Movies of 2014, Crime pt2

            Wow, it has been weeks since I last did a blog on crime movies from 2014.  So here are 4 more movies that have to touch on that topic thru various means.  Corrupt governments oppressing people, a hitman getting revenge on the guys who killed his puppy, Corrupt governments selling drugs, and a guy who wishes he had gotten any part of that stuff on tape.

John Wick

            Really?  Another one of these?  Not really complaining.  Most movies out of the growing subgenre of “Untouchable aging badass” tend to be really entertaining.  I look forward to its future entries… mostly… as “John Wick” is a little rocky to start off.  This movie has issues.  Mostly in that the writing is weird.

            First the positives, I like the action scenes which are clearly the reason this movie exists, I like the strange level of world building with the ultra-class hotel that caters to hitmen, I like some of the little style touches when they make the subtitles appear in different places around the screen and emphasizing different words with color, and I like that John Wick gets hurt during the movie making him one of the rare untouchable badasses that is somewhat touchable.

            Now on to the weird writing.  This movie starts with Wick mourning the loss of his wife… or as much mourning as Keanu Reeves is capable of displaying.  After the funeral he receives a gift from his wife in the mail, a puppy he can love so that he can go on living a normal life.  Then he is randomly attacked by mobsters who steal his car, kill the dog, and cause him to enter a state of despair that sends him on a roaring rampage of revenge.  Here is my question: Why not just write the movie so that the mobsters kill the wife?  Why have a dog in the movie at all?  Yeah the cliché of a wife dying to motivate the “hero” is sexist, but it at least makes sense.  And it is not like portraying her as this angelic being who died of natural causes and is totally separate from his violent world is any less a sexist cliché.

I have never been a fan of this guy's acting.  I have documentation.  (Image)

            John is a retired hitman who kills dozens of people in this movie, dozens of goons who probably have puppies, wives, and children of their own.  They are doing a job just like Wick did back in the day before retiring to be with his wife, but he shows no sympathy toward the vast majority, only letting some he knows personally an opportunity to walk away before he continues mowing down the army of bad guys.  He shows little respect for the safety of passersby and is so emotionally blank (see again: Keanu) that I am left watching one of the biggest over reactions ever.  Yes, I like dogs.  Yes, I think the bad guy was an asshole (He is an actor from “Game of Thrones” who has an infinitely punchable face).  Yeah, they are crooks… But so is Wick.  If he can go on to live a normal life so can they, he is denying them the same opportunities he was afforded and all they know is that he is some rage monster out to kill their boss.

            If the wife had been murdered and Wick nearly killed then his desire for revenge would seem less silly, and you could complicate things by having him being a new man, that he thinks he is betraying his wife’s memory by being violent even if it is to avenge her.  Heck, have her be a former assassin too, that she felt bad for having killed people and that she and John were trying to get past it all.  That way his spiral into violence has some weight.

            The movie is also weirdly toothless.  There is a scene that takes place in a spa/pool/nightclub with a bunch of mobsters and women in bikinis.  For a rated-R movie there are (shockingly) zero boobs.  And the only blood splatter is digital, fading to mist instantly.  Few people are left alive to cry or howl in agony.  There are few instances of guts, I would say it feels like a video game, but many video games go out of their way to portray extreme violence is epic detail.  Essentially the weight of Wick’s attacks is diminished.

            The movie also starts on a plot hole.  The mobsters that kill Wick’s dog first see him at a gas station, where they offer to buy his car and he says, “No”.  Then they attack him that night… Except Wick doesn’t notice anyone following him (maybe the stone cold assassin is oblivious), he parks in his garage so they couldn’t have spotted the car by driving by.  So did the goons find him by searching his plates?  Wouldn’t there be a red flag?  The only cop in the entire movie is crooked and knows John personally, the chop shops know John’s car on sight, and everyone in the movie knows who John is… except these three car thieves.  What?  And you do not have the excuse of them being new criminals from out of town, the main thug’s father was Wick’s direct supervisor.  This guy should have known who Wick was.

Overall: 5/10 

There are some lines, "I'm think'n I'm back." that seem kind of bordering on hack catch phrase.
But they just miss being one.

Selma

            The movie reminds me a lot of “Lincoln”.  The complex political leverage and lobbying surrounding a great man fighting for civil rights in the south, with issues in his home life pressuring him and drawing his attention away at various moments, ultimately ending in a speech that spells out important principles, but the looming specter of assassination hangs over the whole thing.

