex Proyas who is behind such films as The Crow (personal favourite), DarkCity and I Robot (but don’t hold that against him). The entire film was shot in Melbourne and the utterly breathtaking special-effects were all done in Australian and New Zealand. Unlike many a Cage film, the mouth-dropping effects don’t draw away from what is essentially a very well acted and packaged film. It’s not a light, fun, flighty, chunk of entertainment with the happy ending you might expect from the poorly done reviews.
The concept, oh the concept. The brilliance behind the concept of and how superbly such ideas were presented makes me tend to side with Davo Stratton on this one, Knowing will indeed be looked back upon as a "contemporary sci-fi classic".

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G Whiz

What were they thinking? Sometimes I seriously wonder what is happening to the world. Israelis are spilling in to the Gaza strip, the economy is disintegrating faster than Michael Jacksons face and Disney prepares to release a feature film about talking Guinea Pigs. Sorry Disney, I guess that’s looking at the film in a nutshell when really it’s much more complex than that. The film, titled G-Force, is about talking Guinea Pigs who have been trained by the FBI to help dispatch a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world. Well get out my red pen and calendar because I’ve got a new release date to mark baby!
No. I’m being sarcastic. And if the day ever comes when I’m marking the release day of a film about talking Guniea Pigs in my calendar then I’ll be handing my best friend an AK47 and asking her to take me behind the shed and do me like she did Ol Yeller when he got arthritis in his back legs.
The film, which is obviously targeted at children, is so ludacris I don’t think even the kiddies are going to find it funny. In fact, I have a feeling that after sitting through two hours of this rubbish all children under 10 might have an inclination to buy and skin every Guinea Pig they can get their hands on. Of course, we (and by we I mean I) at Movie Mazzupial don’t condone animal violence especially against creatures distantly related to marsupials. However, you seriously have to wonder in times of impending economic doom (or even economic super-awesome party fun time) how could Disney execs green light such a movie? More importantly how could actors of Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi and Bill Nighy’s caliber sign on to voice the characters? How? Why? How? Two very important questions, which I think need answering. And the name! G-Force!
I imagine the conversation on naming the film would have gone something like this:

Disney Exec 1: So what do you think we should name this talking Guinea Pig movie?

Disney Exec 2: Is this the one where they’re agents for the FBI?

DE 1: Yep.

DE 2: The one where we copied the same plot from Cats and Dogs but swapped the animals for Guinea Pigs?

DE 1: Yep.

DE 2: Hmmm I don’t know . . . .

DE 1: What about FGI?

DE 2: That’s fucking stupid.

DE 1: The whole film is fucking stupid.

DE 2: Seriously how did we go from making Toy Story to working on this shit?

- -(two hours later) - -

DE 1: What about C-G-I? It’s like a play on the G in Guniea Pigs and the technology used to create the characters.

DE 2: Stuff it. I say we just call it something related to a female orgasm and hopefully they’ll bin the whole film.

DE 1: G-Force?

DE 2: Ha! I love it! It’s like G-spot but kinky with the Guinea Pigs.

The rest is history my friends and for those of you who want to die a slow and painful death, G-Force is out in cinemas July this year. Hoyt Yeatman is the director of said disaster and if his name sounds familiar that’s because he had some street cred before he signed on to this. Yeatman was the visual effects supervisor for such genre classics as The Fly, The Blob and a handful of The Nightmare on Elm Street Films. WTF happened Yeatmizter? How did you stoop to this? FYI Santa called and next Christmas you’re getting a bag of coal and a pant suit. With gold buttons.

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