The most entertaining film of the year

Rating: 10/10 (24 April 2010)

In 2007, director Matthew Vaughan and writer Jane Goldman flipped the fantasy genre upside down and made it fresh with the brilliant Stardust. Three years later, they've done it to the superhero genre with Kick-Ass and it's bloody brilliant. There are swearing 11 year old girls, weedy kids in wetsuits decapitating henchmen, Nicolas Cage is actually pretty damn good and it's laugh out loud funny all the way through. It's simply a great piece of entertainment.
The film's premise seems pretty familiar at first. Dave Lezweski (Aaron Johnson) is a nerdy teen with girl problems who wishes he was a superhero. In fact, the film even starts with him saying, "Who am I? You sure you wanna know......." in a blatant spoof of Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man and it sets the tone perfectly straight away. He orders a wetsuit from eBay, goes out to fight crime and quickly becomes a YouTube, Facebook and Myspace sensation. An unfortunate accident leads him to having metal plates in his bones, a clear nod to Wolverine. Eventually his antics get the attention of baddie Mafia boss Frank Di'Amico (Mark Strong) and he uses his son Red Mist (himself a wannabe superhero played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to try and stop Kick-Ass. The real concern for Di'Amico though is Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz).
Whilst we're on the topic of Big Daddy and Hit Girl, they're really quite brilliant. Cage's character is a former cop with a ridiculous moustache who's spent 11 years of his life training his daughter Moretz into a lethal assassin. During their escapades he resembles Batman and she is something entirely new. She dismembers her enemies, throws daggers into their faces and refers to them openly with the worst word in the English language (yes, the one that begins with c, it's quite funny). The two of them ar completely deranged, Big Daddy shoots his own daughter with a shotgun in combat training and in return for her perseverance he buys her an ice cream. It's some real crazy stuff.
The casting, as in Stardust, is perfect. All the actors do a fantastic job. Aaron Johnson is perfectly cast and is fantastic in the role, Mark Strong is still the perfect villain in the whole film industry and Mintz-Plasse is also very strong. As you may well have guessed though, Cage and Moretz steal the show. Nicolas Cage is an absolute revelation. Years and years of looking dead bored in films like Knowing and National Treasure, he's clearly having great fun in the role. He also does a mean Alan West impersonation when he becomes his superhero alter-ego. Chloe Moretz though is absolutely terrific. An 11 year old saying ridiculous swear words should just be funny because it's an 11 year old saying ridiculous swear words, but her comic timing is so good that it's funny more from her perfect performance rather than just the fact that they're funny lines she gets to say. The Daily Mail will tell you otherwise, but she's a real hoot and a sure future star.
I've focused a lot on Hit Girl and Big Daddy and this could've been a real problem for the film. They're such great characters that it would have been easy to neglect the main plot. Thankfully though, Jane Goldman has crafted a masterful script to go with the great characters and dialogue. The focus always goes back to Dave's story and there's even a nice little romance sub-plot that's been weaved effortlessly within all the great action and comedy.
The action itself is actually pretty damn good too. There's plenty of blood and gore but it's all choreographed really well and is great to watch. There's hardly any CGI involved which is a fantastic change from overblown crap like Clash of the Titans.
As good as the actors are and as good as Jane Goldman's script is, the director Matthew Vaughan is the real hero of the film. Stardust was fantastic but this takes him onto a whole new level and I'm sure plenty more Hollywood studios will come calling for him now. He's brought together a great cast and created the most entertaining film I've seen in a long time.
Quite frankly, if I see anything more entertaining at the cinema this year then I'll eat a pair of socks dipped in guacamole.
5/5