Kick Ass: A Must See!
Spoilers
“Contact the mayor’s office, he has a special signal he shines in the sky—it’s in the shape of a giant cock.” – Hit Girl.
GOD I LOVED THIS MOVIE! It puts all of the “legitimate” superhero movies to shame. This low budget movie is successful on so many freakin’ levels, I don’t even know where to start. … regardless, I’ll attempt to explain what the Kick-Ass is about while weaving in the cast, social implications and awesome fight scenes, finishing off with, “Why this movie is so goddamn awesome I can’t wait to take my 17 year old daughter to see it.”
Kick-Ass Poster
This movie is perfect. Yeah, I said it…”perfect!” in the sense that it comes face-to-face with the question we all think about, which is “why don’t everyday people have the balls to get involved, to do the right thing when it comes to helping other people who are in need of help?” We all would like to be a superhero, but “Super” or not, is it possible to step up to the plate and help others in need?
The movie, I can’t comment on the comic book since I haven’t read it yet, goes on to show exactly what can/WILL happen to someone who does decide to try and make a difference. If you’re unlucky, you’ll end up dead. It takes more than heart and a costume to make a difference … unless you have what superheroes have, which is having an “edge” which enables him, or her, to escalate a bad situation to a really, really bad situation faster than the bad guys can. Peace through superior power, brains and high-speed equipment.
No, you can’t be Green Lantern, because you don’t got no powerful ring and you can’t be no Superman since you don’t have any superpowers and you can barely make a run to the fridge, but maybe, just maybe if you’re driven enough, and you prepare and train your body and mind, and you have a butt load of money, resources equipment and bullets, and most importantly if you happen to have a sense of compromising morals, you just might be able to become a Batman archetype, or more realistically a Punisher with a mission.
This just so happens to beg the question that we here at Superherostuff.com have been working on for a blog series, which is, “what is the criteria of a superhero?” What exactly does it take to be a superhero?
Kick-Ass Comic
Kick-Ass, the movie, is based on a comic book series written by Mark Millar with artwork by John Romia Jr. (which I simply can’t stand). Protagonist Dave Lizewski, played by Aaron Johnson John Lennon in Nowhere Boy (2009), through as sense of naive idealism, becomes “Kick-Ass” the superhero by donning a scuba suit, mask and rubber gloves and wielding duo night sticks.
We see, real quick, why normal people with no superpowers, special training or expensive equipment (or guns) don’t try to stop crime. … you end up really dead, really fast! Criminals have little patience for human speed bumps and are stereotypically overzealous in their desire to dish out pain to their fellow human bings. Basically, if you’re not packing heat vision, or heat of some sort, you best leave crime fighting to the cops who have a medical plan.
Kick-Ass: Successfully Saves The Day
Kick-Ass’ first encounter with criminals lands him in the hospital. (Told you there were spoilers here! But you read on anyway!) This is pivotal as it is the “spider bite” scene that not only helps Lizewski wake up to reality while he loses his naivete yet at the same time he transforms himself, an “upgrade” of sorts, into that which will be more likely to survive on the streets, just what he needed to help him fight crime. Every superhero has his motive, many, if not most, have had a catastrophic episode of great loss to help spur them into action.
The second time around, Kick-Ass, in hot pursuit of rescuing a lost kitty, accidentally finds himself in the role he’s been waiting/training for; to help someone from an inescapable beating from thugs. A scrap ensues where he is taking on three guys, pussies they are not, in a parking lot where he is captured on phone and surveillance cameras defending the guy on the ground. Kick-Ass instantly becomes an instant icon, a (super)hero as people see him on video sites across the web.
Big Daddy and Hit Girl
His actions capture the attention of real crime fighters Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz). If you’re up on your Batman history, you’ll instantly recognize Cage’s nod to Adam West (from the 1960s tv Batman, and more recently the Mayor of Springfield on the Simpsons) as he mimics West’s trademark halting speech patterns… NOT to be confused with Captain Kirk’s halting speech patterns that SOME idiot bloggers are suggesting. fools!
