The Croods

ACTION/ADVENTURE, ANIMATED, FAMILY

Always Follow The Sun

9.0 out of 10 | MOVIE, DVD

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Rated: PG Some scary action.
Release Date: March 22, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes

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Director: Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco
Writers: Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman

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SYNOPSIS:  The prehistoric Crood family is forced to leave the safety of their cave when the world starts to shift and crack apart. Meeting up with a young homosapien, they have to fight predators, natural forces, and each other in the search for a safer haven.

REVIEW: Kirk De Micco (Space Chimps) Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo and Stitch) create the story, write the screenplay, and direct the new Dreamworks animated film involving the lives of one of the first prehistoric families and their fight for survival in a quickly changing world. 

Grug (Nicolas Cage, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) keeps his caveman family safe by following the rules set forth on the cave paintings from ancestors past. 'Fear the dark and the unknown, and stay in the cave'. Every few days the family - with wife Ugga (Catherine Keener, A Late Quartet), son Thunk (Clark Duke, A Thousand Words), older daughter Eep (Emma Stone, Gangster Squad), younger daughter Sally, and Gran (Cloris Leachman, Raising Hope) - forage every few days for sustenance, stay in the cave protected by predators, and listen to stories of exploits, fear, and death by Grug. Eep, different from her father, has a curiosity for the outside world beyond the painted car walls. One night, Eep sees the flickering light of the sun and disobeys her father's standing order to stay in the cave by investigating its source. She stumbles upon a creature similar, but different from herself, a young homosapien named Guy (Ryan Reynolds, Safe House) and his furry animal companion named Belt. He urges her to come with him, telling a tale that the landscape he has traveled from has been overcome with earthquakes, lava, explosions, and death. When she can not leave her family behind, Eep soon learns the truth if Guy's words as the family cave and the surrounding valley are destroyed, forcing them to follow Guy to an unknown and new frontier they are reluctant to travel through.

Dreamworks Animation, known for top notch animated entertainment like Monsters vs. Aliens and Rise of the Guardians, returns for a prehistoric family tale for the whole family. In The Croods, curious Eep changes the whole dynamic of the Croods' way of life because of her free spirit and the unexpected meeting of the homosapien Guy. The world and characters that Dreamworks, Sanders, and De Micco create follows in the rich tradition of the studio and its storytelling.

From the onset, after Eep narrates the whys of her family's way of life, the dynamic and pace of the action, humor, heart, and style are fossilized into place. I am just a big kid at heart, by the way, and I laughed throughout the entire film. From Krug telling Ugga to 'release the baby' and watching the little scamp tear off after prey or her own family, to a human's furry utility belt Belt who seems to have more skills than just keeping Guy's pants up, the script is filled with clever verbal quips and visual gags for 'kids' of all ages. Aside from the great humor, The Croods has plenty of action. During the Croods family's first pursuit of food, they prove how closely they work together and how much strength and agility the cave people possess as they wrestle with oversized razor-toothed predators, tusked mammoths, and angry bird mothers, for a drop of scrambled egg. But at its heart, The Croods is a story of family, of growing up, and of surviving - together.

The character voices are perfect for the Croods. Nicolas Cage's Grug is a lumbering Neanderthal and a brute, but still a fierce protector of his brood. He can 'ugh' and 'ooh' with the best caveman, even though he and his may be the last of their kind. Emma Stone, fresh off her recent more adult roles, fits right in as the younger adolescent Eeg - ready to take on the wide unknown world. Clark Duke's Thunk is as funny as he is idiotic, Catherine Keener's Ugga is soft and capable, and Cloris Leachman's Gran is feisty and wise (when she needs to be). The Homosapien Guy, voiced by Ryan Reynolds, is nearly unrecognizable as the young new breed of human trying to survive in the changing, disruptive world.

There are no villains. per say, just the continued threat of predatory animals, the increasing and more violent tectonic shift of the earth's surfaces, the worry of a caveman for his family, and the worry of a father for the safety of his daughter against the unknown quaking world, and the unpredictable quaking of a young girl's heart in love.

The Croods is a great film to be enjoyed by the entire family - young and old. Filled with dangerous action, hilarious situations and gags that would give The Flintstones a run for their money, and a heart bigger than the entire Jurassic era, The Croods is the first great animated film of 2013.

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Seeking Justice

Working Class Hero?

