“Kick-Ass”
Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, based on the Graphic novel by John Romita, Jr. and Mark Millari; Directed by Matthew Vaughn; Stars Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong, Clark Duke, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Nicolas Cage. Story: 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.
Seen by Adam and Lars April 18, 2010
LARS:
I’m a comic book fan. When I was a kid, I was into superheroes. Especially X-Men and Spider Man were big for me. I was an avid collector. Then one day, around age 15 or so, I sold my entire collection to get money for beer and partying. For many years, I didn’t think about comic books at all. Then one day, about 5 years ago, a friend told me about something called ‘graphic novels’ and told me to pick up “The Sandman”. That led to “Transmetropolitan”, the works of Alan Moore, and “Y: The Last Man” to mention but a few of the comic books (the terms ‘graphic novel’ is really just to allow adults to read them without feeling bad about it) that gave the genre a personal renaissance for me. Now, I can’t stop reading, and my shelves are groaning under the weight of volume after volume of comic books. Thank God for Marvel’s new iPad app, which may transition my addiction to a digital format, like the Kindle did for books.
So I’m obviously the exact right target for a humorous take on the superhero genre like “Kick-Ass”. Hilariously, the movie has created an uproar amongst reviewers as diverse as Roger Ebert and the UK’s Daily Mail, who both felt morally offended by the movie. It seems to me that you’d have to have your sense of humor as well as your sense of proportion surgically removed to not see that the entire film is a spoof and not to be taken any more seriously than you would a Batman movie. Yes, there’s a 10-year-old girl calling a bad guy a cunt and, yes, she’s generally swearing like a Turkish sailor while she’s dispatching enemies with a varied array of weaponry, and I suppose that in the “words and nudity are totally scary, but violence is awesome” camp that’s the first sign of the impending apocalypse. Sigh. Grow up, people.
I laughed out loud several times during “Kick-Ass”. Both the writer Mark Millar and the director Matthew Vaughn obviously know the superhero genre inside out. I guess you have to to come up with a concept that’s both spectacularly simple and obvious: what would happen if someone was stupid enough to try and be a superhero in the real world? The script almost writes itself, once you’ve set up that construct.
The genius of the movie is definitely ‘Hit Girl’, as portrayed by young Chloe Moretz, who was great in “(500) Days of Summer” as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s precocious younger sister and will soon take on an even bigger challenge as the vampire in the American version of the brilliant Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In” (also known as the most unnecessary remake ever). While most of the plot is pretty predictable, whenever ‘Hit Girl’ and her entirely bonkers father, Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage in completely unhinged mode), are on the screen, the movie jumps to refreshing levels of absurdity and hilarity as well as some of the best action seen so far this year. A lethal 10-year-old who takes on an entire mafia family is just so far removed from anything seen before that it lifts her scenes to a place the rest of the movie can only dream of reaching.
Matthew Vaughn is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. With this and “Layer Cake” on his resume, I even forgive him for the moderate misfire of “Stardust”, which, to me at least, mostly didn’t work because Claire Danes was hopelessly miscast in it. Vaughn has a great skill: he’s capable of creating both fully believable worlds and the characters that inhabit them. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do next. Maybe a film about the continued adventures of ‘Hit Girl’? Pretty please?
ADAM:
Note to Conservative Parents: If you’ve managed to keep your impressionable children’s minds free from the influence of popular videogames out of a fear of a complete and utter desensitization to violence and profanity, there’s a new “plague” I’m sure primed to ruffle your feathers and it’s called “Kick-Ass.”
Note to Kids: Make sure to get to this movie; sneak out if you have to, pay for “How to train your Dragon” and walk into this one. Sure it’s full of violence and profanity, but aren’t most television shows, the news and everyday life? Fuck yeah!
A couple of months back, Lars and I listed our top ten films of the decade 2000-2009. Matthew Vaughn’s “Layer Cake” was on my list. And though I’m willing to give a pass every now and then to someone I respect behind the camera when they take a misstep, consistency is a true measure of the journeyman helmer. Vaughn set the bar very high with Layer Cake and though this doesn’t rise to that standard, Kick-Ass is a romp that entertains, and shocks in a funny, disturbing and very good way.
Though I do love a good comic book story, I’ve so tired of the big budgeted,and utterly repetitive comic hero blockbusters. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not easy to bring something different to the screen when the most popular comic heroes are seemingly cookie-cutter damaged souls who find themselves the victim of some chemical or biological accident and thus begin a crusade of revenge and interim vigilantism. Only Christopher Nolan’s Batman films took such a revered character and made it great; despite the over the top villains and dark gothic setting, the characters and the world seem accessible, even relatable. And that’s what works in Kick Ass as well. Sure, much of the violence and even character behavior is over the top, but this film is really grounded in reality. The narrator is a regular kid, talking to us – regular people. His decision to don a mask and become a superhero to overcome his fears is one anyone can relate to. His actions spawn a small movement of copycats, some who help; others who don’t. And these heroes aren’t immune to an ass kicking and they struggle to succeed. Something else to which we can all relate. The film really converts by letting us live vicariously through these vigilantes; we get to cheer and laugh at the humiliation bullies big and small endure when these kids beat the crap out of them. To see how the world reaction to the presence of a superhero in Kick Ass compared to Gotham or Metropolis is an interesting comment on society as a whole.
Without giving too much away, Chloe Moretz, as ten-year old Hit Girl, steals the movie with her incredible way with a blade and an equally sharp tongue, capable of dropping the most surprising profanity at some of the most unexpected times. Her father – Big Daddy is well played by Nic Cage; always over the top, and I’m not sure if Vaughn told him to do it straight or eccentric. Regardless, it works perfectly and so does most of the film. As a result of great source material, a tight script, Vaughn’s eye behind camera and a well-cast ensemble, Kick Ass cuts through the clutter of the misfires of 2010 like Hit Girl’s twin butterfly knifes.