            The movie is worth watching and has a powerful core with David Oyelowo nailing a mythic performance as King.  The movie does a lot of cool stuff with a surprising hate crime bombing, very touching exchanges between several characters, and careful to show how both black and white protesters were assaulted (as racist as it may sound it might be important to show a white audience that white people were victims too, because without that fact they might end up caring less, because a lot of them are un-empathic assholes).  There was one scene with a man whose grandson was gunned down in a diner that had my eyes welling up.

            There are times that the movie slows down, prime examples being the parts in which the members of SNCC bicker over prideful bullshit (one is for King’s methods and sees King as a hero, the other is an idiot).  I thought Carmen Ejogo (I actually thought she was white a few times and it sort of confused me... Fire the lighting guy I guess?  Maybe I was just watching this like a racist) was okay as Coretta (King’s wife), but nothing amazing (I actually wish they had spent less time with the family and more time with the protesting).  And I feel that there was a general lack of levity, I know that this stuff was bleak, but there isn’t a single guy cracking jokes?  Maybe it is just my love of dark comedy that makes me expectant of some gallows humor in nearly anything, I guess you could laugh at the argument against civil rights which boils down to, “if you start letting them vote and walk down the street without being afraid of random violence, next thing you know they will think of themselves as people and want freedom of opportunity and from poverty” which is crazy troll logic at best.

One last complaint: the camera work was sometimes a little off, there were instances of people being so far to the left of the screen their faces were nearly cut off, while behind them is a lot of dead space (maybe this was an intentional choice to show them as wrong or eschew, but I mostly just found it strange, like I wanted to turn my head).

Overall: 7/10 

It is an alright poster.

Kill the Messenger

            Named after (presumably) what I mumble to anyone who wakes me up before the alarm.

            Another entry that resembles “Selma” in that it is a biographical movie about a very specific event in a person’s life, connections to the government not giving a shit about black people and minorities, and… has the looming specter of an assassination hanging over the proceedings.  It is also very much in contrast to a movie like “Argo” which portrays spy work in a positive and quirky light, while this makes you feel much less patriotic.

            While I have always suspected or known on various levels that criminal activities are used to fund spycraft operations, this movie draws a very uncomfortable picture of the United States Government.  Gary Webb exposes the questionable ethics of drug policy and then is drawn into a massive story about conspiracy to use drug money to fund Central American violence.  Blocked in all official channels and left to wonder where to turn when all of his contacts start to disappear or disavow him his career and life are destroyed.  It also ends on a speech that spells out important principles… (MOVIE FORMULA DETECTED).

It is worth watching, but it is about an incident that is less legendary than Selma, and a man less renowned than King, so I have by default less to say about it, even though I would recommend it over “Selma” because I feel that it had more humor, and the wife and family were played better.  This is a less relevant movie than “Selma” though I feel it more enjoyable to watch.

Overall: 7/10 

Gary, hate to break it to you, but the truth is both more important... and a lot less important these days.

Nightcrawler

            In pretty much any other year this would have probably been a #1 pick, but this year was so good for movies it will merely have to be in my top 6.

            This movie kind of reminds me of “There Will be Blood” but rather than being about the growth of the oil industry it is about contemporary gonzo news, and instead of wondering whether the money turned the main character into a crazy person or if he was always that way… Well in “Nightcrawler” the main character is pretty clearly a violent psychopath from the word go.

            I am not sure when Jake Gyllenhaal got a bug up his ass and decided he really did want to be given a gold statue for acting, but he’s doing a damn good job and is getting unfairly overlooked.  He is in every scene of this movie and seems to constantly be vibrating with anger, determination, lust for power… He is always just on the verge of snapping.  It is delightful.

            And any plot that has me asking, “How is he going to get out of this?”  And then gives me an ending prompting me to say, “Oh, well that was ingenious.”  This is a movie that did that.

Overall: 9/10

It is hard to find an image for this movie that isn't covered in praise for it.  I kind of wonder how the star and director of "Drive" would have done the script differently. (Poster)

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Movies of 2013, Crime, pt5

Mud, or "Talented child actors?  The hell is this?"

Overall: 9/10

Oh for the halcyon days of McConaughey being in nothing but shit.

            Perhaps the most misleading trailer I have seen since they jokingly recut "Game of Thrones" as a romantic comedy.

