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Kick-Ass
168 Plays4 years ago
In this episode, we discuss the very funny, very entertaining, very over-the-top Kick-Ass! They talk about their thoughts on Mark Millar adaptations in general, rave about the performances (especially Nicolas Cage and Mark Strong), and discuss how this movie takes you from the mundane to the insane without you even realizing it.
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Transcript
Audible Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, Derek, guess what? Hit me with it. We just got a promotion with Audible. Audible, fantastic. I love Audible. Do you know what the cool thing about this deal is? What's that? If our listeners go to audibletrial.com slash supercinemapod, they get a free trial with Audible. And do you know what they get with that?
00:00:22
Speaker
What do they get with that? Tell me. They get one free audiobook of their choice and they get two free Audible Originals, which is special content that Audible makes available free for all its subscribers. Are you kidding me? That deal is so good I may go myself and sign them. Do you think they let you keep the books after you're done?
00:00:42
Speaker
No, you're not gonna tell me they let you keep the books after you're done. Yes, in fact, you can go sign up for a trial and you can cancel before the trial ends and you get to keep the books you've already downloaded.
00:00:55
Speaker
Well, I don't see how you can beat that with a stick. Exactly, yeah. And you can, lots of great books, especially for fans of the show. You can listen to Super Gods by Grant Morrison, which is all about like how the superhero comics have changed and evolved over time. Or you can check out Marvel Comics, The Untold Story. Which is a terrific book. I have that both in hardcover and I listened to that on Audible myself in my car while traveling back and forth.
00:01:21
Speaker
And there's also another similar book that's called Slugfest, which is about like the wars between Marvel and DC Comics. Oh, okay. So that's another one you got to check out too. So yeah, head on over to audibletrial.com slash supercinemapod and start your free trial right now. You got one free audio book and two free audible originals and you can keep them even if you cancel before it's over.
00:02:09
Speaker
I didn't say anything to anyone, I swear. Good move. Ass. Kick. Let's keep it that way. You know what this is? It's all the cartridge crap that comes out of your gate a little taser when you fire it. You do know the police could've traced this right back to you if they found it. But lucky for you, I picked it up. Thank you.
00:02:33
Speaker
Let's call it insurance. Makes it easier for us to take your word. See, we like you, but we don't trust you. Don't take it personal, though. We don't trust anybody. I rerouted your IP address. Finding you was way too easy.
00:02:52
Speaker
Shit. Shit, I hadn't thought... My God, I... I owe you. You know what? I'm thinking of just shutting my sight down anyway. Quitting. I mean, this is... It's fucking insane. I'm in way over my head. It's a shame. You have potential. Your call. But you know we're around if you need us. How do I get ahold of you?
00:03:17
Speaker
You just contact the mayor's office. He has a special signal that shines in the sky. It's in the shape of a giant cock. You need us. Put on your website that you're on vacation. We'll find you. Hit girl. Back to headquarters. Sweet dreams.
Election Day Stress
00:03:39
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. I am half of your host, Perry Constantine. And as always, I am the other half of your hosting team, Derek Ferguson. And we're just sitting here. We just got finished talking. Because as we record this, this is, of course, the day after election day, the most traumatic day of the year that had so many traumatic days. Oh my god.
00:04:09
Speaker
And it's just, I don't know what the hell is going on anymore. Like I was, I actually just got off, I'm actually right in the middle. I'm at the end of a 36 hour fast right now. And one of the good things about the election being yesterday is that that's helped me keep my mind off food.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah, well, I can't, yeah, I mean, you weren't, of course you could have sent you the other way, you could have started stress eating. Oh yeah, I know a lot of people were doing that. Yeah, I was on Facebook today and it seemed like people were either doing a lot of stress eating or a lot of drinking. I was doing that last night. Like, it's a good thing I had work all day yesterday. Like I had a class in the morning, class in the afternoon and a class at night. And it's good for that because I didn't get home until nine o'clock and that's when I started drinking. Oh, okay.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if...
00:04:58
Speaker
Listen, I think that yesterday was a day that people could have got away with a whole bunch of drinking and nobody would have, you know, because it's, yeah, cause it's, it, it, it was quite a day and today was still quite a day. It's we're, we're getting close, but we'll have to, we'll have to see how things shake out. Cause as we were talking about, like it's, they're still good. Even if it works out in our favor, there's still a lot of shit that needs to be cleaned up. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh,
00:05:29
Speaker
Yes, I'm hoping Biden will be elected president. And it is looking like, you know, he is because at the time that we're recording this, I had, I was watching news upstairs, you know, with my wife and I think he only had like six more. Yeah, he's at 264 according to the Guardian right now. Yeah, he only had like six more to go. So yeah, so it's a lot, but still, you know, it's not like Joe Biden is,
00:05:57
Speaker
a magic lamp that we can rub. And he's going to magically solve all the problems that we have. The infection that is Donald Trump put a hell of a lot of pus in this country. And it's going to take a lot of antibiotics to get that pus out.
Remembering Sean Connery
00:06:20
Speaker
But there was another tragedy a few days ago. We lost an icon, Sean Connery.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, Sean Connery, the man himself. I mean, that was my James Bond. I grew up, obviously, I was born in 83, but my dad was a huge Bond fan. And he raised me on the Connery film. So Connery was always my Bond. Yeah, yeah.
00:06:47
Speaker
My first James Bond movie was Diamonds are Forever. I saw that in movie theater and I saw that with my father, which is why whenever I get into a discussion with people and they ask me, well, what's your favorite James Bond movie? I say, well, Diamonds are Forever. Oh, that's a terrible movie. Well, no, it's not the best James Bond movie, but it doesn't matter to me because that's the first one I saw. And yeah, I fell in love with it. And yeah, for me, Sean Connery,
00:07:14
Speaker
whenever I think now when I read the books though it's funny when I read the books I see and hear Timothy Dalton and yeah definitely yeah Dalton was much more like the the Bond from the books right but if I'm sitting at home and I feel like a James Bond movie nine times out of ten it's a Sean Connery Bond that I'm putting in now putting in like you know from Russia with love
00:07:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Or Goldfinger, which to me is not the best Jane is not the best Sean Connery James Bond movie is from Russia with Love. Yes. Yeah, that's my best one. I think it's the best. But Goldfinger is like the James Bond movie. Goldfinger set the template. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like every movie that came after that has got the DNA of Goldfinger in there. Yeah.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's like you've got Q, you've got all the gadget stuff, you've got the big master plan. From Russia With Love is a good old fashioned spy thriller. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it's not like save the world or anything like that. They're stealing this coding machine. Yes, yeah. But okay, on that level, it's a much more realistic spy thriller.
00:08:30
Speaker
You know, there's no gadgets. There's none of that stuff. But like Goldfinger, we get the first bond super villain. We get, like you said, the grand master plan. Well, we do get the first one. I will because we get them in Dr. No, right? We get Dr. No comes first. So we do have the first big super villain there because he had that world ending plot too.
00:08:52
Speaker
For the sake of argument, I'll give it to you. But I just said, because Goldfinger is on a more grander scale. And also as an interesting footnote, Ian Fleming, he had said that even the movie improved on his book. He wrote the book and he said, yeah, he said, Goldfinger's plan. Yeah, that's better than what I had in the book and stuff like that. We get the henchmen.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yes. The super strong henchmen. And our job, I mean, and our job's influence can be seen in later henchmen like Jaws. Right, right. And, you know, going all the way, yeah, from the right to the right, you know, I mean, every supervillain in a Bond movie after Goldfinger had to have a henchman with some kind of gimmick. Right,
Evolution of Bond Films
00:09:39
Speaker
right. It wasn't like Dr. No had a lot of stuff that they established in the Bond formula, but it was at the end of the movie.
00:09:45
Speaker
Right? Like the first like, you know, the first like two thirds of that movie is Bond just doing like regular spy stuff. Right? And then, but yeah, and then in Goldfinger, the whole thing is like the last third of Dr. No. Because Dr. No, once you hit, once Bond gets to the island, then it starts to turn into this crazy Pope action adventure.
00:10:08
Speaker
Like you said, you know, everything before that is pretty much a conventional spy umbrella. But once we actually get to the island and then he meets Dr. No and everything like that, then I say, okay, this is Doc Savage shit happening here now, you know, with the, you know, with the dragon and with all that, yeah, you know, that's going on. So, but yeah, but like Goldfinger and then,
00:10:30
Speaker
Oh, and then of course we had the total batshit insanity of You Only Live Twice. See, like that's, that's one of my, You Only Live Twice is one of my favorite movies, even though it's not one of the best movies, and I do know that too. It's very similar to You With Diamonds Are Forever, but the thing about You Only Live Twice is I've got a personal connection to it because that was set in Japan, and parts of that movie were filmed in the area where I live.
00:10:59
Speaker
Oh, I love it too. Listen, I love it too. Even though it makes absolutely no sense. No sense. No sense whatsoever. No sense whatsoever. Yeah, and it's got the really terrible yellow face thing at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does introduce us to a character in there that I wish that they had spun off into his own series, Tiger Tanaka. Tiger Tanaka, yes. Him and Karimbe. They're my favorite of Bond's allies.
00:11:24
Speaker
the head of the Japanese secret service. That cat was so mad cool in that movie. Oh, hell yeah. I mean, the guy that travels around in his old trade has got his own ninja school. Why this man did not get his own movie series is, you know, oh my God. Yeah, played by Tetsuro Tamba. Yeah.
00:11:45
Speaker
Even today, Quentin Tarantino should get the rights just to do that character series of Tiger Tanaka movies. Yes, set in period. Yes, definitely. Oh man, I would love to see a Tiger Tanaka series. Back then they could not have done it because it's
00:12:03
Speaker
Cause you couldn't, you know, a lead movie with an Asian actor, forget it. Yeah. But you know what? I would love to see that shit happening now. Oh man. That's such a cool character. Yeah. The only problem I have with that movie is that I'm sorry. I cannot buy Donald Pleasance as Blofeld. I'm sorry. I kind of, I think it's cause Donald Pleasance was the first Blofeld for me. So I kind of like him.
00:12:27
Speaker
okay you know just like with it's very similar to you with Diamonds Are Forever it was your first Bond movie so that's why yeah well yeah I mean you know I can't fault anybody because you know just like a lot of people uh their first James Bond was Roger Moore right yeah my dad actually loved Roger Moore right yeah yeah
00:12:47
Speaker
And he hated, my dad hated Timothy Dalton. He could not stand Dalton. My mother didn't like Sean Connery, but she loved Roger Moore. Oh, see, yeah, my dad liked, my dad went back and forth between Connery and Moore and which was his favorite. And that's really, that's why he liked Pierce Brosnan a lot because Brosnan had that like mix of the two.
