15 Best Action Movies Of The Last 10 Years

The conceit of “what if superheroes were in the real world?” has been covered extensively at this point, but few did it before, or with the verve of, Kick-Ass. While the film was released before the superhero movie quite became the dominant blockbuster genre, it was a fresh take then, and somehow has only become fresher as the costumed juggernaut rolls on.

The premise is standard comic fare: a put-upon nerd is pushed around one time too many, and becomes a masked vigilante. Kick-Ass takes the notion to its daring extreme, though: the world of superheroics is not the gaudy romp of the MCU but an incredibly violent nightly fight for survival.

The film’s best creation is Hit-Girl, an 11 year old girl (breakout star Chloe Moretz) who has become a trained killer under the tutelage of her father (Nicholas Cage, surprisingly restrained). Moretz is given all the juiciest, most profane lines and the most startling violence. It’s not just a novelty, though: once the shock of a small girl saying the C word wears off, there’s a great character beneath the surface.