Aug
31
“The Shield: Season 6″ Review
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“The Shield” carries the distinction of being my favorite television series of all time. Now I’m not much of a TV watcher. I love “MacGyver” and “The Incredible Hulk” and even “Dawson’s Creek” of all things. Of late, “South Park” and “The Shield” are the only two television series currently on the air that I think are worthy of my attention. I’ve sort of unofficially boycotted TV for the most part since “reality television” became an inoperable cancer on the medium. What’s more, the general lack of creativity that goes into scripted series these days is stunningly heinous. There’s another “Knight Rider” TV show!?
That people can still find something tolerable on the airwaves is less a result of there actually being anything decent on, but rather evidence of their ridiculously low standards. How do I know this? Well, I’m hard pressed to stumble on a fan of “The Shield,” but you could throw a rock in this town and ostensibly hit someone who knows the name of the brand new fourth judge on “American Idol.” In fact, I would encourage you to throw rocks at people with that information stored in their brainpans.
Anyway, I love “The Shield.” From the final moments of the pilot episode when Michael Chiklis’ Det. Vic Mackey shoots one of his own men in the face, I was hooked. The series has been relentless in terms of upending audience expectations. That I still sympathize with Mackey — brutal, criminally brilliant and bald-headed — after all his evil-doing over the course of six seasons is not only a tribute to Chilklis’ performance, but the genius of the writing staff.
Season six picks up immediately after the curtain fell on the previous season. Mackey’s being forced into retirement and desperate to find the killer of a former member of his anti-gang Strike Team, Curtis “Lem” Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson). Lem was being investigated by Internal Affairs attack dog Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker at his finest) throughout season five and looking at some serious jail time. When another member of the Strike Team, Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins) feared Lem would cut a deal with IAD for a reduced sentence, even if it meant his fellow teammates would go to prison, Vendrell dropped a grenade in his friend’s lap and blew him to pieces. Season six kicks off with Mackey looking for his pound of flesh, believing Lem’s killer to be an El Salvadoran crime lord, not one of his own men.
And what an addicting season it is. I went through all ten episodes in 2 days. If I had one complaint, it would be that there weren’t the usual 13 eps in this season. That’s pretty much it.
This is a show that just works for me in a way that most television programs don’t. The writing, the performances, the visual treatment — everything’s so bold in its execution. I saw a poster the other day for that vanilla show “Heroes” with a tagline that read, “Good Will Battle Evil.” I said to myself, “No, s***.” That said, I think “Heroes” sort of exemplifies the weak-kneed approach to storytelling most network shows take: be safe!
“The Shield” is not safe. It also takes the battle between good and evil — sort of a given in all storytelling, by the by, not just “Heroes” — and turns it on its ear. Even Dirty Harry would cringe at some of Vic Mackey’s policework. But that’s what’s great about the show. Mackey is a fascinating character in that he’ll kill one of his own men, who to be fair, was a rat. Yet when Shane confesses to killing Lem, he loses it. This of course comes after Mackey finally gets his hands on the El Salvadoran gangster and beats him nearly to death with a chain before ultimately blowing his brains out.
Mackey has a sense of justice, of what’s right and wrong. It simply doesn’t always jibe with the laws he’s sworn to uphold. What’s terrific about his character, and the show in general, is that as an audience, we see the world through Mackey’s prism. It’s an ensemble show, but Mackey does most of the heavy-lifting as far as advancing the plot. And we get where he’s coming from. Without him enforcing the laws and/or keeping the peace, things would actually be a hell of a lot worse.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about anti-heroes in modern storytelling. Is Vic Mackey an anti-hero? I think the pendulum swings back and forth between his acts of heroism and anti-heroism in the series, sometimes within the same scene. He’s absolutely not a villain. At his core is a man who’s become lost in his quest for justice. He manages to corrupt all those around him. But he is at the end of the day a great character and a deeply flawed hero. As such, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens to him in the seventh and final season.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
29
I’m not on Facebook, or MySpace, or Linkedin, or Friendster, or any of those useless social networking sites. In Communist Russia, the Secret Police compiled all sorts of valuable information about people — who their friends and family were, where they worked, what sort of crappy music they listened to. In Corporate America, we create our own databases of blackmail material. It’s as though we’ve collectively chosen to violate our own privacy, so we can have our own dopey little landing page on the Internets.
