Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass 2 - Dir. Jeff Wadlow (2013)

Scotsman Mark Millar is one of the top writers currently in the comic book industry. He's able to find a unique slant to traditional superhero tropes. Millar's magnum opus, Superman: Red Son, is a brilliant look at what would have happened if baby Kal-El had landed in Stalin Russian instead of Smallville, Kansas. Millar's talent as an author is frequently lost by his proclivities for being a provocateur. His works, such as Wanted and Nemesis, are known to frequently use profanity and violence for shock value. Millar has also come under fire for his cavalier attitude towards the depiction of rape. This leads us to Kick-Ass, which initially debuted as an 8-issue mini-series in 2008 and gained notice for Hit-Girl, a 10-year old vigilante described as a cross between Rambo and Polly Pocket. Hit-Girl casually cursed like a sailor and eviscerated bad guys with a variety of deadly weapons. When it came time to turn the comic into a live-action movie, director Matthew Vaughn raised the $30 million budget himself when studios balked at the violence and the young age of the character that caused most of it. The first Kick-Ass film didn't do blockbuster numbers, but it did enough off a modest budget to warrant sequels.

Kick-Ass 2 is based on the second mini-series and the Hit-Girl spin-off that bridges the gap between the two stories. Some time has passed since the events of the previous picture in which geeky Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) donned a green wetsuit to moonlight as the superhero Kick-Ass. He mostly got the crap beaten out of him while pint-size dynamo, Mindy Macready aka Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), did all the real damage. Dave has hung up the tights, but dons them once more to escape his dreary existence as a high school senior. His past exploits as Kick-Ass have inspired dozens of other New Yorkers to put on their costumes, including Dave's best friend Marty (Clark Duke), now known as Battle Guy. Together, they join Justice Forever, a superhero team founded by Col. Stars & Stripes (Jim Carrey), a grizzled ex-mob enforcer who went legit after finding Jesus.

Now that he's playing in the big leagues, Dave receives further training from Mindy, but the sparring sessions end when her guardian and late-father's former partner, Marcus (Morris Chestnut), catches her in costume during a Ferris Bueller race to the house. Forbidden from being Hit-Girl, Mindy must acclimate to civilian life and dealing with one of her most fearsome foes ever, mean high school girls. Meanwhile, Dave's archenemy, Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), vows revenge and transforms himself into the Motherfucker, the world's first supervillain. He gathers his own team of thugs and killers led by a buff KGB assassin dubbed Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina).

There were mixed message with Kick-Ass. It wanted to deconstruct the superhero genre and show real world consequences to costumed crime fighting. Then, it ended with the title character flying around on a jetpack and blowing a man up with a bazooka. Still, it was a fun action movie that hung on a bravura performance from young Chloe Moretz. Kick-Ass 2 is just a mess.

Matthew Vaughn had a flair for action, but he only serves as producer for the sequel. The reins are handed over to writer/director Jeff Wadlow, whose uninspiring resume includes Cry_Wolf and Never Back Down. Somehow, he's also managed to land X-Force as his next picture. Wadlow has no knack for action, employing the same choppy approach that too many American filmmakers adopt. A sequence where Mindy clings to a van full of mobsters is the movie's most poorly constructed set piece. Close-ups of Moretz in front of a green screen are embarrassingly obvious.

Kick-Ass himself has regressed as a character. He's less competent and less interesting in Kick-Ass 2 with his primary motivation being boredom. No, the true star of the sequel is Hit-Girl. Moretz manages to convey all the heartbreak that comes with bullying and adolescent awkwardness. However, Wadlow has embraced Millar's preoccupation with juvenile humor. Any emotional payoff from that storyline is tossed out in favor of a sight gag involving projectile vomiting and diarrhea. In fact, any time Kick-Ass 2 tries to inject some semblance of gravitas; it's undercut by jokes done in poor taste. Two deaths are expected to be taken seriously, yet the movie has such a casual attitude toward death that we feel nothing, except maybe nausea. Mother Russia brutally kills several police officers to a rock version of the Tetris theme and an attempted rape scene is played for laughs. This is tame stuff compared to the source material, which featured a gang rape, children being gunned down, and a decapitated dog.

It's also a shame that Kick-Ass 2 doesn't fully utilize its fantastic supporting cast. An unrecognizable Jim Carrey gives his liveliest performance in years in the small role of the Colonel. Carrey really disappears into the part thanks to some prosthetics and thick New York accent. Taking on these character roles can really revitalize his career. Too bad they aren't in better movies. John Leguizamo and an exuberant Donald Faison are wasted along with Iain Glen from Game of Thrones in a throwaway cameo.

Kick-Ass 2 is an out and out disappointment rife with abrupt tonal shifts and sloppy storytelling.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady - Dir. Phyllida Lloyd (2011)

Meryl Streep has earned an unparalleled seventeen Academy Award nominations while taking home the gold statuette for Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Streep would win a third Oscar for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Indeed, Streep continues to cement her reputation as a chameleon following memorable performances as the icy fashion editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada and the affably eccentric Julia Child in Julie & Julia. She has an overwhelming command of the film whenever she is on screen and her portrayal of Thatcher goes beyond mere mimicry. It is unfortunate that the screenplay and the direction of The Iron Lady aren't on par with Streep.

The Iron Lady opens in 2008 with a meek and elderly Thatcher attempting to buy milk at the corner store. It's an ironic situation given that she cancelled the schools' free milk program as Secretary of Education, earning her the derisive nickname of Thatcher the Milk Snatcher. Once she was the first woman to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the person to serve in that office for the longest term of the 20th century. Now, she struggles with dementia while carrying on imaginary conversations with her late-husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent).

