JOSH
So we’re here to talk about the best drinking buddies movie
of the summer... Monster's University, right?
JEFF
I haven't seen that one... do they go on a drunken bender,
only narrowly escaping with their lives? If so, I'm WAY more excited. Plus
kudos to Pixar for always breaking new ground.
JOSH
Spoilers Jeffrey, spoilers.
THE WORLD’S END: RAVE
But I suppose we could talk about another amazing drunken
bender, how about The World's End?
Sound good?
JEFF
Sounds GREAT. I loved this movie, which is the third and
final chapter of Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg/Nick Frost's "Cornetto Trilogy,”
along with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
It's actually the first of the three I've been able to watch
in theaters. And hopefully everyone else will too. It's our reward for an
overall crappy set of summer blockbusters.
JOSH
Overall crappy set of summer blockbusters, that's an
understatement. Most of the big budget studio films have be nothing shy of
atrocious, but The World's End
continues this summer’s trend of great smaller-budget films. The World's End continues trend of Edgar
Wright films that are just complete off the wall bonkers, fast paced dialogue,
amazing editing, well formed and well written characters, a perfect tone from
start to finish, getting fantastic performances from his actors and full of
emotion and heart. The World's End is
full of action and comedy on many levels and it all comes from honesty which
makes it even better.
JEFF
It's familiar territory for the trilogy, since it does follow
a small emotional story set against a large-scope sci-fi backdrop, but it still
sets itself off really nicely. We see a role reversal for our main characters
for instance. Simon Pegg normally plays the more put together of the two, while
Nick Frost gets to be our slobbier loose cannon, but in this film it's the
opposite. Frost is the intelligent, stable one while Pegg, as Gary King, is
almost completely out of control.
JOSH
True story, and it works really well for those two to swap
roles. I would even go out on a limb and say that even though the characters
are.... somewhat... familiar, in The
World's End we see Pegg and Frost playing characters that are dealing with
deeper issues than in the other two films. Pegg's character of Gary in
particular goes to some dark places in this film.
JEFF
YES! I would agree that though the final conflict of this
film is way outside the norm, the central conflict of the characters is the
most real of the three films, and certainly takes us to a much darker place
emotionally than even, well, shooting your zombie mom in the face as an
example.
Wright can direct action like nobody's business. This film
has the best fight sequences of any film I've seen since Scott Pilgrim - another Wright movie! Every sequence was exciting,
visually stunning, revealed character, and best of all, Wright mixes comedy and
action seamlessly in each. Try to do that Mr. Bay.
JOSH
Yes, though Wright is not the be-all-end-all of action
sequences. In fact I think that he's a good filmmaker and recently he's been
working in action sequences. I think what he tries to do is give you a unique
way to look at what he's shooting while still allowing you to follow what's
happening in the scene. He's just a good director and because of this he makes
good action sequences.
JEFF
Well said. I definitely want to mention the supporting cast.
While Worlds End had very clear
leads, it does have a strong ensemble, including Paddy Considine, Martin
Freeman and the best uses I've seen of Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike. Marsan
has been relegated to mostly villain roles for the last decade, and usually not
in good material (Hancock, MI3, etc.).
In this film he's charming and steals many scenes as the "baby" of
the group, loveable and soft-hearted. Pike is also an actress who is wonderful,
but hasn't been properly shown off in a lot of her other projects, including as
Bond girl for old-man Brosnan in his swan-song, Die Another Day. She's funny! It's good to see.
JOSH
It was a great cast all around. I really enjoyed Freeman in
his part, he's just an actor that gets it and it's great to see him show his
comedic chops (before he goes on another 17-hour theatrical Hobbit Journey -
but the real fans are waiting for the 26 hour extended edition where they add
scenes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s grocery list.). The supporting cast was very well
placed and I loved the cameo of Bill Nighy the Science Guy, plus it's always
good to see Filtch (David Bradley) cleaning up messes and saving the day with
our heroes. In addition, there are at least three distinct times where actors
in the film use moves from the amazing actor known as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
It's a great way to reference the wrestler and give us fans a little extra nod.
