TFT 126 – KICK-ASS / VINCERE
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Jett Loe
TFT 126 – KICK-ASS / VINCERE
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DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: KICK-ASS / VINCERE / VINCERE AT THE BELCOURT, NASHVILLE
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 3:01 pm. It is filed under Action, Blog, Drama, Gareth Higgins, Gareth Higgins Reviews, Jett Loe, Jett Loe Reviews, Podcast, Reviews, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Oh, my. Paul Verhoeven! Cooool. Don't underestimate the number of latin american fans, Gareth. I'm from Brazil. We may be getting “Kick-Ass” in june, but we will see “Iron Man 2″ on April 30th and “Don McKay” is on video right now. :P
I didn't see the movie and I'm nowhere near being a tabloid raveaholic, but I do have a moral objection to Kick Ass.. not so much with the movie itself as with how it is being marketed.
I saw an (uncensored) ad for it some months back and was disgusted by the glorification of a child performing extremely violent acts (such as putting a gun to a guy's cheek, then pulling the trigger and seeing the “action”, as the child betrays no emotion). Then also for the child to come out with lines such as “I'm just fuckin' with ya dad” and “you cunts” (feel free to censor those words, I know you like to have things family-friendly around here, but not to mention them in your review is a glaring omission IMO).
I fully accept there may be some reason for the above, along with an appropriate feature-length contextual frame around it, this does not for an instant come across in a 5-minute trailer whose only reason-for-being is to attract people in to seeing the movie.
I watched that trailer and wept for our future.
Roll forward a few months and I found myself sharing a table with my 4 and 8 year old children and both of them were laughing and talking about “the new movie called Kick Ass”.
The (censored) trailers had been run on daytime (kids) television, as well as posters on street corners.. the full national marketing blast.
This, to me, changes the whole context of a movie. No longer is it solely about “what is in the movie itself”, but around here at least, it can only be viewed in the context of the blockbuster hype in which it is being showered… which means the target-audience is young teens (and even younger -creating the urge to see it, possibly at a later date when they might be able to see it at home)… which negates all Gareth and Jett's oh-so-mature musings on the furnishings of the bad guy's apartment. To me, this movie (ie. the “idea of this movie”) reflects TheFilmTalk's analysis of those pop posters… (paraphrasing) it's too cool to knock and the guy with them on his wall has the smug satisfaction of knowing it.
Anyone attempting to do so is swatted aside as a Mary Whitehouse church-going handbag, a throwback to a time when only married couples and priests were allowed blameless sexual intercourse (but not to talk about it).
Don't get me wrong. I do enjoy many movies about a corrupt society or individuals. I'm no moral guardian… except I do like to maintain a certain standard in my own children. Movies like Kick Ass -more particularly its marketing- actually invade this private space.
For instance I could only giggle a few years back when I heard a lot of complaints about parents bringing their children to the cinema to see Bad Santa. Obviously they were in the wrong time and place to see such a funny film. The movie was “under 15s accompanied” here in Ireland, so one would think parents would know something from that, but I know if I had seen it sat next to a 9 year old I probably would have been very uncomfortable throughout and it would have clouded my impression of the whole film.
And yet this is what the marketing for Kick Ass is actually telling an otherwise-unknowing public.. “bring the kids -it's great fun!”
Even if a movie's rating doesn't allow it in cinemas (it's “Over 16s” I think here), in a few months' time when this movie is out on home release, the rating will be virtually inconsequential. The only thing people will remember is “that's the one with Ass in the name and has the young girl running around shooting guns like in The Matrix! -Ha ha!”
So, to end… as much as I might have enjoyed Kick Ass for all the right reasons, the way it is being shovelled at the masses (for all the wrong reasons) makes me hate it without even seeing it.
I think Hit-Girl's character does exactly what is means to do. I do not agree with Ebert regarding the profanity and violence, I think her characteristics are the sole savior of the film, because its really not that great.
Hey guys, was it intentional to record this podcast in the m4a (proprietary Apple) format? Previous film talk podcasts have been in MP3 format, which makes them playable in virtually all mobile devices and media players. M4a is an Apple-only / iTunes / iPod thing.