Flashbacks tell the story of a young "Maggie" (Alexandra Roach) growing up idolizing her father, Alfred Roberts (Iain Glen), a grocer and alderman. She eventually marries Denis (played in younger years by Harry Lloyd), whose lighthearted sense of humor counters the serious demands placed upon Thatcher's political career. As she slowly rises in the ranks of Parliament to become Prime Minister, Thatcher deals with the dismissive and chauvinistic attitudes of her peers. Her time as P.M. is marked by terrorist attacks, economic strife, violent protests, and war. Sound familiar?

The Iron Lady takes a decidedly feminist viewpoint of its subject thanks to the involvement of director Phyllida Lloyd, who previously worked with Streep on the musical Mamma Mia, and screenwriter Abi Morgan, who co-wrote Steve McQueen's Shame. She's tough as nails, but still a lady. She'll declare war in the Falkland Islands while kindly pouring tea for Alexander Haig. Thatcher as a woman fighting for survival in a man's world is hammered home by an overhead shot of her in a blue dress sticking out like a sore thumb in a sea of well-tailored suits. Another shows Thatcher being ushered into the lady's lounge of Parliament, equipped with a single chair and an ironing board. At one point, we are treated to a King's Speech sequence when Thatcher undergoes vocal lessons as part of an image makeover enacted by her advisors.

Those expecting The Iron Lady to glorify or vilify a polarizing figure in political history will be disappointed. Neither Lloyd nor Morgan takes a strong stance one way or another about Thatcher's hardliner policies against the IRA and the Soviets or her staunch opposition to labor unions. As a result, Iron Lady lacks any sort of bite or substance. It doesn't help that the filmmakers rely heavily on montages to skim over some of the most important events during Thatcher's term, such as the Falklands and the crippling labor strikes. And Lloyd seems to absolutely love shots of Thatcher riding in the back of a limo as angry protestors slam their fists on her window. Things veer dangerously close to camp during a sequence depicting the IRA's bombing of the Grand Hotel in an attempt to assassinate Thatcher and most of her cabinet as well as the car bombing that killed her campaign manager Airey Neave. The latter scene shows Thatcher, in heels, rushing to the burning wreckage. Why not just have her fly back in slow motion, and then raise her fist to the sky to scream, "Noooooooo!"

It should be noted that The Iron Lady does have a few positives to be noted, aside from Streep. She may have been overshadowed by the film's star, but Alexandra Roach does a splendid job as the young Margaret Thatcher and there are solid turns by Richard E. Grant and Anthony Stewart Head as members of Thatcher's inner circle.

The Iron Lady reminds me of another tepid biopic, Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Though the make-up here is a darn sight better than what was slathered on Leonardo DiCaprio, both pictures are shallow and bogged down by silly narrative devices. The Iron Lady is a prime example of a great performance trapped inside a bad movie.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Harry Brown

Harry Brown - Dir. Daniel Barber (2009)


Now, this is the kind of role I want to see Michael Caine play. Following in the footsteps of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, Caine takes up the mantle of the septuagenarian avenger in Harry Brown. This isn’t Caine’s first foray into the revenge film. He famously starred in one of the best revenge movies (and one of my favorite films of all time) in Get Carter.

As Jack Carter, Caine played a suave, yet vicious, gangster searching for his brother’s killer in the seedy underbelly of Newcastle. In Harry Brown, Caine is a former Royal Marine collecting his pension and living in the council estates (the British equivalent of the projects) in South London. It is a very ugly and dehumanizing world that Harry Brown lives in. At least Newcastle had a working class charm to it, the estates of Harry Brown have an ultra-modern brutalism to it. The building he lives in looks almost like a filing cabinet where society’s castoffs are stuffed in and quickly forgotten. The film was shot on location in the Heygate Estate which bares similar architecture to the infamous car park from Get Carter. Just like the car park, the Estate has been torn down to make way for gentrified reconstruction.

Harry Brown opens in a shocking manner with an amateur video recording of two drugged out youths joy riding on their bikes and shooting off a gun. They terrorize a mother pushing a stroller and unintentionally kill her before being struck down by a truck while fleeing the scene. The area is rife with crime and drugs thanks to the local youth gangs.

Brown lives alone in his apartment while his wife lays comatose in the hospital. He is late for her dying moments after taking the long way because the local hoods gather around a more convenient underpass. The last straw comes when Harry’s best friend and drinking buddy, Leonard (David Bradley) is murdered. The investigating detective (Emily Mortimer) has her suspects, but not enough evidence to arrest them. So Harry dusts off his old service pistol, goes for a walk in the middle of a night, and winds up killing a mugger in self-defense. With a new purpose, Harry is dead set on hunting down Leonard’s killers.

In one of the film’s most unsettling scenes, Harry attempts to purchase guns from a drug dealer frighteningly realized by Sean Harris (who played Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People). Harry strikes an uneasy deal as homemade pornography plays on the TV and an OD’d girl lays sprawled out on the sofa.

Even though he’s close to 80 years of age, Michael Caine can still make you believe he can kick your ass. And he probably could. He is easily capable of switching from hardassed to heartfelt. Director Daniel Barber (in his feature-length debut) and writer Gary Young (who also penned the DTV actioner The Tournament) have created a very nasty world for Harry Brown.

However, the film has very little to add to the genre. Harry Brown doesn’t have the deeper meaning of Gran Torino. It doesn’t transcend the trappings of its ‘Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out’ philosophy. More sensitive types may bemoan the way the film reinforces the fascistic overtones common with vigilante pictures.

Rating: ** ½