Yatterman

Title: Yatterman

Director: Takashi Miike

Released: 2009

Starring: Sho Sakurai, Saki Fukuda, Chiaki Takahasi, Kyoko Fukada, Kendo Kobayashi, Katsuhisa Namase, Junpei Takiguchi, Anri Okamoto, Sadao Abe, Koichi Yamadera

Plot: Gan Takada (Sakurai) and his girlfriend Ai (Fukuda) live a double life as the crime fighting heroes Yatterman protecting the city of Tokyoko from the schemes of the Doronbo gang who have been despatched by their boss Skullobey (Takiguchi) to find all four pieces of the legendry Skull Stone.

 

Review: The career path of director Takashi Miike continues to be a fascinating one to chart, especially since he seemingly made the choice to branch out from his roots established with the gore soaked shock and awe of the films which made up his outlaw years and which equally helped him found a strong fanbase amongst Western audiences. While it’s also true that this change of direction which has certainly seen his output get lighter with these later films might have polarised his fanbase he has equally at the same time produced some of the most interesting films of his career of which this is certainly another great example.

Based on the popular anime series of the same name which despite having 108 episodes never seemingly made it over to the rain soaked shores of the UK, so its safe to say I went into this one completely blind with not even the knowledge of Miike being in the director’s chair being any kind of guide after all here we have a director who gave the world both “Ichi The Killer” and “For Love’s Sake”.

Forgoing the traditional superhero movie plotting, Miike clearly believes his audience would be up to speed on the show before they watched the movie as he throws us straight into a big mecha battle between Yatterman (yes they are both called Yatterman) and the Doronbo Gang who have wheeled out their latest mecha invention in the form of a robot chef. It’s a fun opening which essentially sets the tone for what’s to follow as here Miike is clearly in one of his lighter and certainly more playful moods. That’s not of course to say that he still doesn’t manage to sneak in a few screwed up moments, I mean just wait to see what he does with the mecha Bride that the Doronbo gang build in the second half of the film.

The character designs are kept the same as the original show, which is honestly kind of refreshing in these times were since Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy directors constantly seem to be aiming for an element of realism when it comes to directing comic book movies rather than embracing the fantastical elements the genre allows, which is certainly something that Miike has no issues doing as clearly seen with the character design for the members of the Doronbo gang as we have the PVC clad boss Doronjo (Fukada) the rat faced mecha genius and generally lecherous pervert Boyacky (Namase) and rounding out the team we have the pig snout wearing strongman Tonzra (Kobayashi). Despite being so outlandish in their appearance here they strangely work as Miike once again crafts a world for his film to exists within, while at the same time shooting it with such a sense of quirky fun so that like so many aspects of the film you don’t really question it.

One of the moments which truly highlights this is the various get rich schemes that the Doronbo launch to fund their the construction of their latest mecha, which usually share a theme, hence they open a wedding store called “Doro Merry” to fund the construction of the mecha bride “The Bridesmaidiot” or their Yo-Sushi style restaurant they create to fund their giant meca-squid. Interestingly this trio of bumbling crooks we get to know more about than either of our main heroes, in particular their aspirations they hope to gain from their criminal enterprises which you probably won’t be surprised to know are as random as they are, in particular Boyacky’s dream of having every schoolgirl in the world as the film cuts to him buried up to his neck in a mountain of Japanese schoolgirls. Again like so many of the more random aspects of the film it is hard to tell what is taken from the source material and what’s the result of Miike’s warped imagination.

The action scenes throughout are exciting and fast paced, while containing numerous amounts of slapstick and surreal moments, especially when they wheel out the giant mecha with Yatterman’s own mecha coming in the form of a giant robo dog called Yatterwoof which they also use to get around as seen in one of the numerous musical numbers. Aswell as all the giant robot fun we also get some more traditional fight scenes, which usually descend into Boyacky and Tonzra being on the wrong end of the gadgets used by Yatterman. Still these could hardly be considered brutal beatdowns especially when the cartoony vibe is maintained throughout.

