High-school geeks dressing up in ugly wet suits and calling themselves super heroes was not my idea of a great movie but I’m glad to say that, this time, I was oh so wrong, as Kick-Ass well, kicked ass.
Aaron Johnson is absolutely brilliant playing the main geeky role of Dave Lizewski, an unnoticed high school student who is a major comic book fan. Lizewski, who lives alone with his father, leads quite a dull life, with little to look forward to except meeting up with the only two friends he has, unfortunately this usually ends in ritual mugging from local bullying brutes. However, one day he has had enough. He begins to ask why should the drug dealers, criminals, and vandals be allowed to get away with it? Why hasn’t anyone thought of becoming a super hero and taking them on?
And so Lizewski begins his hilarious and cringy journey to becoming a super hero with the questionable purchase of a very unflattering wet-suit and mask, and Kick-Ass is born. The suit is the easy part, learning to jump across buildings and take on some bad guys doesn’t exactly go so well, in fact, the only power he seems to possess is the ability to take a good ass kicking. A botched encounter with some drug dealers, who are connected to some top mafia type crminals, leads to Kick-ass meeting pint-sized lethal assasin Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz ) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage ) who have a vendetta of their own. He also aligns himself with new kid on the block Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse ) but is this a mistake? Trying to gain the love of a girl at school while being a super-hero proves too much for Lizewski who finds himself in over his head in the world of crime fighting.
There were some brilliant comic moments throughout the film. Yes, the idea of the plot seems ridiculous but with the directing of Mathew Vaughn and the fantastic acting it just worked. Thirteen-year-old Moretz is a little star in the making who was really convincing as martial arts/ knife loving Hit girl and Cage was also impressive for once as this role allowed him to be the serious character while at the same time taking the mickey out of himself. Don’t let the trailers fool you, go see this film as it will have you in stitches.
Verdict: 4.5/5
