I wan to preface this with - I’m not a movie critic nor do I usually give my thoughts on movies here, but since doing the whole Kick Ass contest and superhero guest blogs I felt that I should at least give it a try. Remember, these are just my thoughts and my opinions and like I’ve heard, growing up in the military, so often: “Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.”

On March I7, I was one of the privileged to be in attendance at the Las Vegas ShoWest 2010 screening of Kick Ass in the Paris Hotel and Casino. I’ve never watched a movie in an auditorium like the one at the Paris, it was like traveling back in time to when luxury ruled, they had freakin’ chandeliers hanging from the ceiling for God’s sake. Anyway, getting back to the movie after many announcements that cameras would not be allowed and that all cell phones must be turned off - people would be in the theater with night vision goggles and if they saw an open cell phone you were going to be asked to leave, no questions asked. After the announcement a big, burly man in a suit came down the line taking our passes and stamping our hand with a little red ladybug stamp which I thought was funny as hell, so did my friend and some new friends we made in line. We joked that we should go to the back of the line and charge people ten dollars so we could lick our stamp and transfer it to their hand, so they could get in too.

Once inside we had to sit through the introductions of Lionsgate’s officers, my friend thought it was cool to hear these mini-speeches from the movie industry people, I just wanted to see the movie and didn‘t really care to see or hear any of Lionsgate’s representatives. Finally, they said that the movie would start after we watched a preview for another movie called “The Expendables” According to the Lionsgate official who hyped the clip, we were the first audience to see this trailer. The movie looks awesome and has an incredible cast, including Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Brittany Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny Trejo, and Terry Crews.

The audience in this screening was a mix of people, from the executives of major motion picture studios, to the reviewers and press, to the regular people like us, so it was funny to me when the lights went out and the movie started that everyone was cheering even the guys in the suits in front of us.

If you’ve read the comics you know that Kick Ass is unlike any other superhero out there - he has no power. He’s just an average kid with average teenage problems who one day gets fed up with being mugged while people just stand by and watch, so he decides to fulfill his fantasies and become a masked vigilante superhero. His first encounter with the bad guys is not a very pleasant one. The criminals laugh at him and then kick his ass, but that doesn’t stop him from seeking vigilante justice. After a stay in the hospital where his body is supported by metal rods and bolts, “but it’s cool because it’s kind of like Wolverine” he goes back out as Kick Ass. Aaron Johnson is great in the role of Dave Lizewski/Kick Ass. He has this innocence that comes across the screen and even if you don‘t like him you still find yourself rooting for him. The way he and his friends interact is classic, it almost reminds me of how I used to hang out with my friends and have almost the same conversations - Mark Millar nailed it - it’s all very real.

The violence and action in this movie is over the top, but that’s how I like it. I loved the action scenes in this movie and I have to say that for me, Chloe Moretz steals the movie as the foul mouth, slicing, dicing, shooting, stabbing, ninja jumping Hit Girl. The audience I saw this film with just went nuts when she utters the words, “Ok you cunts, let’s see what you can do now “ in a Dirty Harry kind of way, and they didn’t stop laid waste to the criminals . She not only Kicks Ass, but she‘s a Bad Ass. I’ve talked to friends about this character and many think that this is not the way 12 year olds should be portrayed in movies, but in this movie/story it works. This is what her father taught her to be and this is what she is - and it’s freakin’ cool. I’ll admit that I won’t take my nephew to see this when I go see it again on opening night.

The character of “Big Daddy” is played brilliantly by Nicholas Cage. His performance is so awesome in a twisted sort of way. He’s the concerned father who wants to protect his child by alleviating her fear of getting shot and he does so by shooting her in the chest and explaining that a bullet travels at more than 700 miles an hour and at close range she will be knocked off her feet but that it only feels like getting punched in the chest. Afterwards he asks, “how was that? Not so bad, kind of fun, huh?” I used to love Nicholas Cage movies but got to the point where I didn’t think he was such a good actor anymore - this one is Nick Cage at his classic best. He’s quirky and funny and uses this strange dialect and voice when he’s in the Big Daddy character that reminded of Christian Bale in the Batman movies only not as annoying as Bale was.

This is not a politically correct movie and it‘s not for everyone, hell the main character is shown wacking off to internet porn and fantasies of his teacher early in the movie, but that’s what makes this movie so awesome - it‘s not your typical cookie-cutter superhero film. I didn’t want to say it, because I know a lot of people are going to say this, but this movie really was “Kick Ass.”

I know I said I was probably going to announce the winner of the Kick-Ass Contest today, well, I ran into a little problem. I didn’t want to have anything to do with judging the contest so that it would stay fair, so I printed out all the entries and had different friends read them and tell me which one they liked the best. They were supposed to have their favorites back to me by yesterday, but not all have been given back - so, to keep it all fair I’ll wait until I get them back (should be later today) and I’ll post the winner on Friday.

Thanks,
Tony