This is coming from a guy who blogs, but still. What do you really know about me apart from my taste in movies?
I’m being facetious. I used to have Facebook and MySpace and Linkedin pages. But I ultimately deleted them when I realized they were simply cataloges of high school buddies I’ve barely spoken to in 10 years and co-workers I see every single day. I’m also not much of a paparazzo, either. On my pages, there were all of two pics of me, not dozens upon dozens of albums of my friends and me in various contexts. I don’t understand why people have to create a virtual flip book of their lives, photographing their every waking moment. People do, though. And those people can get a lot more mileage out of social networking sites. I just wrote a criminally unread blog on my MySpace. I’ve clearly moved on to bigger and better things.
At any rate, in Hollywood’s continuing effort to make sure that no original idea is translated to the big screen, Aaron Sorkin — creator of television series and movies I’ve avoided like herpes — is developing a movie about the origins of Facebook. You can even visit Sorkin’s Facebook page to learn more about the project. I’d one day like to put the word “synergy” into a rocket and fire that rocket into the sun. But that’s a whole nother blog entirely.
Is there an audience for this? Web development isn’t exactly the most cinematic subject for a film. If you want to watch a helluva movie about the creation of a website and the implosion of a friendship, check out the documentary, “Startup.com.” I can’t imagine “Facebook: The Movie” will have nearly as much human drama. Now, “AdultFriendFinder.com: The Movie” might be a movie worth seeing.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
28
I was never a hardcore Trekkie. I’m a movie buff, not a TV junkie. That being said, I own the first eight “Star Trek” films on DVD. So I am a Trekkie in my own small way. I felt a pang of sadness when I learned that “Star Trek: The Experience” is closing in Las Vegas next month. I went as Captain Kirk on Halloween when I was 19. I have some geek credentials as far as the Trek-verse is concerned. I do lose some points for the time when I saw Jeri “Seven of Nine” Ryan at a club, and I said to my friend that she was on DS9; one of her entourage corrected me by saying it was actually “Voyager.” Snarf, snarf.
Being a mild to moderate Trekkie, I’m not sold on this new J.J. Abrams-directed “Star Trek” film. For those of you with social lives, the new movie casts new actors as the original series crew, including “Shaun of the Dead” himself as Scotty! Rather than continuing the Enterprise’s “five-year mission” — TOS was cancelled after season three — the film is going to reboot/reimagine/retard the franchise and start afresh. That’s the word from CHUD.com anyway.
What a boneheaded approach.
Retconning the Batman and James Bond film franchises is one thing. Neither series embraced continuity in the slightest. Part of the fun of “Star Trek” is its continuity, its gobs and gobs of continuity. Yes, it’s gotten muddied over the years with all the various TV series, films, expanded universe novels, et al. But the creators still tried, dammit.
Junking the established continuity in favor of kicking off a new direction for the franchise is lazy storytelling. I know Paramount’s terrified of alienating non-fans by making the movie too esoteric, too mired in the established continuity. But the setup for this film — Romulans travel back in time to assassinate a youngish Captain Kirk — isn’t even terribly original. And the Romulans suck ass anyway. They’re going to rebuild the film franchise using a pretty weak foundation.
Abrams seems more than a little cagey about releasing any images or footage to generate some pre-release buzz for the film, due next summer. The movie’s barely-there presence at ComiCon (a poster giveaway!) last month does not suggest he’s excited about what he’s cobbled together. It’s SOP if you’re a filmmaker to debut a trailer or exclusive footage at the Con a year in advance. That he avoided the event altogether is highly suspect.
I couldn’t care less if a “Star Trek” TV series blows. I don’t watch the telly. But when sucktacular “Star Trek” movies start happening, well, I can ill afford another bad “Trek” flick after the last two. I want my fandom rewarded, not punished.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
27
My Pitch for “Batman 3″
Filed Under Blockbusters, Comics, Movies | Leave a Comment
Chris Nolan’s on a well-deserved vacation — or as the English call it, a “holiday” — after doing a worldwide press tour for “The Dark Knight.” Meanwhile, the only thing Bat-fans seem to enjoy discussing more than this film is the next one. They’ve simply run out of nits to pick, from whether or not Two-Face buys it to Batman’s growly-voice. They’ve moved on. They’re already mocking up horrendous fan art (Kristen Bell as Harley Quinn), discussing horrendous casting rumors (Cher as Catwoman), and suggesting horrendous titles (“Gotham City,” “The Caped Crusader,” etc.).
