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Among the trendy comic-themed movies Hollywood has been cranking out recently, “Kick Ass” is hands-down most side-splitting (literally) and beautifully-stylized action adventure nod to comics thus far.
Of course a movie starring a potty-mouthed youngster who would rather scour the streets at night toting a Glock and a butterfly knife than play with a Bratz Doll is going to raise some brows. However, Director Matthew Vaughn strikes the perfect balance of humor and violence successfully.
Let’s face it – at some point in your life, someone has done something that was really messed up and it took everything in you not to lay into the person with everything you had.
You didn’t do it, but man would it have felt good to land one on the person’s jaw …
As “Kick Ass” Dave Lizewski, Aaron Johnson transforms himself into a makeshift superhero whose conviction makes up for miserable lack of skill.
Enter “Big Daddy” Damon Macready (Nicholas Cage) and Hit Girl “Mindy Macready” (Chloe Grace Moretz); after all every good superhero needs backup.
Damon is a father with a questionable parenting skills, hell-bent on revenge and Mindy is his loving and dutiful pupil.
All the elements of a good comic drama are there…dead parents, notorious criminals like Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) and the arch-nemesis Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Passe). Though a bit light on message, the storyline is like the setup for a good joke.
The plot lends itself to gratuitous, pervasive and deliciously indulgent violence, and most of the blood-slinging, knife-swinging and bad-guy slaying is perpetuated by darling Mindy.
Those who get held up by the fact that Mindy is so young have missed Vaughn’s brilliant punch line. It is wildly hilarious to watch a rosy-cheeked fifth-grader scale a wall and shoot a guy twice her age in the face.
Trust me, I’ve seen it – though I am usually squeamish, I could look away only long enough to wipe the drool from gaping mouth.
The use of vivid colors like Mindy’s bright purple wig, Kick Ass’s green-and-yellow suit and even the red in the blood are beautiful.
In one scene, a 360-degree panorama of a comic-book rendering provides an interesting dimension to the picture.
“Kick Ass” is a grown-up imagining of the classic childhood superhero fantasy.
It’s 57 minutes of everything you wished you could do if you were a superhero. “Kick Ass” allows adults to consider the absurd, relish in it and, dare I say… have fun.
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