Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sherlock Holmes

A. It sucked
B. I thought I was watching the British remake of national treasure

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Kick Ass:

Here are my problems with the movie:
  • Nicolas Cage does a good job, but really doesn't capture the character I learned to know and love from the comics. He seems like a happy psychotic guy rather than the gruff burly caring father. Also, allot of details about "Big Daddy" were cut out. When hit girl mentions the briefcase with 3 million dollars, she doesn't explain it's full of comics. Also, they left out a crucial speech from the father explaining why he raised his daughter the way he did.
  • I don't like how shiny the director wanted everything to be. Everywhere anyone went the scenes looked like sets. To be fair, it is a comic book movie, but I felt a bit alienated by this.
  • For a 8 comic book series being stretched out to a 2 hour movie it seemed like they would have had more time to elaborate that lots of time passes in the movie. For example, the training montage, in the hospital, and the dating scenes were a little rushed.
Here are my highlights:
  • Holy crap, the fighting scenes were well done. Jackie Chan would be proud. Normally I don't feel comfortable laughing at deaths of villains, but I really couldn't help myself, the comedic deaths were just too well done.
  • Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl) is just flat out fantastic. She really captures the character from the comic perfectly. Just about everything about her is perfectly done for this movie. Imagine a 12 year old version of kill bill.
  • Aaron Johnson (Kick Ass) does a pretty good job. He's easy to identify with, but most of all, fights like a wimp. The way he fights makes you love his character. I think any actor could have taken his place and I couldn't have cared less, but his awkward movements are worth mentioning.
  • Finally, the writing is fantastic. Not the comic to movie translation writing, but the core writing in the comic. The original writer pays tribute to the different archetypes of characters. Kick Ass is Spider man, Hit Girl is "The Bride" from kill bill, Big Daddy is the punisher, the list goes on.
All and all, a good movie. Could have been better, but the story was hard to screw up.
3.5/5