"At some point in our lives, we all want to be a Superhero" ~ Kick-Ass

So as one can see, I clearly adore this film. Superhero noir is becoming one of the best up and coming genres of today. Kick-Ass is an ideal example for that. It's a semi-realistic look into the existence of super-heroes in this world.

Dave Lizewski is a normal invisible teenage boy who out of optimism and naivity, and obviously a lot of comics, decides that he would become a superhero and save people. However, at his first attempt he gets stabbed in the stomach and run over by a car. He gets metal plates inside him as a result, making him a psuedo-Wolverine. This only excites him more and in his day-saving, he stops a gang from hurting a man while other kids record it. This video becomes an Internet sensation and Kick-Ass a youth icon.

Meanwhile, an ex-police officer Damon Macready has been preparing his young daughter Mindy in combat skills to avenge the death of his wife from the underworld lord Frank D'Amico. They are the suoerhero duo Big Daddy and Hit Girl. They do a lot of damage, but Frank believes that it was the work of Kick-Ass. After killing a random kid dressed as Kick-Ass, his son Chris comes up with the idea that he would become a superhero in order to gain Kick-Ass' trust. So he becomes Red Mist. Both he and Kick-Ass meett and go to a place where an ambush is waiting for Kick-Ass but Big Daddy already destroys the place. It is then that the goons realise that Kick-Ass is an innocent kid and the main "hero" is Big Daddy.

While Dave is being Kick-Ass, he has also become closer to the prettiest girl in school Katie Deuxma, however it is because she thinks he is gay. After meeting Hit Girl and Big Daddy, he starts feeling like a fake and decides to give up being Kick-Ass. But first he goes and tells Katie because "Spiderman and not Peter Parker gets the girl." Katie is angry at first but then she forgives him and they secretly start going out. In all of this Dave had sort of forgotten his masked identity and when he check's Kick-Ass' MySpace page he sees that Red Mist wants to meet him. Red Mist tells Kick-Ass that they need help and should meet Big Daddy and Hit Girl. But like before this too is a trap and Kick-Ass and Big Daddy get caught.

There is a live public unmasking of them posted online and while everyone watches both get beaten to pulp by a bunch of goons. However as they are to be set on fire Hit Girl intervenes and kills all of the kidnappers. However a fire does get lit, as a result of which Big Daddy dies. It is then that Hit Girl decides to take revenge and with the help of Kick-Ass, attacks Frank D'Amico's house.

I'm not going to tell the ending though the pictures seem self-explanatory. I love the real world aspect of Kick-Ass, the fact that none of the super-heroes are actually endowed with super-human powers. There is a lot of cursing and blood and fighting and it really is not a kid-friendly film. It is very well made and some of the scenes are plain genius. The soundtrack too compliments this type of a film. Mika's "Kick-Ass" is brill!

My favourite character is that of Hit Girl because she is the best ass-kicking character ever. Her lines are as brilliant as her gun/kinfe/any other weapon skills. She is played by Chloe Moretz who generally plays an adorable little girl in  fiilms but in this one was a total bad-ass. My next favourite character is Red Mist who is played by Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse. He is funny and violent and geeky. I lve how much he tries to be a part of his father's "gang". Aaron Johnson as Dave/Kick-Ass is pretty good too. I never expected the hot Brit to play a role like this, but he was pretty convincing. I like his simplicity and goodness. Nicholas Cage as Big Daddy is pretty awesome too.

It is a very innovative-type of superhero movie, a trend that has started from Batman Begins. Highly entertaining and a must watch for anyone who doesn't mind violence and loves their Superheroes.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

Dear Q,

It’s impossible to sum up in a short letter how + why I love John, but here are a few thoughts…
I love him because…he was a mate through our teenage years in Liverpool, he was the guy I sat across from as we worked out how to write songs, he was the man I admired as we evolved through the madness of fame, fortune and “fabness”, and he was, and still is, the heroic figure whose wit and wisdom, with a little help from his friends, shaped the thoughts and lives of millions of people.
AND SO MUCH MORE.
Love, Paul

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!! YOU ARE SORELY MISSED...

John Lennon Google Doodle

"Dear Leonard. To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face and to know it for what it is. At last to know it, to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away. Leonard, always the years between us, always the years. Always the love. Always the hours." ~ Virginia Woolf, The Hours

"I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

V."

Just watched The Hours again. How I love that film and the performances and the music! I love how when Ed Harris' character throws himself out of the window, he says the same last line to Meryl Streep's character as Virginia Woolf wrote in her suicide note to her husband Leonard. I think though it is essentially a sad film about the three women so wonderfully played by Nicole Kidman, Juliane Moore and Streep, about their struggle, illness and family problems, I do think love plays an important part. It's somewhere there in the haunting atmosphere, in the beautiful music, in their grief...it makes your heart swell up while watching.

