Blu-ray Review HTF Blu-Ray Review: KICKASS Combo Pack (1 Viewer)

[Ron-P]

Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman

As far as I can tell, the sequel is not even a sure thing, let alone "due."

Actually, Kick-Ass: Balls to the Walls was announced a while back and is in production, and due in 2012.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650554/

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon


_Man_

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool /forum/thread/302793/htf-blu-ray-review-kickass-combo-pack/30#post_3747943

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Too bad though I can't seem to find something else worthwhile to pair up w/ this to qualify for free shipping from Amazon. Maybe I'll just order it from BB for in-store pickup instead. Anyone know how long the sale price will last? Apparently, I was mistaken about the grand opening day for the new nearby BB -- it's actually set for next Friday, instead of last Friday -- so would prefer to just wait for the new BB opening for easier pickup, if the sale price will last...


_Man_

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool


An awful lot of members here ended up really liking it. You just have to be okay with the rather unorthodox language from the children. At least that's the thing I've read most often as being off-putting to viewers.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon


_Man_

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool /forum/thread/302793/htf-blu-ray-review-kickass-combo-pack/30#post_3747943

You have to take any of Ebert's reviews for films which involve violence to children with a grain of salt. That is one line with him that, if crossed in a way he deems exploitative, is an automatic deal breaker. Kick-Ass is not filled with violence, but what violence there is is brutal, graphic and with lasting consequences. No PG-13 bloodless bullets here. When characters get shot or stabbed or mutilated, they bleed. When they get punched, they bruise. This rubbed many critics the wrong way, especially since one of the combatants is a preteen girl. Director Matthew Vaughn argued that showing brutally real violence was the only responsible thing to do, because when you show ordinary people dressing up in costumes and putting themselves in the same space as the city's most dangerous people, terrible things happen. If you romanticize it, you're more likely to draw out Kick-Ass copy cats that will get themselves beaten up or killed. I agree with him.

 

[Ron-P]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt


You have to take any of Ebert's reviews for films which involve violence to children with a grain of salt.

Films, and the taste in them is way to vast, and personal, to take any persons review with anything more then a grain of salt, especially those in the public eye because there's a lot more a play in their reviews then just their opinions and thoughts.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Points taken (about Ebert and reviewers in general) although I don't generally just rely on whatever (very limiting) summary ratings, but usually try to read between the lines as need be and understand where the reviewer's coming from to help better gauge my own potential reactions/feelings toward the film. Sometimes, you just don't need to give something a try to know well enough not to do it (based on contextual understanding of trusted recommendations, advice, etc.), but I guess this is one of those cases that was not so easy to decipher despite Ebert's much more favorable reactions/reviews to recent films like Watchmen or older ones like Natural Born Killers (or even The Cell for that matter).


Anyway, looking forward to checking this one out for myself on some Thursday afternoon when the kids (and neighbors) are not around...


_Man_

 

[Robert Crawford]

To be honest, I take the reviews from regular folks like you guys over anything a film reviewer has to say about a movie. Over the years, there have been too many films pan by establishment reviewers that have turned out to be very entertaining to me. I view films to be entertained and if they do that then I'm satisfied as a film lover.






Crawdaddy

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

To be honest, I take the reviews from regular folks like you guys over anything a film reviewer has to say about a movie. Over the years, there have been too many films pan by establishment reviewers that have turned out to be very entertaining to me. I view films to be entertained and if they do that then I'm satisfied as a film lover.

That's why I mentioned your opinion of the film, Robert. I agree completely. Although I really enjoy reading Ebert's writing.


Do I get burned sometimes? Sure. But we all do.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Originally Posted by Ron-P





Actually, Kick-Ass: Balls to the Walls was announced a while back and is in production, and due in 2012.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650554/

A note on IMDB doesn't qualify as an official announcement. Every article I've seen regarding the sequel is entirely vague as to when or if it'll be made. If you can find something more concrete I'd definitely like to see it!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon


When you said Death Race was better than Planet Terror, did you mean Death Proof? I found Death Proof (the extended version) boring and stupid.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Ooops. Yup. I meant Death Proof.


I haven't seen the extended cut. The theatrical cut seemed plenty long enough for me. I don't know how much time was added to the original.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

According to Wiki (and other sources), it went from 90 minutes to 127 minutes!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Then I could see where people might have an issue!


But now...back to our regularly scheduled discussion about KickAss.

 

[Ron-P]

Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman



A note on IMDB doesn't qualify as an official announcement. Every article I've seen regarding the sequel is entirely vague as to when or if it'll be made. If you can find something more concrete I'd definitely like to see it!

I have nothing more concrete then whats on the IMDB page, or what comes up under Google searches. But from everything there, and comments from the director it seems it will happen after he's finished with First Class.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I'm interested to hear what Mike and Man think. I for one really enjoyed Kick Ass--and for $12.99 you can't go wrong!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich this movie really spoke to my childhood in that way. Great premise.


One of the things I found the most fun was the constant realization on the part of the characters about how difficult it would be to be a superhero in the real world...but to then, as a viewer, get caught up in some of the amazing action sequences only to be challenged to suspend your belief that these characters could really be performing these acts.

Hit Girl absolutely stole the film.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Finally got around to seeing this one on BD (after repeated postponements in trying to find a good time for it).


I (and my wife) concur w/ Mike -- and my wife might actually like it even more than me despite being a little bit squeamish about a couple of moments (eg. the giant microwave moment). Definitely not for the squeamish though -- and it's definitely very much for a "mature" audience.



One thing. I had trouble getting the BD to load on my Panny BD60 and finally had to try my first firmware update on the player for it. After the firmware update, the disc loaded and played just fine (even though it took a long while to load), but I did have playback trouble (eg. image breakup, freezing, skipping, etc.) w/ the first several minutes of the long making-of documentary and am not sure if other special features will work. And then, when we tried loading it again a couple days later, we had the exact same problem of it not loading again. The player tries to read the disc for a couple minutes and then stops and says it cannot read the disc (just like before the firmware update).


Very strange since I did get it to work (the one time) right after the firmware update. Given what's been said about problems w/ the disc, I'm wondering if I just need a way to flush whatever might be stored in the player's built-in persistent memory in order to get it to work again -- I'm guessing its memory was flushed w/ the firmware update. The player doesn't seem to offer any simple way to flush its persistent memory -- and doing some sort of full factory reset is probably not a viable solution since I'd probably need to do this everytime I try to load the disc, if that's the case. And no, I don't have an SD card in the player and never allowed it to connect to the internet for BD-Live. Of course, there's also the possibility that my disc is bad since I did have some playback trouble w/ the long documentary the one time I got the disc to work -- nothing is visibly wrong w/ the disc though.


Anyone else having trouble getting the disc to work again in subsequent tries after previously successful playback?


_Man_