quietearth [Celluloid 04.16.10] movie review action comedy



Normally, I wouldn't chime in this late in the game but as I just went to see a 10pm showing last night expecting to be blown away, I figured I'd throw my 2 cents in.

It sucked.


It was a cookie cutter Hollywood film, filled with cliches and comic book dialog, and the funny moments were few and far between, along with the action. The main character, "Kick-Ass", remained whiny and ineffectual throughout. I took two friends, neither of which liked it, and one of which kept falling asleep towards the end. For the last half hour, I couldn't wait for the thing to be over, it had gotten that bad. Basically, this film has been way over-hyped.

Yeah, Hit Girl was great, but her moments were few and far between. This thing was mediocre, and I give it a 5/10.

Many of you will go watch this and love it, but if you're like me you're going to feel like you got screwed, so don't fall for the hype because this ain't the second coming.

Kresh (1 year ago) Reply

Short and sweet. Thanks!

I'll still see it as I'm trying to think of a movie that hasn't been over-hyped in the last decade. We'll see if it has any redeeming features for me.

agentorange (1 year ago) Reply

Couple agreements and arguments:

You're right, Aaron Johnson is not a compelling lead.

It's a comic book movie about superheroes so of course it's cliched. I knew going in that the story would mirror classic comic book tropes. Maybe I wasn't dissapointed because I already knew it wasn't going to be a "game changer."

The humomr isn't consistent. There are some funny beats, but the film is certainly not a laugh out loud riot.

I thought the action scenes were extremely well done. Surprisingly well done actually.

My advice: Don't expect Kick Ass to be, as quietearth says, "a second coming" and you'll have a blast.

moody (1 year ago) Reply

Me and 4 friends (table top game, comic book and RP "geeks") saw it last weekend all of us liked it. It was quite fun.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

My 5 friends and I (who are all calculus geeks who love derivatives) saw this last week and really enjoyed it as well. We then ate a bunch of McDonalds and drank a bunch of no-name brand diet cola that we got at the dollar store.

Alex Botten (1 year ago) Reply

Completely disagree. I thought it was thoroughly entertaining, funny, and zipped past at a right pace.

Still, everyone likes different things!

In other news, Repomen is rather good.

Marina (1 year ago) Reply

If we talk Repo Men I might just cry. Seriously. I still haven't seen it and seems to have disappeared from Vancouver screens. Fingers crossed it pops up at the super discount cinema in the next week or so but not holding my breath. :(

flintlocke (1 year ago) Reply

Nice to see an opinion that doesn't just follow all the fanboy salivating. For the record, I thought the comic was rubbish (and Mark Millar is an increasingly intolerable "personality"), but had high hopes for Matthew Vaughn after Layer Cake and Stardust. Alas, the tone is everywhere - it starts out with a realistic concept (what if an average guy tried to be a costumed hero) and then swerves into some crazy John Woo shit.

It's moderately entertaining, but it's packed with flagrantly fabricated controversy. I already get the sense that fanboys will declare it a new saviour mostly because it has an 11 year old girl slaughtering mobsters and saying "cunt". I need a little more than that.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

sorry quietearth but why do u put this kind of stuff up?? its not a review! its a rant at best. doesnt refer to any particular scenes or elements of the film. if u don't like it tweet about it but if u wanna criticize a movie do it properly.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

Anonymous above me, do you have any clue about movie reviewing? He added the most important aspects, the plot (derivative comic shlock) and the characters (useless).

He even referred to hit girl scenes. Sorry but this is a review. It is the kind of review that you give things that stink.

Jeremy-S (1 year ago) Reply

The second I saw the first red band trailer, I knew this movie was gonna be a turd. "we're soooo edgy, we're making a cute little girl kill people, and cuss a lot!! Yeah, man, we're hardcore" flintlocke I couldn't have put it any better, "...it's packed with flagrantly fabricated controversy." (added the dots, cause I don't think it's even moderately entertaining.)

I'm sure I'm a little biased, as I hate all superhero movies these days, but the feeling I got from watching just the trailer was that they were trying WAY too hard to be cool, and edgy. It reminds me of that kid in school who always checks to see if they're impressing the teacher. "are we doin it right American audience of 16 year olds? Are we doin it right?" Beyond mindless, beyond stupid, well past insulting.


Oh, and anonymous complaining that the quiet earth review was a rant, what I just did was a rant. There's a difference.

synn (1 year ago) Reply

don't agree with review at all...

