DeniReview: Kick-Ass
April 19th 2010 07:39
Rating: ***1/2 our of 5
Holy-Freak-Me-Out!
I'm amazed, bewildered, dismayed, and bedazzled all at the same time. This movie packs a paradoxical punch. People will either love it or hate it, but is it worth seeing? Well, I can't rightly say - it depends on how you view it. At the end of the day it is very entertaining and it is also very er...very hard to watch.
Matthew Vaughn pulls off one of the greatest feats in movie history! He makes you actually believe that an 11 year old girl, dressed in a purple wig, plaid skirt, shiny jumpsuit and a cape can actually mow down a room of fully-armed thugs with a huge knife! She just doesn't just render them helpless, she kills them all - as in stabs them to death! My initial reaction should have been "yeah, right!" but when all was said and I done, I sat stunned with my mouth gaping open. Girl-power has been taken to a whole new level.
Kick-Ass poses the question: "How far would you go to help your fellow man?"
We live in a culture where many people will chose not to get involved and rightly so - it's violent out there! I would imagine 100 years ago it was easier to help out a fellow man in peril. The most that would happen to you would probably be a skinned knee, a black eye or a dislocated finger - the worst would be a kick to the balls if you're a guy or a nipple cripple if you're a girl or some sissified hair pulling. Nowadays you'd get shot, stabbed, or even bludgeoned to death! Where is Superman when you need him?
Kiss-Ass is about Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a high school student, who wonders why no one has decided to become a super-hero. When he and his friends are the victims of a mugging, Dave notices that a witness to the crime chooses to turn a blind eye instead of offering help. Soon after he decides to take matters into his own hands. He purchases a diving suit on eBay and begins his training of posturing in front a mirror while busting some non-serious kung-fu moves and declaring himself "awesome!" and that's all it takes. He's ready to take on the mean streets. His first attempt as a super-hero is a big fat FAIL when he is seriously injured and hospitalized. Some super powers and a better plan of action would come in handy at this stage.
Undaunted by his first attempt, he gains some notoriety on the internet as a hero when he interferes with a gang fight. Spurred on by his newly found confidence, he decides to help the girl of his dreams who is being harassed by some local drug dealer. He realizes at this point that he is way in over his head when he is rescued by Hit Girl/Mindy Macready (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Big Daddy/Damon Macready (Nicholas Cage), an 11 year old crime-fighter and her father, two vigilante heroes who are determined to take down a local drug lord, Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). Damon Macready was a cop who was framed by D'Amico and sent to prison and now he's out for revenge with the aid of his daughter who he trained all too well as a crime fighter.
I knew nothing about this movie and neither have I read any of the comic books it was based on. When you see a movie where a teenager decides to take a stand, you sort of expect him to remain in his world of high-school and hi-jinks; getting back at the occasional bully, so when Dave crosses the boundaries into a world that is completely out of his league, I began to get a little nervous. When I saw Damon Macready teaching his daughter how to take a bullet, wearing a bullet proof vest I knew I was in for something different and I was unprepared for the left turn the story line took into much darker territory.
As I said before some people will either love it or hate it. It's very entertaining and quite funny but it's also very disturbing. For those of you who cannot see it from the entertainment perspective, beware! It does raise both moral and ethical issues which are difficult to watch. The main one being an 11 year old assassin who uses profanity is horrific. A child killing people at the blink of an eye with no remorse and no after-thought, completely at ease and ready to move on for the next kill hits home all to well in the world we live in today and I'm not sure we ought to make light of it.
The performances are great. Aaron Johnson does a great job playing Dave by adding a bit of the 'whimpy' to his voice to enhance his somewhat "loser" status. Andrew Strong is good as Frank D'Amato, he's always done well as the baddie. While I've written Nicholas Cage off a long time ago, I am HAPPY to see him back in a role that suits him. He's always brilliant when he doesn't play the straight guy. His Damon Macready is "mad" and way off balance, a good guy driven by his desire to exact revenge. Who else would train their 11 year old daughter to be a killer assassin but a mad man who's clearly off his face. Everyone will tell you that Chloe Moretz is a scene-stealer as Mindy/Hit girl. Aside from Angelina Jolie, she's the only other female who looks awesome wielding a gun. This girl has amazing presence and I'm sure we'll see more of it - I only hope she's not going to be type-cast from this movie.
Yeah, Matthew Vaughn has done something amazing with this film and I'm sure it'll be a hit from both ends of the barrel, those who simply look at it as entertainment and those who find it controversial.
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