Hit Girl Taking On Mob Boss Frank D’Amico
You might remember Hit Girl, Chloe GraceMoretz in 500 Days of Summer (2009), and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010). As Big Daddy’s side kick, Hit Girl, absolutely steals the show. I love this girl. As caustic as her little mouth can be, and as lethal as she is in killing bad guys, the audience grows to love her as well, as well as respect her spunky and tenacious ability to kill by slitting throats, dismember bad guys and shootting them in the head. Even villain-antagonist Frank D’Amico (played by Mark Strong) respects Hit Girl when we hear him say, “God, I wish I had a son like you.”
Hit Girl was trained by Big Daddy, to join him in his revenge against crime boss D’Amico. Her training included being highly proficient in the double bladed staff, firearms of all sorts, knife fighting and even the Asian spikey thing on a chain (that you throw at people and then yank, somehow killing them in the process) that you see in Kung Fu movies. Her training also includes being shot at point-blank range, three times, while wearing a bulletproof vest. She is also a master in martial arts and all forms of melee combat. Kick-Ass is truly a reference to her ability bring down pain and death … and that purple wig with black Robin mask is soooo damn cute!!!
Frank D'Amico
Strong did an outstanding performance in playing a believable, ruthless mob boss without resorting to cliche. You might remember him as Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes (2009). He will also play Matai Shang in upcoming John Carter of Mars (2012) AS WELL AS Sinestro in Green Lantern (2011)!!!!!!! YEAH BABY! We cannot wait! Pants will be peed in anticipation.
Red Mist/Chris D’Amico
“Teaming up” with Kick-Ass is Red Mist/Chris D’Amico, (Christopher Mintz-Plasse who was McLovin in Superbad (2007) and Fishlegs (voice) in How to Train Your Dragon (2010). He does a surprisingly good job but that’s all I’m saying about him.. don’t want to give anything away. I loved the part when he’s driving Kick-Ass around, listening to music in his red, $240,000, supercharged 500 hp Mustang with Lamborghini gull-wing doors, modified for drag, street and canyon driving.
Keeping in step with the Tarantino approach to movies, with cool shoot-em-up, martial arts scenes, and eye popping, shocking acts of violence from protagonists, Kick-Ass does more than just glorify violence. Yeah, sure Big Daddy and Hit Girl share in dealing out carnage but they also have an adorable relationship out of hero character. Aside from her swearing like a combat veteran, which is expected for someone who can kill with no remorse, you can see the twisted love between them as being genuine and sincere. She has complete faith in her daddy, knowing that he is training for a better good and he has complete faith that she can handle whatever he throws (shoots) at her. They both rise to each others expectations.
Hit Girl: From Comic Artist John Romita Jr.
Would I appreciate my daughter swearing and talking like that? .. Nope. Would I like it if she could fight like that when needed and handle herself in a firefight/knife fight? Hell yes! Who wouldn’t want their daughter to be able to, not only, defend themselves but actually make a difference in society?
See, this is where the movie shines. It hits you right in the friggin’ face and shows you what it takes to be a superhero. It’s not the costume, as young Lizewski, and many comic readers, would originally think, though a bullet proof vest and night vision goggles do come in handy in a pinch. What makes the difference is what’s inside, the heart, the desire to do good…. NOT! As one of Lizewski’s friends answers his question of, “why doesn’t anyone go out and be a supererhero?” with a pragmatic response, “Probably because they’ll get their f**king Asses Kicked and get killed!” we see that if you do not have an edge over the bad guys… say like… oh, I dunno… a Bazooka, then you will be seriously hurt, maimed or killed if you suit up to go toe to toe with baddies.