Thoughts? I am not an iPod owner, and don't want to get one, but I do want to be able to continue listening to your podcast.
ok, ok, i'm totally jumpin' the gun here and commenting before I've finished the whole 'cast! So i haven't seen the film, i don't want to see the film. Not because I'm offended, shocked, etc but cuz to me it screams “PHONEYYYYYY!”
meh, i could be wrong, since i am cynical, judgmental and hate everyone. Meanwhile, I'm really digging jett's whole 'we make our own morality' theme, and that actually is right up my alley. Unfortunately, i know (no, not personally of course! i'm being judgmental here!) the lady that wrote the screenplay – it's comedian jonathan ross' wife, who is a walking “LOOK-AT-ME-I-NEED-ATTENTION-BECAUSE-I-HAVE-PINK-HAIR-AND-ALWAYS-DRESS-IN-BLACK” catastrophe!
Cynically,I don't think there's a deeper message in this film. (Again, haven't seen it, completely 100% prejudging it!) i think it was written simply so people would stare and get angry and make controversial statements, so that regarding it as such would allow it to become a cult classic for the fringe pseudo-intellectuals, who try so hard to be different individuals – just like everyone else! Basically, the trailers reek of trying too hard.
Personally, violence is awesome. I have loved blood, guts, gore and sex since i was ickle. In fact, when i was 8 or 9 i LOVED Flesh & Blood with rutger hauer! (now, probably not so much! LOL) So I'm not bothered by kids stabbin' people or saying foul things – hell, the kids on southpark are supposed to be 9 and say far worse! So meh to the whole (contrived) 'controversy'. I say this outta respect for anyone under 80 that's part of mainstream american culture. You wanna shock us? try something that hasn't been done before! maybe i'm wrong, but to me it just screams “PHONEY!” and factory produced!
oh wait, yeah and something else i need to add: OMG THE CHAPTERS, CLICKABLE URL AND EMBEDDED IMAGE = AWESOMEZ!!!!1111!!!!1!!! i would say it gives me 'geek wood' but i'm a chick, so whatever the equivalent of that is! ;)
crap – film = “kick-ass”! sorry, was in a rush to comment, forgot to mention WHICH film! :P
Glad ya like the Chapters Kiley – but I see Dale (comment below) can't play them on his device, (I didn't know it was so proprietary); do you know of any way to embed chapters in an mp3? If not I'm tempted to go back to the mp3 format…or giving people a link to a m4a to mp3 converter…hm. thoughts?
i think there's a discussion to be had here re: the filmmakers vs. marketers – i doubt most filmmakers want the trailer to reveal the whole film yet that's what we see time and again – not watching tv i didn't know kick-ass was being marketed to kids – perhaps gareth and i can discuss on the next show
always heard that mp3s can't have chapters (fie on them, i say!) so this may do it for you: http://nixbit.com/cat/multimedia/audio/id3v2-ch… <=it's the BBC's open source one they made and use, might could work!!
hey jett
no idea if this is relevant/related, but FWIW as an FYI:
i'm playing ep 126 as i type in itunes on my mac laptop but i first tried the media player above and it wouldn't play. i use firefox on my mac and it's always worked grand when i've tried it in the past. (i'm not using my ipod/iphone these days so i can't comment on those)
cary.
hmm….looks like chapters may have to go bye bye
wait! before you make a decision, check this out!! http://nixbit.com/cat/multimedia/audio/id3v2-ch… (the player worked for me, ipod's busted and no itunes at work – but i'm on windows/FF)
I'd hate to see the chapters and embedded information go, but I understand that .mp3 is the most universal file format. Maybe try that open source chapter tool?
Not only that, but recently I was browsing the dvd section in a large toy shop. On one wall, alongside the likes of Barney, Toy Story, Finding Nemo was a _large_ section taken up entirely of The Dark Night (Batman).
To my mind that is unacceptable. I suppose I should have brought it up with the shop manager, but I guess the fear of being tarred with the old lady's handbag brush was too great for me.
It's not as if the world was crumbling for that video display, but it was no accident (given that it took up multiple shelves in a totally-kids-only dvd area) and yes it did bother me.