While the film is for the most part a lot of fun, it does have a rather generous runtime which certainly could have benefited from being trimmed down to a more lean runtime, especially when there are so many scenes which felt overplayed or unneeded, while at the same time perhaps stopping the plot from becoming as confused as it does in places and while some Miike fans might feel that Miike has lost his edge with these kinds of films which he has been keener to make as of late rather than his earlier and certainly more warped and arguably interesting films, but here he once again proves that even without the lashing of gore and controversial imagery he is still a director capable of producing attention grabbing and most importantly entertaining films, while at the same providing an fun alternative to the overly serious tone that Hollywood would prefer to take for its comic book movies.

Kick-Ass 2

Title: Kick-Ass 2

Director: Jeff Wadlow

Released: 2013

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Morris Chestnut, John Leguizamo, Jim Carrey, Clark Duke, Donald Faison, Angustus Prew, Lindy Booth, Olga Kurkulina

Plot: Dave (Taylor-Johnson) having retired from fighting crime as his superhero alter-ego Kick-Ass, starts training with Mindy (Moretz) aka Hit-Girl to become a proper hero despite also being forced into retirement by her guardian Marcus (Chestnut). Elsewhere the former Red Mist Chris D’Amico (Mintz-Plasse) still wanting revenge on Kick-Ass reinvents himself as supervillian “The Motherfucker”

 

Review: Back in 2010 when the original “Kick-Ass” was unleashed on the unsuspecting movie going public, it finally brought a much needed fresh spin to the superhero genre which had pretty much grown stale thanks to a stream of less than stellar adaptations, while Marvel had only taken the most tentative of steps in establishing their all dominating cinematic universe. Like the source material though, here was a film which did for comic book movies what “Scream” did for the horror genre, as it shook things up while playing off the long established conventions as it applied them to a real world setting, only without the dark edge of Alan Moore’s legendry “Watchmen”.  

Unsurprisingly “Kick-Ass” was followed by a host of imitators such as “Defendor” and the wonderfully bizarre “Super” but ultimately “Kick-Ass” was the only one which left me wanting to see what happened next. Which was especially the case after the first was so much fun, with its intoxicating mix of warped humour and over the top violence which perfectly captured the tone of the source material. The fact that it stuck so close to the material really made me wonder how this sequel would play out more so when the source material for the sequel really doesn’t pull any punches as Mark Millar’s book not only ramped up the violence, but also contained numerous controversial scenes including children being machine gunned and one character being gang raped by The Motherfucker and his crew.

This controversy was only added to by Jim Carrey suddenly withdrawing his support for the film in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting stating

“I did Kick-Ass a month before Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to others involved with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.”

Of course this proved to be better promotion for the film than if he had done a dozen press junkets, especially as the prospect of controversial violence had fans clamouring to see what the film had in store for them, especially those who’d read the book whose curiosity was sent into overdrive as they wondered if director Wadlow was going to truly give us a no holds barred adaptation. The answer of course is….no.

Unsurprisingly while there are numerous things you can do in fiction and comic books (just look at the antics of Clive Barker and Alan Moore for prime examples) these same things just don’t carry across to their film adaptations and if they do they usually won’t make it past the censors shears. So it comes as little surprise to see numerous elements being toned down or played in a more humorous light as especially seen with the gang rape sequence which has now been replaced with a impotence jab which honestly was the right choice like so many of the changes between the film and the source material as here Wadlow trades the darker aspects in favour of moments of slightly warped humour.

Focusing on two main plot threads it is a delicate balancing act that Wadlow pulls off here as the film switches between Dave’s return to costume vigilantism, which now seems him now teaming up with fellow like-minded have-a-go heroes to form “Justice Forever” lead by the square jawed patriot Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey) while finding a new love interest a group member Night Bitch (Booth). The other main plot follows Mindy and her attempts to live a normal life now she has retired her Hit-Girl persona, which soon sees running afoul of the resident mean girls at her high school. Needless to say it is only a matter of time before Mindy cracks and finds a way to get her revenge which is spectacularly graphic to say the least.
 

Despite having had a run of tough guy roles in the likes of the frustratingly smug “Savages” and the more recent “Godzilla” reboot, it is nice to see him being able to tone things down again to play the weedy Dave whose sole power is pretty much from his ability to take a pounding (thanks to his damaged nerve endings) and makes his training at the hands of Mindy only all the more hilarious to watch, especially when she reminds him frequently that he’s been beaten up by a 15-year old girl while proving that she’s lost none of her acid tinged wit in the time since we last saw her.

