Written by: Andrea Portes
Directed by: Derick Martini
Genre: Drama

A 13-year-old Nebraska girl, Luli (Chloë Grace Moretz), runs away from her alcoholic parents, bringing along a pistol.  After she is taken under the wing of grifter Glenda (Blake Lively), who uses her in cons and makes her an accessory to a robbery, both their lives are threatened by erratic drifter Eddie (Eddie Redmayne).  Juliette Lewis, Alec Baldwin, and Rory Culkin also star.

I watched Hick solely because Chloë Moretz was in it.  I’ve been a fan of her since I saw her in an episode of My Name is Earl and came away very impressed.  Since then she’s gone on to bigger and better things like Kick-Ass, Let Me In, 500 Days of Summer, Hugo and Dark Shadows.

The objectification of Moretz starts early on when she appears in her rainbow underwear holding a gun.  After this, even though I knew nothing about the plot of Hick, it seemed pretty obvious where it was gonna go; Luli would get herself into trouble and at some point she would get hurt or raped.  Well that ended up happening but we were lucky enough as an audience to be spared from actually seeing anything.  I can’t abide rape scenes, and I certainly don’t want to see someone like Chloë Moretz go through one.

Whilst I was watching the film I couldn’t help but think about the Dakota Fanning film Hounddog which got all it’s publicity thanks to a graphic rape scene featuring Fanning.  I’ve never seen Hounddog but I imagine it got made thanks to the presence of Fanning and the nature of the film.  That level of controversy leads to publicity, and I think Hick took a similar route thanks to Chloë Moretz be paraded around as a sex object.

The actual story contained in the film is nothing special, Luli runs away from home for some reason and crosses paths with Eddie, a psychopath, and Glenda, a grifter, and thanks to Luli’s need to be with someone who can take care of her, she finds herself getting into trouble when Eddie’s affection for her gets too much for him to control.  The film ultimately builds to a disjointed and unsatisfactory conclusion in a cabin, with Luli seemingly just shrugging off all the things she’s been through over the previous few days.  I’m all for happy endings but I think this one glossed over Luli’s ordeal way too easily.

On the performance side of things I think most everyone does a decent enough job with the material they were given.  Eddie Redmayne is the clear standout thanks to his very effective portrayal of a crazy pervert.  Blake Lively does about as well as you’d expect the Gossip Girl star to do, but doesn’t nearly approach the quality of her performance in The Town.  Chloë Moretz delivers another natural performance which has none of the typical child actor awkwardness you usually see in young performers.  Besides the three leads it was a pleasant surprise to see Rory Culkin (who I’m a big fan of simply for the fact that he’s a Culkin) and Alec Baldwin (who I’m a fan of thanks to Working Girl, Beetlejuice and 30 Rock).

CONCLUSION
Chloë Moretz was good as the young and attractive Luli, but ultimately Hick is unimpressive due to the somewhat disjointed plot and a very unrewarding conclusion.

RATING: 5/10
FLICKCHART RANKING:  759 of 1515

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HICK review HollywoodHubbub

I know the book gets a lot of praise but I’ve never read it and am unlikely to.  With that said, I think the trailers for this film make it look absolutely outstanding, especially with the use of that Arcade Fire song.  Hopefully the final product will satisfy not only fans of the book but also people who go in blind.

Where the Wild Things Are is set to open on 16th October in the US and 3rd December for me here in Oz.

(source = IMP Awards)

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New poster for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE HollywoodHubbub

Here’s the teaser trailer for the upcoming adaptation of the first Percy Jackson novel.

I tried reading the book and gave up a couple of chapters into it.  It’s certainly a children’s book, but unlike the Harry Potter series of novels I really don’t think it’s written to be read by adults.  The writing style just screams children’s book.

That being said I’m a little curious to see the film because I generally enjoy the work of Chris Columbus.

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Here are five new posters for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince each focusing on the different kids.

I’m really looking forward to the film as I thought it was the best of the books by far.  It’s set to open on July 15th.

Click the images for a larger view.

