This movie "kicks ass". In a comic book way.

Rating: 9/10 (18 August 2013)

I scoffed at first when this movie was released because of the tiny girl unrealistically kicking butt. But I finally saw the whole thing on cable which tuned-down the ultra-violence a little and I saw a great movie.
Great story and unexpectedly funny. Great cinematography. It has a high-color comic-book look to it. Like someone laid the whole thing out comic-book style and then shot each frame for the movie. Storyboard I believe is what they call it.
But in this case, the creators insisted that the look of the storyboard, the action, the feel, the look, they insisted that it go up that way on film or video or whatever digital-computer stuff they use now. Fantastic job. I'm sure the uncensored version is really sick, but to many people today "sick" is good.
I did not know that Nick Cage was in this movie since it seemed that the star focus was on the young kids in the movie. Cage played his role very real. He passed onto the viewer the feeling that this is life in New York now and these things are really happening and he intends to do something about it. Like many good comic-books the movie is also funny. The New York Times called it "giggle and guts entertainment". That's it exactly.
Of course, this movie was excellent for that demographic that Hollywood wants to watch this so they can spread the word to their friends. Great writing and movie-making talent here in this very good movie. And I'm not even a kid anymore, but in the comic-book genre little kids can kick-ass.