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Kick *spoon* Roger Ebert Review: One Star!

Started by PeasOfCrap,

122 posts in this topic

PeasOfCrap

PeasOfCrap

Posted
Posted

I really can't wait to see this flick!

 

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100414/REVIEWS/100419986

 

Shall I have feelings, or should I pretend to be cool? Will I seem hopelessly square if I find “Kick-” morally reprehensible and will I appear to have missed the point? Let's say you're a big fan of the original comic book, and you think the movie does it justice. You know what? You inhabit a world I am so very not interested in. A movie camera makes a record of whatever is placed in front of it, and in this case, it shows deadly carnage dished out by an 11-year-old girl, after which an adult man brutally hammers her to within an inch of her life. Blood everywhere. Now tell me all about the context.

 

The movie's premise is that ordinary people, including a high school kid, the 11-year-old and her father, try to become superheroes in order to punish evil men. The flaw in this premise is that the little girl does become a superhero. In one scene, she faces a hallway jammed with heavily armed gangsters and shoots, stabs and kicks them all to death, while flying through the air with such power, it's enough to make Jackie Chan take out an AARP membership.

 

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

I know, I know. This is a satire. But a satire of what? The movie's rated R, which means in this case that it's doubly attractive to anyone under 17. I'm not too worried about 16-year-olds here. I'm thinking of 6-year-olds. There are characters here with walls covered in carefully mounted firearms, ranging from handguns through automatic weapons to bazookas. At the end, when the villain deliciously anticipates blowing a bullet hole in the child's head, he is prevented only because her friend, in the nick of time, shoots him with bazooka shell at 10-foot range and blows him through a skyscraper window and across several city blocks of sky in a projectile of blood, flame and smoke. As I often read on the Internet: Hahahahaha.

 

The little girl is named Mindy (Chloe Grace Moretz). She adopts the persona of Hit Girl. She has been trained by her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), to join him in the battle against a crime boss (Mark Strong). Her training includes being shot at point-blank range while wearing a bulletproof vest. She also masters the martial arts — more, I would say, than any other movie martial artist of any age I can recall. She's gifted with deadly knife-throwing; a foot-long knife was presented to her by Dad as, I guess, a graduation present.

 

Big Daddy and Mindy never have a chat about, you know, stuff like how when you kill people, they are really dead. This movie regards human beings like video-game targets. Kill one, and you score. They're dead, you win. When kids in the age range of this movie's home video audience are shooting one another every day in America, that kind of stops being funny.

 

Hit Girl teams up with Kick- (Aaron Johnson), the film's narrator, a lackluster high school kid who lives vicariously through comic books. For reasons tedious to explain, he orders a masked costume by mail order and sets about trying to behave as a superhero, which doesn't work out well. He lacks the training of a Big Daddy. But as he and Hit Girl find themselves fighting side by side, he turns into a quick learner. Also, you don't need to be great at hand-to-hand combat if you can just shoot people dead.

 

The early scenes give promise of an entirely different comedy. Aaron Johnson has a certain anti-charm, his problems in high school are engaging, and so on. A little later, I reflected that possibly only Nic Cage could seem to shoot a small girl point-blank and make it, well, funny. Say what you will about her character, but Chloe Grace Moretz has presence and appeal. Then the movie moved into dark, dark territory, and I grew sad.

 

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Senormac

Senormac

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

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BlowUpTheMoon

BlowUpTheMoon

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

 

It's proper grammar. Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.

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TheAvenger80

TheAvenger80

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

 

It's proper grammar. Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.

 

Ya don't say? hm

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Shootydog

Shootydog

Posted
Posted

I have great respect for Mr. Eberts opinion.

 

As a father I may find much in common with his review of this movie. Matter of fact, just seeing the movie previews I can tell its not my kind of movie and borders on reprehensible. I doubt I would enjoy the comic any more.

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted

This is a strange movie, as it designed to appeal to the 12-17 year old demographic, but with an R rating, the only way they can see it is to buy a ticket to some G-rated movie, then sneak in.

 

That means "no revenue" for Kick-Spoon, and probably a quick exit from the theaters.

 

This is not a movie that will entertain an intelligent adult - it's an adolescent fantasy (like Wanted was a young adult fantasy) and teen males will flock to it - but again, this will do more for the box office of How to Train Your Dragon than Kick-Spoon.

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NewEnglandGothic

NewEnglandGothic

Posted
Posted
This is a strange movie, as it designed to appeal to the 12-17 year old demographic, but with an R rating, the only way they can see it is to buy a ticket to some G-rated movie, then sneak in.

 

That means "no revenue" for Kick-Spoon, and probably a quick exit from the theaters.

 

This is not a movie that will entertain an intelligent adult - it's an adolescent fantasy (like Wanted was a young adult fantasy) and teen males will flock to it - but again, this will do more for the box office of How to Train Your Dragon than Kick-Spoon.

