KICK-ASS 2. REVIEWED.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

Rating- 15

Running Time- 1 hour 43 minutes

Directed by- Jeff Wadlow

Written by- Jeff Wadlow

Kick-Ass 2 wasn’t a film I was particularly excited for when it was first announced but after recently re-viewing its predecessor my anticipation levels rose dramatically. Maybe that’s why I was so disappointed with the sequel or maybe it was just because it was a bad film.

The writers of the first Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughan and Jane Goldman, 2010) took a back seat for this one, Vaughan taking up the role of producer, so it fell to Jeff Wadlow to continue the story of unlikely superhero Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). So how did he fair? Not too well unfortunately. While the general plot of the movie was solid, the dialogue and the makeup of the individual scenes were hit and miss, but mostly just miss. The good moments were very good and the bad moments were truly awful and plague most of the film. This leads me to believe that that Wadlow is either a sporadic genius or he just blindly fired a metaphorical machine gun at a target labelled ‘good ideas’ and naturally hit it a few times but most of the time he was way off the mark. It seems clear to me that he was attempting to play it safe by trying to recreate the formula of the first film while shoe horning the story around that. But what he ended up doing is hand picking every good feature of the first film and taking it too far, to an extent that ruined what made it good in the first place.

But I feel the reason the film was filled with such poor material is because it was missing a key ingredient from the first film and that was Nicolas Cage. Usually I find Nicolas Cage films entertaining because his acting is so bad that he himself becomes hilarious to watch but in Kick-Ass he played the character of Big Daddy perfectly and he was sorely missed in the sequel. It seemed that the film makers tried to replace him with Jim Carrey but while his character was intriguing and had potential to become the film’s best character, he was grossly underused and so that potential wasn’t allowed to manifest itself into anything concrete and he remained somewhat of an enigma throughout the movie. So in the end there really wasn’t a stand out character who would become the fans’ favourite as Cage’s character was in the original, the character of Dr. Gravity (Donald Faison) was probably the closest to achieving that but was such as minor character that he was easily forgotten for large parts of the film. But maybe that’s why he seemed the best character, because we didn’t see enough of him to eventually grow tired of him as was the case with most of the other characters.

I think that in the end the film suffers from gross negligence on the part of the makers. They tried so hard to recreate the style of the first film that they forgot what they were originally trying to achieve. Maybe the reason a new writer was brought in is because they thought a fresh approach would do the film some good but if this was the case Wadlow certainly wasn’t briefed and instead of coming at the film from a different angle he forced himself to follow the same path as the first film even though that path should have been closed off because it no longer leads anywhere. So all in all I can’t give this film any more than two stars, so that is what I will give it.

Final Rating. Two Stars.

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ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA. REVIEWED.

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)

Rating- 15

Running Time- 1 hour 30 minutes

Directed by- Declan Lowney

Written by- Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons and Armando Iannucci

Ah-ha!!

Alan Partridge has made the jump to the big screen and it’s a very successful transition. The film is consistently hilarious and stands above any comedy made this year or in any other year in recent memory – it is comedy at its finest. “But what makes it so good?” I hear you ask. Well I’ll tell you.

The main reason is that it is genuinely funny from start to finish. You may think that this is a prerequisite for a comedy film but in my experience this is a rarity, especially in recent times, even comedies that I have thoroughly enjoyed and consider great films have lulls where nothing funny really happens.  That is not the case in this film though because every scene has something uniquely funny in it which is a breath of fresh, comedic air. How does it achieve this though? Simply by not changing the formula that made I’m Alan Partridge (1997-2002) one of the funniest sitcoms ever made and translating it to a situation worthy of the big screen. And there lies the adhesive that holds all of the comedic elements together. The piece of a royal family jigsaw that has the Queen’s head on it. The film wouldn’t be quite right without it. While the humour is what makes the film so successful, it’s the high stakes situation of the siege that allows the humour to work on a cinematic level. The storyline is exhilarating, high staked and danger filled yet welcomingly familiar and relaxed in tone which is the perfect formula for a mainstream comedy film.

I perhaps though am not the best person to give a subjective view on this film as I am a huge fan of Partridge and find everything he has ever appeared in hilarious. Having said that I expect that most of the humour is just as accessible to strangers of Steve Coogan’s greatest creation as it is to diehard fans. The reason? It’s genuinely funny. It doesn’t rely on gags that only fans will ‘get’ – it is just pure comedy. But Partridge fans find things such as his general demeanour and way of speaking hysterically hilarious so they are, somewhat obviously, going to enjoy it to a greater extent. But that in no way means that others won’t thoroughly enjoy it because there is much more to it than that. That’s probably the best aspect of the film: it works on so many different levels yet is so simple on the surface making it accessible to almost anyone.

Another positive is the length. It is ninety minutes long, the perfect length for a comedy. I am very cynical of films that are too long particularly comedies as they are prone to burning out; too much of the same thing, no matter how good, can soon become flat. That’s why I’m glad that this film was kept at a reasonable length as the audience were left wanting more rather than being worn out by the non-stop comedy which is the way it always should be.

Overall, this is a must see movie for everyone. Depending on your position on the Alan Partridge fan scale you will wither leave the cinema with expectation fulfilled or surpassed but you are definitely in no danger of being underwhelmed. I think the best way to sum up how good I believe this film to be is through a personal anecdote: I have seen this film three times within a week and found it better each time. The primary moments of hilarity that can be enjoyed over and over again are perfectly complemented with subtle visual gags that may not be picked up from a single watch, such as a photo-shopped photo of Alan at a Norwich City football game (sitting just in front of Norwich’s other treasure, Delia Smith) hung on the wall of Alan’s shed. All of this leads to one of the greatest comedies I have ever seen and for that it is worthy of the highest possible rating: five stars.

Final Rating. Five Stars.

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