00:13:10
Speaker
Pierce Brosnan had a unique genius in that he took the best of Sean Connery and Roger Moore and made it work. Absolutely.
Racism and Sexism in Classics
00:13:20
Speaker
You can look at his performance and you can see some of Sean Connery, you can see some of Roger Moore, and he added his own mix to it. And to me, that's why it works so well. Pierce Brosnan, I like all of his James Bond movies. And I can't say that about any other James Bond, except for George Lazenby, of course, who only made one.
00:13:40
Speaker
and Timothy Dalton, who made two. But yeah, but Pierce Bryant, I like all of his, I know people hate Die Another Day with a Passion, but you know, I don't care. I like all of his movies. Golden Eye is like, Golden Eye is wonderful. It's like one of the top five J's Bond movies for me, Golden Eye. I like,
00:14:04
Speaker
I'm not a big fan of Die Another Day, but you know what? I did like Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. I know a lot of people hate those, but I like those. Oh, The World Is Not Enough is terrific. Yeah, and Die Another Day, or not Die, I'm getting confused. So many dies in these titles. Tomorrow Never Dies, because that one, you know, that introduced us to Michelle Yeoh. Yeah. So I've got a, that one's always got a special, like I was, soon as I saw her in that movie, like I was in love with her.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's, you know what, that's kind of like a weird kind of movie because it's got an ending that you really don't see in James Bond. That was more like a John Woo movie at the end. Oh, yeah. That's on the summer. I'm not complaining, mind you, but it was just kind of unusual to see that much gunplay in a
00:14:52
Speaker
you know, James Bond movie. Well, because the Bond movies tend to mimic in some way what else is popular at the time, right? Because you had like Moonraker who was, you know, trying to capitalize off like the Star Wars and the sci-fi craze and then. Right. So I think it makes sense why you did that with Tomorrow Never Dies. You're trying to capitalize off of the, you know, the John Woo action movies that are coming out at that time.
00:15:15
Speaker
And even there were a lot of stunts in that movie that reminded me a lot of the stunts in Hong Kong, the action movies. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it had that type of flavor to me of, it was like a Hong Kong action movie version of James Bond. Right. And then you had, I was thinking of another example, Live and Let Die, right? Trying to capitalize off Black exploitation and that kind of stuff. Right. Yeah.
00:15:42
Speaker
which is why that movie has not aged well at all. Oh, no. It's a lot of fun to watch, but you know, it has, whereas something like From Russell With Love hasn't aged really at all.
00:15:57
Speaker
There are some of those movies they definitely have not aged well. Like I remember in, I think it was Goldfinger when Felix Leiter comes up to Bond and the girl's asking him, what's going on? And he's like smacks her ass and he says, man talk, go away. And I'm like, oh wow, that would not fly today. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, that wouldn't fly today. Yeah. So a lot of that stuff, the casual racism and sex, and especially the casual sexism. Oh yeah. You just have to overlook that and say, well,
00:16:26
Speaker
you know, it was what it was. Yeah, and you got to overlook some of the stuff Connery said in interviews, like he talked about, you know, sometimes you just got to slap a woman, just like, oh, don't say stuff like that. Well, listen, that's how it was back then. It was, yeah, yeah. I just, it just, you know, you hear like, you know, a man that you admire say stuff like that and you just, you cringe, right? Well, yeah, but then, you know what?
00:16:54
Speaker
I don't know because, okay, okay. Here's the best way I could put it. Maybe because since I grew up in that time and while I do not hold with those sentiments, don't think I do folks. No, your wife would not stand for that.
00:17:12
Speaker
But I understand the mentality of that time because I grew up in that time. And I understand why men thought and said those things. And even why women said, because you had a lot of women that reinforced that type of behavior. It was the entire culture. It wasn't just, you know, when people say, oh, yeah, well, he said these horrible things. Yeah, okay.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, he said these horrible things, but you have to understand it wasn't just him. It was the entire culture. Sean Connery wasn't just like this one lone man that like beaten up on women. No, that wasn't it. It was an entire culture at that time. That's how the culture thought. I get to the same argument with people when they start screaming and hollering about H.P. Lovecraft. Well, H.P. Lovecraft was racist. I said, well, yeah, everybody was racist. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so what do you want?
00:18:06
Speaker
Everybody was a racist man. Oh, but that's horrible. Well, yeah, it is horrible, but- It is what it is, yeah. What are you gonna do? Everybody was racist. Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I loved my grandfather, but I can't cover up the fact that he was a virulent racist and a virulent anti-semite too. The only thing he ate more than black people was Jewish people.
00:18:31
Speaker
And you know what, that's just the way he was, right? That's just the way things were back then. Yeah, I mean, and I'm sorry folks, there's no use really. I don't know, me, I would rather, like I said, when I get into these arguments about Lovecraft and everything like that, and I'm sorry, I am much more concerned about the racism that's alive and well today than I am about the racism of a Pope writer that's been dead 100 years.
00:18:57
Speaker
Oh yeah, I agree with that. I couldn't give a shit about how racist Lovecraft was. I really don't. Besides, I mean, all of Lovecraft's stuff is in the public domain anyway. So it's not like he's getting any money or his state's getting any money or anything like that. So it's, you know, people got to, but yeah, I agree with you. I'm much more concerned about
Listener Interaction and Future Topics
00:19:15
Speaker
what's happening right now as opposed to, it's good to, it's interesting to look at like from an analysis point of view, because I did that with,
00:19:23
Speaker
with Burroughs, with Tarzan, and comparing it to Charles Saunders. And it was really interesting to do that kind of analysis of it. But I'm not going to get mad at anyone for reading Burroughs Tarzan. Listen, I almost got my ass kicked on the subway for reading Tarzan. Oh, yeah. I remember you telling me this story. Yeah. For those of you who haven't heard this story,
00:19:51
Speaker
I'm a kid, I'm about like 14, 15 years old. And of course I'm on the subway, I'm coming back and forth from school, so I'm reading. And I'm sitting on the subway, the G train or the A train, I forget which, I'm minding my business, and I'm reading a Tarzan book. And these three guys come up to me, and they're not kids like me, these are grown men.
00:20:12
Speaker
And they said, well, what are you reading that racist shit for? Well, why are you reading that white man's shit? And they actually would stand in front of me debating, we should take him on a train and kick his ass for reading this shit. Yeah. So that went over a couple of minutes. And one guy finally just bent down to me and said, listen, man, you want to read that shit? You read that in your house. Don't be bringing that out here for people. Yeah, he did. And know what? From that day on, I never read a Tarzan book outside the house.
00:20:43
Speaker
And I bet you wish he had a Kindle back then. Listen, I'm telling you, and people say, really? Listen, you'd be surprised when people got their ass kicked for back in the day. Oh, I believe it. I believe it. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. But you know what? We should do a whole other episode about racial issues in popular fiction. Oh, my God. We could do like a seven part series on that.
00:21:12
Speaker
And that is a cue for you folks out there, if you would like indeed to see us do a series about racism and popular fiction, films, comic books, movies, whatever. Well, you know what you have to do. You either let us know on the Superhero Center Files Facebook group or email Perry or myself and let us know. Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
00:21:38
Speaker
All right, so I got just a few brief pieces of news, just a few things to mention.
Superhero Genre Saturation
00:21:43
Speaker
One of them is, since the Zack Snyder Justice League cut, there have been all these rumors going around that David Ayer is gonna have the directors cut a suicide squad on HBO Max, but he's come out and he said that it's not true, right? Which, you know what?
00:22:01
Speaker
Honestly, good. Like, I mean, I'm so sick of this Snyderverse and the resurrection of the Snyderverse stuff. I'm just so done with it. Yeah, I'm kind of like, you know, it's like folks should beat the dead horse and, you know,
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just, you know, like tired, really. I mean, I'm not interested anymore. I don't want to hear anymore. And people say to me, oh, really? No, I don't. You know, life is about moving forward. Yeah. Always moving forward. Let's stop going backwards. Let's, you know.
00:22:40
Speaker
I mean, that's not to say that I don't feel for the people that want to see the thing. And matter of fact, I have HBO Max and I'm not a hypocrite when it comes on, I'm gonna watch it. Yeah. But I mean, it's not like... People are treated like it's the second coming. Yeah, I don't know what people expect to see. I really don't. Yeah. I really don't. I mean, is it really that important that you see Darkseid? I know.
00:23:07
Speaker
And it's not like he's going to have a big role. Like, it's just going to be like a thing at the end. It's going to be a stinger. That's all it's going to be. That's all it was intended to be. So, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I really don't know what people intend to see, but again, like I said, you know, God bless him. If that will make you a year,
00:23:26
Speaker
Who am I to stand in the way? Yeah, yeah. Also, and this is something we've talked about too, right? Because Wonder Woman 1984 is set for Christmas day, but the Warner Brothers CEO, Anne Sarnoff, when she was asked about it, she was asked if it was definitive and she said, I hope so.
Pandemic Movie Releases
00:23:48
Speaker
So, you know, who knows what the hell is going to happen? I mean, it's like we've said, you know, just either take the year off or just go with VOD because you're this constant, you know, here's what it's going to be. Oh, we're going to push it back here. It's just going to people are just going to get pissed off with it and they're just going to eventually just throw up their hands and they're not going to go to the theater at all. Yeah, you so.
00:24:09
Speaker
Okay, to me, the studio that does, what is it? The Fast and Furious, they just said right from the start, okay, you know what? We're gonna release it next year. Bingo, end of story, that's it. We're just gonna release it next year. That's what everybody else should have did. They should have just said, you know what? We're just gonna hold everything till next year. Yeah, yeah. Okay, either that or release it to streaming. I know I got into an argument with some people where I was saying, you know, because I was in favor of the James Bond movie,
00:24:38
Speaker
you know, going to streaming. And I said that in a group. I said, yeah, put us, oh no, James Bond movies belong on the big screen. I said, what are you talking about? Six to eight months after it's on the screen, anyway, it's going to go to streaming anyhow. And you know what? I guarantee you most of the most people, their first interaction with James Bond was probably like me. It was on home video. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:02
Speaker
I mean, I don't know. Bond is not like an MCU level movie. You don't need the big screen theater experience necessarily for that. No, no. I mean, it's nice to have, but it's not necessary. Like you said, it's not like...
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's not like Aquaman or, you know, the Avengers or something like that. Yeah. Or I mean, you know, we're having that huge screen truly does enhance.
