Kick-Ass

Review by Jason Donner

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed and awkward high school student who decides, "Hey, no one else is trying to be a superhero, so why don't I give it a try?"  Despite the fact that Dave has no superpowers or any noticeable fighting skills, he buys a green wetsuit, adds some pinstriping, and becomes Kick-Ass... and then he pretty much gets his ass kicked.

Waiting in the shadows, however, are a pair of genuine superheroes -- Big Daddy and Hit Girl who have made it their personal mission to take down a mobster and, when Kick-Ass accidentally gets caught up in a world of actual crime fighting, this wannabe superhero gets in way over his head.

Kick-Ass does just that.  It's a hard R comedy that is genuinely funny and has some action scenes that are so brilliantly shot and are so insanely kinetic that I would group them up there next to The Matrix just on terms of sheer originality.

Kick-Ass is very likeable as someone who gets obsessed and then gets in over his head.  As he says in the movie, "a serial killer is only satisfied to fantasize for only a little while."  This quite unbelievable series of events is presented in a pretty believable way and that lends credence to a story that would have collapsed on itself otherwise.

Of course, all of the talk isn't about Kick-Ass himself, it's about Hit Girl and little Chloe Moretz, an eleven year old, who swears like a sailor and who slices and dices her way through literal armies of enemies.  There has been tons of talk about the controversy of an eleven year old being given a script full of foul language (including the dreaded "c-word"), but the truth is Hit Girl is just hilarious.  Perhaps the funniest thing in the movie.  Does this make me a bad person?  Perhaps... but then again, I don't understand why the controversy in the movie revolves around a little girl swearing and not about the fact that she graphically murders at least twenty-five people.  Where the heck are our priorities today?  Oy!

Nick Cage should also be noted for actually managing to play a role without looking completely ridiculous.  As Big Daddy, he's a sociopath and yet he's also a loving father -- quite the turn, but he pulls it off.

Kick-Ass is amazingly and stupidly fun.  Definitely, it's not a movie for everyone, but those with a taste of the ultra-violence and a love of frantic action and comedy will love it.