Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

As Big Daddy once said, maybe they should have called it "Ass-Kick".

Considering how much I enjoyed the first, I have to say I was really disappointed in Kick-Ass 2.  The quickest summary I can offer is to say that it's an example of a sequel made by someone that didn't quite understand what made the first one work.  It's not even a case of sequelitis where they tried to one up everything.  It follows a similar formula to the first, but the whole time you can't shake the feeling that it's missing something, like Nic Cage.  Say what you want about Nic Cage these days, but he was the highlight of Kick-Ass, and what does it say about your film when adding Nic Cage would have been an improvement?

Kick-Ass 2 picks up in a logical progression after the first.  Dave, a.k.a. Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has hung up his tights, but has inspired many others to also take to the streets as superheroes.  He decides to get back out there himself, but realizes he needs some actual training to be more effective.  He enlists Mindy, a.k.a. Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), to help him and wants them to become a crime-fighting duo.  Hit-Girl is still at the top of her game as she won't give up as a promise to her Dad.  However, after being caught by her guardian (Morris Chestnut), she promises him that she'll give up crime fighting and give normal life a chance.

Meanwhile, still upset over the death of his father, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) rebrands himself as "The Mother Fucker".  Nope, that's not a joke, but it's an example of some of the failed attempts at them throughout.  The Mother Fucker wants to be the world's first super villain, and assembles a group of villains to counter Kick-Ass' team of heroes.  However, his only real goal is to get revenge.  Theres a throwaway line about having a larger plan, because all super villains needs to have a master plan, but there's nothing to it and it all takes a backseat to the revenge plot.  Since he's only after Kick-Ass, but not the world at large, he never feels like that much of a threat and the stakes aren't all that high.

While all of this is going on, Mindy is attending slumber parties, trying out for the cheerleader squad, and then dealing with bitchy high school girls.  Tonally, this feels like a completely different movie that has little to do with the main plot happening around her.  If Kick-Ass 2 had been called Hit-Girl and was completely focused on her attempts to be normal and then getting back in the game, then I think it would have worked better.  She's the most interesting character in the film anyway.  Instead we have all of these different plot threads going on and are introduced to a bunch of new characters that aren't given much screen time.

Considering all the characters and plot threads, it felt like this would have been great a TV show stretched out over a season or two.  This way you can get to know all the minor characters and are given reason to care about them.  From what I'm reading online, Kick-Ass 2 is based of both the Kick-Ass 2 and Hit-Girl series (12 issues total), and writer/director Jeff Wadlow was pretty faithful to the comics.  However, the fact that it was 12 issues brings me back to the point that this being made into a series might have been a good idea.  I'm thinking Hit-Girl in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer type show.

Another reason why Hit-Girl is the most interesting is due to Chloe Grace Moretz.  She's got a lot of charisma and carries all of her scenes.  There are moments where you actually feel for her character and her struggle to balance her life.  I didn't mind Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but the issue is that Kick-Ass really isn't that compelling of a character, especially when compared to the first film.  I felt like they were both trying their hardest at times to give something to their roles, but it's difficult when their motivations are all over the place.  They give up or get back into crime fighting on a whim.  When Kick-Ass pleads with Hit-Girl to join him, she says stuff like, "You just don't get it" or "You wouldn't understand".  Well, explain it to us then, because I don't get it and I don't understand.  You didn't have a problem sneaking around behind your guardian's back before, so why is it such an issue now?

For all the stuff we heard about Jim Carrey's role and issues with the movie, he's really not in it all that much or much of a focus on the story.  It's a violent role for sure, but I find it odd he didn't have issues with it while making the movie, especially when it looked like he appeared to have fun with it.  I was also bummed out that Donald Faison was added to the cast and not given more to do.  As a huge fan of Scrubs, I know how funny he can be, so I was disappointed in his lack of screen time.  Christopher Mintz-Plasse had some good moments as The Mother Fucker, particularly when playing off John Leguizamo, but again, it felt like there were a lot of opportunities to do more with the character that were missed.  Some of the roles from the last film were recast, and Dave's girlfriend, Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca), is written out of the story within a few minutes.  They break up and Dave doesn't seem the least bit conflicted by this.  In fact, he moves on to another girl (Lindy Booth) at the first opportunity.