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Rated: R  Brief sexuality, violence and language
Release Date: March 16, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

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Director:  Roger Donaldson

Writers: Todd Hickey, Robert Tannen
Cast:  Nicolas Cage, January Jones, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Carpenter, IronE Singleton, Harold Perrineau, Xander Berkeley

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SYNOPSIS: When his wife is sexually assaulted, school teacher Will Gerard accepts the offer from a vigilante group to avenge her. What he doesn't realize is that the 'favor' they ask him to carry out afterward is more than what he bargained for.

REVIEW: Roger Donaldson, directors of such intrigue films as The Recruit and The Bank Job, takes a story and script from first time writer and longtime cinematographer Todd Hickey and relative new screenwriter Robert Tannen. Starring Nicolas Cage, one of the hardest working actors in show business, will Seeking Justice find the justice it seeks?

High school teacher and chess enthusiast Will Gerard (Nicolas Cage, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance)   enjoys the New Orleans scene with his musician wife Laura (January Jones, X-Men: First Class) and his friends and co-workers. One night, when Laura is sexually assaulted and put into the hospital, Will is approached by a mysterious man named Simon (Guy Pearce, The King's Speech) who ensures Will that his organization can and will silence the assailant for good if Will agrees to help the organization in the near future when they ask for his assistance. Unable to watch his wife suffer in pain, Will agrees and the deed is carried out. A few months later, when Will is asked by Simon to carry a letter to a mail box in front of the zoo, the favor is upped to following a mother and two daughters, then ramped up to the request to carry out an assassination of an accused pedophile. When Will refuses, he and his wife are put into danger by the same organization that aided them in the first place. Running out of time, Will must try to expose the organization before it destroys him. 

Nicolas Cage has recently tarnished his acting star with a string of less than stellar films including Season of the Witch and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Even with genre anticipated films like the Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance sequel and a comic book favorite film of mine, Kick-Ass, some look at Cage's current career path as on the decline. He has certainly come a long way down from Adaptation and Leaving Las Vegas, or even the National Treasure franchise. With Seeking Justice, Cage does pump the brakes a little by putting out a decent product.

Nicolas Cage tempers the caricature of himself that even SNL's Andy Samberg has perfected on the segment 'Inside the Cage, with Nicolas Cage'. When Cage is not mugging or staring wide-eyed, his character actually comes down to earth enough to be believable and distraught. January Jones channels sympathy instead of her signature distain from Mad Men as she recovers from her physical and psychological trauma. Guy Pearce beefs up a little, probably in preparation of the upcoming space prison sci-fi flick Lockout, and cuts an imposing and dangerous figure as the vigilante group figure head  Simon. Harold Perrineau (Lost) as Will's principal boss and friend, and Jennifer Carpenter (Gone) as Laura's musician friend Trudy keep to the background until the story plots require them to step forward. Some of the 'organization's' henchmen like Scar (IronE Singleton, The Walking Dead) have larger roles than some of the bigger name actors and actresses. 


Seeking Justice is the type of film that is reminiscent of 1990s films like Johnny Depp's Nick of Time where a seemingly unprepared and unlikely middle-class man is forced to go beyond his comfort zone against an established organization that has unlimited resources, a powerful reach into law enforcement, and expertise in misdirection, mayhem and violence. In this case, the protagonist dies not take retribution into his own hands to avenge his wife's assailant, but is forced to take action nonetheless when his decisions to have someone else kill for him comes back to haunt him. 

By no means is Seeking Justice Cage's best work, but it is a solid action drama thriller whose script has been brought to full life by the expert hands of its director Roger Donaldson, and by the work of the film's protagonists in Cage and January Jones, and its antagonist Guy Pearce. If you can't get into Jonah Hill's 21 Jump Street, you can always fall back onto Seeking Justice as a second choice if you really need a couple chases or guns pointed in your face.

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D

Hell of a Ride

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Rated: PG-13   Intense sequences of action and violence, some disturbing images and language.
Release Date: February 17, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

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Director:  Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Writers: Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman, David S. Goyer
Cast:  Nicolas Cage, Violante Placido, Ciarán Hinds, Idris Elba, Fergus Riordan, Christopher Lambert, Johnny Whitworth

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SYNOPSIS:  Johnny Blaze, the human vessel for the demonic Ghost Rider, lives off the radar in Eastern Europe in an attempt to contain and purge the Spirit of Vengeance. When he is called upon to stop the devil from taking human form on earth, Blaze must let the Ghost Rider loose to battle the demon in exchange for ridding himself of the Ghost Rider curse for good.