(And I did enjoy the film personally, but I don't like the idea of, say, children of _at least_ under 10 seeing it).
There's a big hole that the “moral guardians” of yore vacated. Much of it should never be filled. But it seems nobody is willing to say anything for fear of being called Mary Whitehouse, etc.
It's no use putting all the onus on the parents when there is a kind of insidious marketing to kids going on in _all_ “blockbuster” movies (Dark Night action figures anyone?). It's just nasty.
I agree it's not directly related to the film itself. Chances are the makers of these movies are as displeased with how it's marketed as others, as you say, but I'll have to voice my displeasure with these tactics in the only way I can… for this reason Kick Ass and all future guilty parties loses the Rumm buck.
I try to ignore most movie marketing for “actiony” films, especially the perennial comic-book-derived ones because the objective is essentially the same: more asses in seats. (OK, that and I'm not the demographic). And I had nearly zero interest in seeing Kick-Ass until I listened to your podcast. So, I'll give it a shot (no pun intended)…
Nothing proprietary about this format. MPEG-4/AAC simply offers better quality/compression.
It's a trade-off: provide less listeners with better quality or more listeners with lower quality. ;)
I think this is a really interesting point – the marketing vs. the intentions of the film-makers. I think of one of the most tender, humane, and unsalacious films about love and sexuality, the British film 'Lawless Heart', whose US release poster employed a single image: that of a woman in her underwear, ripped from a scene that last about 10 seconds, and is tangential – at best – to the heart of the film. I also think of how the trailer for 'Schindler's List' played on the notion of it being an 'inspirational' film – and may actually have had the effect of preventing audiences from seeing what is really there: a tragedy mingled with humanity, along with some of the most horrifying images ever presented in a mainstream film; and not the Holocaust theme park ride that some disparage it to be.
As for 'Kick-Ass' – I certainly felt the advertising was aimed at a teenage audience, and this is a symptom of a culture that treats neither childhood nor violence with the respect they deserve. Who knows what the people who made the film wanted to convey? What I do think I know is this: denouncing the film because it portrays kids acting violently and foul-mouthed is at best half of an appropriate response; and glorying in the film because of its po-mo/faux-Warholian aesthetic isn't the other half. I felt that 'Kick-Ass' was like a litmus test – making me think seriously about violence and the dehumanisation of the other in less obviously 'shocking' films like 'Superman' and 'Back to the Future'. Honest. (Both movies that I love; but whose subtext and hero methodology favour power asserted through violence of the physical or economic kind.)
[...] The Film Talk » TFT 126 – KICK-ASS / VINCERE [...]
@Kick-Ass: I thought it was fascinating, but I could not escape the feeling that the sensibilities involved were not overly thoughtful- they'd take ideas if they could, but 'cool' rules all.
@Vincere: Totally with Jett on this one. I liked the first part. But once Il Duce left the picture, I hated being stuck with the Ida Dalsar character. I did love the music in the film, though. And I recall liking a scene in a movie. theater (reminded me of the early theater scene in Boorman's superb 'Hope and Glory'
I never really had a problem with violence in films, but for some reason I found this film deeply offensive. Now after reading these comments I realise it might have to do with the way the movie was marketed and the movie might not be so upsetting if you watch it in the right context and the right state of mind. After listening to your show, I agree with Gareth in that the film is probably better if you watch it alone. I realised I watched the film with a fairly young audience laughing at the wrong time. So maybe I wasn't really angry at the film, but at the audience itself.
[...] The Film Talk » TFT 126 – KICK-ASS / VINCERE [...]
I kinda hope you stick to the m4a format since I ordered an ipod shuffle (best I could afford) after not being able to play this episode!
yikes! we're stuck with m4a now! ;) (+ we should get a little something from apple for pushing people to the format! ;)
I don't even use Apple (I'm sticking to my Samsung MP3 player which has a built in speaker so I can listen to TFT in the bath). It won't play MP4s (obviously!) so I’ve used Zamzar.com to convert the last 2 episodes back to MP3 – It only takes a few minutes.
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