"Super" Heroes

Recently I caught Woody Harrelson’s “superhero” film, “Defendor”.  Add that to the other three films featuring a “superhero” who has NO super powers.

First:  Batman and Iron Man.  Unlike Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic 4, the Avengers, etc., these two have no intrinsic super powers.  Really, their “super powers” are “so f**king rich they can buy Batmobiles and flying armor”.  What’s funny is that we’ve yet to see a real billionaire, like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, do anything like this.  Jeff Bezos, where is your Bezomobile?  Anyhow.  So what does a would-be superhero without any huge amount of money – a regular guy – do?

Defendor (2009).  Woody Harrelson becomes Defendor (spelled with an “o”).  He puts on a black costume with a duct taped D and paints a black mask over his face – not even a cloth mask he can take off.  Kat Dennings, the hotter of the Two Broke Girls, plays a hooker who befriends him.   Defendor is a bit “not there” and isn’t particularly good at fighting.  He believes “Captain Industry” is the bad guy who needs to be taken down.  There is a corrupt cop, Dooney (Elias Koteas), and his sometime boss (Michael Kelly, who we recognize from “House of Cards”) helps him out.  Overall I found it mostly frustrating and “when will this be over”?  Dennings is eye candy but Harrelson getting his ass kicked in Toronto doesn’t really make for a compelling story.

Watch it once and then go back to a regular Marvel or DC superhero movie.

Super (2010).  Rainn Wilson becomes the Crimson Bolt.  He’s trying to save his wife (Liv Tyler) from the clutches of an evil drug dealer (Kevin Bacon – in another film) while assisted by Libby (Ellen Page) who becomes his sidekick.  He’s inspired by Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion).   He’s remarkably effective notwithstanding his complete lack of superpowers or even special skills. 

Watch it once and then go back to a regular Marvel or DC superhero movie.

Kick-Ass (2010).  I reviewed these two earlier (1/24/14) so I'll keep the reviews brief.  Refer back to the prior blog post for more detail on these.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson becomes Kick-Ass.  And does so again in the sequel, Kick-Ass 2 (2013).  In the first film he’s up against legitimate bad guy Mafia boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), and allied with Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), a former cop turned Batman without much in the way of actual super powers or gadgets.  Big Daddy has been training his daughter as his sidekick, Hit Girl (Chloe Grace-Moretz).   Things get very nasty and violent.

There’s an equally nasty and violent sequel, Kick-Ass 2, in which D’Amico’s son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) becomes the Motherf**ker to avenge his father.  This was the film which got publicity when Jim Carrey, who plays Colonel Stars & Stripes, heavily bad-mouthed the film after it came out.  Hit Girl retired to focus on a normal social life at school, leaving KA to recruit another team of nobodies to help him.  For his part, Motherf**ker recruits his own team, including the remarkably impressive Mother Russia.  

Like the first one, it has a heavy dose of violence.  I’d say it’s rare sequel which equals or exceeds the quality of the original.  I have NOT read the source material comic books, so I can’t comment on how faithful the movies are to the books, nor on their relative merit or lack thereof.

Unlike the other two, I got these two on DVD, and as you might imagine, I can recommend them, IF you can tolerate a “Scarface” level of violence.   

Trailer Park Boys

More TV!  Yes, I’m inspired yet again, and by yet another “mockumentary” show.  This is a Canadian show (eh) about three very low class Canadian males: Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles.  There have been 10 seasons (season 11 approved) and three full-length movies, of which I’ve seen seasons 1- 6, the three movies, and the European series (8 episodes).  The show takes place in a trailer park in Nova Scotia, Canada.  The Canadian flag is fairly prominent in many scenes.

 Ricky is kind of stout, has a poofed up hairdo, huge sideburns and a semi-goatee, usually wearing flashy but trashy clothes.  He’s usually either smoking or toking or drinking and almost always up to no good.  Ricky is a brash, arrogant fast-talker who blames everyone else for his problems.  I’ve yet to see him take responsibility for anything.  His brief bits of normalcy were mall security cop (butting heads with Bubbles over shopping cart theft) and completing the 10^th grade.  Jail is a very real possibility for him, and he’s no stranger to the orange jumpsuit.  When he’s not in jail he’s usually living in Julian’s old car, a full-size American car missing the front passenger door.  His romance with Lucy was broken up by jail the first time – arrested at his own wedding – and later he hooked up with her former roommate, Sarah.

 Julian is more well-adjusted, but he’s simply hiding a more devious criminal mind behind a mask of complacent conformity.  He usually wears a plain black t-shirt, has well-groomed black hair and goatee, and is rarely seen without a glass tumbler of rum & coke in his hand (even while driving).  I’d say he’s the most likable of the three.  By the end of the first season he’s scored a 1976 Pontiac Firebird as his ride, with a matt maroon finish, black interior, Rally II wheels, and aluminum dash.  By season 6 he's driving a mid-80s Monte Carlo.

 Bubbles is just plain…weird.  He wears Coke bottle glasses which magnify his beady eyes, mumbles, swears, lives with cats, and hustles shopping carts – steals them from one chain, fixes them, and then sells them to the competing chain.  He reminds me of Milton from “Office Space”.

 Trevor & Cory.  This pair are always up to no good, and are easily the dumbest crooks in the park. Cory has dreadlocks, Trevor just has longish hair.  Usually they act as incompetent backups to RJB’s plans.  They idolize Ricky and Julian, who in turn abuse them and constantly bum cigarettes from them.

 Lahey & Randy.  Lahey is the unpopular and rarely sober Park Supervisor, a failed ex-cop with a chip on his shoulder.  He’s the consistent nemesis of Ricky and Julian, vowing to put an end to their criminal exploits – if he can emerge from a drunken stupor long enough to do anything.  His assistant, Randy, is a chunky doofus who never wears a shirt.  (All the episodes take place in warm weather – what does Randy do during the winter?).  Despite the conflicts with Lahey, there is a “devil you know” deal with him, so when Sam Losco tries to get elected park supervisor, the boys rally behind Lahey to clean him up and discredit and defeat Losco.  

 J-Roc and T.  T is a black guy who teams up with J-Roc, who is white but talks and dresses like a rapper.  Every other sentence from J-Roc is “knowwhatI’msayin’?”  Unlike Trevor and Cory, J-Roc usually brings the goods, so to speak.  He tends to be Ricky and Julian’s go-to guy for nefarious deeds, be it setting up a nightclub in the trailer, getting Julian his Firebird, or framing Sam Losco in an amateur porn film to shoot down his engagement to Lahey’s ex-wife (who actually owns the trailer park).  Although he’s partners with T, T has practically no lines and doesn’t seem to do anything.   

 Ellen Page shows up in Season 2 as Lahey’s daughter Treena.  Although she was about 14 at the time, she looks more like 10.  Even today she still looks like a teenager.

Alex Lifeson is in TWO episodes: first as himself when Bubbles tries to get Rush tickets and Ricky ends up kidnapping him - so Alex is wearing HIS clothes; then in a later episode he plays a local vice squad cop in drag, but I recognized him anyway.  

 For years I have never thought there was a “Canadian” accent, per se.  To my ears, most English-speaking Canadians speak with what I would consider a normal “American” accent.  But here I hear a few items:  the word “about” pronounced “aboot”, and “Car” consistently pronounced “cah” (like in New England).   But none of these guys sound like Kennedys.