REVIEW: The Crank and Gamer directing team Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor return with their extreme directing and aggressive cinematic style for one of the fringe, but surprisingly powerful, Marvel Comics characters. Based on a story from David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Blade), Scott M. Gimple (FlashForward, Chase) and Seth Hoffman (Prison Break, FlashForward) join Goyer on writing duties to bring the motorcycle-riding, flaming-skulled chain-wielding spirit of vengeance back into the popularity it deserves. Can the writing team lead by Goyer, directed by the Neveldine/Taylor extreme team, and reprised by Nicolas Cage do for Ghost Rider what Goyer, Norrington and Snipes did for another fringe Marvel character - vampire hunter Blade?

In the first Ghost Rider, motorcycle circus stuntman Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage, Drive Angry 3D) sells his soul to the devil in order to save his father's life. As with every contract with Lucifer, the small print does not keep Blaze's father from death, only the cancer that was killing him. Years later Blaze suddenly becomes host to the demonic flaming Ghost Rider, an unstoppable engine of vengeance that looks to dish out justice against criminals and demons alike. In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny Blaze has escapes to Eastern Europe in an attempt to keep the Ghost Rider contained within him. Buy removing himself from reach of criminals and the seedy underbelly elements, Blaze is able to keep the demon from forcing itself out to mettle out vengeance. When a young boy Danny (Fergus Riordan, I Want to be a Soldier) and his mother Nadya (Violante Placido, The American) under the care of a an ancient religious order are attacked by gunrunner Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth, Limitless) and a group of mercenaries, mother and son escape and fall off the radar from both friend and foe. Alcoholic ex-priest Moreau (Idris Elba, Thor) tracks down Johnny Blaze with the promise of removing the Ghost Rider curse if Blaze releases the Ghost Rider to hunt down Danny in order to keep him safe from the devil Rourke (Ciarán Hinds, The Debt) who looks to transfer his own power and essence into the 13-year-old boy he helped to conceive.

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are a new breed of directors, with origins steeped in videos and low budget efforts that required innovative ways to 'get the shots'. Both have no qualms donning a pair of rollerblades, gripping the back of a pacing motorcycle, letting go and shooting the scene with a camera as they coast along at breakneck asphalt speeds without helmets. The same can be said for their take on this second entry of the Ghost Rider.

The flaming skeleton rider may still don a leather jacket but gone are the shiny metal spikes and black cowhide material, instead replaced by charred and bubbling leather and an ever present length of hell chain. The Ghost Rider's gleaming skull replaced by a blackened smoldering cranium. Even the Ghost Rider's flames, emotive in the first film ranging from brilliant raging reds to subdued saddened blues are replaced by more dangerous yellow angry licks of flames laden with an oily black trailer smoke. For the money, the Ghost Rider looks deadly, more gritty and darker than the demon that graced the screen in the Ghost Rider's first big screen appearance in 2007.

The movie is as good as the first film, only completely different. The Ghost Rider is different, but visually cool. His powers are expanded, still using the chain but also able to 'hellify' any vehicle he commandeers. The Ghost Rider is more manic and crazy each time he is released from the confines of the human vessel Johnny Blaze. The setting is different, moving from the new glass and steel America to a history-rich stone Eastern Europe. Gone is the love interest in Eva Mendes' Roxanne, replaced by mother Nadya only interested in the safety of their son. Head demon Mephistopheles in the form of top salesman Peter Fonda and Wes Bentley's Blackheart are usurped by Ciaran Hinds' elder politican Roarke and Johnny Whitworth's Ray Carrigan who Roarke embodies with a fraction of power to become a creature able to decay anything he touches and create a perimeter field of total darkness to fight in (similar to the Marvel Comics Ghost Rider villain Blackout who used Ray Carrigan as an alias). And in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Highlander Christopher Lambert make an appearance as ancient order high priest Methodius tasked with keeping the boy safe with in his sanctuary.