Now it’s my turn. I’d like to think my concept’s a little less motarded than the Riddler-as-a-serial-killer nonsense I keep seeing on the message boards. At the end of the day, Warner Bros. is going to give Nolan a pile of cash to make “Batman 3.” Still, part of the fun of being a fanboy is to impress your friends with where you’d take the material if given the chance.
Here’s my pitch for “Batman 3,” or as I call it, “War on Batman.”
Logline: Wanted by the police and despised by the public, an embattled Dark Knight takes on corrupt disaster capitalist the Penguin and his enforcer, the Batman.
Yes, my pitch has two Batmen — Bruce Wayne and another gentleman, a Batman on steroids who’s armed to the teeth. In the ’90s, Batman was put in a wheelchair by the ‘roided up baddie, Bane. He ultimately recovered, but he appointed a gentleman by the name of Jean-Paul Valley to do his Batmanning in the interim. I like the idea of Batman having to do battle against himself, which is how the “Knighfall” storyarc climaxed. Merging Bane and Valley’s characters, not to mention their brutal methods, would create a great composite villain for Batman to match fists with.
As far as matching wits, that honor goes to the Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot. In the wake of the Joker’s attacks on Gotham, it’s likely that some enterprising fellow would swoop in and try to make a buck off rebuilding the damaged infrastructure. The film might even kick off with Wayne Tower being leveled by none other than Penguin’s nogoodnik Batman. My Penguin wouldn’t be a disgusting sewer-dwelling freakshow like in “Batman Returns.” Rather, he would more closely resemble his comic book counterpart — short, heavyset and well-dressed. He’d be the anti-Bruce Wayne.
Where Harvey Dent was seen as Gotham’s “white knight,” Cobblepot is sort of a Cheney-esque figure. He’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard. Never mind that while he’s up-armoring the GCPD, he’s also filling the power vacuum left by crime boss Moroni’s death. The Joker was about creating a world without rules, one of chaos and anarchy. Thing is, there isn’t any way to turn a profit in that sort of a world. The Penguin’s out to make a buck by playing both sides against each other. This film would escalate the post-9/11 hysteria that “The Dark Knight” addressed, where we now find ourselves in an unwinnable war (the War on Crime), are unable to capture a cave-dwelling boogeyman (Batman) and disaster capitalists (like The Penguin) make a literal and figurative killing off the deal.
What about a love interest? Well, Batman’s not much of a skirt-chaser in the comics, but I guess he does deserve a transitional girlfriend after the events of TDK. I’ve always been a fan of the character Silver St. Cloud, not that I really know anything about her. I just like her name. Rachel Dawes was an assistant D.A. Silver should have a murkier role. Maybe she could be the Penguin’s trophy girlfriend. Batman’s never stolen a villain’s girl before. I think an angel-with-a-wing-down would be right at home in this universe.
The third Batman film needs to build upon movie two, not just spin its wheels. “The Dark Knight” forced Batman/Bruce Wayne to reexamine his role as a crime-fighter and allow himself to be seen as the villain. This movie should allow him the opportunity to redeem himself, to become the hero once again. But first he must beat back his demons.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
26
Too Preachy
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I was late to the party with Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s “Preacher.” A 66-issue DC/Vertigo series from the ’90s, “Preacher” is a contemporary Western about Jesse Custer, a disillusioned man of the cloth who’s been given the Word of God. When he uses this power on someone, they’re compelled to do whatever he says. At any rate, God has quit and gone to ground somewhere on Earth. So Custer, his ex-girlfriend Tulip and the Irish vampire Cassidy try to track Him down.
I was on a superhero kick in the mid-’90s and didn’t start picking up “Preacher” until the title its final storyarc. My funnybook shop in Spokane tragically went out of business in the summer of ‘00, and I was able to pick up almost all the “Preacher” back issues for a song. The series is absolutely fantastic, a fevered dream of Americana.
Of course Hollywood took interest in the late-1990s. Ben Affleck and James Marsden were at one point or another rumored for the role of Custer in a film adaptation; I always pictured Johnny Depp. Kathryn Bigelow — wife number eleventeen of James Cameron — was attached to direct. But the project imploded. From the ashes emerged a potential HBO TV series to fill the gaping hole left by the “Sopranos.” Mark Steven Johnson, director of “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider,” began developing the title for the cable network.
