I wasn’t too crazy about the first “Kick Ass.” The attempts to take Mark Millar’s homophobic misogynistic fantasy and tame it for broader audiences failed. And it failed fantastically once it watered down the cynicism and introduced that stupid rocket pack. I never understood the appeal of adapting the comic, either. Since I never really bothered to finish “Kick Ass 2” the mini-series (Millar’s “edginess” gets exhausting after the thirtieth anal sex joke), my frame of reference is nil, so “Kick-Ass 2” is a fairly fresh experience as a sequel to a movie that could have done without one.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Mutant Hunt (1987)
I love in “Mutant Hunt” how after the hero Riker fights off the goons who can stretch their arms, cut off their limbs, smash walls, and explode when stabbed, the heroine looks on and proclaims “They’re not human.” NO SHIT! You think?! And you also have to appreciate a guy who lives in a house with white concrete walls, but still finds the time to hang weapons along the walls. All of which can work when he wants them to. No replicas for this schmuck. And seriously, who the hell hangs machetes on their walls?
Showdown (1993)
In the eighties and nineties, there were tons of movie studios trying their hardest to create their own versions of “Karate Kid.” The movie made Ralph Macchio a star for a while, and helped fuel America’s love for the underdog. So naturally, someone had the bright idea to cast Billy Blanks in a lead role for their own “Karate Kid” movie. Like Macchio, Blanks was a celebrity for a short while before becoming a fitness guru, and here he basically plays Miyagi, except as a washed out janitor for a high school filled with students all of whom look well in to their twenties.
Iron Man: Rise of Technovore (2013)
Marvel and MadHouse team together to offer fans of Iron Man a really fun and unique animated adventure with Tony Stark and Iron Man. And while it’s short on plot, it more than compensates for that short coming with some dazzling animation, and an excellent sense of pacing that keeps “Rise of Technovore” absolutely engrossing. Though most of the anime efforts from Marvel with Madhouse have the capability of slowing down, “Rise of Technovore” is always moving and always fun.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Director Shane Black loves Christmas. Hell, the finale to “Iron Man 3” is a loving tribute to the classic “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” but in the end what makes “Iron Man 3” is not the finer Shane Black touches, but the purely intelligent and utterly volatile commentary on terrorism and the American government that really plants this final entry as the most mature of the “Iron Man” films by far. While “Iron Man” is the most entertaining, “Iron Man 3” has a lot to say about the war on terrorism.
Do Not Disturb (DVD) (2013)
Director B.C. Furtney’s horror thriller watches almost like an off off-Broadway play somewhere in some run down theater. “Do Not Disturb” watches like it began life as a stage play and then was turned in to a screenplay after it languished for a few years. Filled with horror genre notables, “Do Not Disturb” is mostly confined to the setting of one room, and is about as dull as any self-important stage play you’ve seen in Manhattan.
Hatchet III: Unrated Director's Cut [Blu-ray] (2013)
I’ve warmed up to “Hatchet III” a little bit since I originally saw it. Not a whole lot, but just a tiny bit. Mostly because while Adam Green is still better than what this premise entails, he is actually talented when he decides to be. Like Adam Sandler, he can deliver some true greatness, he just indulges his fan base that asks for more lowbrow entertainment that he makes his bread and butter off of. When most of his fans were mocking Green for directing the PG-13 “Spiral,” I don’t blame the man for sticking to the gore soaked “Hatchet” films to keep his (ugh) “Hatchet Army” by his side.