The story is decent, but still does not do the Ghost Rider the justice and showcase he deserves. The Ghost Rider may not be at the level of the Earth's Mightiest Avengers, but he routinely eliminates the hordes of hell. The best story may be a story that will never see the light of the screen, namely that of the Midnight Sons and the story of Lilith and the Lilan, including appearances by Blade, the Nightstalkers, Danny Ketch's Ghost Rider, a curse free Johnny Blaze, and the vampire Morbius. Not a direct war with the devil, that story would add more characters, tensioned interactions and alliances and a stable of grotesque killers and demons for the heroes to battle.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is a camp-filled hell ride. Nicolas Cage is totally committed to the role of the tortured Johnny Blaze. Fergus Riordan plays Danny with both innocence and a killer stone cold glare. Both Elba and Whitworth are capable, working on opposite sides of the battlefield of good and evil. The 3D is not as impressive as it could be, leading to a recommendation to save a couple dollars by taking in a 2D viewing if possible. Comic fans will be torn by the departure from the source material, but being a second- or third-stringer in the Marvel Universe does allow for more latitude in the story. Appealing as a popcorn movie for action and some horror, Ghost Rider gets points for visual appeal, cool action sequences, and a better villain than in the first film. Otherwise, if you do not care for the Ghost Rider, please do not take your vengeance out of any of the reviewers.

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WORTH: Matinee or DVD (for the fans)

NYCC: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

New York Comic Con
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Writers: David S. Goyer, Roy Thomas, Seth Hoffman
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Ciaran Hinds, Johnny Placido, Johnny Whitworth

NYCC: In the IGN Theatre of the Jacobs Javitz Convention Center, two guerilla filmmakers presented their vision of one of the most under-appreciated, darkest, most powerful anti-heroes of the Marvel Universe. Nicolas Cage starred as Johnny Blaze, former circus motorcycle daredevil cursed from a deal with the devil in Mark Steven Johnson's 2007 Ghost Rider. Now, Nicolas Cage returns February 2012 with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, known for Jason Statham's Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage, use their visceral style to take the Ghost Rider riding hard into a completely different direction. Starting with a behind-the-scenes featurette that highlights the hands-on approach the directing pair takes to bring their type of action to the screen, the audience was treated to rollerblading directors gripping the back of a motorcycle to 20 or 30 miles per hours with one hand and a camera with the other to get a high speed motorcycle shot. Other scenes show the directors hanging on wires along with their stuntmen in order to create practical real action - instead of relying solely on CG effects.

Adding to that idea, Neveldine and Taylor changed the look of their demonic anti-hero. Changing from glossy to smoking bubbling leather and a gleamy white to charred ashen flaming skull, the directors discussed how they research how leather and bone truly react to fire - offering a more "true" representation of the skeletal demonic avenger.

If the trailers the audience saw were any indication, this Ghost Rider will come at you with intensity and a bad ass attitude. This Ghost Rider looks like it will be a hell-ified thrill ride!

Drive Angry 3D

Keep Your Hands At Ten and Two

[Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, David Morse]

image from GeekTyrant.com

RANT: My computer is fixed and movie-going is in full swing. March is days away and the first batch of pre-Summer blockbusters is soon upon us. Battle: Los Angeles, Sucker Punch and Rango to name a few. As I have said before, March is the new proving ground for blockbusters that try to beat the Summer heat.

SYNOPSIS: A bad man escapes from Hell's prisons in order to save his infant granddaughter from being sacrificed during the full Moon by a satanic cult.

Horror flick director Patrick Lussier seems to be right at home in three dimension cinema. Making his chops with My Bloody Valentine 3D, Lussier ups his game by shooting Nicolas Cage's new vehicle - no pun intended - using 3D cameras. A typical revenge shoot-em up with plenty of guns, explosions and car chases, the 3D is both novel and excellent. Every kicked up leaf from the tires of a growling muscle car, every blade of tall grass in the foreground, every speck of dust leaps off the screen. Every bullet, hatchet, mangled car part and baseball bat explodes into the audience. 3D had become a joke again after Avatar, but Drive Angry (and Sanctum earlier this season) shows that 3D has a place in cinema.

Aside from the 3D, Drive Angry follows all of the tenets of a typical revenge flick, albeit one where the main character escapes from Hell. Nicolas Cage plays Milton, a man sentenced to an eternity in the prisons of hellfire watching the pain that his actions continue to cause those he holds dear. He comes back to the plane of the living to hunt down the cult leader that killed his daughter and plans to sacrifice his daughter's infant girl to Satan. The gun flights and ammo is plentiful, the car chases squealing and long, the body count high. Everything you want in this genre of film. Even though shot in 3D, Cage's Milton is more one-dimensional. Sure, he is driven and focused, but the connection to him is weak.

