5th August -- Kick Ass!

This is the second time I have seen 'Kick Ass' -- I saw it in the cinema when it came out after much hype and controversy. I'd read a lot of reviews saying a lotta' different things and I can understand that watching a 12 year old girl call a bunch of blokes 'c**ts' (can I swear? What is blogger's policy?) and then proceed to slice 'em up, impale them, shoot 'em, blow 'em up, bite 'em....is perhaps not certain people's idea of entertainment.

I, however....thought it was fucking cool! Taking place with the Tra La La Song (actually it's name) was a stroke of genius. Matthew Vaughn rocked this one, and kicked some serious...butt.

It's about one kid's desire to be a superhero. He is the traditional geek who finds himself at the bottom of the barrel, getting pushed around, not getting anything fair -- and it all seems to be following the conventional super-hero story. In one scene, he attempts to fight a pair of thugs and I thought as the fight started 'well, now -- here we go. He's gonna' beat the shit outta' em, and become a super-hero, and fight crime...'

...then he got stabbed. Run over...and almost died.

And we, like Dave...are brought down to earth with a violent, bloody thud.

This is not a superhero movie, if anything -- it aims to poke playful fun at those kinds of movies. Deep down, it's about a kid growing up, and wanting to be something more than he is, a thought shared on a global level. Matthew Vaughn takes this notion, and like any good filmmaker, he colours it in. He makes it something more, and he casts Nicolas Cage...which was awesome.

The movie is incredibly graphic, I'm not familiar with the graphic novels, but I assume they are just as 'graphic' -- there have been comments about the violence saying it's completely gratuitous. I can't say I really agree with that, because as mentioned, this movie aims to ascend a comic book movie -- it's real life, and if people try this in real life, they're going to get hurt....and have their legs chopped off by prepubescent girls...

So, Dave becomes Kick-Ass. And people are pretty psyched about it. It's exciting stuff. Meanwhile, Big Daddy and Hit Girl, a father and daughter vigilante duo are secretly training hard and killing off men connected with Frank D'Amico, a local mobster. Big Daddy (Cage) harbours some serious strong feelings towards this dude, the man who ruined his life, and was responsible for his wife's death. Frank's son is Chris -- who wants nothing more than to also grow up and be something better...however he wants to be the next Frank...who kills people. So that's a problem...
As films do...all this mixes together and it's pretty damn entertaining to watch. Some great lines, great great action, particularly from young Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit Girl who is a treat to watch. The final confrontation plays out as any big action blockbuster does, but it manages to maintain enough about it to resemble one complete movie. The jet pack may have been a bit too much, but fuck it -- it's not completely about reality in some cases.