Alphabetical Movie – Kick-Ass

I’ve written about Butt-Numb-a-Thon a few times over the course of the Alphabetical Movie Project.  It is one of those unique moviegoing experiences that I’m supremely fortunate to experience every year.

One thing about being in a room filled with rabid, cheering film geeks, however, is that I never really know how good a film is.

I mean, Harry tosses something awful at us almost every year, but that’s on purpose.  He also shows us a lot of premieres that I inevitably enjoy because of where I am watching them.  When I sit down and try to evaluate them later, I’m left puzzled to determine if I liked them because they were good movies or if I liked them because of the unreal environment that is Butt-Numb-a-Thon.

If the film is Cabin in the Woods, I have little doubt that my enjoyment was certainly greater because I saw it at BNAT.  Having watched it since, I am also completely confident that the movie is excellent.

If you haven’t guessed already, Kick-Ass was a BNAT film and I loved the hell out of it when I saw it in that environment.  The moment that Hit Girl finally opens up her can of whup-ass on a room full of drug dealers, the BNAT audience went nuts.  That doesn’t happen when you watch a movie with a regular movie audience.  They don’t scream and cheer when a character does something awesome.

Think of every time Legolas does something bad ass in The Lord of the Rings. You wish you had seen that at BNAT.

But that sort of enthusiasm is contagious.  You get caught up in the awesome moments and you don’t really notice if the film drags or the acting is bad or the story makes no sense.  You just want to watch Hit Girl kill some more drug dealers.

The truth is, there are some BNAT movies that I have later realized are, at best, mediocre.  Yet I still like them because they were BNAT films and I can’t separate the experience of watching the film from the film itself.

That’s fine by me.  Lots of people hate Vanilla Sky and I love it.  So what? I don’t lose anything when someone else hates a movie I liked.

Where it makes me cautious is in recommending films I see there.  I still do recommend them, mind you, but I worry about it.  Am I recommending it because of my own emotional connection to the initial viewing or because it is actually a good movie?

I often prefer to watch the film a second time before I go for the hard sell.  Unless a movie just completely blew my mind, I’ll try to nudge people towards the theatre rather than trying to shove them into a seat.  Cabin in the Woods was worthy of a big shove. Kick-Ass felt more like I needed to nudge.

And yeah, I overthink the hell out of all of it because I hate to recommend a movie to someone and then have them hate it.  I either want them to like it as much as I did or I don’t want them to watch the thing at all because they are going to hurt the film by telling people not to see it.  I don’t want people bad mouthing a movie I like.  Because they are wrong, god damn it!  WRONG!

Having now re-watched Kick-Ass a few times, I can admit that I probably liked it more than the movie may warrant.  Not much, though.

And did you guys know there is definitely going to be a sequel?  How fucking awesome is that?  I hope Hit Girl kills some more drug dealers.