Posts Tagged ‘comic-book movie’

Short Take: Shows more promise in future Marvel films than in itself. Entertaining, but disjointed.

Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf)

Screenwriter: Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder)

Cast: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, Tropic Thunder), Don Cheadle (Brooklyn’s Finest, Hotel Rwanda, Ocean’s 11), Gwyneth Paltrow (Two Lovers, Iron Man), Scarlett Johansson (He’s Just Not That Into You, The Spirit, Vicky Christina Barcelona), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Domino, Sin City), Sam Rockwell (Everybody’s Fine, Moon, Frost/Nixon)

Length: 2 hours 4 minutes

Synopsis: Picking up where the last film left off, the film follows Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) as he struggles to overcome a number of obstacles after revealing he is Iron Man.  Stark fights to keep the U.S. government from taking the Iron Man technology while also competing with fellow arms businessman Justin Hammer (Rockwell).  However, Stark has bigger problems like Ivan Vanko (Rourke), an angry nemesis out for revenge against the Stark family, as well as the threat that the piece of machinery keeping him alive may also be slowly killing him.  On top of all this, Stark tries to cultivate his budding romance with Pepper Potts (Paltrow) while also flirting with his mysterious new personal assistant Natalie (Johansson). Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Tons of action and laughs, as well as surprisingly introspective

Director: Matthew Vaughn (Stardust)

Screenwriters: Matthew Vaught and Jane Goldman (Stardust); based on comic books by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Cast: Aaron Johnson (The Illusionist), Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer), Nicolas Cage (The Bad Lieutenant), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Role Models), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes)

Length: 1h 57m

Synopsis: Dave Lizewsky (Johnson) was a painfully average teenage boy growing up in New York City. One day, however, he asked himself a very serious question: why hasn’t anyone actually tried to be a super hero? Although it’s not the most realistic or feasible endeavor to pursue – or safest for that matter – he convinces himself that he should nevertheless give the idea a serious try because standing up to crime is the right thing to do. Through his efforts Lizewsky discovers the serious drawbacks to his idea by getting beaten half to death, but after recouping he dusts himself off and, after some hard-fought success with dishing out justice, is rewarded with praise and admiration from the city’s populous. Unbeknownst to him, however, his fame and actions become a thorn in the side of one of the city’s biggest crime lords, Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). But is this teen, self-named Kick-Ass, the real nuisance, or is it someone else? Read the rest of this entry »

Aaron Johnson (left) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (right) in the upcoming "Kick-Ass," opening April 16th

SuperHeroHype.com got a chance to talk to two of the stars of the upcoming comic-book movie Kick-Ass, Aaron Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Role Models).

The discussion talks about the two actors and their characters, Kick Ass and Red Mist, and their experiences from before the principle photography stage to now. Interestingly, when the two had read the finished script and signed on to the project only the first 3 editions of the “Kick-Ass” comic had been published (there are currently 5). Mintz-Plasse’s character the Red Mist wasn’t introduced until the 3rd issue.

The costumes were designed by the same woman (Sammy Sheldon) who worked on Hellboy, Stardust, V for Vendetta, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. However, the two actors did not undergo any sort of physical training for the film in order to look any more like superheros. Rather, another co-star of the film, Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl, received all the martial arts training from top-notch choreographers and specialists. Johnson and Mintz-Plasse were occasionally brought in to watch her go through her stunts, and were admittedly continually impressed.

The rest of the published discussion goes on to include various other details (including a juicy one at the end), most of which should prove to make an interesting read for those anticipating the film, which opens April 16th in theaters everywhere. For more information about the movie, we suggest visiting SuperHeroHype.com.