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Bad Ass
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From Bad-Ass to Just Bad at the Movies
Reports of gunshots blasting away a window on the Boston Red Line train at the JFK/UMASS stop last Friday night marked the end of a bullet flying week for the media. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt in this real-life incident, but many people died on screen this past week in a Hollywood shock violence triple-header. Yes, Hollywood is still washing away the blood and guts from Kick-Ass, Death at a Funeral, and The Losers. It's an uneven trio, but it made for an interesting glimpse into the new Hollywood.
If we are to talk in terms of shock alone, then the most relevant film on the list is Kick-Ass, which is also the best of the three. Based on a comic book series by Mark Millar, Kick-Ass sent the first tip-off that it was no traditional superhero movie with its trailer. For one thing, it is rated R and while there have been a few R-rated movies based on comic books (Sin City), even the most violent of superhero movies like The Dark Knight and Ang Lee's Hulk were allowed to slide with a PG-13 rating. How else would such movies make a profit without their target audience? But Kick-Ass is neither a movie about a superhero or a spoof of such films. In fact, it is the anti-superhero movie, bending every caped crusader's code of ethics as far as they can go.
Like Batman and Catwoman, the heroine of Kick-Ass is a vigilante. The obvious difference, of course, is that she is an eleven-year-old girl named Hit-Girl played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Together with her father played by Nicolas Cage, they track down mobsters and criminals and dispose of them in orgies of murder and carnage. It's not just that they kill their enemies that violates the super-hero code. After all, so did the Punisher. It's that their massacres are motivated first and foremost by a sense of revenge. Killing is not their last resort, but their only method. Therefore, they are hardly moved by slicing an entire drug-ring or watching a backstabber get crushed to death in a trash compressor.
But, and here is where it gets complicated, Kick-Ass is the only film of the three that I have any desire to see again. The fact that critics like Roger Ebert and Anthony Lane were repulsed by it can be blamed on a classic case of mismarketing. The previews concentrated on the iconic high school dork incarnated here by Aaron Johnson who becomes a hero. Despite the fact that his crusader costume gives him no power other than newfound courage, the trailers did nothing to tone down the impression of an indie Spider-Man parody, even throwing in Christopher Mintz-Plasse to evoke McLovin.
Needless to say that this is a far different movie than the press would indicate. Bad people die here, but if we stop seeing Kick-Ass as Superman by way of Judd Apatow and instead as a product of the darkly comedic mind of Mark Millar, the violence will become appropriate (so to speak) and even exhilarating in its own way.
I confess to having a thing for sitcom humor. Some of the best screenwriting today is done for TV and that's why Death at a Funeral looks so promising in the beginning. Oh, this must have sounded great on paper and at times the skill transpires to the screen in Death at a Funeral. Almost every character is funny in themselves. Martin Lawrence is fun as the cocky writer, Luke Wilson is also amusing as the arrogant businessman, and, well, any excuse to see Zoë Saldaña is a good one. But the film doesn't stay with any of them long enough for gags that pay off.
The best moments belong to Tracy Morgan and his quarrels with his gruff overbearing uncle wonderfully played by Danny Glover. Ironically, Death at a Funeral is at its best when it is exploiting its reputation as a raunchy comedy. There is a hilarious scene when the corpse is sprawled out of the coffin and the attempt to hide a second body acquired at the funeral thanks to some handy experimental drugs. The problem with Death at a Funeral is precisely that it's not edgy enough.
Instead of focusing on the kind of humor it promised, the film turns its attention to the Chris Rock's main characters who could have been interesting were his main problem not one that we have seen countless times already. He is struggling in a race against the biological clock to have a baby with his wife (Regina Hall). The big joke involving James Marsden getting high off the drugs is dragged out farther than it ever should have given that it wasn't all that funny to begin with. Frankly, Loretta Devine is just annoying as the half-grieving widow.
The Losers presents something of a middle-ground in this envelope pushing trio. It's violence balanced with reassurance. In other words, it's an ordinary studio production and the weakest of the three films. The film compromises. The baddie is much hyped as the "voice on the radio", but when we meet him we are disappointed that he is a typical corporate shill played by Jason Patric. He is ruthless (he kills anyone who poses an inconvenience to him without remorse) but still just another evil tycoon. Every cliché familiar to action junkies is here, from the imperiled children to the betrayal from a good guy. The Losers is bad enough but scripted so poorly that nothing here matters.
When all the blood cleared away at the movies this week, the carnage left behind only one worthwhile film. Kick-Ass serves as a reminder that properly presented violence works. As for the other two, one will leave you staring at the screen for more and the other may make you wonder if this trip was really necessary.
About the Author
I was born in Dorchester, MA on January 8, 1983 and though I was raised and live in Boston. All my life, writing has been my primary sustainment. Writing, of course, and my love for reading, cinema, and travel.
Bad Ass Fighting In The Pizza Parlor