00:25:35
Speaker
you know, your experience of watching the movie. No, J's Bond, you don't need demo. They have J's Bond marathons on TV all the time. Oh yeah, definitely. I'm throwing my TV right now in this J's Bond marathon. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was the thing actually for a while. Like me and my cousins, we would, on Christmas day, right? All the, you know, the other, all the other people that are off doing, they're off, you know, talking about whatever boring shit they're talking about. And
00:26:01
Speaker
The rest of us were in the family room and we're watching the bond marathon on TNT or TBS or Spike or whatever it was.
00:26:09
Speaker
Right, exactly. So I don't understand this pushback. No, no, no. It's got to be in the movie theater. No, it doesn't. No, no. Especially like I said, nowadays, it's not like back when this first started. It took like a year for a movie, six to eight months of movie that's in the theater. It's on Amazon or HBO or Showtime or you know, what have you.
Wesley Snipes and Blade Trinity
00:26:36
Speaker
This is a bit of a flashback, but a while back, Patton Oswalt shared some stories about Wesley Snipes from the set of Blade Trinity, like about how him and Goyer were always
00:26:51
Speaker
how Snipes was high all the time, and he would only come into the set for close-ups, otherwise they'd use a stand-in, and he would communicate to Goyer through post-it notes, and one time he tried to strangle Goyer. And so Snipes has recently come out, and he said, like, Oswald is lying about all this. And you know what? I don't know about you, but I'm tempted to lean towards Oswald's version of events on this. How about you?
00:27:20
Speaker
I think what we have here is a Rashomon. Oh, yeah, yeah. Where I don't think, I don't think Snipes is lying. I don't think, Patton Oswell, he strikes me as a pretty straight up guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't think he's lying. I don't think Snipes is lying. On the other hand, I don't think either of them are remembering exactly how it was. Yeah. Everybody's got their own version of what happened that is not 100% correct, but they're not wrong either.
00:27:50
Speaker
Right. That old, my favorite saying, you know, there are three sides to every story. There's your side, there's my side, and there's what really happened. Right. Yeah. And you got to remember that we're talking about something that was what, like 20 years ago? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, given the passage of time,
00:28:10
Speaker
and their own personal involvement, because I do believe Wesley Snipes was an executive producer. Yeah. He wasn't just the starter. He was the executive. Yeah. So he may have been feeling himself a little bit, you know, in that. And like I said, I don't think anybody's lying, but I also don't think everybody's telling the truth exactly as it actually happened. I think they're telling it as they remember how it happened. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is,
00:28:37
Speaker
Which is what happens.
Kick-Ass Movie Discussion
00:28:38
Speaker
I mean, if me and you are involved in the same incident, and 20 years later, somebody asks us about the incident, I highly doubt that we're gonna come up with the exact same story. We're gonna tell you the exact same story. Oh yeah, I mean, I've had situations where, you know, we're sharing, I remember this one time, I was sharing a story about, with someone else. And one of my friends was standing there with me. Now he wasn't part of the story, right? But he's heard it so many times that his mind actually made him think he was actually there.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I'm like, I turn him up, you weren't there. He's like, I wasn't? I'm like, no. And he's like, and I told him like, you know, we met you like a year after that happened. He's like, oh.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah, but he's just heard it. Like you said, he's heard it so many times. He's absorbed it, and he thinks of it. Husbands and wives, you asked me and Patricia, the same incident that we were in, you asked her, her version of what happened. You asked me my version. You're going to look at it and say, what is wrong with the two of you? Because it's two completely different versions of what happened.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Okay. So now we can move into the meat and potatoes of this episode. And that's the movie you picked, which was Kick Ass. Yep. From 2010. 2010, yeah. Which features not one, but two Quicksilvers.
00:30:00
Speaker
directed by Matthew Vaughn. Matthew Vaughn who also directed X-Men First Class and who needs to fucking direct a James Bond movie. Because after the Kingsman and after First Class, like how has this guy not been tapped to direct a James Bond movie? Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea because Matthew Vaughn is like one of the best
00:30:25
Speaker
Directors of action that we have working now the guy the guy knows how to direct a fight scene and action scenes with I mean such utter clarity and precision And such just you know outright fun, right? Like his action scenes are amazing to watch Yeah, you look at it and and especially for guys like us. I mean we've been
00:30:50
Speaker
We've, not to brag, but we've seen it all when it comes to action movies. Right. But I watched this movie last night and I felt like I was watching something brand new all over again.
00:31:01
Speaker
Yeah, that terrific scene with Chloe Grace Moretz. And this was the movie where she became a breakout star. Oh, yeah, yeah. There was so much controversy about her character because she swears all the time in this movie.
00:31:22
Speaker
And it is funny though, like people got more worked up and Christopher Mintz Plas, who played Red Mist, he noted that, you know, he's like, you know, it's funny, people are getting all pissed off about her, her swearing all the time, but they don't get pissed off about the fact that she cuts people in half. And he's 100% right. It was a lot of hypocrisy attached to this movie where people were complaining about the language
00:31:47
Speaker
know that she was using, but she's a 12-year-old girl that is cutting up people with swords and knives and you know capping people with headshots and stuff like that. There's that amazing scene where she assaults the uh
00:32:02
Speaker
the headquarters of the crime boss. Yeah. And I mean, like she, she kills about 25 people in that scene alone. Oh God. And, you know, set to a bad reputation, no less. That was, that's such an, like every time that scene, every time I see that scene, I always get pumped up. Yeah. And it's, and it's like one of the best action scenes I have ever seen in my life. Yes. Yeah. So yeah. Matthew Bourne, I have no idea why this man is not been,
00:32:31
Speaker
directing a James Bond or Indiana Jones movie. Well, because Eon hasn't gotten their head out of their ass yet. No, true that, true that. But this movie, it's based on a comic book by Mark Miller who, and this is the thing, like Mark Miller is such a frustrating writer, right? Because he's got good ideas.
00:32:56
Speaker
He's got really good ideas. And he's like, you know, I mean, you got kick-ass, you got Kingsman, you got wanted. Even the idea behind Civil War was a good idea. The Ultimates, right? A good idea. Superman, Red Son, right? And he has written good stuff too. Like Superman, Red Son was a really good book.
00:33:18
Speaker
And I haven't read it, but I've heard nothing but good things about his Superman Adventures series, which was set in the world of the animated series. Okay. He's got so much potential and he can be a good writer when he disciplines himself. But the problem is he's got this inner maladjusted 12 year old, always wants to come out and play. And it makes him do like stupid infantile shit.
00:33:48
Speaker
Right, so you've got like, for example, like the Hulk being, the Hulk and the Ultimates being horny all the time. Yeah. And just like stupid shit like that. And you're like, why do you think this is funny? Yeah, he's like a six year old who finds out that he can get a reaction just from saying the word fuck. Yes, yeah, yeah. So he says it all the time. Yes, exactly. And you know,
00:34:18
Speaker
without, and yeah, you know, I read, see, I'm the type of person, I don't understand why just saying, fuck, that's supposed to be funny, you know? But I've seen people crack, oh, I don't understand, why is that funny? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I get what you're saying. Yeah, but that's what, like, if he'd just been that, like, you take someone like, you know, Garth Ennis, who is a legitimately good writer, and he does buckle down, and he can't, like, he can do the infantile shit, but he also does stuff that's,
00:34:48
Speaker
that's really intelligent too. Preachers got a lot of that kind of humor in it, but it's also got very serious weighty issues about faith and religion and all this kind of stuff in it. And his Punisher run too, a lot of that, the boys. But Miller, he's got that little spark in him, but he doesn't nurture it.
00:35:15
Speaker
reminds me of something you said back when, I think it was the first thing you reviewed of me, way back when, back when we were doing Fanfic. And you said that there was something I wrote that made you wish you were standing behind me so you could slap me on the head and ask me, why don't you write like that all the time? Yeah. And even to this day, that is the thing that I always remember about, that is the piece of criticism that always sticks out in my mind.
00:35:42
Speaker
Because you were right. You were right. You know, I should have been paying more attention. I should have been thinking more about that. And I feel like doing the same. I wish I was doing this. I want to say the same thing to Millar. Well, yeah. Yeah. Because you know what? It aggravates me when I see somebody that is capable of doing more and they just settle for the cheap and easy. Yeah.
00:36:07
Speaker
You know, I mean, okay, listen, sometimes you go for the cheap and easy for a reason, but do it for a reason. Don't do it just because, you know, it's cheap and easy. Yeah. And Miller does that too much. He goes for the cheap and easy stuff. Like he does, you know, he's very casual about things. He's got very casual, you know, rape and misogyny and stuff like that. And it's just unnecessary. It's completely unnecessary. Now, but on the other hand,
00:36:36
Speaker
Given the, okay, can it be said that maybe he just knows his audience and that's what he's writing for? It could be, yeah. And you're right. That's a legitimate argument. And his audience loves him, right? His audience does love him. Oh, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, you know, if that's who he's writing for, and I know I get into this discussion a lot of times with people when they argue with me about Tyler Perry, who I say, well, Tyler Perry has found his audience and that's who he's writing for. He's not writing for you. He's writing for them.
00:37:05
Speaker
Yeah. Well, he could do better. Well, sure he could, but he has no incentive to because he found his audience. If you find your audience and they're loyal to you, you're right for them. You don't say, well, you know what? I'm going to go right for those guys that are sitting back over there. Because those guys sitting back over there,
00:37:26
Speaker
They're not reading your stuff. They're reading, you know, whoever. I mean, you know, whoever, I mean, they're not right. So you take a risk by going for them, but you alienate the people that you know that you've got.
00:37:42
Speaker
Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead, go. I was just gonna say that you're right. You're absolutely right. And that's the same, it's like the Adam Sandler argument when we talked about the cobbler, right? He does things because his audience wants him. And that's definitely a valid thing. Just for me personally, it is frustrating because I see these nuggets of these really awesome ideas in his work. Like the ultimate is all about like, you know,
00:38:11
Speaker
The whole idea of the ultimate, right? The whole idea behind the ultimate is if superheroes existed in the real world, what would the government be doing with them? Well, there'd be a superhuman arms race, obviously. That whole nugget of an idea, that whole thing in there, that's very prescient. It's very topical. And it's something that should be explored, that deserves to be explored. But it's all wrapped up in dick and fart jokes. And it just gets squandered. And that's why it's just frustrating.
00:38:44
Speaker
So yeah, but you're right, you're right. It's just personally frustrating for me is all. Oh yeah, well, listen, I mean, like you said, it's frustrating when you see the little nuggets and you say, oh man, I wish he would have explored it. See me, I read The Ultimate and I, okay, I was turned off, first of all, from the politics, because I felt that I was being lectured to.