Just one example the little things that Wright, Pegg and Frost add to their films
that give them an insane amount of re-watch ability.
I don't really have a
bad word to say about any aspect of The
World's End. So I think I'm good to give my last two cents on the film and
say it was an amazing piece that lives up to every expectation and will easily
be the comedy of the year and one of my personal favorites. Good on you Brits!
A+ Film
JEFF
A+ SEE IT PEOPLE!
Plus we can't say anything more without spoiling it anyway.
KICKASS 2: JEFF: PAN/JOSH: OK
We've just had a rave, how about we move on to a film I was
also really excited for that managed to sucker punch my soul.
JOSH
Kick-Ass 2 is a polarizing film, and for once I'm on the
positive side of the argument. But that's all about expectations.
JEFF
You expected crap and got a slightly below average movie, I
expected a great action/comedy and got dashed on the rocks.
If I had also expected nothing, I might have been fine (like
I was with The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen). Instead I got what felt like a personal insult every time this
sequel fell short of its well-made original. Kick Ass is a solid B+ film, mostly due to the great direction of
Matthew Vaughn. Kick Ass 2 lacks Vaughn,
a coherent script, or production value. We're left with a lot of hackneyed
schlock that attempts to be comedy, and an emotional journey that feels
redundant, because it is.
JOSH
I think you underestimate how much I enjoyed this film. If
you cut out the section that tired to be Clueless/Mean Girls, I really would have enjoyed
a lot of what was here. I will agree that I expected crap because I don't hold
the first film up as anything more than a surprisingly fun but flawed film. And
That's what I got with this one. A surprisingly fun but flawed film, although
more flawed and less fun then the first.
Let's dig into the real issue of this film: people named
Jeff... Wadlow to be specific. You bring up Vaughn as a reason the first film
is good. Vaughn is a great director who knows what he's doing, case and point
the first Kick Ass film, Stardust (a surprisingly fun sci-fi
family film that I would say is criminally underrated) Layer Cake and most recently X-men:
First Class. In terms of what he brought to the first film, it's all the
stuff you loved. He made it better. Wadlow, the director of the completely
unwatchable Cry-Wolf.... and nothing
else, lowered the quality this film. Most things that were good, were good because
you liked them from the first film. That said, I think there is a good premise,
strong supporting characters and enough good action, and broad comedy lifting
up a bad script to make this movie watchable.
Don't get me wrong, some of the dumbest and worst moments of
2013 are in this film, the puke stick or whatever it's called is just AWEFUL,
but for me there is enough around that terrible stuff to make this not the worst
thing ever. I especially enjoyed the bits with.... dare I say it... Jim Carrey.
He was actually great (as were all of the Justice Friends). Carrey brought it,
and he serves as the moral compass of the film, I sadly wish there was more of
him.
I think it comes down to this, If Vaughn was still attached,
this would have been better plan and simple. With Wadlow it becomes a mess, but
an enjoyable mess for this film fan.
JEFF
Fair enough. Wadlow is the man to point the finger at, as
writer and director he had the most control over this film. I know that the
source comic of Kick Ass 2 is also
far weaker than the original, but as writer of the film you have the chance to
rethink the world, and as director, you have the responsibility to create the
world of your script in a way that's emotionally and visually cohesive.
Basically the page to screen journey of Kick
Ass 2 was Wadlow failing once, and then following up with more failure.
You're right that this film has solid MOMENTS that are very
enjoyable, but just as many moments that are repugnant, with a lot of filler in
between.
Good things for me about this film: Carrey, and the fact that
Donald Faison got a paycheck.
JOSH
I also quite enjoyed Clark Duke in this film, as well as the
three leads. Chloe Grace-Moretz, Aaron Paul-Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse
did what they could with what they were given. I think one of our main topics
of disagreement is journey of Kick Ass himself. I think this bothered you more.
The characters arcs seemed to be okay for me within the context of the story
and there was actually a good message (that was lost far too early, which
really hurt the film). Thoughts on where Kick Ass and Hit Girl started the film
and their journey through?