[source = IMP Awards]

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The original British cast

Written by: Drew Pearce & Jeff Greenstein
Plot/Info: Superheroes are real.  They interact in society just like regular people.  The show follows four friends who are B-list “capes” and frequent the only superhero bar in New York called “The Watchtower.”  The show is an adaptation of a British show which aired last year on ITV2.

I’m a pretty big fan of the original British version of the show, with its dry humour and great premise, so I was quite excited to hear that the show was being adapted for the US.  In my mind it was gonna be another great adaptation like The Office, but despite having the original creator Drew Pearce involved it unfortunately all seems to fall a bit flat.  The great thing about the original version is that the whole point of the show is to illustrate that being a superhero isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and that there are still class divisions within that segment of society.  The tone of the original show seemed to fit this much better than this script has done.

There have been changes to the characters in the adaptation, although I can’t figure out why they felt the need to do that other than to try and make the show more of their own.  In the original version there was Alex who controlled heat, Sarah who controlled machines with her voice, Don who could see 60 seconds into the future, Jenny who had super-strength, and Devlin who was the alpha-male #1 superhero.  The US version changes the majority of these, there’s now Pete who controls the cold, Callie who can be invisible for a limited time, Nigel who can read minds if he’s within 3 metres, Sandy who has super-strength, and Bradley who’s the alpha-male.  In addition, the bouncer/doorman at the bar has been changed from Thundermonkey (who can calls his monkeys to do his bidding) to Horseforce (who does the same but with stallions).

One of the first things that struck me when I read the script was a glaring mistake.  The title of the show comes from a sign on the outside of the bar which reads “”NO MASKS, NO POWERS, NO HEROICS” yet there’s this action almost directly under this:

[scrippet]

INT. THE WATCHTOWER – MAIN ROOM – CONTINUOUS
They enter a bustling speakeasy. We catch glimpses of superpowers — a glowing finger, someone levitating.

[/scrippet]

It seems pretty important to me that this integral element of the show should be maintained and not disregarded almost immediately.  Maybe it’s just an oversight, but it’s a pretty damn big one wouldn’t you say.

The only saving grace of the script is the fact that Don/Nigel is still gay, and is British to boot, in the US version.  I’m assuming they did this in order to appeal to a wider audience and to play off his accent and demeanour in combination with his sexual orientation, but the result is still not that great and the character, whilst essentially the same as the original version of the show, is not as well written.  Overall he seems to lack the biting edge that he has in the British version.  The other main downfall of the script is that it’s just not funny.  In fact, this was the only section which I thought was any good:

[scrippet]

EXT. SUBURBAN BACKYARD – LATER
A fairy-lit kids’ party with a makeshift stage. Pete, now in full costume, is backstage with the birthday girl’s dad. Pete peeks out at the crowd of expectant, sugar-high kids.

PETE
Are any of them biters? Because I’ve had trouble with biters before.

DAD
Not that I know of, Chillaxe.

PETE
Chillout. I mean, it’s fine if there are. But maybe we could have a little muzzle standing by? A little makeshift muzzle, just in case?

DAD
Where’s the invisible girl you promised?

PETE
What can I say? She disappeared!

Pete laughs uproariously at his joke. The dad does not.

PETE (CONT’D)
Yeah, she’s not coming.

DAD
So what am I getting for my money? You gonna do some flying?

PETE
Well, no, flying’s not really on the menu. But you can expect a cavalcade of frozen fun and sub-zero sensation!

DAD
You make crap out of ice?

PETE
I make crap out of ice.

DAD
Listen, don’t mess up my baby girl’s big day, okay? She’s got it hard enough, being in a wheelchair.

PETE
Really? Oh, man, that’s terrible.
(beat)
My three best disabled jokes just went right out the window.

[/scrippet]

Ultimately I think it was a good decision that ABC declined to pick up the show as this will leave all of us who are/were interested in the premise to seek out the superior British version when it becomes available on DVD.

Final Grade:  C- (I could have rated it lower, but I still like the whole premise of the show)

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