Kick-Ass/Dave Lizewski, played by Aaron Johnson
It takes more than heart and the desire to do good as a crime fighter, much less a superhero. To really make a difference, and to do so consistently, and to avoid being a one time martyr, it takes an edge! That edge is an enhancement of three things:
- You: You have to be physically capable of beating the living snot out of 3 bad guys at once, because you know where there’s one bad guy that you just might happen to get lucky to take down, there’s two more of his buddies right behind him ready to gank you in a heartbeat and take your lunch money! You need to be in shape and you have to know how to fight.
- Equipment: You have to have the goods, the weapons, the tools of the trade. Kick-Ass starts off with one club and then upgrades to two clubs (oh boy) and a tazer. Batman has his utility belt, tons of gadgets, computers, a cave, several flying machines and suits that can do everything from deflect bullets (in the movies) to change camouflage to match the terrain. The Punisher just has a ton of guns and knives and the emotionless ability to bring down serious pain on bad guys.
- Funds: Bullets, Batmobiles and Jet Packs aren’t free you know. You need more than a teenager’s allowance to pay for the training, the weapons, the monitoring devices, the vehicles and to outfit the “lair” or base of operations you work from. Cops don’t do it for free babydoll!
This is why Kick-Ass is such a great movie. Hell, it’s better than 9/10ths of the big budget superhero movies out there already. Jesus Christ did you see the abortion they did to Wolverine in the Origins movie? I’m not eeeeven going to go on about Catwoman, Elektra and Tim Burton (necrophiliac idiot. That man is disturbingly in love with dead things, I tell you what!).
No, what makes Kick-Ass great is that it brings superheroes down to earth and says, “Here, you wanna play with bad guys, then this is what it looks like… a friggin’ bullet in the head! BAM! There, you still wanna play in the streets and fight crime? Then you better learn to bring a gun to a knife fight, real fast!”
People, like legendary film critic Roger Ebert, don’t like to see 13-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz’s killing people. He sees her performance as Hit Girl as crossing a line. In an interview, Ebert asked, “Will I seem hopelessly square if I find ‘Kick-Ass’ morally reprehensible and will I appear to have missed the point?” The answer is, “no, you won’t.” We do have to draw the line somewhere, I drew it when Natural Born Killers (1994) came out. I don’t need to see gratuitous mindless bloodshed. … besides, they didn’t have masks and capes. But, Kick-Ass serves a purpose and is a lot more than just catering to the lowest common denominator; uneducated, testosterone laden, American young males.
Then why isn’t Kick-Ass kicking ass at the box office? HA! They are! Latest reports state that Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon pulled down $19.6 million and Lionsgate’s Kick-Ass came in first, Wiley E. Coyote style, skidding in sideways at an impressive $19.8 million. Not too shabby for a low budget movie. A huge amount of importance has been attached to being “the box office winner,” because 1) people can’t think for themselves and they end up picking a stupid Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) movie to go spend their money on and 2) people don’t have enough money to see a truly decent, violent cape and mask movie especially after seeing something as stupid as Beverly Hills Chihuahua .
Kick-Ass & Hit Girl
Kick-Ass has been doing well in the U.K. and Australia where it is making almost as much as it is here in the States. It is well on its way to being a profitable success, especially when compared with the majority of films that we’re being fed these days. Kick-Ass has also inspired more sales of a graphic novel than any Marvel or DC movie to date. GO BUY THE GRAPHIC NOVEL!
Kick-Ass is 118 minutes, is rated R for strong, brutal violence throughout, pervasive profanity, sexual content, some nudity (we see some nice cleavage of his Kick-Ass’ girlfriend along with his English teacher’s boobs! Woo Hoo!} and some drug use, some of which involves children (Red Mist smokes a joint but Kick-Ass turns it down! yaa Kick-Ass) … interesting how the ultra-violent is ok yet other subject matter such as sex and drugs are still taboo.
Kick-Ass T-Shirts arriving soon.
Till then… guess it’s just more pizza, Warcraft and strippers! Yeah baby!!
