KICK-ASS (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Matthew Vaughn
Aaron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage
Tired of being robbed and bullied by the neighborhood toughs, a comic-book geek named Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) reinvents himself as a costumed superhero called "Kick-Ass". The trouble is, he has no real superpowers or fighting skills, so when he swings into action as a crusader for justice, the bad guys beat the crap out of him. Fortunately, help is on the way in the form of two really lethal crime fighters: Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, a cartoon-drawing ex-cop with an arsenal that could level a city, and Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl, an 11-year-old with a fantastic capacity for mayhem and a vocabulary that would shock a sailor. Of course, Dave still looks like a dork in his green mail-order wet suit, and the girl he adores at school still thinks he's gay, but, hey, he's Kick-Ass! This is a long way from being a great movie, but it has a nice way of skewering superhero conventions, and the scenes in which Big Daddy and Hit-Girl compare notes on tactics and weaponry are wickedly funny. The conclusion leaves the chance for a sequel wide open, and apparently there's one in the works, but if the producers are going to do that, they'd better do it quick. The real kick-ass superhero in "Kick-Ass" is Hit-Girl, and Moretz won't be able to play an 11-year-old forever.