Where the first Kick-Ass had a certain wit about it, that was completely missing here.  I didn't find anything funny at all, and the dialog was so flat throughout.  There's no witty banter or sarcastic comments, and that was desperately needed.  Some of the humor came from the fact that you're watching an 11-year-old brutally and gleefully murder bad guys.  However, Hit-Girl is now 15 and a pro at this, so that novelty has worn off.  Plus, the violence felt creative the first go around, but here it just felt like standard action movie stuff.  It also didn't feel as realistic or that there was as much consequence to it.  Kick-Ass was over his head when he first started crime fighting and took a lot of punishment as a result; you don't see that here.  Both films relied too much on CG blood, but it stood out as more of a flaw in Kick-Ass 2.

At least Kick-Ass isn't using Myspace anymore.  He's got Facebook account now.  Even the Mother Fucker posts his exploits on Twitter.

Missing all the wit, charm, or genre deconstruction of the first, Kick-Ass 2 is a disappointing sequel.  It's not the worst thing I've seen this summer, but it could have been so much better.  The tone of the film is all over the place and there are too many undeveloped characters and plot threads.  The end result is just a generic action film.  Save it for rental.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars

The To Do List (2013)

I love a good sex comedy.  I love Aubrey Plaza even more.  The To Do List is a movie I had circled on my calendar for a while now.  "Sigh...", was my reaction after watching it.  Here's why...

After high-school graduation, class valedictorian Brandy Klark (Aubrey Plaza) prepares for college.  Her two best friends take her to a party where she gets drunk and almost has sex with a college guy named Rusty Waters (Scott Porter).  Brandy realizes her lack of sexual experience hurt her chances of closing the deal, so like all super smart, highly organized people she makes of list of sexual things she plans on accomplishing over the summer, with the end goal of losing her virginity to Rusty.

She takes a summer job as a lifeguard at a community pool, where Rusty happens to work, as well a bunch of goofballs like her socially awkward friend Cameron (Johnny Simmons), who's clearly in love with her; Derrick (Donald Glover), and her boss Willy (Bill Hader).  They are all silly and weird.  Like, Willy drinks a lot and can't swim even though he manages a pool.  Hilarious and ironic, right?

The To Do List is set in Boise, Idaho in 1993.  This allows the use of 90's references and music.  Some may appreciate that they don't beat you over the head with the 90's, like how Adam Sandler does with the 80's in many of his films.  Many of the references are subtle, and I wondered why they even bothered setting it in the 90's, and then it dawned on me: NO INTERNET!  It's a lazy way to explain away why someone wouldn't be aware of commonly used sexual terms.  What excuse would an 18-year-old in 2013 have for not knowing what some of them meant, especially if they were genuinely interested in learning?  That's why urban dictionary exists.  They even went as far as to have a lame montage where Brandy actually tries to look up 'the shocker' in a dictionary, ponders that 'teabagging' must be a English thing, or that 'motorboating' should be easy to accomplish as she knows someone with a boat.  I can understand someone being naive, but this is bordering on extreme stupidity.  Plus, a lot of the things mentioned in the film were definitely not part of the vernacular back in 1993.  I graduated high school in 1991, and had frequent access to actual porn, and didn't hear many of these expressions back then.  Trust me, if teabagging was a thing back when I was in high school, it would have been a frequent occurrence at drunk parties or part of jock hazing.  Granted Boise is a little more conservative than the Bay Area, but even if Brandy wasn't aware from her own lack of experience, her sexually active friends (Alia Shawkat and Sarah Steele) should have clued her in at some point.  I also thought it was a little odd that a valedictorian would not be aware of what foreskin is, unless Boise schools don't have sex education.