            Kind of dripping with visual personality, especially Matthew McConaughey.  The whole movie explores with subtly this small southern town, how complex family dynamics can be, romance, crime... This movie has depth and pacing and is really cool.  There are clever things that show you exactly where the characters are and what they do.  Characters have clever little ideas, like in one scene kids are trying to find a lady in a motel, so they go door to door selling fish so nobody knows that they were there looking for her, that is a simple and clever little plan.

            I don't know why this is so hard to do, but I am giving this movie credit for just being clear and explaining itself well.  Why is that something that deserves an accolade?  Just the idea that a character has a cool name, "Neck Bone", and when he meets someone new they compliment him on his cool name.  You would compliment a kid named Neck Bone, cause that sounds hardcore.  But in a way you have to give credit when a movie does that (some movies... *cough* "Mortal Instruments" *cough* can't do the simple task of just having the characters talking civilly about what the hell is happening).

            The teenage actors act and talk like teenagers, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland deserve credit in that regard.  Reese Witherspoon plays an emotionally destructive cock tease well, and Michael Shannon plays a nice and laid back guy (complete opposite of General Zod) showing his range of being curious but not having the gall to actually question the kid he is responsible for.

Prisoners, or "I actually did not call the ending.  Good job movie."

Overall: 10/10

There is a thing with Mazes in this movie.

            This is my movie of the year.  It has the look and feel of a David Fincher movie, with a dark and oppressive atmosphere and a plot that unfolds to tension and more mystery rather than just tidy little answers.  It makes good use of foreshadowing, has visual motifs, and themes about cycles of violence and acting with certainty on imperfect information.

            Everyone involved does an excellent job with their parts, and they have a lot of visual personality, you can tell things about them just from a glance and listening to them enriches their characters rather than just confirming what you can tell from looking at them.  Gyllenhaal had a hard time growing up and enforces rules in his adult life, Jackman had a hard time growing up and commits to the ideas of self reliance.  The ending is also really good, with a good bit of ambiguity as to what will ultimately happen.

            There are things in it, like police procedure, that are not by-the-book, and from your personal perspective that would make them more real or less real.  I just thought it just got the story moving well and having everything play out in a not-wholly-procedural-not-wholly-loose-cannon way made things a little more dynamic.  I also can't say the movie was fun, it is about missing children, torture, and murder, it is a less boring "Zodiac" not "Sherlock".

            If you like the HBO series, "True Detective" then watch this movie.

Movies 2013, Crime, pt4

Crime

Pain and Gain, or "Did Michael Bay just do something kind of awesome?"

Overall: 7/10

This was the first poster and nobody knew what the hell this movie was going to be about.
Fitness?  Body Building competitions?  You don't look at this and think Dark Comedy Crime Drama.

            I think Michael Bay has been unfairly demonized by an ungrateful movie audience.  He has a distinct visual style, knows what to imitate from other directors, and tends to have really strong casts for the movies he is making.  I find people bitching about "Transformers" to mostly be simpletons.  "Transformers" was always garbage, and I say that as a huge fan on the original series, and I would go so far as to say "Beast Wars" is one of my favorite cartoons ever in spite of the aged computer animation from the 90's.  Michael Bay took a toy commercial, and made a schlocky, immature, alien invasion disaster movie and it became one of the most commercially successful franchises of all time.  That being said the man has the sense of humor of a 6 year old who just discovered adults laugh when he says the word, "Poop."  He is not really an artist, he makes movies that are 'effective,' easy to market, easy to consume, he is the $200 Million McDonald's trip for 100 Million people.  Very tasty garbage.

            "Pain and Gain" is exactly the kind of movie Bay should be making, it is about psychopathic emotionally retarded meat heads committing violent crimes.  It in no way glorifies what they are doing, but you definitely understand their motivations.  It moves at a good clip.  It is funny.  It has a lot of color and action that keeps each scene visually interesting.  In different hands this movie could have been totally different, I can easily imagine the Coen Bros doing this sort of thing in the style of "Fargo" or "Burn After Reading".  It also has stuff taken right from the "Inglourious Basterds" style guide, as quick asides through the story inform you of what is happening and why, or text appears on the screen to clarify something.  The best moment of the film happens when the most outrageous aspects of this whole criminal enterprise have hit new levels and text pops up reminding the audience, "This actually happened".