00:39:08
Speaker
as far as the politics go. And I am just really not a fan of people, okay, I'm not a fan of writers just assuming that, okay, well, people get superpowers and all of a sudden they become flaming assholes. Which seems to be Miller's whole thing, that you can't have superpowers without being an asshole.
00:39:31
Speaker
Right. And that's the other frustrating thing about him is because he can do it without that. Like he did that with Superman, but... Right. Exactly. He knows how to go the other way. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:42
Speaker
And he should have not shit all over Grant Morrison years ago and just stuck with him because Grant Morrison was able to rein him in. And when they worked together, when they were friends and they were working together, they produced some awesome stuff. They did Aztec, The Ultimate Man, which is still one of my favorite DC comics ever made. And they did a great run on Flash as well.
00:40:08
Speaker
But then Miller got famous and he basically, you know, shat all over Morrison. Don't know exactly what happened, but Morrison said that the only thing he'll say about Miller is that he destroyed my faith in humanity and that if he saw him, that if he found out he'd accidentally hit Miller in the car, he wouldn't slow down.
00:40:35
Speaker
But yeah, so Grant Morrison's a pretty chill guy, so for him to say that kind of stuff. But anyway, so all that, let's talk about the movie. And this is one of the things, like when Miller's stuff gets translated into a movie, it's really good.
00:40:56
Speaker
Right. Yeah, you always hit most people and that's always the number one complaint. Oh, well, you know, the movie is never as good as the comic book. Yeah, when Miller is the exact opposite, the movies made out of his material are always better than the source material. Yeah, yeah. As far as I'm concerned. Yeah, that's always better. Yeah, I mean, you've got Wanted, which I've read the Wanted comic book and that is just
00:41:19
Speaker
That is like Miller at his milleriest. Yeah, it's terrible. It's utterly terrible. Like that comic book has nothing redeeming in it whatsoever. No, but The Wanted movie is a lot of fun. Yeah. And I haven't read the kickass comic book, but but it's the same thing with, you know, Captain America Civil War, right? The Civil War comic book, utterly dogshit.
00:41:47
Speaker
But the movie is one of the best movies Marvel's ever made. And I haven't read the kick-ass comic, but I assume it's probably the same thing, same situation. I went in the kick-ass. I didn't know anything about it. I went to see it purely on the strength of the director.
00:42:11
Speaker
because I because I think because I think he had made, I'd have to look this up but I believe that he did. Oh, X-Men. No, I think, I think X-Men came after, but he did do layer cake.
00:42:26
Speaker
Right, okay, layer cake. I know, yeah, because I remember distinctly, I went to see this based on what he had done before. So it must have been layer cake. I've seen layer cake, which features Daniel Craig, by the way. That's like, you know. Right, that was like one of his big roles. One of his early roles. Yeah, so first class came out the year after this, came out in 2021. Right, okay.
00:42:47
Speaker
So that's why I went to see it. And, you know, it was a superhero movie. And I said, okay, well, you know, I'll go see it. Even though I don't know anything about it. And I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this the very first time I saw this. I mean, the actors and all the people. And they got a guy in this movie that I had seen
00:43:12
Speaker
from another movie called Sex Drive. He plays one of the friends of the main character, played by Aaron Johnson, who, as you mentioned at the beginning, played Quicksilver. Yeah, in Avengers Age of Ultron, and was definitely the better of the two Quicksilvers that we've seen.
00:43:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and as you pointed out, one of his best friends is played by the other guy that played Quicksilver. So we got two guys that played Quicksilver in a superhero movie. How cool is that? And they both like, and we mentioned this briefly in the last episode, but Aaron Taylor Johnson, man, that guy really grew into himself. Yeah, yeah, but you know what? I looked at him in this movie and you could see that even back then, he was like kind of,
00:44:00
Speaker
chunky and and he wasn't like muscular but you can see because in the x-men movie he was like wow i said what you mean the Avengers the Avengers movie matter of fact i didn't even recognize him as being the same guy no no in fact when i saw when i remember when um they announced him as playing quicksilver and they showed the first uh set photos of him and i'm looking at him like you know this guy kind of looks familiar
00:44:23
Speaker
You know, that name sounds familiar. Where have I heard that name before? And I looked him up like, no fucking way. Yeah. Yeah. And total transformation. And, you know, he's wonderful. The other friend is played by a guy named Clark Duke. And I wanted to mention him because, folks, if you get a chance, rent this movie called Sex Drive, one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen in my life. I'm telling you. And this cat.
00:44:50
Speaker
He plays a friend with the glasses. Yeah, yeah. And he's one of the stars of Sex Drive and he steals the movie. And that's all I'm gonna say about it. That's your homework assignment for the week. Find Sex Drive and watch it. But... He also had a brief part in Superbad as well. Yeah, yeah. And in Bad Moms. He's a funny guy. Yeah, yeah. And he's good in this movie. Everybody is good in this movie.
00:45:20
Speaker
You got a Lindsay Fonseca who from Nikita as well. She's in this. Oh, they got my girl in here. She's in here for a little small role. Yancy Butler. Oh yeah. I was so surprised when I saw her in this movie. Yeah. I'm looking at her. I'm like, that's not yet. Cause we had just done Witchblade like, you know, one month or two back and I'm just, I'm sitting there and I'm watching the movie. I'm like, that's not Yancy Butler. And then I looked it up and like, no shit. That's Yancy Butler.
00:45:49
Speaker
Yeah, so when I saw this in the theater, I think I was the only person in the theater that clapped when she first appeared. And everybody in the theater, they're looking, what's wrong with him? You know? Oh, shit, that's fucking Nancy Butler, man. Don't you know who she is? And of course, nobody knew who she was except for me. But I was just delighted to see her show up in this movie. She plays the wife of Mark Strong, who is, of course, the cry boss in this movie.
00:46:18
Speaker
I like, he's one of those crime bosses that you can see that he enjoys being a crime boss, which I love. Yeah, he's really good in this. Like Mark Strong is another one of those actors who he just completely disappears into whatever role he's playing. Like he's got a very, almost like Stanley Tucci performance in this. Matter of fact, he looks a lot like Stanley Tucci in this movie. He does. Like if you see, I kept thinking like,
00:46:45
Speaker
That's not Stanley Tucci, but I feel like it's Stanley Tucci. Yeah, yeah. And I love his henchmen. I love the guys that work for him because you can tell that these are guys that learned how to be gangsters by watching Goodfellas. They're not real mafia guys, but they like to think they are. Yeah, I love that scene when he's interrogating his guy at the beginning and the guy keeps insisting, he's like, I never said Batman.
Nicolas Cage's Unique Roles
00:47:14
Speaker
I know, they get ready to cut off his finger, but he just, I never said it was Batman. And other guys say, well, yeah, you kind of did say it was Batman. No, I didn't, you know, this is what you're arguing about. Or when they put the guy in the, they're trying to figure out how to torture the guy. And they're like, look, he says the thing's not ready, but we can use the microwave instead. Yeah, like I said, diesel guy.
00:47:36
Speaker
You could tell these guys, this is how they learned how to be gangsters by watching Goodfellas and Scarface. And you know, they're not real adept at their job. Even Walter Storm says that at one point, because at one point he kills a guy he thinks is kick-ass, but it's actually a kick-ass impersonator on his way to a kid's party. And his henchmen is saying, well, what are you doing? You're getting your hands dirty now? He said, well, I got to, because you guys aren't doing your jobs.
00:48:03
Speaker
I told you a week ago to get this guy. What are you doing?
00:48:11
Speaker
his bodyguard at the end, right? He walks into the room and he's like, he's like, everything's okay. And he goes and he takes a bazooka down. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these guys are utterly inept. I mean, Oh God. Yeah. I mean, okay. Kick ass. He's inept at being a superhero, but that's okay because the guys he, the guys that he are up against are inept as well. As a matter of fact, the only,
00:48:38
Speaker
characters in the movie that have any kind of competence is, of course, Big Daddy, played by Nicholas Cage, and his daughter. Yeah, Hickor, as you mentioned, played by Gloria Grace Moritz. Yeah. And Matt, Nicholas Cage, this is one of his best roles.
00:48:55
Speaker
Oh, you know what? And it surprises me that this is a movie and people, you know, to talk about Nicholas Cage, like he's a dog and everything like that, you know, you know, one of the things that I really get on my door when people say, well, he makes too many movies. Well, he's an actor. This is his job. He makes movies.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah, like he's, I believe, and I'm not sure 100%, but I believe he had some money problems. And so now he's got like a whole lot of stuff to pay off. And so that's why he does all these like low budget crappy movies. You know, he just he's just cranking them out for the paycheck, basically.
00:49:30
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, okay, he makes a lot of movies, but like you said, if he's got bills to pay, fine. And you don't have to see everything he makes. You don't have to. But this is a performance that I feel gets lost when people are talking about CAGE movies, because I very rarely hear this one ever gets mentioned. Yeah, yeah. And well, the thing about CAGE is that people are,
00:49:57
Speaker
And I see this happen with a lot of, like this happened with Ben Affleck for a long time too, right? People are like, whoa, look, he's in all these crap. Well, he's doing it because he's building up his, with Affleck, he was building up his clout and basically he was training to be a director. So like everybody could. And with Cage, he's just doing it for the paycheck, right? And, you know, I can't really fault him for being a working actor and, you know, you know, trying to pay. I mean, if I had the option to do a whole bunch of low budget movies, I'd probably do it too. And you got a lot, there are actors who do this, right? I mean,
00:50:27
Speaker
Christopher Walken, right? The only time he turns something down is if he's got a scheduling conflict. Or what's his name, from Machete? Oh, Danny Trejo. Danny Trejo, thank you, yeah. He will do, like he will work, the reason he's in all these directed video movies, because he loves working with young directors. Yeah. And you know,
00:50:53
Speaker
See, that's why I never understand what they make to it. People make movies for a lot of different reasons. Right. You know, and, okay, Nicolas Cage had his artistic period when he was doing movies strictly, you know, for, he was taking the roles for, you know, whatever acting reasons that he did, like, what's that movie, Levy Las Vegas.