On the other hand, the Devil's Accountant (William Fichtner) comes to screen with a calm and cool demeanor. Tasked to chase down Milton, the Accountant imposes himself directly into any situation - from tapping an impaled broken bat handle into a man's shoulder with the other half of the bat, to surfing on a speeding hydrogen tanker truck - he is hilarious and fun to watch. Cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke) seems like an after thought in comparison. King seems to be more of a plot device to have something for Milton to chase after. Don't get me wrong, Burke does the character justice, but he would definitely be more center stage in a film about Waco. Rounding out the cast is Amber Heard as the new woman in Milton's life, Piper. She's a little spitfire tired of waiting for her life to start, and recognizing Milton as a chance to make a change.

Drive Angry 3D has most of the ingredients to be a fun popcorn action outing. The 3D is outstanding for a film of this type. If you are a fan of good 3D and action, this may be worth your money. Just know that it does not have the finesse of Clive Owen's Shoot 'Em Up, and does not offer anything new from Nicolas Cage's bag of tricks.

Worth: Matinee or Netflix

Butter Popcorn Meter

Season Of The Witch

Cold Road Trip

[Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Foy, Robert Sheehan]

image from glendalenewspress.com

RANT: Saw The Fighter for the second time. Christian Bale was still amazing to watch. The supporting cast definitely made Wahlberg's film what it is. Today, 3 wonderful older ladies walked into the theater and took the seats to my left. I was concerned that they may have been at the wrong showing, but they enjoyed the movie just fine.

SYNOPSIS: 14th-century knights Behmen and Felson desert the Crusades after years of bloodshed in the name of God. Upon returning home, they find themselves arrested with the option to either rot in prison or return to service to the Church transporting a suspected witch to a monastery for trial.

Possibly the busiest actor in America, Nicolas Cage teams up with the always imposing Ron Perlman for a 14th-century crusading knights' buddy film. The film's opening scene sets the stage with soldiers and a priest forcing confessions from a trio of women concerning the practice of witchcraft. Once their souls have been redeemed from Perdition, they are promptly backed off the bridge for their hanging and eventual drowning in the river below. Of course, the fact that more than one of the trio returns to vex the priest after their watery burial is testament that the methods might have some credence.

Enter Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as Behmen and Felson, two heroic and vicious Crusaders cutting their way through the infidels that stand in their way against the truth of God and the Church. After we bear witness to several sieges and battles spanning a dozen years, Behman and Felson start to question the divine direction of their leader and the bloodshed they have had more than a hand in. Deserting the Crusades and returning to Europe, Behmen and Felson make their way across a plague-ridden countryside, eventually finding themselves in the center of a town with the possible source of the Black Plague. Faced with either the prospect of being tried for their desertion of the Crusades armies or transporting and escorting the suspected witch girl to a monastery where the monks will try the girl and exorcise the witch inside her with the incantations within the centuries-old Book of Solomon.

Cage and Perlman dominate their scenes, Nic with a stare and Ron with his presence. The alter boy-turned-knight-wannabe, Kay (Robert Sheehan) somehow captured his moments onscreen with his heroic innocence. Claire Foy, known only as The Girl, splits time between convincing us of her innocence and of her powers of persuasion over her captors and escorts. Some of the scenes are more choppy then they should be, especially during some of the horseback dialogue. Other scenes in the Wormwood forest invoke the foggy, surreal tension and suspense that make up for Dominic Sena's lesser cinematic choices.

Season Of The Witch is not the best work from director Dominic Sena (Kalifornia, Gone in 60 Seconds), but it delivers enough to be entertaining as a fantasy film popcorn escape. Barring the semi-witty repartee between the main characters and some of the "shaky" camera work, once Sena gets the gang across the rotting, plank bridge at the edge of the forest, the films starts running on more than 4 cylinders.

Worth: Netflix

Butter Popcorn Meter

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Uh, Oh, It's Magic!

[Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer]

RANT: Not much to rant about today. I did have to go to upstate New Jersey today to make critical electrical repairs to our Summer place, at least according to the notice received in the mail early this week. 150 miles round trip and a couple of 4 inch lag screws later, all was well again. But because of this unforeseen event, I did not get to the movies until very late this afternoon.

SYNOPSIS: After centuries of guarding the prison cell of the evil Morgana and searching for the replacement for the sorcerer Merlin, Balthazar comes across Dave, a young New Yorker who may be the Merlin's replacement and the only one capable of defeating Morgana once and for all.