Elsewhere Christopher Mintz-Plasse continue to surprise and really seems to have a blast playing the off the rails Motherfucker whose sole ability is being filthy rich and being able to hire his own team of misfit villains including the towering Mother Russia (Kurkulina) who make up his Toxic Mega-Cunts a reminder that Miller really didn’t expect this film to be resonating with any kind of highbrow audience that’s for sure. Mintz-Plasse’s Motherfucker is the typical idea of what a supervillian should be if you gave a teenager the free reign that Chris has, caring little for what is politically correct as he names his henchmen based on race hence we get the likes of “Black Death” and “Genghis Carnage”. Thankfully John Leguizamo’s Javier is on hand to balance out Chris’s frenzied nature, as he attempts and fails frequently to provide the voice of reason to Chris’s OTT plans of domination, which Leguizamo’s performance only further serves to remind us just how underrated he still is an actor, much like Carrey who gets to play a more subdue role as Captain Stars and Stripes, not that you could tell from the trailer which ironically choose to show the two oddball moments he allows himself.

Perhaps not as sharp as the original film, especially when it frequently relies on toilet humour than the sarcasm and wit of the original making Jane Goldman’s absence from scriptwriting duties all the more noticeable. This aside Wadlow gives us here a fun sequel and a nice setup for the proposed final part of the trilogy, which due to the film underperforming might be something we see solely in the comics.

Kick-Ass

Title: Kick-Ass
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Released: 2010

Staring: Aaron Johnson, Garrett M. Brown, Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Lynsey Fonseca

Rating: 5 / 5

Plot: Dave Lizewski (Johnson) is a high school nobody and obsessive comic book fan, who despite having zero super powers, no training and absolutly no real reason, except a fascination with why no one tries to be a superhero in real life. Taking this into account he decides to become a superhero himself, taking on the guise of Kick-Ass.



Review: Okay allow me to start by pointing out that a film has to have something really special, to get me to drag my ass to my local cinema, especially seeing how it’s so darn expensive, the seating usually sucks and I always find myself at the same screening as the guy, who wants to be a critic but is to lazy to start a blog and instead bores the crap out of whoever he's convinced to go with him, as he rattles off pointless trivia about the film. All of these things I tend to thankfully avoid by waiting for most films to come out on DVD. Still like I said it takes something special and “Kick-Ass” is one of those films and honestly it was so worth the trip.

Based on Mark Millers graphic novel of the same name, who was also responsible for “Wanted” whose film version resembled the source novel really in name only, proved a crushing disappointment for myself, being such a huge fan of the graphic novel, which made me kind of wary when, I found out his latest creation, was being given the big screen treatment, even more so after the comic suddenly got put on hold after four issues, with the full trade paperback only recently being released with the film, which I’m sure had a lot to do with the studio dropping that truck load of money off at his house, to secure the rights. Thankfully this time they bothered to stick to the source material, no doubt helped by having comic book uberfan Jane Goldman work on the script, who has done a great job of adapting the comic for the screen, capturing not only the characters, but also the darkly comic humour of the source material, which is clear right from the start, as we watch a would be superhero leaping from the top of a skyscraper in his make shift flightsuit, only to crash directly into a taxi cab below, as Johnsons commentary points out that this particular superhero was just some guy who’d gone of his meds, in a deliciously dark humoured introduction to what is to be the tone for rest of the film, a film which is essentially asking the question of

“How would superheroes really work in the real world”

which it’s true was also the base idea of Alan Moore’s epic “Watchmen”, but it’s a more light hearted approach that Miller has chosen to take and it works all the better for it, especially when you consider that Millers best work is always crammed full of violence and humour, with the less thinking the better and this has certainly been carried over into the film version, but certainly not to the point were it feels like it has to dumb things down into frat boy humour, which has in the past proven to be the undoing of so many potentially great movies with “Superbad” (2007) proving especially true of this.

