Sunday, April 18, 2010

Kick Ass

Movie name: Kick Ass
Year of release: 2010
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Lindsy Fonseca, Clark Duke, Garrett M. Brown, Yancy Butler, Jason Flemyng, Michael Rispoli
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6

Synopsis:Following his fantasy themed film "Stardust", Matthew Vaughn comes back to the screens with a comic book adaptation. "Kick Ass" follows the story of Dave Lizewski, a shy high schooler who decides to become a super hero and help others. Since Dave has no real powers, his first foray into the activity lands him in the hospital with serious injuries. His second attempt works far better and upon taking the name "Kick Ass", it brings Dave a lot of attention. While trying to impress a girl, Dave finds himself in a risky situation, from which he is saved by two other masked avengers, namely "Hit Girl" and "Big Daddy". We come to find out Big Daddy's story and how he came to be at odds with the city's biggest villain, Frank D'Amico. All their stories come together when Frank D'Amico decides to wipe out all the avengers/heroes from the city.
Matthew Vaughn is a smart director who decided to finance this film by himself, since he wanted the adaptation of the comic book to be free from the hands of studios who would interfere and tone down the violent and hilarious look and feel of the film. His choice paid off since "Kick Ass" ends up being a great balance of humor and violence, highlighting the surreal side of a young man trying to be a super hero, with the more violent and deadly consequences of his chosen activities. The duo "Hit Girl" and "Big Daddy" is particularly well captured, since they both live in a universe of their own, one where violence and guns are a part of everyday life. The film is by turns, harsh and light in tone, which in the end balances it out - it's a comic book adaptation after all. The actors are uniformly good, with Nicolas Cage toning down his sometimes over the top performances. Chloe Moretz does a good job playing Hit Girl as does Mark Strong, apparently everyone's favorite villain as of late. A good film worth checking out.

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