Strong performance

Rating: 10/10 (24 April 2010)

Over the last couple of years I've started to notice the rise of a great actor, Mark Strong. Sherlock Holmes, Body of Lies and RocknRolla - all 3 are worth checking out. And now we have the real stardom with his, pun-intended, strong performance in kick-ass. I just read one review noting the brilliance of the movie because of how it combines "hilarious comedy with incredibly graphic, stylized violence" (quote from pgtmatrix's review). Well it could not have been done without Mark Strong.
On a side note, only Nicholas Cage can be the Jean Reno to Natalie Portman in a comic book style comedy. It was just enough character from him to prevent the movie from being over the top or just straight up goofy. He connected well with the style of humor in the movie although I can understand why someone would dislike Nicholas Cage in general.
Usually critics rip apart ultra violent movies or rated R comedies. Nowadays trash talking and bloodshed is just not accepted by critics. It takes this type of movie to shut everyone up. Some critics need to face the fact that they just don't like movies with added profanity and unrealistic killing sprees. If you don't like it better off sticking to PG movies or those deep Tom Hanks movies.