Kick-Ass!

Alana, Kenneth and I went to see Kick-Ass yesterday. I really wanted to see it in the theater because I really wanted to see Hit-Girl in action on the big screen. I wasn't disappointed at all. Kick-Ass was brutal, bloody, and funny.

I'll be honest, I haven't read the comic books. It's been a while since I kept up with any ongoing series or even been into a comic shop. Most of my comic book consumption comes in the form of movies and games now days. A lot of times this can have a detrimental effect on the movies. If you know the history of a character or franchise, it really sucks to see Hollywood take it and package it for the masses. X-Men and Spider-Man started really strong, but ultimately nose-dived into shit territory with the third installment of each. At least we're about to get another awesome Iron Man movie, not to mention Captain America and then the Avengers.

Anyway, Kick-Ass really felt like a love letter to comic books. Anybody who's ever read a comic could identify with Kick-Ass. He was like-able and it really hurt when he got hurt. The real star was Hit-Girl. She's the one with the tragic back story and reason for revenge. You even get a little misty at a couple parts because she's so young and so alone.

I hear the story was changed from the comic book, and normally that would bug me, but since I never read the funny book, I don't have that connection with it. I kind of wish I could remove myself from other characters and just enjoy them for what they are up on the screen, but it's so hard to watch Deadpool extrude swords from his arms, shoot optic blasts, and teleport. It may look cool, but when does it stop being an homage to the character and just become name lifting?

I'm worried that Whiplash is going to suffer from this syndrome in Iron Man 2. Cherry picking the parts they want to use from different villains to make a story work. And you may argue that sticking too close to canon leaves us with movies like Daredevil or Ghost Rider. And I'll tell you, those movies are much more enjoyable than X-Men 3.

And I'll tell you one thing right now. Seeing Elektra killed on screen almost exactly like the comic book is still a memory that stands out for me.

The Expendables

This looks pretty damn awesome!

Law Abiding Gamer

I didn't plan it this way, but we ended up watching a couple of Gerard Butler movies here lately. Thanks to a free Red Box code we watched Law Abiding Citizen last week. It was awesome! I really didn't know what to expect, since I never really heard much about this movie besides the commercials. It starts out pretty hardcore and just keeps going. I highly recommend it.

On the flip side is Gamer. While this wasn't the worst video game related movie (it beats Stay Alive by a mile), it definitely could have been worse. Basically this Bill Gates kind of guy develops a way to put nanites in your brain so that you can be controlled remotely. He creates a Sony Home type place called Society and a Halo type game called Slayers.

It felt a little like The Running Man meets Deathrace (the one with Jason Statham). It wasn't that bad of a movie really. The action was pretty good. The plot was iffy, but that wasn't a surprise at all.

I like it how Hollywood has discovered nano-bots as a convenient plot device to explain all sorts of stuff in movies.

The A-Team

How good does this look?!

Movie Review Time

We hit the Red Box this weekend for a couple movies. Since we don't have the Netflix anymore, Red Box has become our movie rental device of choice. It's really cool, except the selection can be a little sparse. It never gets old threatening the wife with renting 12 Rounds, either.

We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Confessions was pretty good. A little predictable as all those movies are. It kills me that Isla Fisher is married to Borat. Is there no justice in the world?!

The Day the Earth Stood Still was ok. I expected a little more in the action department and the special effects department. I think they spent all their money on Keanu. It also ended up feeling like an environmental message wrapped in an alien movie. Like, you guys better start recycling or aliens are going to come and re-boot the earth.

Terminator Salvation Review

We caught Terminator Salvation last night. I had a free ticket for buying T3 the other day, so we squeezed it in right before the coupon expired. Frugality rules!

I thought the movie was awesome. I had read a lot of comments and reviews, but I didn't really notice the same issues other people did. I thought the story was great. It fit just fine into the continuity of the movies. It even had a few surprises that really...well...surprised me.

The only complaint I could even level at the game is regarding Bale's performance. That damn Batman growl he uses really gets annoying. Especially when he's delivering normal dialogue. He almost gets a lisp from it. Like he bit his tongue and is pissed off about it.

X-Men Origins Wolverine

We saw Wolverine yesterday, so I'm going to write up my little mini review. There are spoilers ahead, so be warned!

I went into the movie with very measured expectations of what to...well...expect. I had read a bunch of reviews, tweets, and spoilers, so I knew that this wasn't going to be X-Men 2. Therefore, I was honestly prepared for the worst, but got something better.

The plot wasn't terrible. I think it mostly made sense and held itself together pretty well. There was a reason for everyone's actions and they didnt' feel forced. I enjoyed the action a lot. It was worth the price of admission to see the entire helicopter sequence alone.

There were a few points that bugged me. First, the Blob. Is it not possible to translate a 2nd string villain to the screen with any success in these movies? X3 reduced the Juggernaut to a punchline, now Wolverine does the same thing to the Blob. He has an eating disorder? Really?!

The idea of adamantium bullets is pretty ridiculous as well. I do see why they chose that route since it is a bit more dramatic than somehow giving Logan false memory implants. You can tell that it was something that had to be written in to tie up some loose ends. It was silly but not a movie killer.

