The Losers/ Kick-Ass

The Losers
Kick-Ass


When I was younger, I used to spend a ton of free time at the movies. Woonsocket actually had a multiplex of its own back then. During the summer, they would have 4 shows a day. A 1pm, a 3pm, a 7pm and a 9pm. In the summers of 1995 and 1996, I would often take a bus there early in the morning. I'd typically do a little bit of shopping at the stores in the plaza and have an early lunch before heading over to the movies for the first show. I'd use the newspaper to study the showtimes and work out the times so that I could see a show at all 4 showtimes. It usually wasn't all that hard because they only had 8 screens. The times would usually mesh up fairly well. The only real negative about this whole thing were some of the movies. I actually paid money to see stinkers like Striptease, Bordello of Blood and The Phantom on the big screen. By the time 1997 rolled around, I had a job and the free time I had dried up rapidly. Eventually, the multiplex wound up closing in September of 2000, once again leaving a pretty large hole in Woonsocket's entertainment options.

The reason I dredge up the past is because yesterday I decided to try a double feature out. It's something I hadn't done in quite some time. It's a challenge because of the now-16 screen multiplexes that exist. Showtimes just don't line up all that well, especially if you're looking to see specific movies. If you're just hopping from random flick to random flick, you'd have much more luck.

Our first show was The Losers. This is an adaptation of the comic series published under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. It tells the story of an elite US Special Forces strike team. They are sent into the jungles of Bolivia to help target the house of a drug lord. Things don't go quite as planned and they wind up on the lam, trying to get their revenge on the person whom set them up.

When I first saw the trailer for this, it looked like a decent B-movie. Although the cast wasn't particularly loaded with household names, they were all folks familiar to me. I wasn't particularly excited about the movie but figured I'd eventually catch it on video. As the weeks passed and I saw the trailer more times than I care to count, I actually became pretty hyped up for it. When the dilemma of how to see this and Kick-Ass came about, I figured we'd just wind up skipping this one. That would have been a terrible idea.

This movie was great. Right from the beginning, there was action that didn't let up. The story's been done to death but the execution made it that much better. The cast was excellent with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans and Jason Patric. Evans and Patric really shined here, stealing the show with every scene they were in. I've always liked Evans and this performance just further solidified that. I am really looking forward to his portrayal of Captain America , due out next year.

Overall, The Losers is highly recommended.


Kick-Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski, an ordinary teenager. He's a comic book geek who doesn't understand why nobody has attempted to become a superhero like in the comics. He decides that he's going to become the first in spite of the fact that he has no super abilities whatsoever. His first attempt at crime fighting ends horribly. His second attempt is caught on film and becomes a sensation on the internet. Thus, Kick-Ass is born.

When I first heard about this movie, I knew that I had to see it. I kept hearing of really graphic violence and figured that it was going to be something different from the standard comic book based flicks. I was expecting a solid action movie. Instead, what I got was a movie that didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. And in turn, I didn't quite know how to react to it. Scenes that seemed as if they were meant for laughs quickly turned into something dark. I have no problem with genres bumping into each other but in this case, they weren't bumping. They were straight up brawling. Overall, it made for a very uneven movie.

I did like the story. Seeing an average Joe attempting to fight crime without all the fancy gadgets and superpowers is a pretty cool idea. The cast was pretty good with Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the leads. Cage's performance was one of his "odd" ones, so I didn't care all that much for it. Moretz was the highlight here as Hit Girl. She was awesome. Definitely a talent to be on the lookout for in the future. Johnson was good as Lizewski/Kick-Ass.

All in all, Kick-Ass was a good movie that could have been much better if it had settled on an identity before hitting theaters. As it stands, I recommend it but only barely.