Film Reviews

Kick Ass

• Rating:
• Director: Matthew Vaughn
• Starring: Aaron Johnson
• Details: US/117mins 16

Hype can certainly be a damaging thing, as it can often raise expectations to unrealistic levels. When you have a $300 million movie like Avatar for instance, people expect to be astounded by the scale, and indeed spectacle. A movie with a tenth of that budget, Kick Ass manages to blow any pre-viewing expectations out of the water; almost gleefully lighting a fire under the arse of the comic book genre. Holding together hugely innovative action sequences, with mostly credible, but thoroughly amusing characters who are all part of an irreverent, edgy package, this will be a film that will offend, amuse and delight in equal measure.
Layer Cake and Stardust helmer Matthew Vaughn has crafted something genuinely innovative. Setting out its stall from the very first scene that this isn't your run-of-the-mill comic adaptation; anything can happen, as modern mainstream character conventions don't apply here. He's made this film cheaply, and done so without studio involvement; which is why we are privy to an eleven year old girl destroying a room full of armed junkies with any weapon she can lay her hands on. She curses, she kills, she likes icecream and bowling; Hit Girl is reason enough alone to part ways with your ten quid.
Aaron Johnston is Dave Lizewsk, a pretty ordinary teenager, who is invisible to all the girls he wants to see him at his high school. Looking to stand out, he purchases a wetsuit online he plans to use as a costume in his new guise as masked vigilante, Kick Ass. Problem is, Dave isn't very good at fighting crime, and has the crap knocked out of him at the first attempt. He soon gets better, though, and catches the eyes of proper masked crime fighters, Big Daddy and Hit Girl - a violent, but effective father/daughter team who have Mark Strong's mobster boss in their sights.
Containing three action sequences of a stunningly visceral magnitude, which are all staged with blistering style, Vaughn's direction is confident and skilful, while Jane Goldman's script melds the comedy and violence with panache, but always remembers the motto "with no power comes no responsibility." We get the impression Dave becomes Kick Ass mostly to get laid, so he's often the reluctant hero, despite dressing up as a man of action.
Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy is a quirky sort, as you might expect, but he's also repressing anger to such a supreme level, he needs to obliterate the bad guys as a way of blowing off steam. His relationship with his daughter is as strange as it is sweet, but you almost buy the baddie killing as a bonding exercise with a social conscience. It's Cage's best work in years, while youngster Chloe Moretz's Hit Girl is a high point in an already brilliant film. Kudos too to Johnston, who should see his star rise drastically after this is released.
Certainly not one for those who use The Daily Mail for anything other than toilet paper, Kick Ass is Quentin Tarantino turned up to eleven, and without the smugness. One of the most purely entertaining films I've ever had the pleasure of reviewing.

Review by Mike Sheridan