Kick-Ass is an Aptly Titled Film

Everybody likes a bit of the ol' ultra-violence, and that's exactly what you're in for when you settle in to Matthew Vaughn's comic adaptation, Kick-Ass. Unabashedly brutal badassery isn't all you're in for like you might be conditioned to expect from action movies involving masked heroes, however. Kick-Ass sheds the standard "'splosions and swear words" persona associated with the genre to make room for a character piece only punctuated by gatling guns and the c-word.

Kick-Ass asks one simple question: why has no one ever put on a suit and become a super hero? Dave Lizewski asks this same question to his buddies who readily shoot him down and inform

him that if anyone tried that they'd be dead in minutes. But that doesn't stop him from ordering a teal and yellow trim diving suit and trying to fight crime. His first order of business, get the guys who stole him and his buddies' phones, money and comics. When he catches them breaking into a car, he readily gets himself stabbed and while stumbling for help gets smashed by a car, that then pulls away hit-and-run style. Saving the world 100 broken bones at a time.

Dave, after months of surgeries and physical therapy returns to his old life, but with damaged nerve endings and almost every bone in his body reinforced by metal plates and screws, and vows to use his new "skills" to continue his quest to become a hero. Proclaiming himself Kick-Ass, he manages to get himself into the middle of a feud between a NY mafioso and an ex-cop bent on revenge. Sprinkle in bits of humor and a little girl swearing better than most sailors, and you've got yourself a Kick-Ass movie.

Not surprisingly, the movie is pretty damn awesome. Matthew Vaughn, who most recently turned in Stardust, took a huge risk putting his time and money into Kick-Ass with absolutely no guarantee that it would get picked up for distribution. But thankfully for him and us, Lionsgate snatched it up and about a year later we got a theatrical release. At one point during Kick-Ass, about a half an hour in, right before the first action sequence happens, I said, "Matthew Vaughn is about to DIRECT this movie." And then we were shown an action sequence as fun and brutal as his directorial debut, Layer Cake. His visual style is all his own and without the pressure of a big studio bogging him down, he made his own movie just the way he wanted and it turned out great.

As mentioned, Kick-Ass spends a lot of time not blowing things up and focuses on the characters who are all deep with story and aren't simply empty husks serving as vessels for one-liners (I'm looking at you, Wolverine). While Kick-Ass himself is the lead, Hit Girl and Big Daddy get a boat load of screen time as well, and most of it is development rather than just a bunch of sweet karate moves. The pair have a very loving, albeit "different", relationship and their emotion plays through the screen quite well. It's surprising to see such a well established father/daughter pair in an action movie. Their relationship can easily be compared to the way Leon and Mathilda care about each other in The Professional, without all the sex stuff of course; it was refreshing and added an element to the story that almost all other action movies sorely lack.

At the budget it was made for, the effects are not bad. Not great, but not bad. A scene inside a building burning as hot as the damn Towering Inferno looks a little After Effectsy and the climax (which I won't reveal) looks a bit awkward, but the relative cheapness of it plays nicely with the overall feel of the film. A few more bucks would have smoothed things over a bit, but as it is, it doesn't distract from the story, except for maybe when the entire screen is flooded with low-end CG fire.

Even though I addressed it in my Movies Not For Kids blog, Chloe Moretz totally makes an 11-year-old a badass and it shouldn't be taken as offensive or vulgar beyond the fact that she says the word "cunt". She takes a beating in the film but makes no qualms about ramming spears through drug dealers' chests. She's perfectly capable of defending herself and that she loses one fight shouldn't be enough to send angry parents screaming to the front lines of the picket.

Aside from a couple weak effects and a scene or two that takes a little too long to get through, Kick-Ass is an awesome story that is told really well and has an awesomely creative look. It's not making the huge sort of money that The Dark Knight made, obviously, but this film will have long cult legs once it hits home video. Awesome story, great action, adorable Chloe Moretz dressed as a school girl....please don't arrest me.

4 Stars

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