Big Daddy and Hit-Girl Dynamics
00:51:16
Speaker
you know, he had his artistic period where he, you know, did these art films or he did movies, you know, to get the awards and get that. But like in the last what, like 20 years, I would say, Nifiscations does movies just to be doing movies, just for the fun of it, I think. That's what he's doing. And he's having, obviously the man is having a good time. Yeah. And he does, and every now, like, yeah, he's got, like, I don't,
00:51:40
Speaker
I won't go to a movie just because it's Nicolas Cage because he same thing with Sam Jackson, right? Sam Jackson will do anything if the if the money's right. So I'm not going to go to a movie just because they're in it. But if someone tells me this is a good movie, then I'll go see it. And and in the case of Cage in this movie, right? I mean, he does a really good job as Big Daddy. And he I love how he's doing this, the pseudo Adam West impersonation.
00:52:05
Speaker
This is Adam West as directed by Zack Snyder. Yeah, I paid attention to it more because you had mentioned it the last time we should be going to do it. And I said, you know, that's okay. Well, I'm really going to pay attention to it now. And I had to pause the movie at certain parts because I was cracking up because, yeah, it was so odd. You know, he had the cadence down right as you know, the whole Nicholas case when they especially when they
00:52:29
Speaker
having a carry with kick-ass and they follow him back to his house. That big daddy's talking to him and telling him, you know, and when he's talking to him, I said, yeah, that's Adam West. Right. Doesn't even do the fish thing too at one point. Like, yeah. Yeah, he's like his head. He's, you can tell that when he was preparing for this role, he went back and he watched that series. Yes, he did. He absolutely did. It's, you know, which, which
00:52:52
Speaker
Considering that that's what he does, it makes it all the more shocking when we see the violence that he commits, because there's a scene in the warehouse where he takes out Frank off waiting for him. Yeah, yeah. And he takes him out. And this is kind of like,
00:53:10
Speaker
a warm up for a scene we'll see later on in the Kingsman movie where it's that church scene. Yes. Yeah. So that warehouse scene is kind of to me, that's kind of like a warm up for that later.
00:53:25
Speaker
Oh yeah. And unless I'm mistaken, that's all one continuous shot, isn't it? Yeah, one continuous shot where a big daddy kills like a dozen of Frank Smith and he's going up ladders and he's jumping off of the, you know, and yeah, it's one unbroken shot. Yeah, very much getting very much, what was the movie? You know, the John Woo movie, I'm blanking on it.
00:53:51
Speaker
the hospital scene. Hard-boiled. Hard-boiled, yes. Very hard-boiled vibes in that scene. Yeah, hard-boiled, right.
00:53:59
Speaker
And like we said, right, we're guys who, you know, when everyone else was raving about the matrix, we're just like, eh, go watch Hard Boiled and then get back to us. That's what I was telling people. I said, well, apparently you not watched a whole lot of Hong Kong action. Yeah. But then you watch this and you see like, you know, that's what, so when we say like, you know, Vaughn knows what he's doing, Vaughn knows how to direct an action scene, we know what we're talking about.
00:54:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I'm watching this warehouse fight, and I'm sitting there, and I'm saying, oh, shit. You know, because it is done. Rarely does one get to see action slash fight scenes done so well. Yeah. And when you see this, and especially, I mean, that scene that was in Kingsman, oh my god, that was just like, you know. Yeah. OK, these are movies that you look at.
00:54:52
Speaker
And see, when I see a scene like that, and if the filmmaker makes me go, how in the hell did he film that? He's done his job. Because I cannot figure out how he did that. Yeah. Yeah. That was an amazing thing. Which is how it's supposed to be. It's like when you go see a magic act, and the magician makes the Statue of Liberty disappear, and you're supposed to say, well, how in the fuck did he do that? You know? Right. Same thing with action sequences. You're supposed to watch it. You're supposed to wonder, how in the world did they pull that off?
00:55:21
Speaker
Yeah. And I love how he, cause he's got a mustache. I mean, where's this mask? So the disguise is he makes it a handlebar mustache. I love that. Yeah.
00:55:35
Speaker
Well, you know what? That kind of makes sense because that's the only part of his face that's exposed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he puts it on there. So, you know, the fake handlebar mustache. So people, you know, they'd see him and they described to the couple, he had on the handlebar mustache, you know? But it is just kind of funny that he does that instead of just getting a full face mask. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:56
Speaker
Not exactly an overthinker, this guy. No, no. Well, he's overthinking it just in the wrong way. Yeah, in the wrong way, right. There you go. And I also love his bad dad jokes, right? Like when they're watching the video of kick ass and he comes up, he's like more like ass kick and he laughs and then hit girl just rolls her eyes. She's like, that's not even funny. That makes no sense. Yeah. You know what? And it seems like that that kind of make you wish
00:56:23
Speaker
that it was a big daddy hit girl movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And because I watched that scene and I'm like, you know what, that's gonna be me and my daughter. Yeah, yeah. I already told my wife, I'm like, you know what, our kid is gonna hear swear words so much that you better be prepared when she starts talking and you start hearing fucking a little high pitched voice, because that's coming. No, my God.
00:56:52
Speaker
That poor woman. Yeah, every time I'm like, I was like, yeah, so, you know, our baby's first word is gonna be, she's like, no, no, no, no. That was like a running gag we got here. Don't, listen, don't worry. Things aren't gonna work out the way that you think they're gonna work out. I have found out that with children, things rarely work out the way you think that they're gonna work out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:57:22
Speaker
But moments like that too, they also help to establish that relationship between
00:57:31
Speaker
big daddy and that girl right yeah because if you because you can see despite the fact that they are killers and murderers they do have a loving father to a relationship yeah yeah it's a very strange but it's it's this is a this is some this is some talented writing right because they take these concepts that should be
00:57:53
Speaker
you know, horrifying to most people, but they put it in this daddy-daughter relationship and it makes sense when she's like, I hate getting shot in the chest, right? And it's just... Yeah, because he's trying out a bulletproof vest. Right. And, you know, and he's very calmly and rationally explaining to her that he has to shoot her in the chest so that she'll know how the sensation feels so that when she's actually in that
00:58:19
Speaker
moment she won't flinch because she'll know what that feels like and then she thinks about for a minute and then she starts negotiating with him okay well I'll let you shoot me in the chest twice but we got to go for ice cream and you got to get me there and then they go into this father-daughter thing yeah yeah you know and then they go back to business he said okay pumpkin I'm gonna go and he shoots her yeah yeah but it's it's it's if you change the dialogue in that like they could easily be talking about you know eat your vegetables or something
00:58:45
Speaker
Exactly. That is exactly the vibe that I got from that scene where in another context, it couldn't be more sweet. You got to eat your vegetables. Well, listen, I'll eat my vegetables if you buy me that doll and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that same sort of vibe. Yeah.
00:59:03
Speaker
And I think that that's part of the genius of the relationship between the two characters is that if we don't buy that they are a father and daughter, then nothing works. No, no, it does not work. Their relationship, their role in the movie, it hinges on you buying that father-daughter relationship and believing that he's a man who really loves his daughter. Because even easily, if this is
00:59:27
Speaker
if this is in the hands of a lesser performer or a lesser writer or a lesser director, it could easily be this guy's a psychopath who's psychologically torturing this little girl. Right, you're right. Which in a way he is, but the way that it's presented here really makes you buy into that father door. And it's not until after you watch the movie that you're sitting there and you're thinking like, holy shit, that guy's a fucking psychopath. But,
00:59:55
Speaker
OK, and this is the way that I took it. Yeah, he's OK. He's an example of the one bad day theory. He had a bad day where he was framed. He had to go to jail and his wife died, everything like that. So when he comes out and he takes on this persona of Big Daddy and he starts training his daughter, he's trained his daughter so that she can protect herself against the bad things that happened to him.
01:00:19
Speaker
He knows he's not going to be there forever. Yeah, he's teaching her how to shoot and kill and everything like that. But that's only so that she won't have to suffer what he suffered. Oh, and that's part of the genius, right? They are able to make it in a way that you don't really realize how fucking insane he is until after the movie's over and you start thinking about it. Yeah, right. At the time, you're saying, yeah, OK, he's got a point. But then, yeah.
01:00:47
Speaker
done a number on this little girl's head because she does things in this movie that no 12 year old girl should be doing. No, no, no.
Red Mist and Tonal Shifts
01:00:55
Speaker
But again,
01:00:59
Speaker
What I appreciate is that while I don't agree why he did what he did, I understand it in the context of the movie. I understand why he did what he did. And that's what a good movie is supposed to do, right? If the movie is written well or, and not just movies, right? Books, comics, anything. If it's written well and it's presented well enough, then you can make the audience go along with some really horrifying stuff, right? So like we look at,
01:01:25
Speaker
I mean, you look at the Godfather movies, right? I mean, Michael Corleone is a fucking scumbag. Oh, he's a monster. Right. But you watch those movies and you're like, well, you know, I kind of understand him. Or I just rewatched Apocalypse Now the other day. You know, Martin Sheen's almost as crazy as Marlon Brando in that movie. Oh, absolutely. But you buy it because of the way it's presented and the strength of those performances. And that's what good writing does. It makes you
01:01:53
Speaker
understand, even if you don't agree with them, you can understand where these characters are coming from. As a matter of fact, you know what, I've watched Apocalypse Now maybe like a dozen times and it wasn't until like the 12th time I watched it that I got, I said, okay, that's why they sent him because he's just as crazy as Kurt.
01:02:10
Speaker
Yeah. That's why they sent him. They said, it's just like, okay, you send a thief to catch a thief. Well, you send a madman to kill a madman. Yes, exactly. That's why they said, let me ask you a question getting off the subject for a bit. You said you just recently watched it. Did you watch the extended version with the French plantation? So see, this is the reason why I watch it because for years, I only had redux, right? I had never seen the theatrical cut.
01:02:37
Speaker
And then not too long ago, I was at a video store and they had the complete dossier. And then, of course, Coppola fucks me over a few years later and releases the final cut, but that's a different story.
01:02:50
Speaker
But so I had the complete dossier and that has both the theatrical cut and redux on it, right? Right, yeah. Which they do it in a really bizarre way. I don't know who the hell planned this DVD, but the logical thing would be you put the theatrical cut on one disc, you put the redux on the other disc, right? Right. They cut it into two parts. So the first half of the theatrical cut and redux is on disc one. The second half of both is on disc,
01:03:19
Speaker
I don't know what they were thinking when they did that, but. Yeah, because the Blu-ray that I have, yeah, that's how it's done. The theatrical version is on one disc and the redux is on another. Right, which makes sense. Yeah. But yeah, so anyway, my little rant out of the way. So I finally decided I'm going to sit down and watch the theatrical cut, because for years, this debate's been going back and forth about which is better, the redux or the theatrical cut. And so I sat down and I watched it.
01:03:48
Speaker
I liked that the plantation scene wasn't in there. I will say that. Because that scene is just like nothing but navel gazing. But I did feel like they were missing a lot of other key stuff.
