Kick-Ass

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2010)

Kick-Ass had its Scottish Premiere as part of the Glasgow Magners Comedy Festival, with stars Aaron Johnson, from 'Nowhere Boy' and Christopher Mintz-Plasse or Mclovin from 'Superbad' as he will eternally be known in attendance for a question and answer session along with the Scottish writer of the comic Mark Millar.
Kick-Ass is the third outing for Matthew Vaughn as director, after making the gangster movie Guy Ritchie wishes he had made with 'Layer Cake' and then the fantasy star studded epic 'Stardust'. It seems Vaughn has made the transition from producer to director seamlessly. But getting his third movie off the ground was hard work.
Hollywood loves all things comic book just now, but 'Kick-Ass' was not following the trend, they deemed that it wasn't a kids movie and it wasn't quite an adult movie. With a UK rating of 15 it falls in between and unless you are a true fan-boy, it might not be the kind of thing to appeal to most people. So the studios held back on backing it, but undeterred, Vaughn used his producer skills to raise the $35 million budget independently and in doing so it gave him the freedom to make the movie he wanted. And what a movie he has made, any predetermined conceptions of what this would be like are not just shattered they are blown away.
Now with his third movie in the can, it should also prove to be his most successful and the gamble has paid off with talk from Millar of a sequel even before this goes out on general release. This confidence from Millar also shines throughout the movie from Vaughn's directing to some sublime performances that make you not just like this movie, but love it.
Kick-Ass is a comic-book movie unlike any you will have seen; it is violent, funny and shocking at times but above all it is utterly entertaining! Based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar, the story revolves around an American high-school geek and comic fan Dave Lizewski (played by Johnson with a fantastic American accent) who dresses up as a superhero to fight crime and in doing so becomes an internet sensation. But it seems he is not the only vigilante out there, he soon finds out that father and daughter duo Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage, doing a fine Adam West impression) and Hit-Girl (13-year-old Chloe Moretz) are also doing their bit to fight crime.
This pair steal the show from their brutal yet hilarious scene involving Cage teaching his daughter Mindy how to take a bullet while wearing her bulletproof vest. To a rather controversial scene that involves Hit-Girl's use of the 'C' word while wiping out a den of drug-dealers.
This shows the freedom Vaughn had in making the movie, after he managed to secure funding. In turn freeing this movie from the restraints of a big studio and it really pays off. Vaughn has assembled an eclectic cast that reads like a who's who from his previous outings, with stars such as Mark Strong in fine form. But from all the performances the film will be remembered for Chloe Moretz's first major role. Her performance goes from cutesy Daddy's girl to foul mouthed superhero and she more than holds her own with such an ensemble cast, she steals every scene she is in.
'Kick Ass' breaks the mould in superhero movies.It may be controversial but it is ultimately extremely funny. He may have incurred the wrath from such bastions of good taste as the Daily Mail, but Vaughn deserves plaudits for staying true to the comic book and giving us a superhero with a potty mouth.