Laggies

First Hit:  Turned out to be a really good film because of excellent acting.

Although I really disliked the title, the film worked. Laggies refers to young adults that are lost and lagging behind their peers in developmental and societal growth.

Here we have Megan (Keira Knightley) who has been living with her boyfriend Anthony (Mark Weber). He wants to marry Megan and begin to follow the path their friends are taking, marriage then children. These long term  friends ("the group") are from high school and they continue to support each other and do everything together.

The setup is that Megan does things with her friends which are viewed as immature, and as she begins to see she is out of step with her group, she begins to wonder what to do with her life and what it means. Although Megan obtained her MFC degree, she found the work unrewarding. The pressure to act like a grown-up, get a job and contribute to society, is growing but she feels like she is floating. Enabling her situation is her father Ed (Jeff Garlin) because he  lets her work for him spinning a directional arrow sign on a sidewalk guiding people to is tax service office.

When Anthony asks her for her hand in marriage, she freaks and splits for a week to “get her head together”. She meets a high school kid Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends who take a liking to this older, yet like them, woman. Annika sneaks her home and when her father Craig (Sam Rockwell) finds her in Annika’s room he decides to question her as to why. Throughout this week little lessons begin to appear to Megan and in the end, she finds a way to make steps towards taking charge of her life.

Knightly is absolutely fantastic. She perfectly embodies a young lost woman and then shifts to become a more responsible woman, yet keeping her young enthusiasm in tact. Weber is good as Megan’s fiancé. Garlin is strong as the enabling father. Moretz is sublime. Her intelligent innocence shines through with wisdom and grace. Rockwell is perfect as Moretz’s father. Andrea Seigel wrote a wonderful insightful screenplay. Director Lynn Shelton did an excellent job of letting this story unfold with good acting.

Overall:  I really enjoyed how this film unfolded although I disliked the title.

The Equalizer

First Hit:  Satisfying film with powerful acting by Denzel Washington in a story that has a slow burn buildup to the inevitable.

Robert McCall (Washington) is a quiet mentor to the people he’s around at the home building supply store where he works. He rarely sleeps at night, reads a lot, and has very specific behavior patterns that he uses to keep his life intact.

From the beginning you have the sense that McCall has a history, one of which he’s not proud, one where he was one of the best, and he’s sad without his wife. He shows up to his peers at work by helping them eat right and supports them to live their dreams. He also rights the wrongs to his friends and he does this with cool calculation.

You see early on he’s an expert at killing and making things right. He gets into a conflict with the Russian mob through late night café meetings with Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) who wants to be a singer but works as a prostitute to some hardened Russians. When they hurt her, McCall becomes the man who will right this wrong all the way to the top.

His main protagonist Teddy (Marton Csokas) is good for this film as he is as self-assured as McCall is competent. They are a good matchup and the way this film delivers this adversarial relationship is great.

Washington is so clearly perfect in this role. I cannot think of another actor that could have pulled this off as well as he did. Moretz is excellent as the girl who portrays both protective strength and childlike vulnerability. Marton Csokas was perfect as the Russian mob enforcer and guy that fixes problems for the head of the gang. David Harbour (as corrupt policeman, Masters) does a good job of being a hard ass corrupt jerk. Richard Wenk and Michael Sloan wrote a very strong script that allowed us to know Washington’s character not through words but through actions. Antoine Fuqua did an excellent job of directing this action film. My only criticism of this film from a director’s point of view is that it was a little long.

Overall:  Although long, I enjoyed and was totally engaged with this film.

Kick Ass

First Hit: An oddly funny and intensely dark action oriented film that is compelling to watch.

My interpretation of the previews was that this would be more comedy than anything else. I was wrong.

This film is also dark and intense. The beginning sets this tone with a young man standing on a very tall building spreading the wings of this superhero costume, the voice over has you believe the voice and person on the building are one in the same. The voice over is talking about the phenomenon as to why more people haven’t tried to become a superhero.

Meanwhile, in the street below, people are standing looking up at the young man as he spreads his wings and jumps off the building. As he speeds towards the ground the crowd gasps and is enthralled. Watching, we all expect him to turn up and either glide or fly to a landing. Instead he just continues straight down crashing head first on to a taxi. Shocking, yes but that isn’t the end of these sorts of scenes.

This film follows the journey of a self proclaimed nerdy young man named Dave "Kick Ass" Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson) attempting to find his own place in the world by becoming a super hero. Although Dave gets his ass kicked on his first outing as Kick Ass, it gets filmed on mobile phones and these exploits go viral on the internet. He becomes a hero with his own website and emails flood in asking him for his assistance.

In another parallel story, Damon Macready aka Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Mindy aka Hit Girl (played by Chloe Moretz) are practicing their ability to kill and maim efficiently and accurately. They seize on the new wave excitement that Kick Ass is bringing and join him on one of Kick Ass’s attempts to bring justice.

However, what happens is that Big Daddy and Hit Girl (she’s 12 years old) waste the bad guys in a way that shocks Kick Ass. The real goal of Big Daddy and Hit Girl is to kill the town’s mobster and his minions because they killed Big Daddy’s wife.

It is a wild story by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and made even more intense and visual by Vaughn’s direction. It is comic book, it is outrageously violent (Tarantino like), and it is touching.

Johnson is really good as this guy who can look nerdy and cool all at the same time. The cool kids see him as nerdy and the nerdy kids see him as cool. As Kick Ass he’s perfect. Cage is his usual wild eyed, yet caring father who is a little twisted. Moretz on the other hand is amazing. She carried off the look and feel of a girl doing all the things that she does as Hit Girl. Crouching behind a foyer sculpture stand she looks frightened like a 12 year old, yet when she steps out to kill 7 men shooting at her, she is a superhero and looks it.

Overall: A very entertaining film, but there are shocks and therefore this isn’t your typical film and it is rated R for a reason.