01:03:59
Speaker
Like a lot of other stuff that really helps inform Martin Sheen's character, right? Like, for example, when they find the people on the boat and they think they're smuggling something and they open fire on them, they find out it's just a puppy. And then Martin Sheen, and the woman survives, right? And she's injured.
01:04:21
Speaker
And they're like, oh, we have to get her to, we have to get her to some friendlies. Then he goes and just shoots her in the head. And he's like, I told you not to stop. Yeah. I told you not to stop. Yeah. Right. That's just a powerful scene that says so much about his character. I think it's so important to the movie and to his character that that scene alone being cut out of the theatrical cut makes me, makes me prefer Redux. Hmm.
01:04:44
Speaker
Okay. I'm just curious because I know I always get into debates with people they, you know, they say that they hate the Redux because they don't like the French plantation scene, which, which I would freely admit, no, it does not add a single thing to the movie. It doesn't. Right. And you're right, it's purely naval gazing. But for to me, I like it because it adds a sort of quasi mystical element.
01:05:10
Speaker
It's also interesting because of the history it goes into about the French colonization of Vietnam. That stuff is interesting, I will say that, but it's just the whole romance subplot with him and the wife there, it just feels so out of place in the rest of the movie.
01:05:29
Speaker
because it's like, you know, as he's going down the river, it's like he's going back in time, you know, because when he ends up where Kurt is at, it's like almost like a prehistoric.
01:05:41
Speaker
Oh, you know, now I know you make me want to rewatch the Redux and think about it that with with that frame of reference in mind. Yeah, yeah. So that's one reason why I like that, you know, the further down the river he goes, looking for Kurt, the more it's like he's going back in time and when he goes to
01:05:59
Speaker
that French plantation and the way that they just like appear out of the mist and everything like that. It's almost like he's interacting with ghosts. It's almost like the ghosts of these French people. Oh, you know, I like that interpretation. Yeah. So now- Who knew you were this deep? No, right? I have no moment.
01:06:20
Speaker
I have my, it's the company I keep. But yeah, but yeah, so while I do agree that no, it doesn't add a single thing to the movie, I do appreciate it being there and occasionally I'll throw on the redux because I just like that part. I just like that feeling that it adds to the movie. It's almost like a quasi-mystical type of feel it adds to the movie.
01:06:46
Speaker
What am I supposed to be talking about, kick ass? But yeah, so we're using that as, you know, Apocalypse Now is just another example of, you know, making these terrible people into interesting characters. Oh, yeah, right. And you know what?
01:07:01
Speaker
Then speaking of terrible people who are interesting characters, Christopher Mintz-Plasse is Chris D'Amico, Red Mist, right? Yeah, yeah. He's a lot of fun in this movie. He's a lot of fun. I felt so bad for the guy at the beginning of the movie when he's in the comic shop. And it's so clear that Dave starts to walk up to him and Chris looks up at him and he gets this smile on his face. It's so clear, like he just wants a friend to talk about comics with. Yeah, yeah.
01:07:29
Speaker
You can see that this is a character, not only does he want friends, he wants the approval of his father so badly, that he's willing to do anything. Like he hatches that crazy scheme. He says, okay, well listen, you want to catch a superhero? Okay, well make me a superhero. I want to be a superhero. And he's like, I love when he's like, you have to fuck someone over. And he's like, oh, nobody begging any ninjas. And they're like, oh, we can't fuck him over. He's like, what about Tony? He's like, Tony, yes, fuck Tony. I hate Tony.
01:07:57
Speaker
I know, it's like, oh yeah, Tony, oh yeah, but nobody likes Tony anyway. And the very next cut you see, they're reporting that Tony has been apprehended by the police. I said, well, damn, that didn't take long at all. I said, who did Tony piss off? What did he do? Poor Tony. Yeah, Tony, man, they gave up Tony with no problem. Biggest victim in the movie is Tony.
01:08:25
Speaker
But you know, this is a, you know, I do like how it is, you know, it's funny that this movie, this movie works in a really interesting way, because it starts off as like a very realistic idea of what would happen if somebody put on a costume went out to fight crime. But then in the third act, it becomes increasingly ridiculous and over the top. And somehow that works. It doesn't undermine the premise, right?
01:08:49
Speaker
Yeah, because it starts out and we could do a whole series of these sub-genre of superhero movies that
01:09:00
Speaker
They're about superheroes who don't have superpowers. Well, not only that, but they're superheroes who are like in these, they're like the kind of real, like based on like the real life superhero phenomenon, you've seen it with like people dressed up in costumes and going out to do good deeds and things like that, right? Yeah. So it's like, you've got this, you've got a super, you've got blank man, which, you know, probably was the first one of them actually. And there are a few other ones too.
01:09:27
Speaker
Yeah, and like you said, you make a good point in that this movie does start out as an indictment of, well, it's absolutely ridiculous and stupid for a sane person to put on a costume and think that they can go out and fight crime. But by the time we get to the third act, it's pretty much more or less a conventional superhero movie now. Yeah, yeah.
01:09:49
Speaker
you know, especially when he shows up with the jet pack. I mean, wait a minute, this is so different from the movie that we started out with, you know, because...
01:10:01
Speaker
Oh, and it should be noted that he does gain superpowers of a sort through his misguided actions when he tries to stop a robbery and he gets stabbed and gets hit by a car. Yeah, he gets the shit beat out of him, he gets hit by this car, and then he's got all these pins in his bones. So he's like half metal now. So it's strengthened his bones, but not only that, but it fucked up his nerve endings too. So he can't really feel pain anymore.
01:10:31
Speaker
anymore. Right. So basically he can take a hell of a beating, which in itself, I guess, is a superpower that he gets. Well, you know, he treats it like one. Yeah. You know, so I guess we can say that. Yeah. But nobody else in the movie really has superpowers. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are basically
01:10:53
Speaker
Acrobats with guns. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And Hit Girl, man. Like, she kicks all sorts of ass in this movie. Oh, absolutely.
Hit-Girl as the Action Star
01:11:02
Speaker
I mean, she takes out more people in this movie than anybody else. Oh, yeah. It's all her. She racks up the body count in this movie. Big Daddy only has that one scene that's in the warehouse. But she's got like two or three.
01:11:17
Speaker
major acting sequences where it's like, she's just taking out everybody in sight. I do love that, you know, kick ass his whole strategy at the end. It's basically just, you know, sit back, wait until she kills everybody and then come in with the backpack. Yeah, exactly. That's his whole plan, which to give him credit is a plan that works. Yeah, it's a
Sergeant Marcus Williams Critique
01:11:38
Speaker
plan that makes sense. Yeah, but once we get to that thing with, once we get to that third act, pretty much we're in a conventional superhero movie now. Yeah, yeah.
01:11:47
Speaker
And what was I gonna say? I completely lost my train of thought. Anyway, you take the bow. I'll think about what I was gonna say.
01:11:59
Speaker
Okay, what can I go on about Omari Hardwick as Sergeant Marcus Williams who is the best friend of the character played by Nicholas Cage because he was a police officer that was framed by Frank and sent to jail. He shows up and it's a thankless role because of course once again we have to have a Black character
01:12:22
Speaker
just to show that this guy, well, yeah, he may be a remorseless killer, but damn it, he's got a Black friend, so, and he trusted with his daughter, so he must be all right, you know? So, yeah, I mean, it's a thankless role that could have been played by Amy, because it really makes no difference in the context of the movie. Yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna, I don't know about the comic book. That character may have been Black in the comics, I don't know, so I'm not gonna necessarily judge the filmmakers on that front.
01:12:49
Speaker
Well, I kind of doubt it. I'm gonna judge the filmmakers because as you will know, having a character have a black friend or a friend of any minority really.
01:13:05
Speaker
And I really need to stop saying that, minorities, because we're not minorities. But having somebody of another ethnic group, like Asian or Latino, that's like shorthand for, well, you know, they're all right because they've got a black friend or they got a Latin friend or they got an Asian friend, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, you know, he,
01:13:24
Speaker
He shows up, he has a few words with Nicholas Cage. And even though he's, you know, he goes into his house and it's a house where the walls are just decorated with guns. And he's a police officer. And I guess that we're supposed to think that because he knows that their captain is crooked and he's working for Frank, that that's why he, you know, he doesn't say anything. He just, even though he knows this guy's going around killing people,
01:13:53
Speaker
But I guess as well, as long as you're killing the right people, what do I care? Yeah, yeah. Still, it's still it's I don't know. I'm looking up quickly here because I think the character was was difficult, was was different in the in the comics. Big Daddy, I think he was he was an accountant, I think.
01:14:22
Speaker
Ah, something like that, yeah. Oh, I know what it says here. Oh yeah, he's not an ex-cop at all, but he's an accountant who was frustrated with his marriage, took his daughter and left his empty life to create a new one, and financing himself through selling comic books.
01:14:42
Speaker
And so he chose the mob boss as the villain because Hit Girl needed a villain. So he's much more psychotic in the comics, it looks like.
Big Daddy: Comics vs. Film
01:14:51
Speaker
Whereas in the movie, you know, he is an ex-cop and he's doing this for revenge, which I understand why they made that change because you don't have the room to, like maybe if there was a kick-ass TV series, you would have the room to go into that. But in the movie like this, it works much better with him being a cop because you need him to be that likable character.
01:15:09
Speaker
Right, exactly. You need him to be a likable character. And also, it's a faster way to provide motivation for his character. Like you said, if we go the other way, then we gotta eat up a certain amount of screen time explaining what he is. Whereas if you just take 10 seconds, well, he was ex-cop, that was frame by frame, bing, bang, boom, okay. That's it, his wife died.
01:15:39
Speaker
you know, just what it was taken from. Okay. Okay. That's all the motivation that most audiences need and they take it and they just run with it. No, sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, which I was going to say that I, you know, don't have a problem with because as we have said before in the past, when you're translating,
01:15:59
Speaker
Because we're not using that word anymore, folks, adaptation. We're using translating. When you're translating something from one medium to another, you have to put it in that new language that it's in. And film is a different language from the printed page. It's a language, folks. That's how we're looking at this from now on, that when we talk about translating something from a novel or a comic book,
01:16:22
Speaker
to a movie, basically what you're doing is that you're translating one language into another. And we have to serve the mediums of that other language. Think of the comic book version of Kick-Ass as Spanish and the movie version as English.
01:16:39
Speaker
yeah very good way to put it yeah and. going back to one other thing I noticed when I was watching this last time is it takes some of those it takes a lot of these common tropes and it just kind of flips them a little bit like so, for example, like the when hit girl comes to the the front door of the hotel.
