Kickassia (2010)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Dreadfully Boring

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

People are being far too harsh on this film! It is meant to be one big joke. Kickassia is movie written out of clichés that are present in the movies, shows and video games the people of TGWTG review.Costumes that are worse than the ones found at Spencer's, obviously simple solutions ignored in favor of more complicated plans, women who are competent suddenly turning into damsels in distress, these things are all in the movie. You think its a coincidence that these also happen to be things that The Critic rants about? They made a movie they would rip apart in their reviews, that's the joke! I saw it as basically one big wink to the fans.If you're looking for something that is Oscar worthy then maybe you shouldn't be looking for it in an online movie made to be silly!

Remember when Spoony and the Nostalgia Critic used to be funny? When they seemed like regular, down-to-earth guys? After witnessing 'Kickassia', that seems like something that happened in another lifetime.There were warning signs before, of course. Their previous one year anniversary special didn't bode well, but this film takes the raging Internet egotism and desperately unfunny in-jokes to hitherto unprecedented levels. Not just a failure as a film, this is a misstep of 'Love Guru' proportions, the kind of ego-stroking embarrassment that makes you reassess their previous work and wonder if they were ever actually that funny to begin with.Yeah, so they're just online critics making something "for the fans", but most of these people critique films for a living and really should know better. It's low budget, but many films have been made for less and managed to throw decent acting, direction and lighting into the bargain, when Kickassia fails to get even the latter right. What jokes there are come off as forced and poorly delivered, when they're not being outright lifted from other sources. Once a keen fan, I've been losing faith in TGWTG's material for a while now, and this really seals the deal for me. A sprawling epic of compressed awfulness that only the most die-hard of fans could ever enjoy. Avoid.

I have read a wide range of viewpoints on this movie, and honestly I find both the strongly negative arguments and the strongly positive arguments somewhat compelling in their own ways; however, I'd grant greater purchase to the negative views, and here is why.On the one hand, you have a series of highly disjoint and awkwardly assembled set pieces, with characters numbering in the double digits, but none of them having a personality in any way distinct from any other character. They are all very mean-spirited and tend to speak only in a shouting voice, complete with exaggerated arm gestures and painfully contorted facial expressions, and there isn't really a single character for the audience to like and connect with. I guess that Brad Jones (the Cinema Snob) is somewhat likable, but his role is quite small, to where you couldn't really classify him as a protagonist in any respect. Every single character is a greedy sociopath bent on domination and constantly scheming. That could make for a good dark comedy, in the right hands, but it falls apart here because there's no goal or cause for the audience to care about. Now Doug's in the president's chair--okay, now Spoony's in charge--oh, no wait, now Lindsay is running things. None of these is a meaningful transition, since Doug, Spoony, and Lindsay are all basically the same character--a scheming sociopath. Meanwhile, all conflicts are played out in the same exact manner: long fight scenes consisting in the worst fight choreography I have ever witnessed, including in community theater. Also, the characters all evidently have infinite hit points and never sustain injuries and occasionally display never-before-so-much-as-hinted super powers, so there is no drama to these scenes. Spoony and Doug Walker apparently both possess force lightning, while Sage has super- strength (or something).On the other hand, one can tell that a lot of effort went into making this movie. But that's the problem in many ways, because one wonders *why* they went to so much effort for such a weak screenplay. I mean, they all flew to Nevada and rented rooms at a hotel in Reno. Benzaie came all the way from France. They composed a score, stitched together a couple costumes, and even hired the "president" of a micronation to provide his home and lend his acting ... talent? The effort is all very transparent, and it's almost as though the movie tries to convince you it's good solely on account of this effort; the problem is that I cannot discern any true creative spark beneath the heaps of detritus. I don't think that Doug Walker woke up one morning to be whacked in the head by his muse with artistic inspiration, resulting in this film. Rather, it looks as though he squeezed out a corporate product with a checklist of elements, like a weird low-budget version of the Star Wars prequels. The fact that it's low budget doesn't negate that the movie is essentially a money-making vehicle and hardly an artistic product. I'm not sure whether Doug and Rob Walker ever had a coherent vision for what they wanted 'Kickassia' to be. The tone is really confused, constantly veering between light slapstick and heavy black comedy.That said, there are some positive factors. I wouldn't go so far as to describe the tech aspects as *adequate* but obviously someone was paying attention to giving the movie at least a slight veneer of respectability. (The special effects, though, which appear to all be post-production Adobe After-Effects, look terrible. Cummon, you couldn't buy a couple firecrackers and bottle rockets in *Nevada* and done some real, tangible special effects? It's like the most lawless state in the nation!) And it was kind of a funny tone shift when Santa Christ is shot, bringing the action to a sudden halt. I would say the scene is good only because it's the only time that a physical confrontation actually has consequences.

One reviewer exclaimed "if it's just a fan service, it wouldn't be listed as a film on this site, and must be judged as such." Pfft. I was surprised to even see it had a page, I was just randomly checking. In some ways, it is a resume builder for reviewers and crew, so why not? It's a special, but not a film. There's plenty of specials listed on IMDb. The "Golden Globe Awards Red Carpet Special" is on IMDb, you want to write a review of that in the context of a film?If you want it to be a complete film with everything explained, that's not what you're going to get. They're going to seem like two dimensional characters because they've already been defined for the audience on their respective review shows.It's one giant inside joke. It's a pleasure for fans, but if you're not familiar with thatguywiththeglasses.com, this will mean nothing to you.