Kick Ass: Film Review
Is it just me? Perhaps it is. Every time I don a dressing gown a sudden urge comes over me to head out into the night to fight crime. Maybe you’ve had a similar feeling?
At the very least, it’s a dilemma we’ve all faced at some point in our lives – what would happen if we fought back against everyday injustices?
Herein resides the selling point of Kick Ass. The movie subverts the superhero genre and lays bare the vicious realities facing cape crusaders.
And by the beard of Zeus, it does it in style.
Kick Ass: A Superhero Movie with a Difference
Kick Ass sees unremarkable high school student, Dave Lizewski, fulfil his ambition of becoming a real life superhero.
Tired of being pushed around, he fights back. Dave quickly learns that a fondness of comic books doesn’t mean he is Batman.
Picking himself from the gutter more times than Tiger Woods, Kick Ass attracts the attention of accomplished crime fighters Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. They join forces to bring down New-York Mafioso, Frank D’Amico.
Nicolas Cage delivers a standout turn as Big Daddy. Channelling the charm of Adam West’s 1960’s Batman, Cage revels in the absurdity of his character. When Cage is good, he’s very good. When he’s bad, he’s Wicker Man.
Meanwhile…
Kick Ass director, Matthew Vaughn, skillfully subverts and embraces the clichés of superhero films, whilst always entertaining.
He wraps a superhero spoof, a teen comedy and ultra-violent action film into one hell of a tight package.
Is Kick Ass Morally Reprehensible?
Vaughn has been criticised for his use of graphic violence and decision to cast 13-year-old actress Chloe Moretz as the assassin, Hit Girl.
Grounding moments of staggeringly realistic violence in a completely fantastical, comic book world, is bound to raise a few eyebrows.
And it’s this clash between the fantastic and the real which seems to be driving the criticism.
Take Fish Tank as a case in point. An unflinching look at child abuse, abandonment and poverty takes place through the eyes of 15 year old Mia. The film was critically received and rightly so.
A similarly complex subtext resides at the heart of Kick Ass. Some critics, it would seem, believe dramatic realism cannot be partnered with comic book sensibilities.
To my mind though, a film shouldn’t have to play out against a gritty urban backdrop to be deemed credible or socially acceptable.
Kick Ass is imbued with enough depth to justify its violence. As for the obscenities which spew from the mouth of our 13-year old heroine, they’re no worse than those of Mia in Fish Tank.
If it’s ok in Fish Tank, it’s ok in Kick Ass.
Kick Ass: A Superhero for our Times
Kick Ass is a love letter to comic books. It’s a shockingly entertaining movie, so well crafted that it could be mistaken for Mount Rushmore.
Like a midget at a rock concert, Kick Ass will keep you on your feet at all times.
Rating: 
Sam
8:37 pm, August 30, 2010
Top review, top film, thanks
jethropull
9:45 pm, September 10, 2010
My favourite film of the year so far. Agree with your point on the violence and language, the whole backlash has been taken way out of context.
Matt Fuller
9:17 pm, September 12, 2010
The most entertaining film I’ve seen in years. Review is bang tidy.
Anthony
3:53 pm, October 11, 2010
Spectacular film – 20 mins in and another boring pubescent indie film.
21 mins in WOW! Tarantino took the driving seat and I was strapped onto a rocket fire hell ship of martial arts mayhem with a dark moral dilemma. Amazing.
jasmine
9:36 pm, January 27, 2011
this film is my cup of tea it looks very good i will watch one day and the best bits in the film is the action and it looks like a fantastic film .