01:16:57
Speaker
or the apartment building, and the doorman's like, it's like, oh, what are you, and she's dressing the schoolgirl's outfit. She's like, it's just a little kid. What are you worried about security? It's just a little kid. He goes to the, and then she kills them, shoots them both.
01:17:12
Speaker
Or, you know, the, when he goes into, when he sneaks into into Katie's room for us to kick ass thinking that she'd be like, it'd be the whole superhero thing where the superhero goes to visit the girl in his secret identity like you see that in Superman, you see that in Batman forever you see it in so many different movies and comic books, and he comes in there he comes into her room, he poses.
01:17:33
Speaker
and she sees him and she freaks out, which is obviously the normal thing to do. Well, of course, you'd see a strange man dressed in a weird-ass costume in
Romantic Tropes in Kick-Ass
01:17:43
Speaker
there. And of course, you'd say, well, why are you dressed as kick-ass? Which reminded me of, of course, the Batman movie. Batman Returns, yeah, when Christopher Walken asked Bruce Wayne, why are you dressed as Batman? Yeah, right. What do you mean you're Batman? No, you're not Batman. Same thing when she said you're kick-ass. But then, of course,
01:18:03
Speaker
the thing happens, whereas when she finds out that he is kick-ass, you know, of course that makes him all of a sudden out, you know. I also love how awkward he is when they start, when they start, when they start doing it, right? When he's like, he's like, you know, carefully, you know, uncertainly putting his hands on her breasts. It's just, it's so delightfully awkward. And that's exactly what it's like your first time when you're, when you're a kid. Yeah. You know what? Especially when you're a superhero.
01:18:34
Speaker
or try to be a superhero. And can I just say that?
01:18:39
Speaker
One scene that I love in this movie that I could see myself doing if I was a superhero, it's the scene where red mist, he meets kick-ass. And of course, this is part of the scheme that he has to hand over kick-ass to his father. But he shows up with his bad-ass muscle car, and they get in the car, and they drive around, and they drive around playing all crazy by North Barkley.
01:19:05
Speaker
See, I would do that. Yeah, yeah. They see some people like, yeah, we're superheroes. Yeah, and everybody's cheering them, and they're clapping along, and they say, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:19:16
Speaker
That's also kind of a callback to you. I love that scene. That's also kind of a callback to Batman Forever because Chris O'Donnell's Dick Grayson, you know, he takes the Batmobile for a joy ride in that movie. Yeah, exactly. And he jumps out the car and the girls are played by the goop on Vogue. And Vogue, you know, they say, oh, that's not Batman. That's Batboy. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, oh, all right, I forgot my suit, OK?
01:19:46
Speaker
hilarious. Oh, that movie was ridiculous. Oh, man. And not in the good ways. But yeah, and oh, I love the when another thing is like the
01:20:06
Speaker
I keep losing my train of thought with this movie. Nevermind, forget what I was gonna say. I'm completely lost. Brain fog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The election, all that's got me. And I'm coming off of 36 hour fast. So like my mind's not working quite right. Yeah, your synopses aren't firing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Taste of fish oil.
01:20:26
Speaker
As soon as we're done here, I'm going to go out and get some to eat because I got to go out to the hardware store anyway later today. So I got to stop at a bakery nearby there and get some get some food there. The hardware store never a good idea, my friend. Yeah, yeah.
01:20:41
Speaker
Well, we got, because we're moving soon, right? We just signed a lease on a new place and we're moving the end of this month. So we've got to, and there's one spot on the floor. There's a burn mark. So I'm trying to figure out, and it's hardwood. So I'm trying to figure out if I can convince them that there's nothing wrong there, at least long enough so we can get the deposit back so they don't have to charge us for replacing the floor or anything like that. Oh, Lord.
01:21:09
Speaker
All right, say no more because they might be listening to your podcast. Well, it's okay, they don't speak English, so it's all right. Nice thing about living in Japan, nobody knows what I'm talking about. Oh, okay. It's like living in America. Oh, you know what I was gonna say? Also, just going back with the flipping expectations a little bit here and there, which I briefly mentioned before, the microwave scene.
01:21:39
Speaker
Right, because they're trying to torture this guy. They're trying to act like these big, tough guys. But the thing they want to use to torture him isn't working. It's like, well, he's got the giant microwave. We can use that. They use it to cure wood. He's like, all right, let's put him in there. They put him in there, and he can't hear a goddamn thing. And he can't hear anything. And he's miming it. Who did you sell our Coke to?
01:22:10
Speaker
And he blows up. And the guy's in the thing, and he's going to his ears. He said, I can't hear you. Like I said, these guys are so delightfully inept. I just know that they sit around every weekend watching Goodfellas and just say, yeah, man. Oh, man, that's us. No, no, that's not you. Trust me, it is not you.
01:22:37
Speaker
And Mark Strong, he's progressively getting crazier. I love the kick-ass birthday party. He's like, Mommy, I want kick-ass for my birthday party. He's like, you want to lay off the coke, Frank? He's like, were you my mother? Yeah, right. Oh, that is such a hysterical scene because the guy said, he's saying, man, you're losing it, Frank. You got to calm down there. That way he calm down. You calm down. You're not doing your job, but he takes out the coke and he starts to say, oh, now you're back on that stuff again, everything like that. And he says, what are you, my mother?
01:23:06
Speaker
You work for me, remember? Yeah. That's what he's like as his Stanley Tucci-ist in this movie. Yeah. Like I said, you know, you look at this guy and you say, OK, OK, he's supposed to be the crime boss of New York. OK. Either crime bosses, OK. Or you can say that crime bosses are a totally different breed in this movie from crime bosses that were used to seeing it. Yeah.
01:23:35
Speaker
I mean, he's having dinner every night with his wife and his son. I mean, he's pretty much like a businessman, really. Yeah, yeah. Until Kick-Ass starts disrupting his business. And it's really not even Kick-Ass. It's Big Daddy that's doing it. Right, yeah. But he thinks it's Kick-Ass. Yeah, but he doesn't pick up on that till later on. But he thinks, you know, so then he starts unraveling because
01:23:59
Speaker
this is a guy that probably never really had to like say like okay going back to the godfather reference that you made earlier he wasn't like Michael Corleone where he had to fight for his empire right he probably just got it because there was nobody you know he just bought his way yes yeah into being you know
01:24:17
Speaker
this major drug dealer. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I totally get the sense. And that's also why, you know, his guys are so inept, right? They've never had to, to really do anything. Right. Yeah, exactly. I mean, if they had to like really go to war with another mafia family, you know, they'd be eaten alive. Right. Yeah. Cause they never really had to, they never really had to work. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And, uh,
01:24:45
Speaker
I look at the ad too, because the whole thing, I like Chris's, how Chris changes over the course of the movie, right? Because he, even towards the end, right? Like when they take kick-ass prisoner, he's like, look, he's still trying to stand up for kick-ass, right? He's still being like, look, this guy didn't do anything. He's, all right, he still kind of thinks of the guy as a friend. And then the after, sorry, go ahead. No, I'm about to say that, you know what?
01:25:12
Speaker
Okay, he was willing to go along with the plan to hand him over to his father until he found out that it wasn't him. And then we see that, okay.
01:25:23
Speaker
The kid does have a conscience because he's saying, hey, listen, this ain't the guy you want. And the father said, well, I don't care, I want him anyway. Yeah, but you just saw the film. Because he's got the film of Big Daddy killing everybody. And he says, well, that's not the guy you want. This is the guy you, OK, we got to change the plan now. And it's his father who doesn't want to change the plan. No doubt. Well, he does a little bit, because he says that, because he does say, we have to go after Big Daddy, too. But he also says that, you know what, this guy running around in a mask, it sends a bad example.
01:25:53
Speaker
So we gotta take him out because I don't want someone else like Big Daddy getting any ideas. Well, you know what? He does have a point. He does, he does, yeah. You know, because when you raid the whorehouse, you take the piano player too. Interesting reference, but yeah.
01:26:13
Speaker
But yeah, it's that whole idea, right? You gotta send a message, you gotta take them both out. And you even have like, when they get taken, Chris is even apologizing to Dave, right? He's like, you're a kick-ass, I'm sorry. And it's only at the end, after Dave kills Frank, after that happens, that's what really pushes Chris over the edge.
01:26:33
Speaker
And we get that, another Batman callback, right? He says, a world full of superheroes need repeats Jack Nicholson's famous line. Where do they go? Where do they get a load of me? Where they get a load of me, yeah. Which of course sets it up for the inevitable sequel. Yeah. Did you watch Kick-Ass 2? You know what? I'm going to be honest with you. I know I've seen it.
01:26:57
Speaker
But I'd be there if I could remember anything about it. I've watched it. I don't remember liking it that much. I remember thinking it was a big step down from the first one. But maybe I got to watch it again. I don't know. Was it directed by Matthew Vaughn as well? No, no, it was directed by Jeff Wadlow. That's probably why I don't remember it. Yeah, yeah.
01:27:17
Speaker
That's probably why I don't remember it. Cause yeah, cause I know I went to the, I know I saw it in the theater. Cause I said, oh, okay. Well, you know, and even though it wasn't directed by Matthew, why not say hello, but the hell I saw it. Yeah. And look, well, it looks like it wasn't, I wasn't the only one cause it's got a 32% approval rating on RT. Oh, okay. And you know, and the, and the original one was very, it got a set, the original one kick ass for talking about here, that's got a 76% approval rating.
01:27:47
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, hell yeah. Yeah, I mean, it does a great job of combined, it hits that perfect mix of like, you know, batshit insane action and a premise, but with characters that are really enjoyable.
Fresh Take on Superhero Narratives
01:28:05
Speaker
And it has, and the movie's got its tongue firmly in cheek, right? Throw out the whole thing.
01:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it starts off with the premise, okay, it starts off with Dave saying in a voiceover, did you ever wonder why nobody put on a costume and decided to become a superhero? And for the first third of this movie, the first act of this movie with him trying to be kick ass and everything like that, it is a pretty serious exploration of,
01:28:35
Speaker
what would happen if a guy actually put on a costume and tried to go out? Yeah. And do good. And then we get involved with all the subplots with Big Daddy and stuff like that. In fact, I think you could easily make the argument that once he gets the shit kicked out of him, and when he's in the hospital, all that, like, everything that comes after that is a coma induced fantasy.
01:29:00
Speaker
you could easily make that argument, I think. That's a good point. That's a good point. And yeah, and you could easily look at it that way. Mm-hmm. You know, because there are things that happen in the movie that could easily be explained away as they're just hallucinating. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you got the, yeah, I think that could, I think that's a, I don't think that's actually what's happening, but I think that's an argument that could be made.
