Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Kick-Ass (2010) - Taylor-Johnson is the highlight of Vaughn's offensive, immature comic book entertainer

8/02/2016

Kick-Ass (2010) - Taylor-Johnson is the highlight of Vaughn's offensive, immature comic book entertainer

♥♥♥

+ Most Tasteless Movie of the Year

One of the splashy-colored, youth-appealing posters for Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass

A high school nerd makes himself a costume and attempts to become one of his comic book superhero idols but instead finds himself beat up. But that changes when he finds two partners, - and a serious foe.

Kick-Ass is an adaptation of the same-titled comic book by Mark Millar (The Flash: Emergency Stop (1997)) and John Romita Jr. (Black Panther Vol. 3 (2005)), also released in 2010. It is written by Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)) and co-writer-director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake (2004)). It is a very entertaining, sporadically funny film that seduces with cool music and splashy colors.
Nicolas Cage (Moonstruck (1987)) is very cool in it, - and so is Chloë Grace Moretz (The 5th Wave (2016)) as his daughter Hit-Girl, - and young Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla (2014)) is smoking hot in the title role. But Kick-Ass is heavy on villainous stereotypes (of blacks and Italians), and its first act is homophobic. It features one ugly, digitally created giant fire. And its amoral idolization of self-realization through violence and murder perpetrated by and marketed to young folk can hardly be called a sound development for films. It is a very immature bowlful of entertainment.

Related posts:

Matthew Vaughn: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Vaughn's handsome if cluttered reboot
The Debt (2010) - The Nazi war criminal thriller is back in a welcome return (co-writer)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 28-30 mil. $
Box office: 96.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[Kick-Ass premiered March 26 (UK) and runs 117 minutes. The rights to the comic book were sold before it was even published. The big studios passed on the project due to its violence involving children, so Vaughn found the money himself, partly though Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment. Filming took place in Ontario, Canada and in England from September 2008 - April 2009. Some controversy arose at the film's release, (it received an R-rating in the US), and some critics reacted against it: Roger Ebert called it "reprehensible" and gave it only 1 star. Kick-Ass opened #1 to a 19.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, (falling to #5 in the following week), where it grossed 48 mil. $ (49.9 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 16.7 mil. $ (17.4 %) and France with 5.9 mil. $ (6.1 %). The film debuted #1 on the DVD chart in North America but has also been listed as one of the year's most illegally downloaded films, reportedly stolen more than 11.4 mil. times. A sequel, Kick-Ass 2, was released in 2013 to lesser success. Kick-Ass is certified fresh at 76 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Kick-Ass?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

8/02/2016

Kick-Ass (2010) - Taylor-Johnson is the highlight of Vaughn's offensive, immature comic book entertainer

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