An Amazing Balancing Act

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2010)

Kick-Ass (1:58, R) — Fantasy: Comics & Pulps, 2nd string, crossover
The producers of Kick-Ass have a particular audience in mind — genus Fanboius, species komicbukii — and since I am a prime specimen of their intended target, I am pleased to say that they got me dead center with both barrels ... and also several knives, a stun gun, a few grenades, several well placed fists to the head and kicks to the groin, and a bazooka.
This flick is a total trip from beginning to end. It gets the comic-book feel just right, doesn't wuss out by pulling any punches in the brutality department, is extremely well paced, keeps you guessing as to where it's going (a plus in my book), and features snappy, realistic dialog. Plus which, it's got more than its fair share of laff-out-loud moments.
We open with a voice-over from average high-schooler Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), musing "I always wondered why nobody ever did it before me." as we see a cloaked figure spread his costume wings and plummet from the top of a tall building as the citizens below gape up in awe. Up to that point, Dave has been one of the faceless masses, lamenting "My only superpower was being invisible to girls.".
That's about to change, tho, as he decides he doesn't need superpowers to don a costume (a customized scuba wetsuit) and fight crime with only his bare hands, a brace of martial-arts batons, a taser, and "a perfect combination of optimism and naiveté". His 1st encounter in the heroic persona of Kick-Ass does not turn out well, however. But after they get done patching him back together, he's got lots of metal parts and enuf nerve damage to render him largely indifferent to pain. Thus his next big fight, defending a mugging victim against 3 thugs, works out somewhat better, tho he still takes a beating. But this time it's been captured on multiple cell-phone cameras and soon becomes an internet sensation.
As it turns out, somebody else DID hit on this idea before Dave did, somebody who does a much better Batman imitation while leaving virtually no traces of who he is. That would be ex-con (and framed ex-cop) Damon Macready (Nicolas Cage, even quirkier than usual but highly effective as such), who goes by the nom de guerre Big Daddy. Oh, yeah, and then there's Big Daddy's little girl (literally a girl, about age 11) Mindy (Chloe Moretz), AKA Hit- Girl, who's quicker than a cobra, nimbler than an Olympic gymnast, less remorseful than a pit bull, and cuter than a litter of cocker spaniel puppies when she wants to be.
Crime lord Frank D'Amico (the scarily effective Mark Strong) knows that somebody's been knocking over his drug deals and taking out his goons, but he doesn't believe the screaming pleas of his soon-to-be-ex henchmen that it was some kind of costumed vigilante. At least, he doesn't give it much credence until he sees the video of Kick-Ass, after which he figures he's identified his nemesis and orders his entire mob to track down and kill the costumed idiot.
He's wrong, of course, it's been BD and HG (to quote their belt buckles) all along. However bold his attitude, Dave is still physically ineffectual (tho his love life is perking up a bit), but now he's a target. BD and HG effortlessly track him down, warn him how easy it was and what he's up against, and offer help if he really needs it.
Shortly thereafter, another offer of assistance comes from a new costumed crime-fighter, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, trying hard to overcome the McLovin stereotype), but there's something a little hinky going on here.
This movie is rated R and deserves it. It has no campy bam-biff-pow scenes, but there are blood, cruelty, and corpses galore. The crooks are played as total hard-asses. And yet there are funny scenes that don't cut the mood. Really, this is an amazing balancing act, but nobody ever steps off that thin little wire.
It's clearly not a movie for everyone, but I thot it rocked, and what you get is my highly personal but totally honest opinion: dandy!