Kick-Ass (2010)

Kick-Ass (R) - Review

"Hardcore Nerdcore"

Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) helms this adaption of the indy comic book done by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.  A slice of life and parody of the current state of Super Hero films, Kick-Ass is violently gory, childishly funny and rambunctious to an infectious degree.  It's the typical Super Hero origin story told through a rose colored filter of grim reality and cartoonish blood and guts.  Dave Lizewski is an average high schooler, an awkward comic book nerd with zero love life and even less smarts.  Instead of joining the varsity football team he dreams of becoming a real life super hero (named Kick Ass), saving damsels and beating bad guys to a pulp.  Attempting to fulfill his fantasy he instead gets dragged into a criminal underworld full of murders, drugs and thugs.  Often unexpected, many times morally ambiguous, Kick-Ass is entrainment for the masses and the film lover alike.  The British crime-film mood and look marries beautifully with the American Super hero trope, Millar's imaginative ideas about what a teenage superhero's gritty life might actually be like shines through all the gloss and ichor and curse words.  The cast does a fantastic job, even as out-of-control Nicolas Cage's character Big Daddy tries to distract the movie with an iffy Adam West impression complete with scenery chewing, but in cartoony context it all works.  The biggest hurdle for most will be rooting for an antihero 8 year old vigilante Hit Girl, murdering mobsters with extremely violent impunity.  Whether or not you can forgive that is a matter of taste, no-one can argue that Kick-Ass doesn't live up to its name.

It came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and luckily it was all out of gum.

8 Utility Belts out of 10 (GREAT)