            Dwayne Johnson is a head case that is slow to violence and needs to be pushed the whole way, which considering he looks like a gorilla covered in tattoos adds a level to his character.  Marky Mark is surprisingly good in this, far better than his turn in "2 Guns" using his charisma to nefarious (or as nefarious as a thug can be) ends, rather than being the character getting taken for a ride for nearly the whole movie.  Not as many tits as I would have expected.  Especially compared to "The Wolf of Wall Street", but I am guessing that Scorsese has a lot more clout to get such things put on screen without an NC-17 rating getting slapped on, Bay would probably get burned at the stake by the MPAA.

            This movie is definitely worth seeing.  It is retarded fun.

The Wolf of Wall Street, or "I think they went a little far in some places."

Overall: 8/10

Lot of microphone felatio in this movie too.

            This movie and "Pain and Gain" have a lot in common.  Based on actual events, happens in roughly the same era (the early 90's), and the protagonists are drug addled psychos.  The difference here being these monsters are not low class violent thugs taking what they want through force, instead they are slick conmen getting rich to the point of godhood via exploiting the painfully broken game that is the American financial sector.

            Let me be clear, if I were a murderer, these are the people I would kill.  I had, unironically, a serious conversation 4 months ago about how capitalism is great at producing TV, media, and lots and lots of cultural flotsam, but is plagued by middlemen and money managers that do not in anyway produce, build, or create anything but have huge sums of money from moving columns of hypothetical numbers.  This movie starts with the flipside of that conversation, with the mentor of evil telling the main character that stock brokers get rich and contribute nothing.  The movie explicitly tells you these people are evil.

            Leonardo DiCaprio continues to be my favorite actor, able to yell, laugh, narrate, and be on drugs convincingly.  And Jonah Hill, while getting way too much time to adlib, is really good in his role.  The supporting cast all gets good scenes, and there are too many very quotable lines to mention, though my favorite is, "I AM NOT GOING TO DIE SOBER!"

            Actually this movie could have been a 10/10 but there are a lot of scenes that had me going, "cut... cut... CUT".  There are scenes with powerful speeches that go on past the point of them being powerful.  Scenes of slapstick that are hilarious, but could have been cut in half.  There is one Jonah Hill scene in particular that I could tell was a metric shit ton of improv and needed to be cut down, it went on and on with increasingly annoying bullshit... Like an Aristocrats joke.  The movie is really long and scenes that are too long make you feel the length of the movie.  Should also make note of the truly herculean amounts of nudity in this film, full frontal of multiple women, the most notable of which is Margot Robbie... Maybe the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in a movie (she is also 5 years younger than me, so I feel incredibly old).

            Also totally worth seeing.  Might have worked better if I had watched it in two parts, or if it had been an HBO series, like an amped up "Mad Men".

Movies of 2013, Crime, pt2

Crime

            I have actually been dragging out posting these reviews, because I got to the "Crime" section and I was going to go see "Wolf of Wall Street" to finish it off, then I missed the show time so I have been taking my time so I can tack it onto the end.  Anyway, on to talking about how Ryan Gosling made a lot of shit movies.

            From what I saw, Ryan Gosling had one of the weakest movie careers all year.  I did not enjoy anything with him in it.  A massive step down from, "Drive", "Ides of March", and "Crazy Stupid Love" which built up a lot of good will.  I guess it wasn't totally squandered, but it is near the E on the gauge.

Gangster Squad, or "Why even try to pretend this is based in reality and instead just go full blown stylized action farce?"

Overall: 4/10

This is all the brown that appears in the movie.  Everything else is mostly blue and white.

            This movie has some visual style, and the occasional cool scene, like one in which Gosling pours acid on a man's crotch, acid that the guy was going to throw in a woman's face.  There is also some interesting action with cool punches, explosions, and chasing.  If this had been full blown cartoony action with Josh Brolin playing Dick Tracy and Ryan Gosling playing the Shadow I probably would have eaten this movie up.  But as is the thing purports to be based on actual events and somehow tied into reality, a ludicrous and stupid bit of pretentiousness that takes a lot of fun out of it.

            Either make "The Untouchables" or make "Dick Tracy", don't unevenly mix them like a McDonald's parfait.  I guess it could have worked if the fictionalizing had yielded interesting character arcs, or if the reality had shown some real depth to mob warfare, but as is neither does much of anything.

Only God Forgives, or "BORING.  But... I guess pretty to look at.  And the music is cool."

Overall: 4/10

Conversely, this movie seems to have fallen into a vat of hot violet gel.

