Interesting and entertaining, if not entirely successful

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2010)

Troubling, as pretty much everybody has pointed out. But I have to applaud the filmmakers and their studio for making it an R-Rated movie. Sure, watching kids get the crap kicked out of them and shot at is more than a tad bothersome, but it would be so much worse if the film backed off of the blood and violence. Without being able to see the pain and nastiness of violence, you're making it look innocent and fun, and if this had ended up a PG-13 film, it would have been much more abhorrent. Personally, I think the film has two major flaws which hold it back from being anything great. First off, the kid who plays Kick-Ass, Aaron Johnson, is just awful. I could barely put up with him when he was on screen. It was mostly his high-pitched, whiny voice. I really didn't want to listen to him, and I could never give a crap what was happening to him. Like a lot of the audience, I was always eager to get back to Big Daddy and Hit Girl (Nicholas Cage and Chloe Grace Moretz, whom you may remember as the precocious (and horribly annoying) little sister from last year's (500) Days of Summer). The structure of the story was really quite excellent, keeping those two characters in the background for the first half of the movie or so, so I wouldn't want that to change. The film just needed a more charismatic, or maybe even funny guy in the lead role. The second problem is what the film becomes by the end. I think it makes some salient points about the whole super-hero fantasy, that in real life anyone who'd try it would just get their ass kicked, and, as I said above, the violence and blood really sell the idea that this would be nasty business. When Cage and Moretz go nuts on people, at least at the beginning, it's not awesome. You're watching two nutjobs, one just a child, kill people. So it is kind of disappointing that the final act descends into a full-blown super-hero fantasy, with jet-packs even! And the happy ending coda is even lamer. Despite its major flaws, I did end up liking the movie. And, yeah, I loved Hit Girl and Big Daddy. Those characters are just fantastic. I think Bad Lieutenant is going to mark the turning point in Cage's career where he's insane and he's never coming back. I don't even think directors try to restrain him anymore. I love that, when he's in his costume, he talks just like Adam West from the old Batman show. Director Matthew Vaughn (whose previous film was the excellent fantasy/romance Stardust) really shouldn't have let Cage do that, but yeah. It's amusing. Moretz is most certainly a talent to watch. Hopefully she won't go nuts in real life, robbing liquor stores in a Hit Girl outfit in a few years.