KICK-ASS
Plot Synopsis:
Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.
Review:
One of the most thoroughly entertaining "superhero" movies I've ever had the pleasure of watching, this Matthew Vaughn ["Layer Cake", "Stardust"] directed adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s "Kick-Ass" comic book series is a brilliant blend of Action/adv and Dark Comedy.
Great performances by Aaron Johnson [as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass], Mark Strong as crime kingpin Frank D'Amico, Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl, Nicolas Cage as Damon Macready/Big Daddy, Lyndsy Fonseca as Dave's hot love-interest Katie, Clark Duke as one of Dave's two best friends, and Michael Rispoli [from the canceled NBC crime drama "The Black Donnellys"] as Frank D'Amico's right hand man Big Joe. Good performances by Xander Berkey [as dirty cop Detective Gigante], Omari Hardwick [from the undercover-cop show "Dark Blue"] as Damon Macready's ex-partner Marcus [who probably should have been developed a little more as a character besides the little comic book sequence discussing the origin of Big Daddy], Evan Peters as one of Dave's best friends, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist, Jason Flemyng, and Stu Riley. This is definitely one of the most violent films to come out this year, not to mention some of the most brutal violence comes from the 11 year old 'Hit-Girl'...who is basically a foul-mouthed gun-toting female version of Robin, trained into a life of crime-fighting [or should I say criminal-killing] by her own father 'Big Daddy' [an ex-detective who is an interesting mix between the Adam West and Christian Bale versions of Batman only without that one rule...he's like another Punisher]...needless to say this film is bound to offend a good amount of uptight people.
The action sequences are kind of unrealistic [with the exception of the first two fights Kick-Ass involves himself in] yet somewhat plausible [despite the fact that nobody in the film possesses any superpowers] and acceptable because it's a comic book movie. I also noticed that some scenes [particularly the ones with gunfights] are very similar to the movie "Wanted" [which was also an adaptation of a comic book series by Mark Millar, albeit not as faithful or well done as this one], and some references to Spider-Man [who is also discussed a few times in this movie] and allusions to the movies "Spider-Man" and "The Matrix" were also prevalent in "Wanted".
Great music choices and cinematography. There are so many things I like about this film but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet by discussing everything and basically summarizing the movie...I will say the ending kicked ass. Overall it's a very fun action-packed flick [not meant to be taken too seriously] which makes you contemplate what it would really be like to become a masked vigilante.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5