Kick-Ass (2010)

Kick-Ass starts out with a noble goal: "Why hasn't anyone ever tried to be a superhero before?" inquires the hero, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson). "Probably because they'd get their ass kicked," responds one of his friends. And when Dave first dons the outfit of Kick-Ass, he does get his ass thoroughly kicked, so much so that he nears death. You'd think this would stop him, but instead it screws up his nerves so that he can't feel pain as much and can endure more.

Dave is a normal High School nerd who dreams of the hot girl (Lyndsy Fonseca) and whacks off daily, with an ever-expanding collection of comic books. Fed up with getting pushed around, he becomes Kick-Ass, with the hope to do good, though he fully acknowledges he has no reason to seek vengeance: no murdered parents or otherwise.

It is sad then that the movie's best characters, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) conform to the conventions of the comic book. Big Daddy is seeking revenge for one reason or another, and has trained his daughter to become a totally bad-ass killer. Yet in a movie that is trying to convey realism, it is these characters that shatter that realistic barrier, taking on dozens of villains by themselves and standing victorious over them all. And while their scenes of kick-assery provide much of the movies action thrills, I was more interested in Dave's story of grappling with the responsibility of being a superhero, rather then Big Daddy's quest to take revenge on Mob Boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong).

Some people may find the notion of Hit Girl altogether unsettling and quite disturbing. She is, after all, a kid who kills dozens upon dozens of people. And superheroes traditionally don't kill when they have to, right? I have no moral qualms over her actions (does that make me a bad person? Maybe so), but I think the movie has a bad sense of timing in the fun it's going after. In the first scene when we see Hit Girl annihilate a crowd of baddies, it is completely awe-inspiring. But when she storms D'Amico's New York penthouse to Joan Jett's Bad Reputation, the stakes have changed, and the fun factor is all but null. In fact, when Hit Girl is getting her ass kicked, it seems like the movie is still going for laughs. What?

I really enjoyed the movie, but I can't help but pick apart it's inconsistencies, and I have one more complaint: the movie seemed to be heading in a totally unexpected direction, and for a good minute I thought that this movie would do the unexpected. But, alas, it conforms to the clichés of the genre and disappointed me somewhat. While the tone of the film would have been much darker, I think it would have been a bold way of challenging audiences. Just saying, I think they pussed out.

But, overall, the movie is still a fun entertainment. It succeeds more then the film version of Watchmen (2009) did of examining the life of a superhero, so that's something. But, in the end, it's not near the satire it quite wants to be.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009)

Movies have a way of sneaking up and surprising you from time to time, you just never know when they are going to do it or when. Werner Herzog, the helmer of this remake of the 1992 film Martin Scorsese named as one of the ten best of the that decade, is definitely a reputable source for something unexpected.

Bad Lieutenant takes the bad cop formula and then ramps it up to the extreme. Nicolas Cage, who delivers my favorite leading actor performance this year, plays Terence McDonaugh, a good cop who suffers a back injury and is promoted to lieutenant (though based on the opening I wouldn't say he is all good). The movie chronicles his slow descent into madness, as he picks up a coke addiction, gambles endlessly, and cuts off one of his girlfriend's (Eva Mendes) most powerful clients (she is a prostitute, and he is ok with that).

There is also a plot tying everything together about the murder of a whole family, and McDonaugh's search for the killer. But this movie isn't about plot as it is about McDonaugh and his depravity. Near the opening, he lurks outside a club and pulls over an unsuspecting couple; he frisks them for drugs, then takes what he finds and rapes the guy's girlfriend right in front of him (though she goes willingly).

Such a character sounds unlikable and he really is an unlikeable person. But Cage is so electrifying in his performance of this corrupted man that you actually root for him as the bad shit piles on higher and higher. Herzog is known for his character studies (most notably the middling Strozek), and this definitely fits the bill. This performance could have easily been a caricature, but Cage instead fully embodies and believes in this role, and so do we.

The supporting actors are also really good, most notably Eva Mendes as the prostitute girlfriend. She is equal parts sexy and broken on the inside, and never once seems to be overselling her character. The same goes for rapper and Pimp My Ride host Xzibit as a drug kingpin, who has one of the most crazed car rides in recent memory.

The film will be noted for other unique elements that come into play; Herzog holds the camera on the gaze of reptiles, a crocodile and some infamous iguanas. Both shots inspire laughs, for different reasons, but both keep you magnetized to this lizards. And the iguanas will become a part of the film snob vernacular, as I fear far to few people will get to see this movie due to its limited release. But those iguanas, and a dancing soul, add to McDonaugh's crazed reality and hallucinations, whether that is due the medication, cocaine, or the mixture is irrelevant.

If you have the opportunity to see this movie, do it. I command you. It reaches a level of depravity I hadn't thought possible in a film portraying a "bad" cop; Dirty Harry would blush in this guy's presence. Let it be known to the world that Nicolas Cage's performance in this film is going to be the single unsung masterstroke of the year.