+1 :applause:
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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

 

It's proper grammar. Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.

 

Nope, you lose! You still need to be consistent within the same category:

 

http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp

 

Be consistent within a category. For example, if you choose numerals because one of the numbers is greater than nine, use numerals for all numbers in that category. If you choose to spell out numbers because one of the numbers is a single digit, spell out all numbers in that category.

 

If you have numbers in different categories, use numerals for one category and spell out the other.

 

Correct Examples:

 

My 10 cats fought with their 2 cats.

My ten cats fought with their two cats.

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Schmakt

Schmakt

Posted
Posted

at least he stopped short of saying that it shouldn't be made...

 

sucks that most of his opinions were based on what he thinks the effect might be on people who aren't even supposed to be watching it and that he said very little regarding the movie itself.

 

I'm going to the midnight showing tonight; can't wait. :)

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Pirate

Pirate

Posted
Posted
This is a strange movie, as it designed to appeal to the 12-17 year old demographic, but with an R rating, the only way they can see it is to buy a ticket to some G-rated movie, then sneak in.

 

 

Or go with your parent, but that would be too easy to miss as a choice.

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BlowUpTheMoon

BlowUpTheMoon

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

 

It's proper grammar. Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.

 

Nope, you lose! You still need to be consistent within the same category:

 

http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp

 

Be consistent within a category. For example, if you choose numerals because one of the numbers is greater than nine, use numerals for all numbers in that category. If you choose to spell out numbers because one of the numbers is a single digit, spell out all numbers in that category.

 

If you have numbers in different categories, use numerals for one category and spell out the other.

 

Correct Examples:

 

My 10 cats fought with their 2 cats.

My ten cats fought with their two cats.

 

We are looking at the same source, Vince.

 

I provided rule one, you provided rule two.

 

2qxs55g.jpg

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

 

It's proper grammar. Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.

 

Nope, you lose! You still need to be consistent within the same category:

 

http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp

 

Be consistent within a category. For example, if you choose numerals because one of the numbers is greater than nine, use numerals for all numbers in that category. If you choose to spell out numbers because one of the numbers is a single digit, spell out all numbers in that category.

 

If you have numbers in different categories, use numerals for one category and spell out the other.

 

Correct Examples:

 

My 10 cats fought with their 2 cats.

My ten cats fought with their two cats.

Also what I learned from my journalism college class a few years back, any number under nine should be written out and any number over 10 should be numeric. ;)

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
Or go with your parent, but that would be too easy to miss as a choice.

 

This is not consistent through all theaters and some will not allow this, especially if the parent does not watch the same movie.

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nearmint

nearmint

Posted
Posted
at least he stopped short of saying that it shouldn't be made...

 

sucks that most of his opinions were based on what he thinks the effect might be on people who aren't even supposed to be watching it and that he said very little regarding the movie itself.

 

I'm going to the midnight showing tonight; can't wait. :)

 

I think he said quite a bit about the movie.

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seanfingh

seanfingh

Posted
Posted
If people have read the comic they would know it is not meant for kids. I will not take my nine year old son to see it, I didn`t take him to Dark Knight or Watchmen as well.

 

Kudos to you, and I mean that sincerely. Unfortunately, there are so many parents who are so laconic and so oblivious to basic parenting skills. They are more interested in making sure their children like them than in instructing the child and molding the child's experiences to insure that they are not exposed to things they should not be. That doesn't mean this movie shouldn't have been made, nor does it mean that it is inherently bad or inherently morally objectionable to adults. What it does mean is that a lot of kids are going to see this movie that have no business seeing this movie, and shame on their parents.

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

Posted
Posted
I really can't wait to see this flick!

This isn't comic violence. These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. Many children that age would be, I dunno, affected somehow, don't you think, after killing eight or 12 men who were trying to kill her?

 

How come you spelled out 8 but used numbers for 12 ...and only one word apart ? :baiting:

 

It's proper grammar. Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.

 

Nope, you lose! You still need to be consistent within the same category:

 

http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp

 

Be consistent within a category. For example, if you choose numerals because one of the numbers is greater than nine, use numerals for all numbers in that category. If you choose to spell out numbers because one of the numbers is a single digit, spell out all numbers in that category.

 

If you have numbers in different categories, use numerals for one category and spell out the other.

 

Correct Examples:

 

My 10 cats fought with their 2 cats.

My ten cats fought with their two cats.

Also what I learned from my journalism college class a few years back, any number under nine should be written out and any number over 10 should be numeric. ;)

 

Are you people dense? It's not an *absolute* law, and if you're talking about a group of people, and say something like:

 

"There were 12 kids, eight young adults, 39 seniors, six adults, 879 pre-teens, and seven toddlers", then that's the WRONG way to write that. Dead wrong. :makepoint:

It`s all bs anyways, I wouldn`t lose any sleep over it. ;)

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