JEFF
Kick Ass is re-entering the super-hero world, so he'll
obviously be rusty. This excuses a certain amount of retreading the same ground
as the original. I just felt that they set the clock back too far. Kick Ass has
a powerful arc from complete naiveté to fighter and killer in the first film,
so I would think that some of that would still spill over to the sequel. It
felt like he lost the lessons he learned so painfully and we had to watch him
experience much the same trials to end up in a very similar place. Though he
now lands on the idea that being a super hero only creates chaos rather than
abating it, it's not enough of a reversal to make it worthwhile for me, and I
felt it squandered the chance to take this character even further than the
original. This is truly a guy who has places to go.
Hit Girl on the other hand does go beyond the original and
continues on her path toward adulthood. This is great! She should have the
struggles of a teenager. This was hands-down HER movie, and she was the
emotional core. In light of this I'd love to see them capitalize on this and
not give her the middle of the movie, only to switch focus away from her almost
entirely at the end. Plus there are only so many times she can ride off into
the sunset. Where the hell is she going? They've taken EVERYTHING away from the
character now, she doesn't need to ride off. It's just to look cool.
JOSH
Interesting because Hit Girl’s entire arc of trying to be a
typical teenage girl was extremely painful to me. First, let's buy for a second
rent-a-dads idea to set her up with the popular girls actually works and she
gets in with them. WHY would she ever go along with this plan? She was raised
by a COMPLETE PSYCHO who bred her to kill and do nothing else. Why would she
even care about what they think, who they are, what they like? She starts
trying to fit even before rent-a-dad tells her some stupid made up bull crap
that her dad wanted her to be normal and protected. That is a pile of garbage.
Okay, but let's say that I buy that she wants to a part of
The Plastics, why in all that is good and holy would they ever accept a girl
like her? She has serious emotional problems, she's been killing people since
she 10. And then they turn on here and pull a Carrie (remake also staring Chloe Grace-Moretz this October)
because she can dance better then the blonde 80’s stereotype? And why would
Rent-a-dad ever even think that this girl could live a normal life. You should
know better!
If that's the part that worked for you, we really did see
different movies because I totally thought the middle 45 minutes of the film
was a waste of space, I just wanted her to keep kicking ass and taking names.
JEFF
I'm not saying what they did with Hit Girl in the film was
good, just that it was different, with the seeds of a good idea. They took her
character to new places; they just didn't do it well. Kick Ass didn't go
anywhere new at all. Wadlow had a good idea for Hit Girl, but is incapable of
delivering on it because he's an idiot. Instead it's Carrie meets Mean Girls,
like you said. As for Kick Ass, he doesn't need to be the man he becomes at the
end of the first film, but he can't go back to being the boy he was at the
beginning of the first film either. That kid is, at least in part, dead. Again Wadlo
w
didn't know better, because he's an idiot.
JOSH
Not having read the comic, I would probably say that seed
comes from there and Wadlow messed it up.
It comes down to this, you either buy what the film is
selling and forgive its many many
flaws and enjoy the ride as best you can. Or you don't “smell what The Rock is
cooking” and the film becomes a giant piece of garbage. Weirdly enough I think Kick Ass 2 is getting needless lampooned.
It's not great, in fact it's not even good, but for me it's above average at
best. I came out with an overall good experience, a few thing to rant about
(okay quite a few things to rant about) but in all honestly there was some
really good fight sequences in this film and I thought it visually held
together nicely. There were the seeds of something worthwhile here. Kick Ass 2 won’t be shooting up the cult
popularity charts like the first one did, but it's by no means the worst
Superhero I've seen (Spider-Man 3
holds that dubious crown) and it's by no means the Superhero film I've seen
this summer... man Zack Snyder is a tool.. that guy can ruin anything,
including Superman.
JEFF
Yup expectations are everything, and this is sadly not the
worst let down we've had this season, though it still sticks in my craw.
JOSH
Well that sounds painful you should pull it out of your craw.
What is your craw? Where is it? Do I have a craw? Don't let it linger… it might
get infected.
