Post by Her 69 Eyes on Apr 20, 2010 1:27:05 GMT -5
I guess I responded to Kick-Ass pretty differently than both of you.
There are things I liked. Nicolas Cage. Mark Strong. Red Mist.
But I had three major gripes - the first being the inconsistent tone - and the second is Aaron Johnson. I've heard great things about his performance in Nowhere Boy, but I didn't see anything here that showed me he's capable of bringing anything to even the most over-the-top action porn. Much of the fault should also be placed on the script, which characterizes him purely by resorting to cliche after cliche - going so far as to giving him a love interest who exists for no other reason than to eventually fuck him.
What I hated most of all, however, was the score/soundtrack. I found it completely obnoxious. There wasn't a frame of the film without a song holding the audience's hand - cry here, be impressed here, be scared here. It was manipulative tripe, completely fucking shameless. I felt like I was watching a commercial. The movie, to me, came off as the most low-brow, leave your brain at the door bullshit due solely to the choices in music. Not that the songs are necessarily awful, but the constant barrage of sound guiding me along made me resent every minute of this thing.
There were a few instances where I thought the film was on the path to overstepping the gimmick and becoming something truly subversive. The one scene that I loved, in particular, is with Big Daddy discovering his old partner in his batcave. It's the only scene in the film that deals with morality and consequences. It's the only scene in the film that firmly establishes legitimate character motivations. The only one that requests any sympathy from the audience. A film about the framing of Big Daddy and the subsequent maniacal raising of his daughter is the one I would want to see. I'm not asking for arthouse, i'm asking for an intelligent use of pathos.
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I agree with you somewhat on The House of the Devil, but were you not underwhelmed by the third act? I was completely on board for the first hour. Scared out of my fucking mind. Once the big reveal happened, however, I felt that the film lost all of it's momentum. The stakes are clearly life-or-death, but the problem is that I didn't buy the villains to be of any threat whatsoever. She thwarts them rather easily.
Good to hear you responded to Brothers so positively. I loved that film - definitely, in my opinion, the most underrated and misunderstood film of last year.
There are things I liked. Nicolas Cage. Mark Strong. Red Mist.
But I had three major gripes - the first being the inconsistent tone - and the second is Aaron Johnson. I've heard great things about his performance in Nowhere Boy, but I didn't see anything here that showed me he's capable of bringing anything to even the most over-the-top action porn. Much of the fault should also be placed on the script, which characterizes him purely by resorting to cliche after cliche - going so far as to giving him a love interest who exists for no other reason than to eventually fuck him.
What I hated most of all, however, was the score/soundtrack. I found it completely obnoxious. There wasn't a frame of the film without a song holding the audience's hand - cry here, be impressed here, be scared here. It was manipulative tripe, completely fucking shameless. I felt like I was watching a commercial. The movie, to me, came off as the most low-brow, leave your brain at the door bullshit due solely to the choices in music. Not that the songs are necessarily awful, but the constant barrage of sound guiding me along made me resent every minute of this thing.
There were a few instances where I thought the film was on the path to overstepping the gimmick and becoming something truly subversive. The one scene that I loved, in particular, is with Big Daddy discovering his old partner in his batcave. It's the only scene in the film that deals with morality and consequences. It's the only scene in the film that firmly establishes legitimate character motivations. The only one that requests any sympathy from the audience. A film about the framing of Big Daddy and the subsequent maniacal raising of his daughter is the one I would want to see. I'm not asking for arthouse, i'm asking for an intelligent use of pathos.
---
AD-
I agree with you somewhat on The House of the Devil, but were you not underwhelmed by the third act? I was completely on board for the first hour. Scared out of my fucking mind. Once the big reveal happened, however, I felt that the film lost all of it's momentum. The stakes are clearly life-or-death, but the problem is that I didn't buy the villains to be of any threat whatsoever. She thwarts them rather easily.
Good to hear you responded to Brothers so positively. I loved that film - definitely, in my opinion, the most underrated and misunderstood film of last year.