It’s appropriate that Kick-Ass opens tomorrow. While the next few days will be filled with enough booze and debauchery to keep you busy, I can think of no better Fling activity than watching this film in a theater filled with your drunken classmates.
Kick-Ass follows Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a bored high-school student who decides to become a superhero even though he has no powers or formal training. He orders a costume online, adopts the name Kick-Ass and practices fighting in front of his bedroom mirror.
After receiving a brutal ass-kicking from thieves, he meets Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his young daughter, Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz). Betrayed by a crime boss, Big Daddy has trained his daugher to be a killing machine, and together they plan their revenge. At the same time, the crime boss’s son (McLovin’ himself!) pretends to be a superhero too, adopting the name Red Mist to spy on Big Daddy.
Director Matthew Vaughn funded Kick-Ass independently, and its lack of studio influence shows. Instead of the stale conventions we’ve come to expect from super-hero flicks, Kick-Ass pushes the envelope in outrageous and refreshing ways. Combining hilarious college humor, audaciously violent action sequences and social satire, the film transforms a cult-fave comic book into an idiosyncratic yet accessible crowd-pleaser.
Most discussions of Kick-Ass revolve around Hit-Girl, whose character steals the show. It’s one thing to watch Uma Thurman dicing up bad guys, but quite another to see an 11-year-old girl fire guns and cut off limbs. Moretz’s combination of girlish innocence and shocking ferocity is bound to make her performance a camp favorite, and you’ll find yourself cheering throughout her brilliantlychoreographed and bloody action sequences. While controversial among parents’ groups, Vaughn’s handling of the character transcends its shock factor. Hit-Girl is fascinating to watch, a brave subversion of the superhero genre.
Kick-Ass is probably the first great movie of 2010. Vaughn has called his film “a post-modern love letter to comic books and superhero films,” and indeed he explores the nature of heroism and sensationalism in a world of Youtube, MySpace and 24-hour news. His creativity shines through every frame, and, in the end, the film undoubtedly lives up to its kick-ass title.
4.5/5 Stars
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz
Rated R, 117 min.
