Kick-Ass
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring:
Aaron Johnson - Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass
Chloe Moretz - Mindy Macready / Hit-Girl
Christopher Mintz-Plasse - Chris D'Amico / Red Mist
Lyndsy Fonseca - Katie Deauxma
Clark Duke - Marty
Mark Strong - Frank D'Amico
Nicolas Cage - Damon Macready / Big Daddy
I know there are positive reviews of this movie out that say something like "Kick-Ass kicks ass." That’s technically true. However, if we're using a description to reflect the film's name, then a more accurate title would be Extreme Violence Super Fun Time. I’ll admit that title is less catchy and isn’t the name of the main character, but it does describe this post-modern superhero flick. Kick-Ass is one of the most fun times I’ve ever had at a movie. It’s also a miracle of balance as it imbues heart into a film where people have their hearts impaled with a samurai sword. After you see this movie, you won’t want to become a superhero, but you’ll encourage others to do so because it’s damn entertaining to watch.
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a geek who wonders why no one has ever tried to become a costumed superhero before. As his friend Marty (Clark Duke) explains, "Because they would get their asses kicked." Marty's not wrong. Dave doesn’t heed his pal’s advice, dons a wet suit, wields two batons, creates the alter-ego of "Kick-Ass" and goes out to fight bad guys. We soon see that despite Dave’s enthusiasm and bravery, he’s only playing at the amateur level. The pros are Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), an adorable father-daughter duo who go out for ice cream my day and render criminals into slaughtered remains at night. The two storylines converge as mafia boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) puts out a bounty on the superheroes that are hurting his business.
Cage may be the biggest name actor in the film, but he's in a supporting role that helps bolster the world while helping to ground Hit-Girl as a real character who isn't a disturbed individual despite her disturbing actions as a murderous vigilante. But the two real stars of the film are Johnson and Moretz and their performances are key in helping to combine the film's cartoonish mayhem with a charming naivety and bravado.
The performance people will be buzzing about is Moretz. Hit-Girl steals the show with her brutal-yet-stylish kills, foul-mouthed dialogue, and her disarmingly sweet face. Hit-Girl is like a child on the front of a cereal box except instead of a nice meal of toasted oats and marshmallows, you have razorblades and shotgun shells (part of a balanced breakfast). If you take a step back, the idea of Hit-Girl is disturbing. She's a child with no regard for human life or a modicum of mercy. But in the world of Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl is a cartoon. Her father puts a bulletproof vest on her and then shoots his little girl so she won't be afraid when she's looking down the barrel of a Glock. First off: who is making bulletproof vests in child sizes? Secondly, a vest may stop a bullet, but it won't stop a little girl's ribs from breaking apart. Hit-Girl is grounded in an emotional reality by her relationship with her father, but she, like all the other film's characters, exist in a cartoon world full of bright colors and blazing destruction.
However, it's Aaron Johnson's performance that holds Kick-Ass together and gives it an emotional center. He's a powerless Peter Parker and he's skilled at getting his ass kicked. But we never pity Dave or disrespect his noble intentions. He's naive, he's out of his depth, but he's brave and that's saying something. He doesn't have the training of Hit-Girl or a full cache of weapons. He's a high-schooler with green wet suit and a desire to kick the asses of bad guys. When Kick-Ass fights off three bad guys who are attempting to beat up on another person, he says he would rather die protecting a helpless stranger from three thugs. Superheroes let us imagine ourselves as protectors who can do great things. Dave just makes the leap to leave the comic book open and insert himself as a new character. He may get his ass kicked, but Johnson makes Dave come off like a hero and not a schmuck. As Dave looks into his bedroom mirror and tries out one-liners against imaginary bad guys, Johnson manages to take what could feel like an unnerving Travis Bickle moment and instead makes it feel like a kid playing superhero in his back yard.
But how do you blend such disparate characters into one story and one world? Ask director Matthew Vaughn because he found a way. For a film that could be wildly schizophrenic, Vaughn finds method in the madness but keeps the sanity of the characters despite their insane actions. Working from a charged script he co-wrote with Jane Goldman, Vaughn electrifies the world of Kick-Ass with crackling dialogue, likable characters, and array of weapons and miscellaneous tools of destruction that I won't spoil here. Vaughn's trick is to not rip comic book characters out of the books and into a real world, but to rip out comic book pages, anime clips, B-movie action, and illustrate it into a gleeful comic book movie that cranks what you love about pop-violence entertainment and pushes the envelope of destruction as far as it can go.
Johnson and Moretz give terrific performances and Vaughn’s direction is borderline-supernatural, but as I'm sure you can tell by this point, the real star of the film is violence. It appeals to the child in all of us who laughed when Daffy Duck had a shotgun explode in his face or Wile E. Coyote fell off a cliff. It devilishly snickers at the little bastards we could be when we happily took our action figures, made them fight, and then put one of them in the microwave to see what would happen (the result: our parents got really pissed off). Kick-Ass appeals to that kid who loves violence and still grew up well-adjusted...for the most part. For the other part, the film uses obscene amounts of bloodshed and twisted expectations to connect our love of violence to the mature content we demand as adults. The coyote must now splatter on the desert sands, the duck must now have his head blown apart, and an 11-year-old girl must swear like a sailor and connect bullets to bad guys’ vital organs. If the performances, script, and direction of this film didn’t mix perfectly, we would find ourselves shifting uncomfortably in our seats and/or leave the theater feeling dirty. Instead, we’re cheering and laughing all the way back home.
Kick-Ass transports the viewer into a world of superheroes without superpowers, the celebration of online celebrity, and a level of cartoon violence that would border on disturbing were it not imbued with such childlike joy. It's Looney Tunes, anime, first-person-shooter videogames, and gritty violence mixed with the innocence of Golden Age comics. It's a delicious concoction that won't only kick your ass, but will punch you until you're smiling through a bloody mouth and broken teeth. Then you'll ask for seconds.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
4.15.10
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