Nowhere Boy (2010)

Aaron Johnson is a star in the making. Since I watched this in America, this comes fresh off the heels of his great turn in Kick-Ass. Now, he's a teenage John Lennon discovering the world of rock 'n roll.

John Lennon (Johnson) is a troubled youth growing up in the ever-changing times of the mid-1950s. He's grown up in the care of his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) after his mother decided to walk out of his life when he was a boy. But a recent death in the family makes John want to find Julia Lennon (Anne-Marie Duff). As it turns out, she might be pretty cool. Julia teaches John about rock 'n roll and what exactly it means (sex). Lennon decides to start his first rock band called The Quarrymen. As the band starts to actually get good, his life begins to change dramatically again, and I'm not talking about him meeting George Harrison and Paul McCartney for the first time.

Aaron Johnson was terrific as Lennon. As much as I love movies, and try to find out about them, I had no idea he was British in real life. He hid it so well in Kick-Ass. Duff and Thomas were great as Lennon's influences. I may go so far as to say any of them could have gotten an Oscar nod. The movie didn't delve into the music as much as I would've liked, but the relationships developed made it worthwhile. Grade: B+

Kick-Ass (2010)

What a fun movie. It's very violent and incredibly profane, so let's just get that out of the way. It's a very fresh take on the superhero genre and I just had a blast watching Nicolas Cage doing his best Adam West-Batman imitation.

Dave (Aaron Johnson) is a normal high-schooler who goes through life getting ignored by girls. He loves comics and visits the comic book store with his friends almost everyday. After getting mugged one too many times, he decides to take matters into his owns hands. He becomes his own superhero: Kick-Ass. The first is the worst. He nearly gets killed trying to stop some thugs from breaking into a car. When he gets out of the hospital, he needs to get serious about fighting crime. He starts training and eventually creates a cult following for himself online. Copycats like Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) start coming out of the woodwork. When things get too real for Kick-Ass, that's when Big Daddy and Hit Girl (Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz) coming in guns a-blazin...literally. The main goal is to take down the crime syndicate that runs the town and keeps the citizens in fear. The superheroes can either come together to stop crime, or get too entangled in each others' lives to do any good.

All the actors did a great job in their roles with the standouts being Chloe Moretz and Mark Strong as the main mobster, Frank D'Amico. Strong is good in anything he does, but Moretz takes the cake. Your jaw will hit the floor by what words come out of her mouth. Don't worry, it fits her character. The plot for the movie was a mix of originality and same-old crap you've seen before. The good outweighed the bad, but not enough to make it a top tier movie. I still had a hell of a good time. Grade: B+