Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass

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Whether you will like Kick-Ass seems to come down to one question: are you offended by an 11-year old girl being trained as an assassin, spouting out naughty words while killing loads of people in a variety of creative ways and taking a beating or a bullet to the chest at certain times? If the answer is “no” than Kick-Ass could be just your thing. However, if the answer is “yes” and you are not willing to look any further than Kick-Ass is not for you which is a shame as you’re missing out on something with this funny movie that parodies and homages the superhero genre at the same time, while being a solid scripted story on its own.

While this girl named Hit-Girl and played by Chloe Moretz is an absolute scene-stealer the movie is much more than just her one-woman, eh I mean one-girl-show. Special kudos go to Nicolas Cage who, for a change, stars in a good movie and is actually fun to watch. Kick-Ass makes him look cool again, and considering his resume of the last few years that is quite a feat. Especially the scenes as Big Daddy in which he gives an Adam West inspired turn are comedic gold and truly delightful to watch. Mark Strong and Christopher Mintz-Plasse deserve a special mention as the evil father and son who go to great lengths to rid the streets of these so-called superheroes. Their interaction has one foot in reality, the other in a bucket full of outrageous. Also very fun to watch.

Behind the stellar performances and goofy premise of regular kids dressing up as superheroes is actually a layered story with characters of flesh and blood. While Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass is the average school nerd we see in most high school films and is completely interchangeable with Jim from American Pie, the sequence in which the back-stories of Big daddy and Hit Girl are explained is not only beautiful to watch at but is also very moving. The story consists of some twists and characters who you’re never quite sure who they’re loyal to. Together with a tongue-in-cheek script full of comedy that doesn’t fall flat Kick-Ass is filled with action, comedy and never feels shallow

Quite the contrary actually, as the scripts could have done with some cutting. The whole gay-friend sub-plot wasn’t very interesting and unnecessary to the plot and the first half of the movie dragged a bit. Not too much though and the dragging of the first half is being made up for by the action-packed second half when Big Daddy and Hit-Girl really get into action. These are minor spots on what is a prime example of good movie making and finding the right balance between comedy and action. And as a parody of course as it respects the source material but also has fun with it at the same time.

I never took a movie like Kick-Ass seriously and the fact that an 11-year old girl slaughters tons of people and swears is in my opinion just plain funny. The movie never shows any signs of pretentiousness and on the sexual front this R-rated movie was actually quite tame. Though the makers had some opportunities to show them not a bare breast was shown. So all the controversy surrounding the movie comes down to Hit-Girl. Well, she was a hit with the audience from the moment she appeared on screen.

Kick Ass Screenshot

Kick-Ass Poster
Kick-Ass Poster
Kick-Ass
  • Year:
    2010
  • Director:
    • Matthew Vaughn
  • Cast:
    • Aaron Taylor-Johnson
    • Nicolas Cage
    • Chloë Grace Moretz
    • Garrett M. Brown
  • Genres:
    Action, Comedy
  • Running time:
    117m

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