At number one on our countdown is the deliriously entertaining Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn's anarchic 'realistic' take on superheroes. This film was an absolute revelation upon it's release, a movie that came out of nowhere and blindsided audience's with its riotous humour, bone-crunching violence and breakout characters such as Chloe Moretz' Hit-Girl. Vaughn's control of the tone of the film is incredible, as there are so many elements that could have pushed it in the wrong direction if they had been calibrated incorrectly. It could have easily been off-puttingly brutal or the humour could have strayed too far into bad taste territory (in fact, just look at the ill-conceived sequel or Mark Millar's juvenile comics for evidence of how easily the concept falls apart). Cage is brilliant as Damon Macready, otherwise known as Big Daddy, the vigilante that Kick-Ass looks up to. Besides the spot-on 'Adam West as Batman' voice that he adopts when in costume (which is consistently hysterical), Cage brings a genuine warmth and fatherly love to his scenes with daughter Mindy/Hit-Girl. Without this relationship, Big Daddy would simply comes across as a dangerous psycho who is reckless with his daughter's life. Instead, Cage convinces the audience that he loves Mindy more than anything and that the questionable things he does while training her are simply to ensure her survival. Cage was reported to have pushed for more and more focus on their bond, which is almost entirely absent in the comic, and it definitely improves the finished product immeasurably.