01:29:26
Speaker
No, that's not what's happening. But it is a way to look at the movie.
01:29:35
Speaker
This is like one of these movies that I kind of like that pops up every once in a while, because as much as I like the Marvel and DC movies, there's a certain predictability, and we know what's going to happen. And then we need a movie, a superhero movie, like kick ass once in a while, where we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know which way it's going to go. There's things in here that we recognize, like with the Big Daddy character and Hit Girl, of course, supposed to be a twisted version of Batman and Robin.
01:30:05
Speaker
But so, you know, we don't know where it's going. And I think it's good for people like me and you who have seen so many superhero movies that this comes along to reinvigorate our interests in the genre. Right. If that makes any sense. No, no, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I agree completely. It's nice to have one of these movies every now and then that. Kind of like a palate cleanser in a way, I guess you could say. Yeah.
01:30:34
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Because it's not your typical superhero movie. You watch it, and yeah, there are things in there that are familiar, but at the same time, and I, again, I have to credit this to the direction of Matthew Vaughn, that I'm watching this, and even though I'm saying, yeah, well, I've seen this before, but it feels fresh. Yes, yeah.
01:30:59
Speaker
it still feels fresh, it feels new, it feels like this is something that's got a new energy to it, it's got a new vibe to it. Yes, absolutely, yeah. And yeah, it's just, and you know what, I was not prepared to like this movie as much as I did. I had a very cynical attitude of it going in, but I had heard a lot of people talking about it in very positive ways, and then I eventually watched it, and yeah, I was pleasantly happy to be wrong.
01:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, me too. I went to see, the only reason why I went to see it was, you know, word of mouth. I heard from people, you know, they said, oh, have you seen Kick Ass? And I said, no, I don't know anything about it. But, you know, listen, when I saw it, I caught it at a matinee. I only had to pay five bucks for it. So I said, oh yeah, you can't beat that.
01:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So even if I don't, oh, wait a minute, it wasn't five bucks. It was like 750, which still isn't bad. No, not at all. Not at all. And you know, which I said, well, you know what, even if it's $7, you know, I don't feel like I'm going to be ripped off. Yeah, I got it at one of my trips back to the States. I got it at like one of, they had a used DVD store. I got it for like five bucks or something like that. And I had heard enough about it. I'm like, all right, well, I'll watch it.
01:32:15
Speaker
And yeah, and it was worth, it was definitely worth that five bucks. I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of this movie over the years. I've watched this like, you know, I've got watches like, you know, not, not like a, not like double digits, but I've seen them like, you know, five or six times or so. Yeah. Yeah. What I rented it. Um,
01:32:32
Speaker
I rented it for like $3.99. Yeah. And you're right. Cause it is, it is that good type of palette cleanser movie. Cause in fact, that's actually why we ended up watching it. Like about like two weeks ago, my wife and I, we're, we're looking through the movie collection and I'm like, well, what do you want to watch tonight? She's like, oh, let's watch a superhero movie. I'm like, okay. So we're looking through the, cause I got the Apple TV and I got all the superhero movies in their own genre. So I'm scrolling through the movies and she sees kick ass. She's like, Oh, kick ass. I want to see that again.
01:32:58
Speaker
And it was like, you know, she wanted something. She wanted a superhero movie, but she wanted something that was just a little bit different. Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And yeah, I watched it. Like I said, last night was the first time I had seen it since I saw it in the theater. I think maybe I might have seen bits and pieces of it here and there. But last night was like the first time I've sat down and watched it from start to finish.
01:33:28
Speaker
Once again, like I said, I'm sitting there and I got my little notepad to take notes as the, you know, okay, well, I want to make this point where I make the point. 15, 20 minutes into it, I'm just into the movie. I'm not, you know, I forget I'm supposed to be watching this with a critical eye and instead I'm just enjoying watching the movie. Yeah, absolutely.
01:33:50
Speaker
It is not a blockbuster of the genre, but it is an extraordinarily solid, well-made superhero movie that I would definitely recommend. Yeah, absolutely. And it is funny when you think about how the movie takes you from that very grounded approach in the first act, and you don't realize how crazy this thing is until the credits are rolling. Yeah.
01:34:20
Speaker
Yeah. No one, when he shows up at the jet pack, that's when I realized, I said, wait a minute, how did this thing come back to you insane so quickly? Yeah. And the movie does such a great job of raising the stakes and just like leading you in that path without even you even realizing that it's doing it. I couldn't agree enough. And of course it's got the two marvelous performances from Nicholas Cage,
01:34:52
Speaker
And playing his daughter, what's her name? Chloe Grace Morris. Oh, right. Chloe Grace Morris. I can never, she got that funny, hyphenated name, but yeah. And of course, Christopher Mitz Quasi. Is that how you pronounce it? I think so. I'm not 100% sure, but yeah. And then Aaron Taylor Johnson marks, like the entire cast in this movie is wonderful.
01:35:13
Speaker
Yeah, everybody's good. I said that earlier. Yeah, everybody's good. Even Evan Peters. He's got that one small role. Basically, the only thing he does in the movie is at the end of when he when he sees Kit girl, right? He's like, I think I'm in love with her. It's like, dude, she's like 11. He's like, I don't care. I, I vow to save myself for her. He's like, that's not going to be a problem for you. Yeah, yeah.
01:35:39
Speaker
Oh, but yeah, and it's, you know, if you haven't seen this movie, it's...
Reception and Viewer Advisory
01:35:44
Speaker
It's a fun movie. And I thought it was gonna be a very cynical take on superheroes, but it's not, right? It's still very much kind of a celebration. And I like that. I like movies that aren't gonna just shit all over something for the sake of shitting all over it. Yeah, yeah. And no, it doesn't do that. No, not at all. It doesn't do that at all. Just be advised. And I know that a lot of people
01:36:13
Speaker
I remember when I saw this in the movie theater, like with Watchmen, some people make the mistake that just because they think it's a superhero movie, they think it's all right for all ages. I would not let the little ones watch this movie. No, no, not unless you're an irresponsible father, like I'm probably.
01:36:31
Speaker
Yeah, not unless you're a responsible father like my friend here. But, you know, if you know, simply because of the level of violence that, you know, this isn't suitable for, you know, or even, you know what, there's even some adults I wouldn't let watch this movie because they're serious. There's some people I would tell now where, you know what, don't watch it because you wouldn't be able, and some people just do not like the image of a 12 year old girl killing people. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,
01:37:00
Speaker
some of the some of the violence in this my my wife was definitely you know kind of like turning her head away from yeah yeah my uh when we saw it in the theater my wife she she said that uh she was with the movie up until you know the little girl she said well i don't like that little girl killing people she i didn't like that that's it
01:37:20
Speaker
You know what, which is fair, I understand. Yeah, I can understand that. Me and you, we're insensitive bastards, we don't care. Right, exactly. But I do recognize the fact that there are some people that would be disturbed by that, which is why I am making a point to, for those of you who have not seen Kick Ass, you know, yeah, that the little girl in this movie,
01:37:43
Speaker
gets into some serious mayhem. So if you think that you might be disturbed by that, you may want to keep that in mind before you watch this movie. Yeah. Well said. Well said. OK. So that does it. Brings to the end about kick ass. That means I'm going next for my pick. And you know what? We've danced around it so much. I say let's just go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room.
Next Discussion: Justice League
01:38:08
Speaker
And let's just watch Justice League. Oh.
01:38:13
Speaker
Throw it down the gauntlet, huh? Throw it down the gauntlet. Let's just get it out of the way. And then we don't have to talk about it again until the Snyder Cut comes out. Listen, listen. Listen, I am all for it because as you know, while I don't think it's a particularly good movie, I don't hate it either. Yeah, I've got very similar reactions. And it is one of those movies that it seems like people have very sharp opinions on it.
01:38:43
Speaker
Well, you know what? Here's the main thing about that movie. It's a rush job. It's a rush job. DC Warner Brothers wanted Avengers. They were chasing that Avengers money.
01:38:55
Speaker
You know, they wanted a, they wanted a billion dollar superhero movie so badly. And the result was what we got. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we'll get into more of that. And it's also, you know, kind of a, cause this next episode will, I believe be our 47th. Okay. I think we're on that. Let me just double check here.
01:39:21
Speaker
No, okay, so this is 45. Next episode will be 46. So yeah, this is a nice little setup because it looks like, you know, we haven't had any movement in that pollage. So it looks like we're going to be doing Avengers for our big 50th. So this is a nice little precursor to that.
01:39:38
Speaker
Well, sounds good to me. All right. OK. You guys are spoiled. Y'all got a lot in this episode. Y'all got James Bond. Y'all got Apocalypse Now. You got, man, y'all got a lot in this episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So don't come crying that we don't give you, that we're not nice to you, that we're not good to you guys. I'm telling you. And we spoil you. We spoil you guys. Y'all got a lot in this episode. Some election coverage, too, as well. You got some of that. Yeah, yeah.
01:40:07
Speaker
All right. So that does it for this episode. Come back next week when we talk about Justice League. And until then, head over to our Facebook group. Do a search for superhero cinephiles. Join in. Join in the discussion. If you don't want us to talk about Avengers for our commentary episode, then you better get your ass up in there and you better vote, because otherwise that's what's going to happen. Screw it. We're doing Avengers.
01:40:29
Speaker
We're doing Avengers. All right. You know what? You done got me pumped for Avengers and everything. I don't already got the date planned out already, what I'm going to eat, what I want to drink when we do that. Yeah, I got all planned out. All right. So, yeah. Well, the man has spoken. I'm not going to argue with him. So we'll be doing Avengers for the 50th. Next episode is 46 and we'll be doing Justice League. So we're getting the we're getting the big guns out of the way here. And that's it for now. Thanks so much for listening and we will talk to you next time.
01:41:00
Speaker
Thank you very much. Once again, we don't take it for granted that you spent your time with us. Good night and God bless.
01:41:11
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Superhero Cinephiles Podcast. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other episode, or if you have a superhero movie or TV show you'd like us to cover in a future episode, you can email us at superheroescinephiles at gmail.com, or you can also visit us on the web at superheroescinephiles.com.
01:41:31
Speaker
If you like what you hear, leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Each review helps us reach more potential listeners. You can also support the show by renting or purchasing the movies discussed, or by picking up our books, all of which can be accessed through the website, as well as find links to our social media presences. The theme music for this show is a shortened version of Superhero Showdown, a royalty-free piece of music, courtesy of pheasantudios.com.