            This movie brings together the director and star of "Drive", my favorite movie of 2011, which was the timeless story of a high functioning psychopath falling into whatever passes for love in his violent robotic brain with his neighbor.

            "Only God Forgives" takes the artistic gloss of "Drive" and only does that.

            The movie is very pretty, with reds and shadows, interesting music, an exotic local.  And a lot of long... Long... Long shots of all of that.

            There is also a lack of likable characters.  Apparently it is okay for Policemen in Bangkok to kill or maim criminals if they see fit, at various point limbs are hacked off or metal pins driven into a person's body in graphic detail... But the "good guy" is the one doing it.  Again, to compare to "Drive" there were numerous characters who had hopes and aspirations beyond being violent criminals and crime was an unfortunate part of their lives, this movie has the violent battering of numerous women, and the rape and murder of a teenage girl as the starting point, and from there it goes down.

            No character with a spoken line is at all likable.  Wall to wall lingering shots of awful people and mild gore.  It also has a scene that is undercut by the fact that Gosling cannot seem to yell at someone convincingly, he sort of sheiks like a sweet 16 princess... definitely takes away from the menacing demeanor.

            There is also a preposterous scene in which a 54 year old man beats Ryan Gosling to unconsciousness (Gosling plays a career criminal who runs a Muay Thai gym and has murdered before with his bare hands).  I don't care if you know martial arts, Gosling had 20 years and 40 pounds of muscle on the guy, he would have won the fight.

The Place Beyond the Pines, or "BORING.  BORING.  BORING."

Overall: 3/10

I am betting this movie was a nightmare to market, because all the press makes this look like a love triangle between the straightlaced Cooper and the bad boy Gosling fighting for the affections of Eva Mendes.

            Jesus Christ this movie pissed me off the first time I watched it.  I actually apologized to my date for having taken her to it, and said that if she was not with me I probably would have left and asked for my money back.

            It is effectively 3 short films that are all connected by some characters and events.  And while each part might work a little on its own, together they are just dull.

            The first third is about Ryan Gosling being a motorcycle stuntman in a traveling circus who finds out he is a father and wants to provide for his bastard.  He does this by robbing banks, and it is cool.  I could have watched a full 90 minute movie about Gosling robbing banks.  And when he is confronted by Bradley "Rocket Raccoon" Cooper at the 45 minute mark I think I said aloud in the theater, "is the movie already over?"

            This is when part two begins, Bradley Cooper becomes a hero cop for catching Gosling and getting shot in the confrontation.  It ruins his cop career, but luckily he has a law degree and leverages his knowledge of police corruption into becoming a public prosecutor.  Again, this is an interesting film, I would have watched it.  It is almost totally divorced from the first part of the movie except for a running subplot about cops taking Goslings ill gotten goods from Gosling's Baby Mama.

            Then 15 years go by.  No shit the movie stutters forward and Cooper is now running for State Attorney, and his son and Gosling's son are friends... troubled kids doing drugs and unaware that their father's lives were linked by one prominent moment.  Again, this is a whole movie done in 40 minutes and is so weirdly connected that it just doesn't work.

            I don't mind that the movie is really contrived and that the role of Protagonist is handed off every so often, but each break in the narrative kills the momentum.  And the last third being anchored by two teenage actors who are just not as good as Gosling or Cooper means that the movie ends on a low note.  Maybe if the 3 stories were told in reverse order, which might be a bit confusing to uninvolved audience members, but would add some intrigue to the affair, and would end on a high note, Gosling being confronted by Cooper.  As is the movie peaks at 40 minutes and just keeps going.  Boring.  Boring.  Very boring.

Movies of 2013, Crime, pt1

Crime

            Really these are more buddy cop movies that revolve around organized crime and corruption, and they go about it in very different ways.

2 Guns, or "Male buddy cop movie number WHO KNOWS ANYMORE"

Overall: 5/10

Also, continues the god awful trend of advertising the stars, rather than the movie.
Though that is all this film has going for it.

            This was a mediocre film at best.  While Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington are great acting against each other and there is a good amount of violence, boobs, and interesting set pieces (I really like the masks they use when robbing a bank), the fact is that the intrigue is not all that intriguing, and the bad guys don't have a very good plan.  Backstabbing too quickly, leaving behind obvious clues, or just not being ruthless enough.