Part of me had trouble accepting the premise in the first place.  It seems odd to me that anyone would think this a good or safe idea, let alone someone that clearly idolized Hillary Clinton.  I wonder if writer/director Maggie Carey thought she was making an empowering story about a young girl taking charge of her sex life, but a lot of what happens here is actually irresponsible.  For instance, nobody, including her best friends and own mother, tell her it's okay to be a virgin, or that there's nothing wrong with waiting or not rushing into sex if she's not ready.  Her older sister Amber (Rachel Bilson) gives her shit for being a virgin in front of her family.  I would think her parents would be relieved to know this, especially considering her older sister's behavior.  Instead, there are lots of awkward sex conversations between Brandy and her mother (Connie Britton) where Amber asks them to stop talking about it or her father immediately leaves the room due to him not being comfortably.  There's lots of unnatural dialog throughout the film.  There's another weird joke where her mother says to Brandy that if she's going to have sex, then make sure to have lube.  Not protection, or birth control, but the concern is lube.  The lube joke is mentioned more than once.

I think all of this irritated me more by the fact that at the end they force in a message about how for some people sex is a big deal and very emotional, but for others it's more about fun.  If you haven't had it yet, it's a big deal and weights on your mind until you do.  No shit.  So you're really saying that, "sex means different things to different people".  Well, thanks for that brilliant insight.  I guess it's a good thing that this is rated R, so that younger kids won't be exposed to this.

I know sound like an angry, old dude again, but I'm just bummed out at what a mess this is.  Compare this to something like The 40-Year-Old Virgin that handled someone losing their virginity in a much sweeter, and way more hilarious fashion.  Most of the jokes in The To Do List are tired or just don't go anywhere.  Many of the situations feel forced.  For an R-rated, sex comedy I was actually surprised at how it tame it actually was.  I chuckled a handful of times at best.  If this movie came out 10 or 15 years ago, then some of this stuff might have been fresh, but many of the gags here have been done before.  They also make several jokes about how Brandy has small boobs, and do a bit where her top falls off in the pool more than once.  Nearly everyone picks on her about her chest.  Have fun with your body image, ladies.

There's a Caddyshack reference that fell really flat, not just because was gross, but because only Brandy was aware of the fact it was from Caddyshack.  The naive Brandy has seen Caddyshack, but none of her goofy co-workers?  Remember this was set in 1993.  This joke could have worked if the film had been set in the present day, where Caddyshack would be a 30 year old film, and it made sense that younger kids weren't familiar with it.

It's such shame because The To Do List has such a talented comedic cast.  If you had told me that there was a late-Summer, sex comedy coming out with April Ludgate, Agent Coulson, McLovin, Young Neil, one-half of Troy and Abed, Andy Samberg, Maeby Funke, and Stefon from SNL, I would have bet on it being a homerun.  Adam Pally, who's great on Happy Endings, is in maybe two scenes and then gone.  Clark Gregg plays Brandy's dad, and it seems the only reason his character is in the film is to repeat that he's a judge over and over.  There's no payoff to this at all.  Why even mention his profession if there's no relevance to it, or no joke planned?  His character also forgets who Cameron is on multiple occasions despite that he's one of Brandy's oldest friends.  There's another running gag about the girls watching Beaches that I found no humor in, and there didn't seem to be any point to.  Beaches came out in 1988, by the way.

I think the most disappointing thing is that I had really hoped this would be the vehicle to really propel Aubrey Plaza into more lead roles.  I'm a big fan of hers and one of the legions of geeks out there that has a nerd crush on her.  She even stepped out of her comfort zone a bit by not playing Brandy with her usual deadpan demeanor.  I do need to mention that it took me a little out of the film to have a 29-year-old playing a recent high-school graduate, with a 31-year-old playing her slightly older sister that still lives at home.  I actually thought Rachel Bilson was kind of funny though.  I can forgive the age disparity a little bit, as it's always been something movies have done. However, I've praised several recent movies for casting younger actors that actually looked age-appropriate, so this seems like a step backwards in that regard.

