Kick-Ass

When I first heard about Kick-Ass I thought, what a terrible name for a movie and a terrible name for a superhero. After watching it I realized that the name fit the movie quite well; not because it kicked ass, but because it was terrible. Watching Kick-Ass was like watching a tug-o-war between the movie wanting to be a serious superhero movie and a satire of a superhero movie. Because of this, it didn’t succeed as either.

This tells the story of a regular kid who tries to be a real-life superhero, only to get himself into a whole lotta trouble with the mafia. Along the way he meets a man and his 11 year old daughter who dress up and call themselves superheroes, but are more like sadists. I have to say, its quite disturbing watching this 11 year old girl killing people left right and center with no remorse and more than a little enjoyment.

This movie suffers from thinking that its too cool for its own good, which is seen in Hit Girl’s line delivery (which includes a lot of swearing cause hey, its funny to hear a young girl swear!), Nicholas Cage’s cheesy impersonation of Adam West, and a scene where Kick Ass and Red Mist are grooving in their superhero car. There’s also a really stupid subplot where the girl that Kick Ass likes thinks that he’s gay, which feels like it would be better suited for an American Pie movie.

This movie is mean-spirited and not a lot of fun to watch. The only moment that really works is when a video of Kick Ass gets onto YouTube and he starts being hyped up by the media and everyone else. But that lasts about five minutes. Everything else is either cheesy or in bad taste. 3/10