Though it's awful when people die young, today being the 70th birthday of John Lennon who passed away at 40; I somehow think that they would have had it in no other way. "Only the good die young." Woolf's stories made so much sense because you can see parallels in her life with them. The fact that she died, and that Septimus Smith died and everything else, it's all part of a bigger picture. I genuinely love her relationship with her husband Leonard and this letter shows that so clearly.

"My songs are just little letters to me." ~ BEST MUSIC VIDEOS

      So I know that this is mainly a film-appreciation blog, but I quite like songs too if you've noticed the playlist at the bottom. Now today I saw a music video and thought it was one of the most beautiful and brilliant things I've ever seen. I love good music videos. There have been many times when I hear a song and imagine how the video would look like...I bet many of us do that actually. I think there can be nothing better to compliment a good song than an equally good video.


      So these are some of my favourite music videos (or the ones I remember right now):


1) Gravity, Sara Bareilles- This was the video I saw today. The use of lights in the video is just incredible. It's like a dream. I can't think if such an effect can realistically be used in a film, but a musical or something, it would just do wonders. It's just transplendent.
Video


2) Dog Days Are Over, Florence + The Machine- I mean the cool, apparently wiccan video and not the awful Avatar-dancer video. I love people going mental in forests...really do. There's something awesome about pagan rituals and Florence Welsh is just gorgeous.
Video


3) Islands, The XX- I love them dancers. This is my personal favourite XX song due to the simplicity of its idea, but the whole backstory with the fantastic dancers makes it so much more.
Video


4)Bones, The Killers- Okay I accept I'm biased when it comes to Tim Burton, but this is an awesome video. It's so expected that he would put skeletons in a love story. The song is genius and I honestly prefer the From Here To Eternity kiss in the video to the real one.
Video


5) You're so Gay, Katy Perry- I love it. I love the fun, cynical Katy Perry. The whole Barbie-Ken twist is superb. Though I like most of her videos, just the amount of insulting and demeaning is plain inspiring.


6) All You Need Is Love, The Beatles- Flower Power! Words cannot describe how much I want to be sitting in the crowd. It's lovely.
Video


7) Thriller, Michael Jackson- I know people would find it a "cliché" but, as I always say, that a cliché is nothing but a hit formula. MJ has made amongst the best videos and Thriller is the epitome- the setting, the make-up, the zombies, the dance, It's a legend.
Video


8) Northern Downpour, Panic At The Disco- Many consider it their best song yet, including me. It's very sad that they disbanded right after this. They had so much potential that it kills me. It's a very cute and Panic-y video.


9) What Goes Around Comes Around, Justin Timberlake- Oh I loved it when JT brought sexy back. And this monumental return got completed by this video. It's super-hot. Scarlett Johannson is gorgeous and JT shows he can be as sassy and mean as Katy Perry. I like the debauched sort-of background, and the fact that it has a storyline.
Video


10) Happy Ending, Mika- I love each and every Mika video. But Happy Ending's just special. Its quite a sad song, I always imagined it in a cemetery. Then I saw the happy and childish video. It is so joyful, and charming.
Video


11) Here It Goes Again, OK Go- I seriously look forward to each of their videos like how I look forward to a Tarantino film. They are just grand. Also the whole tradmill dance became such a sensation. They're not even dancers. It's marvelous!!
Video


12) Knights Of Cydonia, Muse- This actually looks like a cross between a movie that would inspire Tarantino and probably someone like George Lucas. I love the insanity of a karate-obsessed "space cowboy".
 Video


13) Vogue, Madonna- Like Thriller, this is plain legendary. Madonna is dazzling. I love the black and white. I love the dancing. I love love love the cultural references! And...the fact that DAVID FINCHER made it!!!
Video


14) 1234 I Love You, Plain White Ts- It's just the most adorable, puppy love video ever. It spreads joy and love. A sappy me would love to be in the video.
Video


15) A Beautiful Lie, 30 Seconds To Mars- They make extreme, mindblowing videos. But going to the Arctic and shooting this video was just the icing on the cake. The message, the song, Jared Leto's bluest-of-all-blues eyes. Takes your breath away, it really does.
Video


Bonus: A bonus awesome video would be Everybody by Backstreet Boys. This song was the total combined essence of the boyband era of the 90s. I bow down to it.
 Video


      Other videos I really like are Boys Don't Cry by The Cure, all Mika and OK Go videos, Empire State of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys, URA Fever by The Kills,  and Cousins by Vampire Weekend.


      Now amongst the videos I hate  are those which completely ruin the song. For instance Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol and Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. The videos were meant to be as excellent as the song, but they absolutely disappoint. Also I hate many videos and songs together, like California Gurls by Katy Perry. Just want to ask her one thing, What was she thinking?


       However, without these slight glitches, all the videos are exquisite. Watch!!

I always liked strange characters~ Tim Burton

The sheer brilliance of their friendship and chemistry just amazes me. Love them both!