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Friday, April 16, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW
Kick-Ass
Attention, Peter Parker: Your Followers Emulate You, And Very Violently

 
Aaron Johnson as Dave aka Kick-Ass and Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit Girl in "Kick-Ass", which opened today across the U.S. and Canada.  
Lionsgate

By Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW 
Friday, April 16, 2010

If you want a film that goes all out in its wildness, gusto and emulation of all superheroes geeky, nerdy and in between, then "Kick-Ass" will satisfy your desires most wholesomely.  Director Matthew Vaughn ("Stardust") cleverly combines wit, humor and strong graphic violence while parodying every superhero film from the last 30 years and films like "Pulp Fiction" to execute a lively, crackling entertainment.

Visceral, bloody, incorrect and funny, "Kick-Ass" follows an aspiring or accidental superhero named Dave (Aaron Johnson, "The Greatest"), a Queens, New York resident fed up with good people finishing second to the criminal element in the Big Apple.  Donning a green androgynous costume and either false bravado or LSD-influenced gumption, he takes on a troublemaker or two.  The results, like some products you use at home, may vary, but inevitable progression results.  Soon, Dave gets a name upgrade: Kick-Ass.

In this Internet age it won't take long before the most unlikely superheroes gain momentum.  (Can you picture Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey-style vengeance being exercised on YouTube to maximum acclaim?)  Before you can say, "lickety-split", in true anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better style, hero imitators and emulators are spawned, emboldened to blanket the Empire State's Big Bad City.  Some of these copy-cats should have been the very boys or girls who emerged from 1970s or 1980s showings of "Superman" or "Rocky", so desperately wanting to fly or box.  The difference is that the self-appointed super-misfits of "Kick-Ass" took that cherished ambition and desperation a step further. 

Way further.

Sly and satirical, "Kick-Ass" also pays tribute to tabloid (or cable news) television voyeurism, commenting on the evolution (or devolution) of the mainstream media as its networks broadcast live (ala Sidney Lumet's "Network" or Spike Lee's "Bamboozled"), a wild or objectionable event.  The film exemplifies the example of childlike dreams and adult realities colliding head on.  Want to be a star?  A big bright, shining supernova?  "Here's your initiation ceremony", the director seems to say.

Elements in Mr. Vaughn's film are occasionally showy if not vaudevillian.  Some of the characters are so exuberant or passionate you feel that they are sure to break out in song.  Apart from the film's bold, saturated visions and beautiful nighttime set design, there's a Keystone-Kops mob gangster outfit hell bent on taking care of business in every way, never mind every day.  And witness a funny, homoerotic twist in "Kick-Ass" on a specific moment between Kim Basinger and Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's "Batman".  When you see it, you'll recognize it instantly.

"Kick-Ass", designed for maximum blockbuster rah-rah appeal, is tongue-in-cheek all the way with its lurid comic-strip vibe.  The film alternately self-mocks and lionizes the Big Daddies and Hit Girls of the world while celebrating their hopes, fears and idiosyncrasies with relish and energy in its screenplay.  Well-devised by Mr. Vaughn and Jane Goldman and based on Mark Millar's comic book series, the film contains few lulls.  "Kick-Ass" also winks knowingly at its adult sensibilities, which are exhibited in a stylized yet idealized way, with memorable characters who appear to have rehearsed how to play the superhero game over and over in their heads.

Mr. Vaughn's superhero crime genre drama has been anticipated with bated breath for months now.  The film is über-serious in the cartoon violence department and priceless in the cranky, crackerjack dialogue arena.  Tailor-made for 15-year-old boys, some adults will be outraged by the film's extreme violence and its targets.  Others, while offended, will see "Kick-Ass" for what it is: a free-wheeling, uproarious, maniacal thrill-ride that rarely pauses for breath.  Summer officially starts here.  Bring on those crazy kids!


With: Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Rispoli, Stu "Large" Riley, Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Garrett M. Brown, Lyndsy Fonseca, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie Wu.

"Kick-Ass" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use -- some involving children.  The film's running time is one hour and 58 minutes.


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Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar here.

Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times - here



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