Rating: 
Never has a title been so true, so funny, and so simple as that of “Kick-Ass”.
Based on the comics by Mark Millar, the story is one of an ordinary comic-book-loving kid named Dave Lizewski who gets sick of people ignoring all of the crap in the world and resolves to emulate his heroes and become a masked vigilante. Needless to say he ends up hospitalised, criminals don’t take too kindly to people messing with them, but it was a fun idea.
Mixing wry realism with all the excesses of comic book violence, Millar’s creation is a masterpiece of ironic violence to rival anything produced by Tarantino. It’s conversion to film, though unnecessarily muting the glorious explosions of gore splattered across Millar’s pages, faithfully reproduces all of the deadpan hilarity Millar had to offer
The story of Dave Lizewski, and his alter-ego Kick-Ass, is not just the story of an ordinary teenager whose gutsy battle with some thugs becomes a YouTube hit, it is intertwined with a bona fide comic narrative provided by the funniest characters of the year by a mile: Big Daddy and Hit Girl. This duo are comic incongruity at it’s most brilliant.
Nick Cage brings a dead-pan wit and a perfect parody of Bale’s Batman to the role of Big Daddy, a cop whose false imprisonment has led him to seek revenge on the gangster who initiated his incarceration. Meanwhile Chloe Moretz (who excelled in “500 Days of Summer”) is a revelation as his 10-year-old daughter who has been trained into bad-ass killing machine in order to help bring down the evil mobster who destroyed her family.
The pair bounce maniacally between a twee father-daughter combo and the most dangerous duo ever to pull on a freaky costume.
The comedic element is supplemented by the presence of Christopher Mintz-Plasse who plays the son of the mobster being targetted by Big Daddy. As much of a comic fan as Dave, this character has a big part to play in the events that all of the characters soon become sucked into.
As a fan of the comics, I have a few problems with their transition to the big screen. One is that there’s not enough blood. It’s violent, yes, but it just lacks the excesses imbued into every page of Millar’s work. Explosions of limbs, gore and fluids splatter forth in the battles waged by these masked manmen, and the horrific consequences that await those who are in too deep are all too clear.
In the movie, a stabbing barely results in much bleeding and a pistol-whipping gives a man a mere graze. Not good enough! What’s more, Dave is meant to be an ordinary guy. He’s nothing special, but ABSOLUTELY NOT an archetypal ‘geek’. The film shoves him dangerously close to this territory and it’s not just unnecessary but actually pretty annoying. What’s more, it makes the character far less interesting and forces the focus more and more onto the awesomeness of Big Daddy.
Which brings me to my next point. These gripes are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, this is an awesome film. The dialogue is full of classic witticisms, wry observations and amusing absurdisms. The biggest kudos go to Cage and Moretz, but Aaron Johnson has plenty of great moments and Christopher Mintz-Plasse easily matches his comedic peak as McLovin’. The soundtrack is also superb, punctuating the action with as much wit as the incisive lines of the best characters.
The biggest success of the film is that is succeeds where so many have failed: it creates a loving parody of the comic book. All of the conventions are at once lampooned and lovingly revelled in: the twists and turns of the vengeance narrative, the orgiastic violence (however much it is tempered by nervous producers) and the playful jabs at the idiosyncracies of the people mad enough to take on the scum of the world. All of these things are played on with wit and with love, with superb results.
It’s funny, it’s clever, and it’s exciting. “Kick-Ass” is easily one of the best films of the year so far.
“Kick-Ass” opens on Friday in the U.K. & April 16th in the U.S.
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3 Comments
“JaySmack”, you show yourself to be one angry, lonely, foul-mouthed hater.
Your rancid comments shouldn’t have made it past the moderator. (YO- REF? DUDE’S TONE IS STENCH-FUL. PULL HIS PLUG).
The only thing that’s “retard”(ed) is your seething, DROOLING contempt for entertainment falling outside of your narrow vanilla confines of fanboy worship.
Grow a sense of humour, look at the possibilities outside of your narrow perspective of “exxcellent movies”. Give your Dark Knight jammies to Goodwill.
(or… propose to your right hand, as it will be your only companion in life).
LOL Simon, you’re SOOOO sensitive! LOL Did I accidently rip a nerve? The only people who could possible be offended by my comments are “pedophiles,” “retards” and “braindead inbreds.”
Yet, here you are telling me how great this movie is, and how wrong I am to even so much as “criticism” it.
Now, are you saying you’re one of these groups? If not, then let go of the bile, and concede that I’m right.
And no, I won’t waste time or money on this turdball of a flick. And apparently nobody else is either! LOL
Saneshiz, who died and made you Hitler? I can see my rant hit you where you live! You don’t like my opinion, then don’t read it, nobody’s holding a gun to your empty head.
All I want are good movies with strong storylines, inspired acting and something like originality. What do you want? More fodder for MST3K apparently.
I said this movie was crap from the moment I heard about it, and that it wouldn’t make back even it’s production costs. I was right, and the supporters of it (like yourself) were wrong.
Now you don’t have to like it but you do have to accept it.