ks culture
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
the clackamas print 7
‘Date Night’ springs
more than romance
By John Simmons
Associate Copy Editor
Photo illustration by Brian Steele Clackamas Print
uperhero breaks free
om comic nerdom
I By Brian Steele
Web Editor
1 brave kid once said,
th no power comes no
lonsibility.” His name
Dave Lizewski, though
|rs may know him. as
k-Ass.
Kick-Ass” is a movie
ed of the graphic novel
hen by Mark Millar and
ivn by John Romita,
there are many liber-
taken with the story
ts adaption to the big
ten. Fans of the comic
k should still like the
ie because it is more
ljust a copy and paste
nthe comic. The main
erences in the movie
pen near the end but
a pleasant change from
k.
loth stories are set in
I York City, which has
nutely no superheroes
a high crime rate. With
ie being the large prob-
that it is some indi-
iials have grow tired
¡watching things hap-
time and time again to
■pie that deserve better,
¡some of these people
ide to break free of the
m and become much
re by taking the law into
irown hands.
Dave is the first super­
fl to come out of the
ie and take up a masked
Bona. He has been read-
Icomics for a long time
began to wonder why
lone has fought crime
I in the comic books,
lining a scuba diving
I ski mask and wield-
lleather wrapped clubs,
starts to train so that he
| walk the streets as its
ppion.
However being Kick-Ass
It like the comic books,
n’t till after he had his
pity handed to him that
was able to act like the
p he knew he could be.
hets put on YouTube
|r being recorded pro-
ling a man from attacker
[the world is then shown
It Kick-Ass could do.
Kick-Ass meets a few
1« superheroes in this
hnture. These charac-
p, like, him are new to
hero scene, and they
■ use comic books for
fence.
|he first two people
B’Ass encounters are
| Daddy and Hit-Girl.
Is father and daughter
I® shows Kick-Ass that
they are more than will­
ing to kill to stop crime
by protecting him from a
gangster. The third hero
he meets is Red Mist. Red
Mist idolizes Kick-Ass
and has wished to team up
with him since he became a
superhero.
The movie lets you see
all the characters in both
their secret identities and
in their alter egos. The film
makes it easy to see what’s
going to happen before it’s
shown; while the comic
book lets you see things
unfold when Kick-Ass fig­
ures them out. This is one
complaint some may have
but it is an action movie
and follows the basic hero­
wins story structure. The
comic on the other hand
is quite different with its
ending.
The cast of the movie
was well chosen. The char­
acter Kick-Ass is played by
Aaron Johnson who hasn’t
been in too many notable
rolls, but he plays this role
quite nicely when you com­
pare him to the character in
the comic. Nicolas Cage
plays Big Daddy really
differently than his comic
book counterpart. Instead
of being an imposing tank
of a man like the comic,
Cage is a quirky older man
who hunts mafia figures.
Chloe Moretz plays her
role, Hit-Girl, as a happy
little girl well. She has
mostly been in Disney
movies and television show
so this is a change from her
previous roles. Because her
character is a happy, foul-
mouthed girl, it’s creepy
when she kills people with­
out remorse. Christopher
Mintz-Plasse was McLovin
from “Superbad” and he
acts similar while being the
Red Mist. The comic’s Red
Mist seemed to be a stron­
ger character than Mintz-
Plasse portrayed him, so
he didn’t quite fill the role
like a fan of the book might
have hoped for.
This movie is a good
film to watch if you’re a
comic book fan. If you’re
not into comics, this is a
action packed movie that
has a superhero story line.
Both the movie and the
book are extremely violent
and are made for mature
audiences. So if you have
a problem with fake blood
and or foul language, this
is a movie you may want to
avoid. Grade: A
Despite having two of my favorite
comedians in the lead roles, I went to
see “Date Night” with some anxiety.
Judging by the previews, I assumed it
■would be funny, but not very enthrall­
ing and certainly not something that I
would want to see again. I couldn’t
have been more wrong, as leads Tina
Fey (“30 Rock”) and Steve Canell
(“The Office”) did an amazing job
pulling this movie beyond a typical
romantic comedy and making it into
a movie that was genuinely fun and
enjoyable.
The story begins by showing a
typical week for New Jersey dwellers
Phil (Canell) and Claire Foster (Fey);
waking up ridiculously early to get
the kids ready for school, working
tedious middle-class jobs, going to
boring book club meetings and then
going on a weekly date night to the
same restaurant to order the same
food.
The romance is all but gone from
their relationship, and they have fallen
into a rut that neither one seems to be
able to break As another character
puts it, they have become nothing
more than “excellent roommates.”
After’ the news that their clos­
est married friends (played by Mark
Ruffalo and Kristen Wiig) decide to
divorce, the Fosters are inspired to
break their routine and go on a date
to the newest and trendiest seafood
restaurant in New York City, The
Claw. They arrive without a reserva­
tion and cannot get a table, and when
another couple is a no-show for their
reservation, Phil - in a last-ditch effort
to make that night different from their
other dates - pipes up and claims to
bethem.
But it turns out the couple they are
pretending to be are in some trouble
with a mob boss,, and the Fosters end
up on a wild adventure to clear their
names apd get home safely.
This movie is as much an action
movie as it is a romantic comedy,
with lots of running, gun fights, cool
technology ’and one particularly enter­
taining car chase. But there is also
a more serious side to the film, and
throughout the movie the main char­
acters stop to express their feelings
about their relationship and their fears
about where it is headed. Although
they break from the action, these
scenes never felt boring or too long
but instead created a nice contrast to
more exciting parts of the film and
helped the Fosters seem all the more
real.
Fey and Carrell work extremely
well together, and most of the laughs
in the movie come from them and
their dialogue with each other. But
there is more to their characters than
the laughs they create; they are very
well fleshed out and I found myself
connecting with them on many lev­
els. If it were any other actors in these
roles I don’t think this movie would
have worked as well as it did.
The supporting cast was also great,
and Mark Wahlberg was particularly
good as a shirt-challenged ex-govem-
ment agent. In general I don’t really
like his acting, but he filled this role
well and was a good straight-man
for Fey and Carrell. James Franco
and Mila Kunis do an excellent job
as a young couple in dire straits and
really add to the overall humor of the
movie. I did not know that Franco
could be funny, but his scene was one
of the best in the movie.
There were one or two inappropri­
ate parts of the film, but they were
pulled off well and were not as bad
as what is allowed on television these
days. Most ofthe PG-13 rating comes
from language and suggestive topics.
Overall, I really enjoyed this
movie and would recommend it to
anyone who wants a fun and mostly
clean movie to watch with friends or
family. Or better yet, go and see it
with your significant other as part of
your very own date night Grade: B
Illustration by Kayla Berge Clackamas Print