Overall, I think it was a good action movie. In regards to the X-Men movies, it comes in 3rd. It was much better than X3. It sucks that they didn't utilize Ryan Reynolds more as Deadpool. And for a comic nerd like me, even I had to look up who Agent Zero is. Not to mention Dominic Monaghan's character.

I hope the inevitible sequel will have Wolverine in Japan learning the ways of the samurai and falling in love with Mariko. Of course, we all know the how likely they are to stick to the source material.

Super Bowl Movie Trailers

OMG MEGATON!

Hellboy 2

We watched The Golden Army last night (on beautiful blu-ray). All in all it was a decent flick. I don't think it was as awesome as the first Hellboy, but it still had a few good moments.

The part that kind of killed any immersion I may have had was when (spoiler alert) the giant elemental was tearing up the place and Hellboy was running over parked cars WITH A BABY. Yes, he was swaddling a fucking baby while bounding over cars. Then, instead of put the baby down or pass it off to someone, he carries it up the side of a building WITH HIS TAIL. Then, in an even more ridiculous display, he tosses the baby skyward in order to load his weapon. Then, of course, he catches the baby and it's fine.

There are so many things wrong with this scenario I don't even know how it goes from the page to the screen. I understand that Hellboy isn't exactly grounded in reality, but there have to be some things that are consistent between the real world and the movie. Being able to treat a baby like a football doesn't work in real life. It can't work in Hellboy.

Even worse is when Hellboy hands the baby back to the mother and she (and the crowd) start yelling at him and calling him a monster because he seemingly attacked the baby. Now, I'm no genius here, but I'm assuming that if Hellboy wanted to hurt the baby he wouldn't have delivered it safely back to the mother.

It bugs me because this happens more often than not in movies. A superhero, beit Spider-Man or Hellboy or Batman, saves somebody, and the crowd immediatly turns on them. It's like the crowd is full of complete morons that can't process what just happened, so they just get mad at the hero. How does that work? And in the case of Hellboy, why does the mom get mad? She can see the baby is fine (even though he shouldn't be after what just happened).

By the way, what was the deal with that smoke guy? Kinda dumb.

Speed Racer And The Contest

We watched Speed Racer this weekend. Well, I watched it and Rhea fell asleep. Then I had a seizure and went to bed.

Now, I didn't hate the movie. The action and CGI were impressive. The fight scenes and other parts were pretty atrocious. Especially when they focused on Spritle and Chim Chim.

Honestly, I'm not sure how so many people can work on a movie and not realize it's going to be bad. But, like I said, the racing was pretty sweet. Not believable at all, but sweet.

Also, on the show, we're giving away a copy of the new Animal Crossing: City Folk game. You have to take a listen to the show and find out how to enter. It's a pretty funny episode if I do say so myself.

TEETH

So, we were sitting in front of the TV last night with absolutely nothing to watch. We don't care about the Olympics or any of the other completely lame shows that are on Monday nights (except Two and a Half Men). We had two movies from Netflix, but Rhea didn't want to watch them. They were more for me. For some reason she doesn't want to see Doomsday. I can't imagine why not.

So, I get the brilliant idea to browse the Xbox Live Marketplace for a movie to rent. We had never done that, so I figured what the hell.

The selection is not the greatest, and it took is a good half hour or so to find a couple of possibilities. Once we settled on the movie, I had to delete a couple demos off my hard drive to make room. Thanks, 20Gigs!!

If you don't know what Teeth is about, (and shame on you if you don't), let me break it down for you. Teeth is the story of a girl who is born with teeth. I'm sure you're saying to yourself "everybody has teeth".

Not like this.

She has teeth in her hoohaa. You know, down there! It's called vagina dentata.

The movie starts a little slow, basically laying the groundwork for the rest of the film where she comes in to her own, as it were. And once it gets going, it's a dick-chomping good time, which is both hilarious and cringe-inducing. I can't recommend this movie enough. It doesn't go into super cheesy territory, and that really saves it. This could have been some really bad horror flick, but instead it's funny where it needs to be and creepy everywhere else.

The King of Kong

Friend, listener, and all around great guy Africansk8er has written a review for the documentary The King of Kong. It's a great write up. I really want to see this flick.

Spider-Man 3

We saw Spider-Man 3 tonight. We first went to Metro Cinema which is an IMAX theater. The screen is huge, but there aren't a lot of seats, which isn't cool. The movie fucked up about 30 minutes in, so they canceled the rest of the show. Real nice.

We got our money back and decided to head over to another theater to see it. We got there just in time and were able to watch it in its entirety.

Overall, I'm happy with the movie. I think there were a few things that were a little too convenient like the meteor with the symbiote landing right where Peter and Mary Jane were. And I'm still wondering when the hell Peter learned to play the piano and to dance. Bruce Campbell was, of course, genius.

All in all it was a decent evening, capped off by some delicious beer. Who could ask for anything more?

Ghost Rider

The Ghost Rider movie kicks a lot of ass! I wish I had a flaming skull for a head!!

Ghost Rider!!!

I can't wait for this movie!

Transformers The Movie

Live Free

Painkiller Jane

I watched the SciFi original movie Painkiller Jane last night. Supposedly based on a comic book, this movie was so far from the actual origin of P.J. it isn't even funny.