            One of the real lead weights on the movie casting wise is Bill Paxton as a southern CIA agent.  For whatever reason the few scenes he plays off of a stronger actor he just does not keep pace.  Denzel Washington takes Bill to school when it comes to playing the "I am way too cool with the situation at hand", and when he goes against Edward James "I could give a fuck" Olmos Paxton seems like an out of place SNL character.

The Heat, or "Female buddy cop movie number... well, number one, I guess"

Overall: 5/10

This poster is a lot more action packed than this movie.

            This may shock people to hear, but this movie really is not that funny or amazing, people just give it more credit because women are in the lead roles.  Tom Hanks and Dan Akroyd made pretty much this exact same movie in the 80's, it was called "Dragnet".

            All that being said it is a perfectly workable script with plenty of laugh out loud scenes and surprisingly effective tiny bits of action (I don't know why there was not more action in this, it could have used it, often building up to an anti-climax... which I guess is a joke in and of itself.)  It also seems to be taking a lot from "21 Jump Street" including the last action joke of the movie.  Actually this movie could easily take place in the same universe as "21 Jump Street" or "The Other Guys" (a movie I recommend over this one by the way) but it would lose out in the comparison.  If this script were acted out by two guys it would be as forgettable as "2 Guns".

            Sandra Bullock is fine, I am sure compared to "Gravity" this movie will not have the biggest impact on her life this year (though I guess this movie is likely for sequels...)  And Melissa McCarthy is funny by being loud and rude, just like she always is.  It is fine.

My Thoughts on the movie "Kick Ass" (the First One)

(This is an old post of mine from before I was on blogger.  It is about the movie "Kick-Ass" and is far more of a summation followed by critique rather than the trimmed down criticism I mostly do now, I am posting it here because I will be talking about "Kick Ass 2" shortly and want to refer back to this.)

Okay, the movie Kick Ass has generated some controversy for some things that I will address along with my comparison between the film and comic book adaptations of the story.  Considering that they were created simultaneously I see no one work as an interpretation of the other, nor do I see one as inherently superior to the other for various pluses and minuses that each have been awarded by my own mental predispositions.  This little rant contains numerous spoilers for the film and comic and if you have a desire to remain untainted in that regard feel free to not read this as it will most certainly have some impact on how you see the movie or comic (whichever you choose to personally imbibe).

It is an okay movie.

First up I am going to explain the plot of this little yarn.  In the comic a teenage comic book fan who is socially awkward and unremarkable chooses to spend his free time as a costumed superhero, on his first venture out he is stabbed and hit by a car as he wanders into traffic, while he manages to ditch his costume and gets medical treatment, he nearly dies and suffers permanent damage to his skull which has to be treated with plates that deaden blows to his skull, making it difficult to knock him out or cause him great pain through head trauma.  After recovering he returns to the streets and actually manages to successfully save a man’s life against a group of thugs, this action is caught on camera and broadcast to the world which sets of a wildfire of people dressing as superheroes as a fashion statement, the teen dubs himself “Kick Ass”.  Other heroes then appear, killing criminals with great skill, these heroes are Hit Girl, an eleven year old sword fighter, and Big Daddy, a massive man who uses snipping to support his daughter Hit Girl as she takes the more hands on approach.

Later on Kick Ass finds a friend in Red Mist, another Geek hero who has been stealing a lot of Kick Ass’s spotlight recently.  They decide to join up with Big Daddy and Hit Girl with their quest to take down the city’s mafia.  But surprise, surprise Red Mist turns out is working for the mafia being the geeky son of the main man in town.  After torturing Big Daddy and Kick Ass Big Daddy reveals his origin: he is an accountant and comic book collector who sold off his collection and kidnapped his daughter (telling her that her mother had been murdered by the mob) so that he could run off to be a superhero, have a sidekick, and have a bad guy.  The main man blows Big Daddy’s brains out, and commences to stomp Kick Ass into the floor (he resists because of the plates in his skull).

It is at this point Hit Girl (previously thought killed) appears and commences the slaughter of the mafia in mass while Kick Ass arms himself and goes after Red Mist.  Kick Ass confronts Mist, beats him with some sticks, takes his gun and runs back just in time to find Hit Girl overwhelmed by mob.  The main boos tells Kick Ass he doesn’t have it in him to take a shot, then gets shot in the penis by Kick Ass, and then his head cut off by a now free Hit Girl.  With the bad guys dead Kick Ass comforts Hit Girl as she mourns her father tearfully.  The story ends with Hit Girl going to live with her mother, and Kick Ass returning to his pathetic life having been downgraded to social pariah.  The comic ends with Red Mist vowing to take revenge saying “What till they get a load of me.”