I think a lot of what didn't work about the film could have been improved simply by changing the setting to Brandy being a senior in college and away from home.  She's been buried in her school work and doesn't have a lot of friends.  Realizing that her college experience is about to pass her by, she decides she wants to experience a bunch of things, like alcohol and sex, before graduating and getting out into the real world.  Basing this on someone just out of high school was a real mistake.

As much as I was looking forward to The To Do List, it pains me to say that it's a real disappointment and kind of a mess.  It a sex comedy that isn't sexy, creative or push any limits.  It wastes a talented cast with stale, unfunny jokes that go nowhere.  I really can't recommend it to anyone except for die hard fans of Aubrey Plaza.  Even then, it's barely a rental.  Better yet, skip this movie and rent Easy A instead, a much funnier and creative film about a girl dealing with sex in high school.

1.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

ParaNorman (2012) - Movie Review

On the surface, Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) seems like a pretty normal kid.  However, he has odd ability: he can see and communicate with the dead.  This has made him an outcast. He's bullied at school, and even his own family gives him a hard time and wishes he would be 'normal'. His only friend, Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), is just as much of an outsider as he is.

Norman continues to have visions that something terrible is coming, and when the small town you live in has a witch theme and history of witch executions, you know that can't be good.  He's warned by his uncle (John Goodman) that he must perform a ritual by sundown or the dead will rise.  Norman is joined by his sister, Courtney (Anna Kendrick), Neil's older brother, Mitch (Casey Affleck), and Alvin the bully (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to stop the threat before it's too late.

The first thing you'll notice about this movie is its unique design. Everything from the houses, the cars, and even the character's faces, are a little off-center and asymmetrical.  It's simply a gorgeous movie, and the best stop-motion animation I can recall. I was initially concerned about seeing it as sometimes my eyes have difficulty focusing when the animation stutters, and it didn't help that the theater's projector was way too dim.  Replace your projector bulbs!  My initial concerns about it went away quickly once my eyes adjusted though.  One of the things I really loved about the use of this type of animation was that it gave the film a tangible quality.  The characters and sets had more weight and depth compared to how a CG-animated movie sometimes feels.

I was also surprised at how funny the movie was.  There's lots of referential humor to other horror films and sight gags that made me laugh.  Some of the humor felt directed at older audiences though.  While this is a movie that all ages can enjoy, some parts might be a little too scary for really young kids.  I saw a lot of kids sitting in their parents laps during some tense moments.  It's not bloody and there aren't any jump scares, but use your own discretion as to whether you think your kids can handle it.  Most of the kids in the audience seem to have adapted to the movie about halfway through.

The voice acting by the cast is great.  Outside of a voice or two, one of the things I love about an animated film is when they use recognizable actors, but you still can't quite place who the voice belongs to.  The voices all fit the characters well and you aren't distracted by them.

Sometimes I don't notice the score of a film, but the music of the movie was another aspect of ParaNorman that really stood out to me.  It fit the movie perfectly.  Plus, any movie that manages to squeeze in Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up, Look Sharp", scores points with me.

It has a very powerful ending. At it's heart there are some poignant messages about acceptance, bullying and being an outcast. The movie doesn't hit you over the head with its message though. The basic story is one that's been told a ton of times, where the oddball/misfit/outcast is the one that has the power to save us, but with ParaNorman it felt fresh and it builds to a satisfying payoff. You have to credit writer and co-director Chris Butler with his work here.

I liked ParaNorman a lot more than I was expecting to. It's a funny and great looking film that everyone can enjoy. The voice acting is top notch and the film gives you a nice message that's important, especially for kids.  This is worth a matinee.

3.5 (out of 5) Death Stars