The critics have been fairly vocal about the failures of Disney's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" live action effort. And according to www.IMDB.com, the user rating is 6.1 out of 10. Are they right? For me, I can always find at least one positive point to a film, but I will try to be as objective as possible.

Director Jon Turteltaub reteams with his "National Treasure" star, Nicolas Cage, for Disney's remake of their classic animated Mickey Mouse sorcerer apprentice tale. A veteran director with numerous film and television episodes under his belt, and his experience with Cage, Turteltaub and Disney were poised to have another decent film on their hands. And the film is just that, decent.

Cage seems only a little out of place as one of three original Merlin apprentices. But only a little. He has been cast in a few questionable roles as of late, but this is not really one of them. As Balthazar, the apprentice sorcerer carries the weight of the loss of his sorcerer love, the betrayal by his friend during the battle with the evil Morgana, and the pursuit for the one who would be the next Merlin.

Jay Baruchel plays Dave, the kid that Merlin's ring attached itself to as the heir of Merlin's powers. After a public embarrassment in front of his 4th grade classmates involving the battling wizards, flash forward 10 years to Balthazar's return where Dave is a physics geek pining away for his lost love during the 4th grade mishap. Baruchel plays the adult Dave with equal parts awe and skepticism of Balthazar's plans for him. His stutter and stammer bring out the rawness of the role.

The villain Harvath, played by Alfred Molina, keeps his character cool with his slick demeanor and an icy tongue. His distain for Balthazar runs far deeper than just siding with Morgana against his own master, Merlin.

Disney does pull out all the stops when it comes to the look of the set pieces and the spells. The training sequences are slick, the battles with Morgana's minions as they are set loose on to the Manhattan skyline are fierce, and the plasma balls are both comical and deadly, depending on whether Balthazar or Dave are handling them.

At the end of the day, some people will like the film, some will love it and some will wonder why they spent the money at the theater. The critics have been critical, as is their nature, but for a couple of hours of mindless magical mayhem, this may do the trick.

Worth: Netflix

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!

Kick-Ass!

As Advertised!

[Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong]

No matter how many times I hear it, I am amazed at people who complain about how many trailers precede a movie. Most theaters have 20 minutes of commercials and expanded "behind the scenes" of upcoming movies. I never hear a peep out of patron about how many times they get to answer a silly film trivia question or how often they get to figure out the movie title word jumbles. But when the movie doesn't start at exactly the time advertised, I get to endure the grumbles of the guy behind me about how many trailers he needs to sit through before the movie starts. Did I miss the memo that trailers were no longer being played? I didn't think so!

SYNOPSIS: Dave Lizewski, a geeky high-schooler decides you do not need super powers in order to be a 'super hero" and help people in the community. As Kick-Ass, he gains popularity, inspires others to become heroes, and attracts the attentions of the local drug boss.

Based on Mark Millar's and John Romita Jr.'s well-received comic series, Kick-Ass!, Director Matthew Vaughn brings it to life on the big screen. Keeping faithful to the original paneled story (for the most part), we follow high school loser Dave as he poses the question to his comic book buddies "Why hasn't someone tried to be a super hero in the real world?". And to his credit, he actually looks for the answer.

We are treated to a cross between "Spider-man" and "Kill Bill". We get a movie length narrative from Kick-Ass himself (Aaron Johnson) more snarky and philosophical than Peter Parker ever was. Kick-Ass is more enduring as a hero character than others. He was not bitten by a radioactive spider, not bathed in cosmic rays, no access to gadgets, no vast monetary resources, but he has something most of us should have - spirit and purpose.

As for the "Kill Bill" reference, we get phenomenal fight scenes riddled with bullets, blades and choreography. Layered on top of that is a pretty cool soundtrack. Chloe Moretz's Hit Girl steals the show with her innocent looks, dirty mouth and dirtier fighting skills. And Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy pays a hilarious homage to 60s television Adam West's Batman with his cadenced and clipped dialogue. Of course, every heroic story is only as good as the villain. Mark Strong delivers on that front, as crime boss Frank D'Amico. Even Christopher Mintz-Plasse from "Super Bad" semi-sheds his McLovin vibe as Frank's son.

As a fan of the genre, I found "Kick-Ass" excelled in the ass-kicking department, and above average in the hero motivation department. Great power, great responsibility, blah, blah, blah... I was much more interested in watching the birth of a hero when he is just like me. "Spider-man" may provide the spectacle, but "Kick-Ass" provides the heart.

Worth: Matinee and DVD