The comic is rather intentionally cynical and mean spirited.

Analysis

The movie follows that outline strongly with a few key divergences: 1) Hit Girl’s mom really is dead, and Big Daddy is a former cop, disgraced for having been framed for a crime by the central mob boss.  2) Kick Ass gets the girl in the end and becomes significantly less of a social outcast by the end of the film.  And 3) The criminals are vastly more developed as guys who deserve to be taken out rather than just being the bad, but mostly just unlucky, targets of a vigilante madman.  Also, Kickass uses both a mini-gun touting jetpack and a bazooka (both originally Big Daddy’s) to kill people in some rather over the top action sequences.  But that has more to do with movie spectacle than story and theme.

My thoughts on a straight comparison between the two mediums: I like that Kick Ass gets the girl in the movie as opposed to whacking-off to a picture of the girl blowing some other guy, a picture gets massaged at the end of the comic as a hateful little fuck you buy her friends who hate him for reasons I can understand.  I like Hit Girl as a character more in the comic because she reacts much more human to her father’s death, crying and asking for a hug, as opposed to the movie in which she basically just lets it drop after having gotten revenge along with Kick Ass.  I dislike Big Daddy a lot in the comic, and really think of him as a villain as much as any other character in the story, because he kidnapped and brainwashed his daughter into a murderous vigilante because of his own sick need for wish fulfillment, whereas in the movie he is trying to give his daughter a part of the catharsis he needs to settle the crimes done to the both of them.

Aside from direct comparisons let me tell you my issue with the Comic that exudes from the story and characters: Mark Millar (the writer) hates you (the reader) for living in the dream world of comics, and he hates you (the reader) for wanting to be a superhero.  His entire point in writing this story seems to have been to underline the inherent insanity and stupidity that comes with wanting to be a garish crusader for hope and justice.  Let cops be cops, let firemen be firemen, and let superheroes be fantasy.

Let me tell you what the overall message of the movie seems to be: “This shit is gruesome fun isn’t it?”  that is it.  The movie wants you to fantasize, and it wants you to feel the heat of your face as the blood rushes to the bruises, but it wants you to also say: “hell yeah, and I’d do it again.”  But it also has a message to it that is underlined by the character when he says this: “Am I willing to die for someone I don’t know?  You think it’s right for three guys to lay into one while everyone stares on and watches as it goes on and does nothing?  Yeah, I’m willing to die.”  It wants you to get mad at the world’s blank stare at everything that is tragic and evil, and that is a good message.

I suppose the clearest way to say this would be to put it thusly: the comic is the cynical one, the movie is the childish (albeit more naively noble) one.

The last thing I'll talk about is the most interesting character in either work: Hit Girl.  I have read (specifically the article “Intermission” by Moviebob Chipman on “The Escapist” online magazine) that Hit Girl presses several buttons that individually cause panic and anger in people, violence to an by children and women being too tough and not simply damsels in distress.  I would also add another and more uncomfortable insight, the movie has one of Kick Ass’s friends say that he is in love with Hit Girl after she has a particularly thrilling action sequence, this is a very big spoof that I think most people will ignore because it  is really weird: Hit Girl is the sexy action girl before the sexy action girl was even old enough to be interested in boys.

If the character of Hit Girl was played by a 19 year old actress who was the love interest of Kick Ass (the normal guy she gets to save but later comes to rely on when her dad dies) then she would be the hottest thing in fiction right now not for being controversial but because people would find her hot.  She would be the new and exceptionally vulgar Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But instead she is the undercutting of all that, with pink hair and a schoolgirl outfit and being 11 she makes fun of Manga, and the Japanese’ sexualizing of cartoonish women who look far to young in their respective animation styles to be sexualized.  That I think is the real message of her character, that violence has become sexualized and can create a false aura of maturity that shouldn’t exist, an unhealthy coupling of sex and violence even when personified by a character that shouldn’t be personified as such.  That is a weird statement for a movie to make, but it’s in there.

This is Rikku, a very fetishiezed Final Fantasy character... She is supposedly 15.  Is there any reason in the story for her to be labeled as 15?  No.  In fact her being so young is a strain on everyone's suspension of disbelief.