It would certainly seem that Miller has spent a lot of time going over a lot of the things, which we take for grantee with superheroes, as he attempts to find ways around so many of the potential problems a wannabe superhero has to deal with, such as dealing with large quantities of pain, which is covered nicely after Dave’s first failed attempt at super heroism, which see’s him not only stabbed and beaten up, but then run over and left for dead, forcing him to have numerous metal grafts and plates added to his skeleton while also at the same time screwing up his nerve endings, giving him the ability to endure beatings, which sure is handy as despite calling himself “Kick Ass” he really can’t handle himself overly well in a fight, as he waves his clubs wildly around himself, during his second more successful attempt at being a hero, while reminding the audience that we are not watching a guy who is a trained or even skilled fighter, but in fact just a regular Joe in a diving suit who thinks he’s a super hero.

The flip side to Dave of course though is “Hit Girl” (Moretz) who is not only hyper violent, but also highly skilled with it seems anything she can get her hands on, having been trained as a weapon of revenge by her father “Big Daddy” (Cage). Moretz is absolutely fantastic as this character, who loves ice cream sundaes and butterfly knives and whose foul mouth will no doubt leave the more stiffer critics grumbling, (but then compared to some of the kids I know, she seemed pretty timid) but she delivers a performance with such energy and enthusiasm, that I found the majority of my favourite scenes to be the ones she appeared in, while her daddy daughter scenes she shares with Cage, carry real emotion even if their daddy daughter relationship is anything but traditional, even more so whenthe first time they are introduced it sees her getting shot by her own father as part of the ongoing training regime which he has created for her, with Goldman’s script perfectly capturing their relationship, which for myself especially was always going to be the point, were the film was either going to work of fail horribly and thankfully it manages to make it seem like a believable relationship they share, while at the same time not coming across too fantastical to accept, while Cage does a great job of playing Big Daddy a man who is clearly trying to balance his lust for revenge, with his desire to look after his daughter and even though I was unsure about Cage playing the character, his restricted appearances throughout help stop his oddball characterisations, from becoming over powering especially the strange Adam West esq voice that he has chosen to use for the character.
I guess the other main surprise here would have to be with Mintz-Plasse, who finally manages to break away from the shadow of “Mclovin”, as he proves to be surprisingly enough the perfect choice for spoilt mafia son Chris D’Amico and his superhero alter ego “Red Mist”, who is actually a plant to help capture kick-ass tying in the old cliché of the nemesis starting out as a friend of the hero, which made me all the more frustrated that the scene in which Chris compares himself and Dave to Spiderman’s Peter and Harry, as their climatic showdown almost seems like an afterthought, with the final showdown being largely devoted to Hit Girl taking on Chris’s father and mob boss Frank (Strong). Still were as I have found him largely irritating in the past, here is used to great effect as the competition for Kick ass’s popularity when he emerges as the new hero on the block, even if his powers seem more grounded in flash gadgets than anything resembling a super power.

Vaughn in the directors chair doesn’t really challenge himself here, allowing the script to bring all the shock and awe, though thankfully he ensures the action is kept pacey enough to prevent any fidgety moments, while thankfully avoiding drowning the whole thing in the same kind of angst which constantly seems to plague every superhero movie which comes out, with the “spiderman” films being especially guilty of this crime and it made a refreshing change, to not have to watch characters mope around with their feelings, with instead the time it seems being used for a Dave being mistaken for being gay subplot, which proves an entertaining way of giving him something to do, when he is not running around in his scuba gear costume, as he attempts to score with the target of his affections, the token popular girl Katie (Fonseca), who thankfully is the target of a more favourable character rewrite here, much like the character designs which have also been reworked outside of Kick-ass who is still in his trademark green, but these redesigns all add to the pop culture cool which the whole film is essential drenched in, from the snappy quotable dialogue about superheroes to the MTV style editing of it’s fight scenes, this is certainly a bold attempt to break free of the traditional conventions which the genre has been bound to, with the notable exception of films like “The Dark Knight” (2008) who were not afraid to try something not so family friendly with their material and kick ass is certainly one of these films.

Overall “Kick-ass” makes for a fun and mindless couple of hours, while proving how there is certainly life outside of the main superhero characters, who have in recent years dominated the genre, which at the same time certainly make it clear that this indie creation has certainly more than enough originality to take on the big boys of the comic world, as he brings the comic world kicking and screaming, bang up to date, leaving me already hungry already for Kick-Ass 2