SPOILERS Kick-Ass 2 (2013) - Jeff Wadlow SPOILERS

Yes, it has taken me a while to go and see this. I am aware.
It was a good movie, yet very different to the comic. I haven't read the Hit Girl solo outing yet, so a lot of the storyline to me was completely different to Kick-Ass 2 the comic. Maybe the Mindy (Chloe Grace Moretz) as a normal girl was explored more fully in that one. But therein lied the film's downfall. Most of the B plot was interesting, but seriously the solution of the sick making stick. That was a little too slapstick for my liking, and a bit crude.
Other than that, the Union J jokes were funny, and Mindy's crush on Dave (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) was realistically played out, with everyone thinking he was a pedophile.
The pedophile thing was a good and clever way of writing out the character of Katie, because, as most fans of the comic know, it wasn't such a happy ending for her and Dave in the first comic, let alone the second one.
Making Night Bitch the victim of the Mother Fucker's attempted rape was unnecessary, but I do think the toning down of that same scene from the comic book was needed for the movie market or for fans of Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who played him. A light hearted film such as this, couldn't have that one minute, and the next, make a joke about pubescent teenage girls fancying musclebound men. Jeff Wadlow, who also adapted the comic to screenplay as well as directed, barely just got away with the killing of Mr Lizewski. The same goes for the beheaded dog/Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) scene. It would have dampened the film, and made it an 18, missing out on a key demographic that the film is aimed at.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

PS No matter how good friends you are with someone, you would not be their friend anymore if they helped a supervillain kill your father. Unrealistic!

Hell Ride (2008) - Larry Bishop

Hell Ride seems like a way for Larry Bishop to live all his dreams: he's a biker, a star and director in a movie, and he also just has sex with lots of women. It gets points for cheesiness, but everything that it does, Machete (2010) - Robert Rodriguez does far more superiorly and in a much more interesting fashion.
This film was hard to understand, and its main redeeming factor was that I couldn't place where I'd seen the character of Comanche before. And then it hit me! Eric Balfour was Jesse in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's pilot episode, who died, sadly.
Other than that, the age range of the actors and characters was a little too unbelievable.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Green Street (2005) - Lexi Alexander

I often wonder when watching violent films, if the actor is right for a role, and Elijah Wood, I feel, was not. He seems too hobbit-y to play such a strong and tough character. His boyish blue eyes and camp demeanor were definitely not right for the part of a football hooligan. Sorry. OK film, though. Maybe my lack of interest in football severed my judgement.
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Kidulthood (2006) - Menhaj Huda

This film has so much hype, that it was difficult for me to imagine it being as good as it's legend suggests. Luckily, it didn't disappoint. Noel Clarke is a tremendous actor when written so well, and by himself as well, but Adam Deacon is the obvious breakout star, yet it still took him another six years to win a coveted BAFTA: the Rising Star award.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Shutter Island (2010) - Martin Scorsese

Aside from his short, The Big Shave (1968), I think this may be the first Scorsese film I have ever watched. I know: bad film student, but a brilliant movie to introduce me to Scorsese's work. It was stunning, and the twists and turns were perfectly done by Scorsese in his own mise en scene style. I look forward to more of the same, the dramatic mix up of style and auteurship when I watch his others.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Rebecca (1940) - Alfred Hitchcock

A beautiful film. Truly beautiful. The relationship between Laurence Olivier's character and Joan Fontaine, particularly towards the end, was perfectly done to show the tension and arguments that most relationships have: the ups and downs, and the etceteras. Hitchcock does this very well, and the fact Olivier did not actually like Fontaine comes across in a few angry scenes. When compared with the ones where they are seemingly in love, Olivier's position as one of the great actors is cemented. A good film.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) - Sharon Maguire

I am sad that I will never direct a scene as iconic and as ruddy brilliant as the fight scene between Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver. Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are two of the greatest British actors of the modern era, and this scene just gets me every time, with a fantastic soundtrack of It's Raining Men by the Weather Girls. Oh yeah!

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