Salon.com > Kick-Ass

“Super”: The sad-sack superhero indie reaches its insane apex

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Since I'm not quite sure what to say about writer-director James Gunn's "Super" -- except that it seems to be a superhero movie made by, for and about people with severe mental illness -- let's retreat into the high-walled castle of film theory for a minute. We seem to be witnessing the second coming of the avant-garde in indie film at the moment, which isn't necessarily something I expected to encounter in the remainder of my movie-reviewing career. Maybe it's the beginning of a backlash against the naturalistic tone and minimalist manner of so much American independent cinema in the 2000s, and maybe it's just a coincidence. But the indescribably bizarre "Super" is opening the same week as Quentin Dupieux's "Rubber," which manifests as an imitation late-'70s roadsploitation thriller but is actually much closer in spirit to the self-detonating films of Jean-Luc Godard.

“Dragon,” “Kick-Ass” tussle for box-office win

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:10:00 +0000

It's another photo finish at the weekend box office, with the No. 1 spot too close to call between the animated adventure "How to Train Your Dragon" and the superhero comedy "Kick-Ass."

Distributor Paramount reported Sunday that DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" took in $20 million, while "Kick-Ass" distributor Lionsgate reported its movie debuting at $19.75 million.

With just $250,000 separating them, either movie could end up at No. 1 when studios release final weekend numbers Monday.

The previous weekend, 20th Century Fox's comedy "Date Night" led the Warner Bros. action tale "Clash of the Titans" by about the same amount based on Sunday estimates. But "Clash of the Titans" came out on top by $1.4 million when final numbers were reported Monday, with "Date Night" pulling in nearly $2 million less than 20th Century Fox had estimated a day earlier.

"I've never seen two weeks in a row like this where the top movies could easily flip-flop," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Weekend projections include fairly hard figures for Friday and Saturday, but studios have to estimate how much a movie will take in on Sunday. Final figures Monday can rise or fall once precise revenues for Sunday are calculated.

“Kick-Ass” delivers on its name

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:01:00 +0000

The title "Kick-Ass" is both premise and promise. The premise: Teen comics nerd Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) reinvents himself as a real-life superhero, turning a wetsuit into an ad hoc costume and his mediocre life into a whirl of angry mafiosi and colorful capes. The promise: Devoted genre fans thrilled equally by domestic comic-book movies and incredibly violent foreign fare can savor both in one package. With "Kick-Ass," there are more cheap thrills, gory explosions and superheroes than a movie geek's YouTube mash-up. But that's not all, fans! With its story of an ordinary guy (sort of) becoming a superhero, the genre can deconstruct its own conventions even as it's indulging them with a wink.

At the start, Dave's just a guy with a crush on the unattainable Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Foncesca); their last names (Lizewski = loser, Deauxma = do me) suggest they're living in a comic book universe long before Dave dons his suit. Though he's not very good at rescuing people, Dave manages to beat up three guys and get on YouTube, attracting the attention of pre-pubescent killing machine Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her quite literal Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) -- real superhero vigilantes on a quest against Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). Their quest will transform Kick-Ass' own, from nebulous fantasy to specific goal. Dave's heroic skills never really improve: His YouTube hit is a one-off fluke, like most viral sensations. Still, he eventually exacts justice and gets the girl, just like Peter Parker (something the voice-over carefully points out. You don't need to be a deep comix nerd to get all the references).