Then HBO realized the director of “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider” was out of his element. Well, according to BeyondHollywood.com, the project is now deader than God at the end of the series (*Spoiler*). I can’t say that I’m disappointed. While I find “Daredevil” to be palatable fanwank, “Ghost Rider” is unrepentantly stupid. MSJ doesn’t have the chops to tackle “Preacher.” Even if he lifted everything directly from the comics’ page, it would still somehow be diminished by his involvement.
I’m content with “Preacher” just being a comic book. It doesn’t have to be a movie. It doesn’t have to be a TV show. It’s perfectly fine the way it is. If you’re a fan of the book, I’m fairly certain I’m preaching to the choir.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
26
“Cthulhu” Reviewlhu
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The scariest thing about the film “Cthulhu” is that it was released. A Lovecraftian tale by way of New Queer Cinema, it’s interesting on a conceptual level. A gay man returns to his hometown where he discovers his family is part of a Cthulhu-worshipping cult. But the level of incompetence director Dan Gildark brings to the proceedings is enough to make Uwe Boll look like a misunderstood genius.
And Tori Spelling’s in it.
When you watch a movie like this, you have to wonder if the people who made it had ever seen a movie before, or a TV show, or any type of media with a visual component. The cinematography is heavy on coverage — dimly-lit, poorly framed cowboy shots. Close-ups are clumsy and the screen direction is all over the place. There’s no lead room. People are talking to the side of the screen or awkwardly falling out of frame. The rejection of technique is almost elevated to an art form.
The visual treatment is just as thrown together as the story. Jason Cottle plays Russ, a history professor in a chemo wig, whose mother’s passing brings him back to some podunk town in the Pacific Northwest. He’s estranged from his father, a cult leader and worshipper of the Old Ones. Russ’ homosexuality buggers up his father’s plans to have a grandson and summon a bunch of shambling zombies from the ocean. So Tori Spelling’s character drugs Russ and rapes him. I am not kidding.
What’s more, Cthulhu is not in the film.
Let me repeat that for the cheap seats. There is no Cthulhu in a movie called “Cthulhu.”
There is a driving scene where some chow mein flies past Russ’ windshield. It’s never explained what the chow mein is exactly. I actually wanted to know more about the chow mein.
It was not my idea to see this film. A friend of mine — and a diehard H.P. Lovecraft fan — insisted we go. She even wore a Cthulhu t-shirt. Her shirt was scarier than the movie.
Eff you, “Cthulhu!”
-Brad Lohan
Aug
25
Fall Movie Preview
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Welcome to the suck. Fall is generally a craptacular season if you’re a movie-goer. A large portion of Hollywood’s target audience is back in school, and for whatever reason, the entertainment industry has yet to realize students get weekends off. As such, whatever movies that studio executives didn’t have enough faith in to release during the summer get dumped in the autumnal months. That isn’t to say the season is a complete bust. There is a spike in quality around Thanksgiving. Even though Harry Potter waved his wand and disapperated from November, there’s still another Britisher to celebrate Turkey Day with — James Bond.
Associated Press has a list of all the movie scheduled for release between now and Christmas. Out of almost 100 titles, it’s pretty bogus that less than 20 are movies that I’ll definitely see. I’m not terribly familiar with a good number of these films. At any rate, I’ve lumped them into four lists, based on my degree of interest at this very moment. I might reverse my position on a few of these films down the line.
Must-See Filums:
Bangkok Dangerous
Burn After Reading
City Of Ember
Defiance
Eagle Eye
Madagascar Escape 2 Africa
Punisher War Zone
Quantum Of Solace
Quarantine
Religulous
Righteous Kill
Saw V
Sukiyaki Western Django
The Road
The Spirit
W.
Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Transporter 3
Might-See Filums:
Appaloosa
Australia
Blindness
Body Of Lies
Changeling
Choke
Gran Torino
Igor
Max Payne
Milk
Miracle At St. Anna
Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist
Pride And Glory
Rachel Getting Married
Revolutionary Road
Rocknrolla
Synedoche, New York
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Towelhead
Valkyrie
Yes Man
Won’t-See Filums:
A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers
Babylon A.D.
