Ten friggen’ stars outta ten.
1) Gratuitous violence.
2) Foul language
3) Excessive violence
4) Children with firearms
So it’s got that going for it.
Seriously, this was the funnist movie I’ve seen in a *long* time. Short form of the plot is that some nerdy kid decides that it’s about time that someone actually tries to be a superhero, so he gets himself an outfit and sets out to right wrongs… and immediately discovers that he’s in over his head. At the other end of the scale are a father/daughter team equipped with bags of cash, a roomfull of guns, body armor, training and a willingness to not only fight the bad guys, but to shoot them in the face. I was honestly astonished as the level of profanity and violence exhibited by the 11-year-old Hit Girl… a vast bodycount, and it had me laughing the entire time. It’s a movie sure to irritate the hell out of gun-grabbing leftist weenies; the good guys, one of whom is a Batman clone, have no trouble whatsoever in obtaining – and using to deadly effect – firearms. There is no hint of the usual “guns are bad, m’kay?’ message that so many movies seem to feel the need to include.
There are several reviews I’ve read that have managed to successfully display just that level of knee-jerk anti-gunnism. Such as HERE (where the reviewer lets slip his own psychological aberations by going on and on about how Hit Girl is “sexualized” even though she’s wearing body armor and more clothes than a cast member of Sesame Street) and HERE and HERE is a summary of a number of negative reviews.
It has a lot of “willing suspension of disbelief” to it, especially the use of a particular mechanism near the end of the movie. But there are no superpowers, nothing that physically *couldn’t* happen (except that mechanism…), just a whole lot of “that’s very unlikely.”
Go see it and irritate the hell out of the prudes and Libs in your life.
7 Responses to “Movie review: “Kick-Ass””
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Scott, you may have totally missed the message. With all that manufactured violence, the message may have been that “guns and violence are bad.” Someone may have been trying to be clever by using “reverse psychology.”
Thanks for the review. I’ll go see it.
Hit Girl is 11? Normal and real girls can be really, really strange at that age.
So is it a good date night movie? Should I bring the wife?
I love the orginal Comic Book
because its insane leven of Excessive violence
have my doubt that the Holywood Version is same, must be tame
Do they use chainsaw, swords ?
Are flying alot of bodyparts true the Air ?
Or is Hit Girl totaly covert in red … Blood ?
Remember Leon the Profssional? Jean Reno training a young Natalie Portman to be an assassin, only the bad guys had body armor and automatic weapons.
> the message may have been that “guns and violence are bad.”
Don;t think so… the good guys use violence, and lots of it, to wipe out a lot of bad guys. At the end, there’re some dead good guys, but the remaining ones are still seen as heros, both by society and each other.
> So is it a good date night movie?
Damnfino. I guess it would depend on the Significant Other. I saw a number of couples in the thater; most seemed to be enjoying it together.
> Do they use chainsaw, swords ?
Swords, yes. Chainsaws, i don’t recall. Hit Girl uses a number of bladed implements from butterfly knives on up to swords, but also uses a *lot* of firearms. Kick Ass tries to use just his fists and some sticks, but in the end uses automatic weapons and artillery.
> Are flying alot of bodyparts true the Air ?
> Or is Hit Girl totaly covert in red … Blood ?
Yes and yes.The movie doesn;t dwell on gore, but when Hit Girl lops off, say, some guys leg, it’s not exactly subtle.
I’m kinda torn on this. I have been MASSIVELY disappointed in comic books/novels to movies the last few years. Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee”Bob the Nailer” Swagger? What moron in casting came up with THAT idea? HellBoy was OK, it kinda came across with the dark edge of the comic. And don’t get me started on Lord of the Rings. The entire directorial and writing staff for that abortion should be dragged into teh streets and shot. And the Batman and Superman abominations I just refuse to think about.
Have to give Kickass a viewing, never having seen the comic it is based on might help.
I’m really keen to see this, as most of the reviews I’ve read of it sound just like yours… it must really be foul-mouthed, as that comes up in every review.
Apparently, the shock value of Hit Girl is enough to drive some critics into states of near apoplexy…not the fact that she’s dismembering everyone in sight, but that she uses the dread “C***” word that must never be spoken, especially by a tender female child.