Death Wish 3 for the in-crowd

Rating: 1/10 (5 May 2010)

This might be the post modern version of Death Wish 3! It even ends with an unconventional use of a missile launcher which may be a sly tribute to that unintentionally great film.
Kick Ass is far less entertaining however. Voice overs are seldom a good idea in movies, and here we have one of the most annoying, full of the endless pop culture references which have become the norm. Nicolas Cage does a funny impression of Adam West in costume but otherwise I don't see why this would be described as hilarious.
The violence is among the brutal I've ever seen and the heroes completely unsympathetic. These are actually not superheroes but masked vigilantes and, despite the usual 'ironic' defence, their bloody vengeance is seen as a good, or at least cool, thing. One scene in particular left me numb; this was not the notorious c-word outburst (actually one of the milder things in this film) but seeing a helpless man handcuffed in a car being intentionally crushed to death -by the superheroes!
With the sole exception of the pre-pubescent Hitgirl, all the other females in this film are mere sex objects for the gratification of the males. Interestingly, all mother figures are unceremoniously killed off-screen, their deaths being mentioned only in one line of dialogue. KickAss's mum died from cancer while Hitgirl's in childbirth. Neither is shown the slightest degree of sympathy.
This lack of empathy to women (or any one) and grotesque violence made me assume that the original author must had been an adolescent. On consulting wikipedia, to my surprise he was in his late thirties. No doubt this is a demonstration of how infantilised our culture has become.