Ballast
Battle In Seattle
Bedtime Stories
Bolt
Breakfast With Scot
Doubt
Filth And Wisdom
Flash Of Genius
Forever Strong
Four Christmases
Frost/Nixon
Happy-Go-Lucky
Hounddog
How To Lose Friends And Alienate People
Humboldt County
Hurricane Season
I’ve Loved You So Long
Lake City
Lakeview Terrace
Marley & Me
Mister Foe
Morning Light
Nights In Rodanthe
Noah’s Arc Jumping The Broom
Nobel Son
Nothing Like The Holidays
Ping Pong Playa
Role Models
Seven Pounds
Sex Drive
Soul Men
Surfer, Dude
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
The Brothers Bloom
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Duchess
The Express
The Haunting Of Molly Hartley
The Lucky Ones
The Secret Life Of Bees
The Soloist
The Tale Of Despereaux
The Women
Traitor
Waltz With Bashir
Wendy And Lucy
What Just Happened
Eff These Filums:
An American Carol
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
College
Disaster Movie
Ghost Town
High School Musical 3
My Best Friend’s Girl
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Twilight
Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
I don’t know about you, but I’ll definitely be catching up on a lot of reading this fall. Summer’s definitely over, kids.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
24
“The Gate” Review
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I’d never seen “The Gate.” It was one of the few horror movies a childhood friend of mine had seen, so he talked about it all the time. But it was never on my radar. I mean, it’s PG-13. We all know how I feel about horror movies rated PG-13.
But last night the New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood had a midnight showing of the film. I decided at the very last minute to go. I hadn’t been to that theater in 5 years. Back in ‘03, I’d gone to see a god-awful double bill of “I Drink Your Blood” and something probably equally wretched. I’d only made it through the first third of “I Drink Your Blood” before walking out due to its overwhelming badness. At any rate, for years I was leery of the programming at the New Beverly. I kept reading about these great screenings there, but I remained gunshy about going back.
Finally, I decided to man-up and revisit the theater. “The Gate” seemed like as good a movie as any to see there.
I’d done very little recon before arriving at the theater. It wasn’t until I got there and saw the poster that I realized that Stephen Dorff — Deacon Frost from the first “Blade” movie! — is in it. Then noticed Tibor Takacs had directed the film. Yes, the Tibor Takacs! I’m actually familiar with another film of his, “Mega Snake,” as a former co-worker of mine was a writer on that gem.
Takacs and the writer of “The Gate,” Michael Nankin, were in attendance last night and did a Q&A before the film began. Indeed, people in the audience had some softball questions about the film’s production. We all found it quite humorous that the film had opened opposite the notorious Warren Beatty/Dustin Hoffman bomb “Ishtar” and trounced it at the box office.
That being said, “The Gate” isn’t a great film, either. I think it works as a nightmare generator for its target audience — adolescents — but the story doesn’t really make a whole hell of a lot of sense. Still, I didn’t walk out, partly because I just wanted to see how much more bizarre it would get.
In the film, a dead tree is removed from the backyard of a young boy named Glen (Dorff). He and his friend Terry (Louis Tripp) begin digging around in the hole left by the tree stump and find jewels or something. A whole bunch of moths fly out of the hole. Glen’s sister, Alexandra, throws a party after their parents go out of town for a long weekend. The drunken high school kids make Glen levitate and he breaks a lamp. Terry has a dream that his late mother comes back to life, but she turns out to be Glen’s dog, who’s dead for some reason. Glen gets over the loss of his beloved pet in a record amount of time (“He was old.”), so he, Terry and Alexandra can fight little demons who’ve crawled out of the hole and have something to do with the lyrics in a heavy metal song Terry likes.
It gets weirder.
I guess I sort of liked the idea that none of the characters in the movie ever fully understood what was going on. Movies such as these usually have some resident expert who can provide gobs of exposition and clear up the confusion to some degree. “The Gate” doesn’t bother. In their desperation, the kids simply throw a bible in the hole, hoping that’ll do the trick. It doesn’t, unfortunately.
The movie does have that creepy vibe of a bad dream you had when you were a kid. It’s best to approach the film from that perspective. Or you could be cynical and say the filmmakers are hacks who had no business making a movie in the first place. Still, it outgrossed “Ishtar.” There’s something to be said for that.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
22
Superman Reboot
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“Superman: The Movie” is my “Star Wars.” I was born too late to see the original “Star Wars” when it was originally released in ‘77. But, I was in utero when my folks went to see the first Superman film in ‘79. I don’t remember being fanatical about “Star Wars” when I was a tot. I do remember running around the house wearing a Superman t-shirt and a bath towel for a cape. In point of fact, I still do that to this day.
