Release Date – 4/16/10
Dave Lizewski isn’t the most popular kid at school. He’s overlooked by chicks, spends a lot of time in his room, and is generally lonely. He and his friends frequent a local comic book store and one thing Dave wonders about is why no regular guy ever tried to be a superhero. Without telling anyone, he orders a costume and starts patrolling the neighborhood looking for crime. He is Kick Ass! His first real run in with “bad guys” results in a trip to the hospital. When he recovers, he gets right back out on the streets. He defends a guy from a beating and is filmed for Youtube. He becomes an Internet sensation, creates a Myspace page, and starts answering messages from people in distress. He finds out he’s in over his head when some drug dealers are about to kill him. He’s saved by real superheroes who have been planning on taking down a drug lord. Its hard to describe this movie. Its definitely R rated for a reason. Its totally violent with a lot of curses flying around. But its really funny, action packed, and a unique look at a superhero story kind of being a spoof without being one.
Aaron Johnson, a relatively unknown 19 year old actor, takes on the role of Dave/Kick-Ass. He doesn’t really do a great job and is slightly annoying but I guess he was supposed to have that Peter Parker type feel to him. Its easy to accept and not a deal breaker in terms of liking or disliking the movie. Nicolas Cage plays Big Daddy, a real deal superhero. No special powers but he’s a well trained fighter and takes out a LOT of bad guys. Cage was amazing as his over the top acting worked perfectly here, especially his silly superhero voice. Chloe Moretz plays his daughter, Hit Girl, who may be more badass than Big Daddy. She’s been trained her whole life by her father to fight and kill. That is the main difference between superheroes like Batman and these guys. Big Daddy and Hit Girl just kill EVERYONE! There are so many awesomely put together fight scenes. Mark Strong plays a typical drug lord bad guy. They throw in that famous theme of the son trying to impress his father and get involved in the business. Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin from Superbad) plays the son trying to please his dad but usually he gets overlooked. His part wasn’t huge but was important to the final scenes.
One plot point that I wasn’t really behind was Dave’s love story. He pretends to be gay to become close with a hot girl at school but then the big reveal meant nothing to her when she finds out the truth. I didn’t really see the point of any of that besides having the worried girlfriend of a superhero, I guess like Mary Jane in Spiderman. The best way to describe this movie is a unique R-Rated comedy/action superhero spoof-like movie, that’s a mouth full. It’s got a lot of great elements to it. Like I already mentioned, it had some aspects of Spiderman and Batman but with a twist. Its directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) and based on a comic book series by Mark Millar but I was unfamiliar with the subject material before seeing this. So I’m not sure how faithful it is to the comic book but regardless, the movie is really good. In fact, I was really enjoying it and knew it would be Made but was on the fence about the exact score. The final half hour was the deciding factor probably bumping it up a full point. Hit Girl really puts on a show. I wouldn’t mind watching it again right now!
IMDB – 8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 77%
Movie Wiseguys – 9/10
