I rented my first Redbox movie last weekend. I've tried to be a hold out as long as I could, but the cool mom and pop video rental stores left town awhile ago, and frankly, Blockbuster isn't any fun to go to anymore. I don't want stale candy, a Joker bobblehead, or $30 Bob Marley framed art. I just want to rent a movie. To be honest, I jumped ship to Netflix months ago, and really haven't looked back. You can only browse the same rows of the same movies for so long before instant streaming sounds glorious. But there was just something about that foreboding redbox... A vending machine for movies? Outrageous! vending machines are for candy bars and sodas and cigarettes, dagnabit! (Remember cigarette vending machines? Who ever thought that was a good idea?) But, I wanted to check out Kick-Ass, I was standing outside a Redbox dispensary, and temptation hit. So I gave it a shot. And... I think I'll be sticking with Netflix. You just really can't beat the whole "keep it as long as you want with no late fees" thing. Also, the "I'm too lazy to go to the store, but my mailbox is only a few short feet away" thing. And sometimes you have to stand in line to return a Redbox movie, like when I went to return Kick-Ass. And who wants to do that these days? That particular evening, the day after it was due, I happened upon a carload of people in line ahead of me; a fine American family by all visual accounts, with pop and son huddled around the dispensary, as mom and daughter waited with baited breath in the mini-van for their providers to return with their great cinematic bounty. This particular outing, it was to be one video for each family member. All purchased at the same time. All vying to be shot out of the slot simultaneously, thus creating a dvd traffic jam inside the machine. What should have been a simple seconds long transaction consumed several minutes of valuable lazy time as pop and son warriors jostled the machine until it finally produced the requested media. In short, Redbox just really didn't seem worth it. Maybe when there's a film that I missed in the theaters, don't want to own, but still cannot WAIT to see as immediately as possible. Given the state of current cinema, I don't see that happening very often. Then again, I missed Kick-Ass in the theater, didn't really want to own it, but was interested enough to want it now instead of waiting for Netflix, so there you go. The plastic cases do protect the discs better than a paper sleeve though. I'll give them that much.
As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it. I didn't know much about it going into it, save that it's about kids wanting to be real-life superheroes, and McLovin' is in it. Poor guy... His tombstone will say, "You know, McLovin', from Superbad." And he'll be burried right next to Stiffler. I expected it to be more of a comedy in the same vein as Mystery Men, but with actual violence and no Paul Reubens, but it was much more of a dark comedy/action movie. And it stars Nicholas Cage. No idea he was in Kick-Ass. And Nicholas Cage is one of those actors that I either love or hate, depending on the movie. He is fantastic in Adaptation, and he annoys the hell out of me in nearly all of his comedic roles. But he was a good fit for Kick-Ass. The movie felt a lot like a comic book, which is both good and bad. Good in that the action never really stopped. There weren't any moments that felt too long or drawn out. But at the same time, I found myself actually wanting a little more story from time to time. Some of the motivations felt too simplistic, which again works for a comic book, but maybe not so much for a movie. I'm not a very big comic book reader, but I respect them. I understand the appeal. They're meant to be short experiences with enough action and exposition to keep you reading week to week, but not heartbroken if you miss one or two installments. The action was fun. I like a good blood fest as much as the next guy. I don't really see why the violence was such a hot button issue with this movie though. It didn't seem any more gratuitous than any other action movie. People also made a big stink about Hit Girl's potty mouth. Let's be real; kids much younger than she is say much worse things these days. One MF bomb is not that shocking anymore. What was shocking to me was the on screen violence against Hit Girl. I don't know... It was just a little hard for me to watch a grown man beating up on a little girl, even though at that point we know she can hold her own. So, the cliched question: Does Kick-Ass kick ass? I'd say it kicks ass in the way that it kicks ass when Lynyrd Skynyrd plays Sweet Home Alabama in concert. It's pretty much as you would expect, it's not very surprising, it's not all that special, but it's still kinda fun.
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