Monday, April 19, 2010

Review: Kick-Ass

IMDb

Title: Kick-Ass
Distributor:
Lionsgate
Director:
Matthew Vaughn
Writer(s):
Jane Goldman(screenplay) & Matthew Vaughn(screenplay)
Staring:
Aaron Johnson, Evan Peters, Clark Duke, Lyndsy Fonseca, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage
MPAA Rating:
Rated R for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use - some involving children
Running Time:
117 min
Synopsis:
Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.

What Others Are Saying?


Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 78% (Fresh), Top Critics: 76% (Fresh), RT Community: 92% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 67 out of 100, Users: 8.6 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 72: (29.6% A, 43.8% B, 20.6% C, 5.0% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: B Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based on comic book series written by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita, Jr

Entertaining Value:
  • Action Elements: A lot of stylized fighting aka kicking ass.
  • Comedy Elements: There are a good amount of reference to comic books and pop culture. The brutality of the fights were funny to the guys in the crowed.
  • Dramatic Elements: Just high school drama.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Anything that would fit into a comic book realm.
Cinematic Value:
  • Acting and Dialogue: B+: The line deliverance was great. As far as performance there were not to bad since most of the cast are all newish to the business
  • Art Direction: B+: I think the costuming was the best part of the art in the film.
  • Cinematography: A-: Action sequence were great. The film makers experimented with cool techniques and they worked beautifully
  • Direction: A: Were looking at a fairly new director here, who has some pretty awesome producing credits with films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. I liking Matthew Vaughn more and more. How did he do on this film, well Kick Ass (some pun attended).
  • Editing: A: The transitions in the film were sweet. I liked how the editing paired very nicely with the cinematography.
  • Screenplay: B: The story seem to be pretty solid, from what I have heard from my friends who read the comic is its fairly close to the book.
  • Sound and Music: A: The sound track was great, it to fit the on screen action.
  • VFX: A: I personally want to say kudos to all who did there own stunts on this film, it was one of the better action movies with real kick ass fighting in, that I liked. Therefore, I also have to give props to the stunt guys also case they made everyone else look bad ass.
Moral and Ethical Value:
  • Themes: Superheros
  • Moral of the Story: Standing up form someone could pay off in the end.
  • Take Home: The most Kick Ass movie ever.

Overall: A-: Its deferentially a good guys movie Comic book nerd should also like it. But its also a pretty funny movie, but it rated R so its not for everyone, duh.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Review: Clash of the Titans

IMDb

Title: Clash of the Titans
Distributor:
Legendary Pictures (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Director:
Louis Leterrier
Writer(s):
Travis Beacham (screenplay), Phil Hay (screenplay), Matt Manfredi (screenplay), and Beverley Cross (1981 screenplay)
Staring:
Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes
MPAA Rating:
Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief sensuality.
Running Time:
118 min
Synopsis:
The mortal son of the god Zeus embarks on a perilous journey to stop the underworld and its minions from spreading their evil to Earth as well as the heavens.

What Others Are Saying?


Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 31% (Rotten), Top Critics: 33% (Rotten), RT Community: 53% (rotten)
Metacritic: Critics: 40 out of 100, Users: 5.4 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 44: (0.0% A, 29.3% B, 28.1% C, 34.6% D, and 7.8% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: C+ Users: B

My Review

Source Material: Based on the 1981 film Clash of the Titans written by Beverley Cross. The original film is based off a Greek mythological story about Perseus and Andromeda.

Entertaining Value:
  • Action Elements: There a lot of "Fantasy Action" so sword play and what not, but it wasn't as epic as I wanted it to be / expected it to be.
  • Comedy Elements: I think I could count the "jokes" of the film on one hand.
  • Dramatic Elements: There are a lot of daddy issues, but no highly dramatic scenes.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: It's Greek Mythology so its chalk full of VFX
Cinematic Value:
  • Acting and Dialogue: B-: A friend / co-worker told me, "I cant get over the fact Liam Neeson is playing Zeus" I replied with, "But Liam Neeson is a god." It sad but true the best acting comes from the main gods from the film Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades. Everyone else was decent the only person I think was a bit off when it comes to acting chops is Sam Worthington. He maybe on the up rise right now with Avatar but he is mediocre at best. When he gave the "let get ready for battle men" speech I wasn't convinced to fight, like I would have been in another movie.
  • Art Direction: B+: I did like the authentic feel of the film. Greece during the Golden Ages
  • Cinematography: B-: It could have been better. There were a lot of shots I liked very much so, mainly the action ones. Also bad use of 3-D there could have been really cool parts but there wasn't...i guess nothing will ever live up to Avatar for a while.
  • Direction: A: We have seen Louis Leterrier work before in the films Unleashed, Transporter 2, The Incredible Hulk. I personally liked both Transporter 2 and The Incredible Hulk. Clash of the Titans seem to me that it didn't do his name justice.
  • Editing: B-: There were some scene that confused me.
  • Screenplay: C: It veered to far from the original story. There where some parts I was like, "you could have left that out completely but fans of the old movie will hate you for it" Big key element I would have liked to seen but were cut: Better use of Acrisius/Calibos character, use Andromeda as the love interest and not Io, and the use of Bubo.
  • Sound and Music: A: The score was good all around, some piece of the music fit beautifully with the action happening on screen.
  • VFX: A: The open story about the gods over throwing of the titans was the best use of graphics and visual effect to tell a story via stars, cause most of our constellations do tell of stories from Greek mythology including this one. Very nice touch. The film carries this greatness of VFX in other parts of the film also like the Kraken
Moral and Ethical Value:
  • Themes: Men vs Beast and Men vs God
  • Moral of the Story: Good defeats evil.
  • Take Home: Greek mythology is close to my heart

Overall: B: Its a good guy movie. its a decent action movie, it an okay sword and sandal movie, so maybe consider seeing it at least once.