Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

Convulsively funny, gleefully inappropriate and brilliantly executed, Kick-Ass exuberantly fulfills its title. A high school comedy as much as a spoof on superheroes, it deftly mines the touchstones of both genres. This alchemy creates a cult classic that’s perfect for the masses, as its huge first-week box office attests.

Kick-Ass mints two new movie stars while making savvy use of three others. Yes, it also plumbs new depths in child vulgarity. Oh well, that’s entertainment.

Speaking of classic genre touchstones, the movie self-consciously ends by setting up its sequel. Bring it on! The lines will be around the block.

Finally, how did a bunch of Brits make such a great American movie? Writer-director Matthew Vaughn and stars Aaron Johnson & Mark Strong are subjects of Her Majesty the Queen. Hail to them.

Acting - Great 4.0

Ladies & gentlemen, meet Aaron Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz, brand-spanking new movie stars.

• Johnson’s innocent swagger and squeaky voice make him a more effective Peter Parker-type than even Tobey Maguire. And how’s a Brit perfectly play an American high school dude? Awesome.
• Moretz steals the second half of the movie as the accurately named Hit-Girl.

Several proven stars brighten up the rest of the large cast.

• Mark Strong adds a well played NY mafioso to a crowded resume that already included a Jordanian intelligence officer in Body of Lies and an evil British patrician in Sherlock Holmes. What can’t he play?
• Nic Cage plays another weirdo that just seems right, this time a revenge seeking father who turns himself and his pre-teen daughter into caped avengers. The guy has become the Christopher Walken for a new generation.
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse adds a second inimitable putz to his oeuvre. He ain’t McLovin here, but he’s still plenty funny.
• Garrett M. Brown’s not a big name, but surely is a familiar face, here playing a clueless dad. Is there any other kind in a high school movie?

Then there’s ample helpings of cheesecake from a bodacious pair of actresses.

• Deborah Twiss’s busty teacher inspires fevered teen dreams.
• Lyndsy Fonseca’s dream girl goes from unreachable to insatiable when she realizes who the boy next door really is.

Film - Great 4.0

Writer-director Matthew Vaughn’s film neatly touches every base a canonical superhero origin story must, from the nebbish who won’t abide evil anymore, to the confederation of allied heroes, to the evil impostor posing as a hero, to that enemy swearing vengeance in the inevitable sequel. Then Vaughn joins this core theme with a classic high school sitcom that would make Glee proud. Brilliant.

As for the over-the-top vulgarity and ultra-violence in which pre-teen Hit-Girl engages, the film continues the downward march of recent sociopathic comedies like Observe and Report. Fortunately this film is funnier and less mean spirited than that one.

In fact, the whole thing comes across as good clean fun, notwithstanding the filthy language from the mouth of babes, coke snorting by a father in front of his son, and torrents of blood from mutilated bad guys. Junior high kids must be busting their guts trying to get in to a lalapalooza like this.

Edge - Sordid 3.2

Oh boy. Hit-Girl’s got a potty mouth that would make a drunk trucker blush and the stone cold killing ability of a … Hit-Girl.

As for sex, the lovable loser gets the girl, again and again we’re told.

Reality - Surreal 2.5

The conceit is that real life people function as superheroes, subject to all the reality constraints as the rest of us. This is often honored in the breach. No matter. Surrealism is still realism, of a sort.

8 Comments

• MJ5K May 3, 2010 9:37PM

  I don’t know. It would have a LOT of expectations to fulfill. And considering most super sequels are better than their super predecessors and Mark Millar is writing a sequel to the comic, a sequel seems likely. I guess we’ll have to see how strong of a life it has on DVD.

• Wick May 3, 2010 9:16PM

  Regarding MetalJunky5000’s Review
  Welcome aboard Junky. Do you think the sequel can be anywhere near as good?

• MJ5K Apr 24, 2010 6:01PM

  Haha, well, I guess I should take it into consideration then….

• Wick Apr 24, 2010 12:04AM

  Au contraire Junky. We need your scores. WikPik’s works best the more scores a movie gets. Yeah, we probably got enough commentary, notwithstanding that you often say something interesting or funny no matter what.

  Do this. Write six lines, two in any three of the SAFER boxes. That way your scores’ll look reasoned in the ReviewGrid.

  Now if you’re scared of standing out from the crowd, that’s another thing… ;-]

• MJ5K Apr 23, 2010 8:12PM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  Indeed a great review as always, Wick. I saw the film and I thought it was definitly really good, but I couldn’t help but feel a little letdown. However, I feel it best I shouldn’t review it cuz I don’t want to kill the buzz. Plus, all your guys’ reviews are enough to tell people to see the movie : )

• BrianSez Apr 23, 2010 6:24PM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  Great review Wick!

• Wick Apr 18, 2010 10:21PM

  Great set of reviews Brian, Snowman and Iz. Consensus seems to be 4 beams even. That’s where my head is at also, meaning I’m in even less of a rush to craft my review.

• Wick Apr 17, 2010 10:53AM

  Regarding izzio’s Review
  Hey Iz,

  Thanks for posting the first review of Kick-Ass. I saw it last too and laughed my ass off. Now that your review is posted, I can take a few days to get mine done.

  Wick

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