Kick-Ass

(2010)

Directed by

Matthew Vaughn

Review by Todd Plucknett

Posted - 4/26/10

Coming into a film like Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, I really have mixed expectations. The things that were going for it were that it looked really fun and it had Nicolas Cage in it. The negatives were that I was completely unfamiliar with the source material (which is the case with seemingly every movie) and that Vaughn’s only previous directions were Stardust and the wasted opportunity Layer Cake. I went in expecting at least a good time, and more or less, that is exactly what I got.

The film is about Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a social outcast who spends all of his time with his two buddies Marty and Todd (Clark Duke and Evan Peters) at comic book shops and pointing out cool porn sites to each other. They are basically Seth, Evan, and Fogell from Superbad, without all the drinking and attempts at partying. Dave’s long unanswered question is why no comic book fan has ever tried to be a superhero before. “Because he would get his ass kicked on the first day,” one of his friends adds. Dave would not accept that. He finds a corny wetsuit online and orders it, picks up a few weapons, and calls himself Kick-Ass, basically looking like Spider-Man in his sweatpants and ski mask.

In another storyline, Damon Macready (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage) and Mindy Macready (Chloe Moretz) is a father-daughter combo of soon-to-be superheroes. Damon is a former cop constantly trying to get back at crime boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) who was responsible for him losing his badge. He trains his eleven-year old daughter to be a vigilante hero with no conscience and tons of cool weapons and moves. They (who call themselves Big Daddy and Hit Girl) team with Kick-Ass, following a YouTube sensation video of Kick-Ass taking out some thugs outside a diner trying to mug another guy. The quest to take down D’Amico forms the basis for this wacky comic book adaptation.

The acting in the film is fairly average to below average. Johnson is only believable for about half of the movie. He cannot stay in character it seems. Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine) and Peters (Never Back Down) are both somewhat annoying distractions from the bloody awesomeness. Strong (Lord Blackwood from Sherlock Holmes) is effective in his villainous role. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is fine, though he is basically playing a snobby version of his part in Role Models. Lyndsy Fonseca plays love interest Katie, which she does credibly. She has some good lines, but it is a useless character. Moretz (so good in The Poker House and (500) Days of Summer) is terrific in her role. Watch out Abigail Breslin, this girl is the real deal. But this film belongs to Cage. Everything he does reminds us why he was so amazing back in the ‘90s. His role reminded me of Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones, mixed with the Cageness of Face/Off and Kiss of Death. The scenes near the end of the movie should be disturbing, but I can’t help but laugh hysterically of Cage screaming at the top of his lungs. It is his best mainstream role since Lord of War. Hopefully this will be the film that stops the horrible film choices and make this decade will be more like the ‘90s than the ‘00s.

This film has some of the craziest violence I have seen in quite some time. Not since Pulp Fiction has such a bloodbath been so amusing. Even the most disturbing violent images are so undermined by the loony premise and costumes that they bring out gut-busting laughs. I guess that is who Vaughn in as a filmmaker, whose Layer Cake has similar excessive grisly violence. I am not going to jump on board with him yet, but this film showed some definite promise in an almost Tarantino-esque genre.

I loved the first half of Kick-Ass, when Dave was first getting his identity as a quirky superhero. It was treated in a Wes Anderson type of way, adding in stabbings, buckets of blood, and vicious car accidents of course. In fact, if this film was made 10-12 years ago, Jason Schwartzman totally would have starred in it. This is where the film shines the brightest. The second half of the film gets a bit uneven but never less than ruthlessly entertaining. It has shades of Kill Bill in its fight sequences and Watchmen in its action atmosphere. It is non-stop insanity for the final hour, except in the times that it throws in cheap laughs, always centering on the uninteresting Marty, Todd, and Katie characters. But, that cannot take away from the awesome revenge story and chance to see Cage in rare form.

Overall, this film is definitely the most entertaining thing I have seen this year. It is not a great film by any means, but if you are looking for a good laugh, then definitely do check this one out. It is not for everyone. That is a given. If you have it in you to laugh at violence (similar to Pineapple Express) and the flaws in the story and characters, then I am going to guess that you will have just as good of a time as I did. Obviously, midnight showings always exaggerate the experience a bit, since everyone if so into it. But, either way, the film lives up to its title.

Oh yeah…and I totally agree with Colin Cowherd. Jetpacks…totally underrated.

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