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

FUCKIN MAGNETS

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

the real shame is that this post gets more than 10 comments while soudain le vide's trailer barely made 4.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

A little surprised by your review, my wife and I watched it and we both loved it, and no, we are not comic-book fans, who has time for that.
I measure a movie not by it's media coverage or "hype" level, just by how much it entertained me, and it did.

killcrop (1 year ago) Reply

This movie tried way too hard ...comic book adaptations are a dime a dozen these days..I watched Defendor right before I wasted my loot on this nonsense and it totally killed the adolecent nonsense of kick-ass.The only decent thing that came outta this movie..for a change..was Nic Cage..he was dead on..Im always down for a mindless romp but this movie is the answer to everyone who loathed Watchmen

projectcyclops (1 year ago) Reply

It is a string of mindless cliches tacked together by a droning, lazy monologue and interspersed with some hyper-kinetic, John-Woo-style over-the-top, gratuitous violence. In the wake of the Matrix, it also features the obligatory bullet-time freeze-frame action sequences accompanied by some sort of pop-rock musical number, which seems to now be obligatory in contemporary action films. I suppose I half expected the film to be a comedy, but it failed in this department too without a single laugh throughout the entire two hour duration.

I did go into Kick Ass thinking it would be an amusing comedy romp. In my head I was expecting that Kick-Ass might be to the Watchmen what Austin Powers is to James Bond. Before the showing started there was a trailer for Iron Man 2 (complete with Black Sabbath's Iron Man as the soundtrack). It looked really dodgy and I thought to myself, thank god someone's made a movie taking the piss out of all these lame-ass American super hero movies. Kick Ass is just not that film though. In fact it isn't really anything at all because it can't really decide what it wants to be.

About half way through the cavalcade of predictable film cliche my mind turned to pondering just how the hell the film ever got made and (perhaps even more curiously) why anyone might actually think it was worth shelling out £10 for. As it dragged on toward its inevitable and highly predictable ending, I couldn't help but want to walk out of the cinema and, to be honest, kick the asses of the people responsible for making the turgid, vacuous pile of stench ridden bullshit.

So yeah, I agree with QE.

trogen (1 year ago) Reply

lol...its probably a good thing QE didnt like it. I mean he gave the crazies a 3/10 and book of eli a 5, but Trash Humpers got an 8.8/10

says it all really. :D

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

I knew this movie was going to suck. Maybe now people will stop blogging about it. It's fucking everywhere and it's retarded.

Nick (1 year ago) Reply

Since we're all bitching here -- I was so bored by this movie that I started looking around and saw all these parents with their kids. I thought, "Who would take their little kid to see this?" Then I looked at the screen again and thought, "Who would let their little girl star in this?" Seriously, I felt really gross and dirty.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

It would be my kid, if I had one. I LOVED the movie but I was surprised that it got so much hype. That didn't effect my enjoyment though.

Nick (1 year ago) Reply

Well, it's a shame you're childless. I can only imagine the thrill you'd feel at your 11 year old saying, "c**t"!

SM (1 year ago) Reply

Have to agree to it's being overrated... was fun, had lots of superhero references but the tone was totally inconsistent and uncompelling. Aaron Johnson was lame, and the movie dedicated almost all of it's time to him... and his gf... and then doesn't even show them getting together at the end? Why bother with her then, utterly useless subplot. Just have him being a nerd no one believes is useful and finally barely helps some real heroes with real vengeance. Good action but music was all over the map... FYI Godspeed You Black Emperor and Joan Jett don't go together, esp. within one fight sequence. 5/10 too.

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

Nick, the word is CUNT. Are you 11?

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

screw all the clueless parents out there. I saw watchmen in 3-d and the parents pulled there kids out after the first sex scene but i guess all that gratitious violence was okay for them to see. Movie kicked ass I am seeing a 2nd time before it leaves theaters and predictable iron man 2 starts.

Stephen Wood (1 year ago) Reply

Sorry, comes across as a fan boy rant, unable to defend any points mad.

Leave a comment

Your Comment

Related articles

TRIBECA 09: Review of BLACK DYNAMITE

Posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 23:37 GMT By Bob Doto

FRIGHTFEST 09: Review of VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL

Posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 20:46 GMT By Ben Austwick

EIFF 2010: Review of the McHenry brothers nazi puppet gem JACKBOOTS ON WHITEHALL

Posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 20:25 GMT By projectcyclops

The Minoru Kawasaki Collection: Review of THE RUG COP

Posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 17:12 GMT By Kevin Ouellette

Crime fighting is twisted business. DVD review of James Gunn's SUPER

Posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 21:09 GMT By Marina Antunes

TAD 08: It's all a mirage, man.. Review of MIRAGEMAN

Posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 20:56 GMT By Rick McGrath