Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is invisible and unnoticed at high school and relies on his two best friends, Marty and Todd (Clark Duke & Evan Peters) to keep him sane. Dave has a fascination with comic books and is awe-inspired by superheroes. Dave decides it is his ambition to become a superhero, even though he has no super powers, training, or loads of money to make himself a superhero….ahem…Batman. Dave creates a costume of his own and even comes up with a name that will have super villains fleeing…Kick-Ass.
Dave somehow manages to get himself into trouble by saving the world and is actually encountered by real-life superheroes, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz). Drug lord, Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), wants nothing more than the superheroes’ head on a plate, however, the crime fighting team form together (as super heroes do) to fight D’Amico and his goons.
I’m sorry to report that Kick-Ass wasn’t as kick ass as I thought it was going to be. The first hour of the movie dragged on horribly. If it wasn’t for the constant f-words, I would have guessed it was a PG-13 film targeted toward high schoolers. The set-up was quite corny and I was losing interest quickly. However, I will say that as Kick-Ass started to become more and more involved in the super hero gig, the movie turned upward. The fighting scenes were pretty amazingly bloody and gory! I think those scenes truly saved the movie. I intend to keep my eye on that Chloe Grace Moretz. I loved her portrayal of Hit Girl and thought she was one of the strongest actors in the film.
If I had to give the first hour of Kick-Ass a rating, I would say it would be a 1.5 for me. Like I said, the end was truly the turning point in the film and had tragedy and triumph wrapped up quite nicely. The end of the film deserves 4 stars for sure! To be fair, I’ll stick with a 3.5. All in all, I would recommend giving Kick-Ass a rent. The fight scenes are intense, originally crafted, and worth watching. For those of you who are comic gurus- you should definitely add this one to your DVD/Blu-Ray collection!
**I have to give credit to the ingenious comic writer Mark Millar for producing the Kick-Ass story. The comics are also illustrated by John Romita Jr.
interesting review. i definitely wanna rent this.
Interesting review for an interesting story. This one is worth a rent.
whyyyyy did they include nicolas cage in this cast? for now, i shall never see it.
Nic Cage would not have been my first pick for Big Daddy’s character. I am sorry that Kick-Ass will be long lost in your “Movies-to-not-see-because-Nicholas-Cage-is-in-them” collection.