With summer just around the corner and Blockbuster season on the way, a few little gems still found their way onto the big screen this month, the best of them being Kick Ass, Cemetery Junction, Whip It!, The Ghost, Remember Me and Dear John.
Kick Ass tells the tale of adolescent Dave, who after being picked upon one too many times by small time thugs, decides to don a costume and give being a superhero a go. Going by the alias Kick Ass, Dave learns is it’s not so easy playing superman, and after becoming a youtube sensation with his crime fighting antics he becomes the target for a local crime lord who’s keen to put an end to his ‘meddling’. Meanwhile it is father and daughter combo Big Daddy and Hit Girl that are the real superhero deal ( Nick Cage particularly hamming it up as a batman like hero whose raised his daughter to be a world class assassin) , and it’s not long before they find themselves having to clean up Dave’s mess. Kick Ass is one of the most out and out entertainment bonanzas of recent years. Springing from the pages of a comic book Kick Ass’s greatest feature is the fact that it hasn’t gone down the easy route for superhero films to become a family franchises. It’s a very adult affair, like Watchmen or Wanted before it, with some strong violence and graphic violence to boot. But the tone is exactly right, it sends up the superhero blockbusters by being ultra violent and daring. It pokes fun at Toby McGuire’s somewhat weedy portrayal and annoying brattishness of Spiderman. It knows it is a comic book, and it delivers on laughs and action. Nothing can beat Kick Ass for shocks and thrills; there’s something undeniably rip roaring about seeing a foul mouthed ten year old girl with the skills of a ninja dismember a gang of drug dealers using the butterfly knife her father gave her as a birthday present. It’s morally a little messy, completely outrageous, but altogether the finest action sequence of the year to date. With Hit Gir’ls bright purple costume, black wig and pint sized stature the whole massacre becomes like Kill Bill meshed with Kids tv. If Tarantino turned his hand to Lazy Town, he’d be lucky if the outcome was half as fun as this. It should be wrong, but yet it’s just so right to watch. It’s great fun with some teenage angst and gross out humour, mixed with some fantastic fight scenes set to a great pop score. Maybe not one for the kids, but it has cult classic written all over it.
Cemetery Junction is the first feature length film written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo who created The Office and Extras. Anyone familiar with their style will justifiably adore Cemetery Junction, it’s full of great characters with flaws and foibles, full of their trademark humour that makes subtle and yet side splitting observations about simple human interactions, and the theme which laces all their projects, the crushing feeling of entrapment and the need to follow ones dreams. Cemetery Junction is set in Reading during the 1970’s and is essentially a coming of age story about three young lads trying to find their place in the world. For the main character, Freddy, it is about trying to make roads into the corporate world, and not end up working in a factory like his dad. However when he realises the corporate ladder leads to a life of unfulfilled ambition and hopelessness, he begins to dream of escaping the quiet and lazy town for a bigger adventure and take the girl of his dreams away with him. There’s not much in the way of twists and turns in the film, but larking about with your mates and playing childish pranks is something everyone can relate to, and the scenes set in Freddy’s home (in which Gervais plays Freddy’s put upon father) had me in stitches. It’s a sweet film with real warmth and an inspirational message. With a great cast and some hilarious banter to boot, Cemetery Junction has a real sense of Britishness at its core and it’s beautiful and funny observations of friendship and family life is definitely worth a watch.
On the theme of coming of age comedy dramas, Whip It! Starring Juno’s Ellen Page is a fast and fun film that tells the tale of an adolescent girl on the verge of adulthood trying to find her own identity whilst constantly being under the pressure of her pushy showbiz mum keen for her to be a beauty pageant queen. What follows is her act of rebellion by becoming secretively involved in a dangerous all girls roller derby team. There are some fun names and lightly violent altercations but all in this is a little formulaic; girl joins team, girl has doubts about cutting it, team eventually embrace girl, family finds out, forced to choose between pageant and roller derby. You might see the plot line play out in your mind fairly early on, but with characters called Smashley Simpson and Iron Maven it’s worth a good few chuckles.
The Ghost, directed by the legendary Roman Polansk,i sees Ewan McGreggor take on the job of ghost writer for former Prime Minister Adam Lang, who has holed himself up on a desolate island to pen his memoirs whilst facing scrutiny from the worlds press that he knowingly broke humanitarian laws and brokered an illegal war. Lang, played brilliantly by Pierce Brosnan as a charismatic and enigmatic statesman, would appear to be a none too subtle reference to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Lang’s secretive ways lay the groundwork for this suspenseful political thriller. McGreggor’s character takes up the job purely for the money involved but find himself trapped in a whirlwind of media activity that constantly surrounds Lang. Learning that predecessor was found dead on the beach, creates a dubious air of suspicion as the film gently begins to unfold. As McGreggor’s character begins to dig deeper and deeper he starts to unravel the pieces to a massive conspiracy, and although the film is very dialogue based and lacks any kind of action sequence, it does start to build to a thrilling climax. Polanski uses the island setting to great effect, it’s chilling winds batter the characters, sweeping storms gives an atmosphere of uncertainty and long rain soaked beaches hammer home the isolation of McGreggor’s character. Over all the film is very interesting and relevant to the current political climate. It is a shame though that Polanski’s private life seems to a stolen so much focus from the films publicity.
In some regards Remember Me and Dear John can be grouped together; they are both family dramas, with a romantic entanglement between young attractive leads becoming the central focus, both could be seem as big screen ‘weepies’, and both use the events of 9/11 as an integral part of the films outcome. Remember Me, starring teen heart throb of the moment, Twilights Robert Pattinson, tells the story of a broody young man at odds with his father and angry at the world for the suicide of his older brother to whom he idolized. It is then that he meets and falls for the daughter of the cop that arrests him for brawling in the street. Through her love he comes to straighten himself out and make peace with his family. It’s a good film with a good turn from a moody Patinson, who lazes about the screen oozing charm. It has a few contrite quirks, and nothing major occurs, but it’s still worth a viewing, perhaps more so if you are still in that rebellious and awkward stage in your adolescence. Dear John on the other hand has been heavily promoted with the tag line ‘from the writer of the Notebook’, with the clear indication it wishes to emulate some of the success and following The Notebook accumulated as being the ultimate ‘chick flick weepy’ of recent years (my mother and sister certainly like to put it on if they are feeling a little under the weather) It tells the story of soldier John who falls for small town girl Savannah whilst on his two week leave from duty. The pair become star crossed lovers all in the space of a fortnight and as John leaves for war the pair agree to stay in touch through letters till John can return home twelve months later. Savannah helps John reach out to his ill father, and generally what we see play out is a rather warm and gentle love story designed to tug at the heart strings. However as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occur and John must head out to defend the country a little longer, a strain is put on their relationship. The film is nothing challenging but does have some warm moments between its two attractive leads. It maybe everything you expect it to be from a romantic drama but if it’s a weepy you’re after then this definitely trumps Remember Me in that regards.