Unfortunately, Superman’s a character that no one knows what to do with, especially Hollywood. Our popular culture has become so cynical, so bitter, so emo, the Man of Steel is seen as an anachronism, a jingoistic cypher. Thing is, Superman is a product of an earlier period of cynicism, bitterness, and emo, or as it was referred to then, “jazz.” Superman debuted in 1938. A product of the Depression era, Superman took on corrupt politicians, greedy corporatists and gangsters in his early days. Now, those three groups have simply been rolled into one. Still, the thinking that the post-modern era has a monopoly on dark times is short-sighted and lacking in perspective. Superman can work today just as he’s worked before.
Warner Bros. has announced, according to CHUD.com, that Superman will take flight again, just not in a direct sequel to 2006’s “Superman Returns.” I blogged about the rumor awhile back that Louis Leterrier was rumored to be developing a Superman reboot, a la “The Incredible Hulk.” But the Hulk redo didn’t outdo the original film at the box office. One wonders if the Ctrl+Alt+Delete approach to Supes will succeed where “The Incredible Hulk” didn’t exactly.
I’m not convinced that we need to go back to the way beginning, to Krypton. “Batman Begins” and “Casino Royale” shed light on aspects of the respective heroes’ origins we hadn’t seen before. Superman’s backstory is fairly well known. I don’t think we need to look back, but forward. I have origin story fatigue. If Supes’ beginnings must be touched upon again, then the filmmakers should do it in an opening credits montage.
There’s some debate in the fan community as to whether or not this new Superman film is going to follow the lead of “The Dark Knight” and be a darker, grittier tale. Thematically, I don’t think that will work. Batman was created to be an antithesis to Superman. Making Superman more bat-like is sort of pointless when they can just make another Batman movie. Warner Bros. should make a Superman film for audiences that were put off by what the MPAA calls “intense sequences of violence and some menace” in “The Dark Knight.” It doesn’t have to be a kid’s movie, but one all audiences will find appealing. As bad as the “Star Wars” movies have gotten in recent years, I’d hate to think the next generation of kids might not grow up on Superman the same way I did.
-Brad Lohan
Aug
22
“Kick-Ass” Dangerous
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The comic book series “Kick-Ass” debuted earlier this year. It’s not quite monthly. I think Marvel’s only put out three issues to date, not counting variants and reprints. But the title, written by Mark Millar and pencilled by John Romita Jr., has already attracted the interest of Hollywood. Director Matthew Vaughn is quickly assembling a cast and going hat-in-hand to independent financiers.
“Kick-Ass” is a mature readers book about a high school pariah (think Peter Parker before the radioactive spider-bite) who becomes a superhero, albeit one with no super-powers. He gets his ass handed to him in his very first battle. After a lengthy hospital stay, not mention some therapy, he takes up his mantle again and gets into another scrape. But he wins this one. His victory is captured on someone’s camera-phone, and he quickly becomes a YouTube sensation.
Mark Millar is aces at filtering comic book conventions through of-the-moment cultural trends. “Kick-Ass” is a great read. That being said, I’m not quite sure if it’s earned a movie deal quite yet. The first storyarc isn’t even over; Millar’s “Wanted” totally fell apart in its final issue. The first issue of “Kick-Ass” begins in medias res, as he’s being tortured — with the interrogations having attached a car battery attached to his man-parts! — before launching into a flashback. I’d like to see how everything comes together, so I can complain if the movie totally gets it wrong.
The casting of Nicolas Cage as a character in the film, according to Reuters, gives me hope. He’s been orbiting comic book roles for years. He was up for Iron Man in the ’90s before he chased the part of Superman in Tim Burton’s non-starter. Ultimately, he played Johnny Blaze in last year’s “Ghost Rider.” I’d like him to have another go at the genre. Of course, I’m the one and only person, apart from Cage himself, who wanted to see him play Supes. I’ve been a fan of Cage for years, not enough of a fan to have seen “Wicker Man” or “Next,” but I will be attending “Bangkok Dangerous” on opening day. It looks kick-ass.
-Brad Lohan