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| Released: |
2010 |
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| Genre: |
ACTION
COMIC STRIP
ADVENTURE
BLACK COMEDY
CONTROVERSIAL
COMEDY
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| Origin: |
UK/ Ireland/ Australia/ New Zealand/ US/ Canada |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
117 |
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MIXED Reviews
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| The commercials for Kick-Ass make it seem almost family-friendly, which it most certainly is not. This film isn't just violent, it revels in bloody mayhem. There are no taboos. Hit-Girl, who's about 11 years old, is shown casually blowing away bad guys and, later, she becomes the victim of a vicious beating. So much for not putting little girls in danger or showing them doing unseemly things. Of course, in Hit-Girl's case, this is an opportunity for some father/daughter bonding. (Or should that be bondage?) On one occasion, when she tricks Big Daddy into thinking she wants a cuddly puppy for her birthday, he is crestfallen. She then reveals that what she really wants is a cool knife; he is suitably relieved... The best superhero movie since The Dark Knight (and far less serious in tone or approach), Kick-Ass earns its name in every way. |
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| (James Berardinelli, Reelviews) |
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| There’s a disconnect when you watch: Should a girl this age — the actress herself, say — be allowed even to see this thing? Is what’s onscreen a form of child abuse? Do we splutter in outrage or relax and dig the Grand Guignol spectacle? In schizoid fashion, I both spluttered and enjoyed myself. Moretz has aplomb, and when Cage underplays the monomania, he reminds you what a droll comic actor he can be. Director-panderer Matthew Vaughn fetishizes the little girl and her virtuosic scissor-knife work, the hyperbolic weaponry, the can-you-top-this carnage. There’s even a teen-sex angle: Johnson’s nerd superhero pretends to be gay so he can have “nonthreatening” sleepovers with a luscious classmate. Kick-Ass is a compendium of all sleazy things, and it sings like a siren to our inner Tarantinos. |
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| (David Edelstein, New York) |
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| If the film's extreme violence will counteract its good-natured humor for some multiplex audiences (since when do caped crusaders go out of their way to kill the bad guys?), its balancing act between innocence and gore perfectly matches the expectations of genre fans, who should embrace the movie... The pic's nearly two-hour running time would fit a conventional comic-book action film, but Kick-Ass, closer to a goofy teen comedy than an operatic hero franchise, feels a bit stretched at that length. Closing scenes, naturally, pave the way for a sequel, but it's difficult to believe the filmmakers could keep the balancing act going for another installment. |
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| (John DeFore, HollywOod Reporter) |
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| Kick-Ass is more interested in striking a pose than doing anything interesting. It's fitfully amusing, but not much more. |
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| (Eugene Novikov, Film Blather) |
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| Fun and entertaining in all the ways a violent R-rated action flick should be, but its unfocused structure creates a lull that almost kills the movie... Part of that problem is the inevitable fact that Chloe Moretz's Hit Girl completely steals the movie from the very second she shows up on screen, just like in the comic book... It never feels like Vaughn is trying very hard to create his own visual style or directorial identity. So much of the best parts of the movie are taken verbatim from the comic while others pay tribute to other filmmakers, especially Quentin Tarantino. The violent action scenes are nothing short of amazing, but it doesn't help that while a katana-wielding Hit Girl takes out bad guys, Vaughn uses similar '60s surf music to Kill Bill. In another scene, Vaughn swipes music used in "28 Days Later" to build tension during one of Big Daddy's key fight sequences. One presumes anyone interested in an ultra-violent R-rated action flick like Kick-Ass will already be familiar with Vaughn's lack of originality. Those two musical cues are the worst culprits, and the other musical choices range from the inspired to the insipid. |
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| (Edward Douglas, comingsoon.net) |
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| Generally, I have no problem with swearing and violence in movies, as long as it doesn't grow tiresome. The problem here is the way young Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl is used. I listened to her say "cunt" as if she used the word routinely and I thought about how ugly and hostile the word sounds (the "K" sound is part of the problem). Then I thought of Moretz rehearsing her lines, probably with her folks, who most likely were on the set watching their talented child deliver her performance. I realize that most kids will learn to swear on their own, but the notion of teaching a child to spit out such a hateful-sounding word gives me the creeps. She uses other major swear words as well. That, combined with the acts of violence, especially her battle with a full-grown man, left me feeling dirty for participating in the Kick-Ass experience. But I stayed, and I had a good time. And I cringed. And I applauded. And I winced. Get the picture? |
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| (Ed Johnson-Ott, nuvo.net) |
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| It's not a perfect film: sometimes the script feels like Ma and Pa trying too hard to get down with the kids, there is a generally woeful handling of new technology, particularly in the demise of one of the central characters. But these can be forgiven: Kick-Ass is pure entertainment, and deserves to be a huge hit. |
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| (Paul Hurley, Talk Talk) |
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| It’s true that Mary Whitehouse wouldn’t have liked Matthew Vaughn’s film, and the Daily Mail probably won’t like it either. After all, an 11-year-old girl vigilante called Hit-Girl (the remarkable Chloe Moretz) uses the four-letter word beginning with “c”, lops off the legs of a baddie and unmercifully obeys the instructions of Big Daddy, her slightly crazed father (Nicolas Cage), to kill, kill, kill. And that ain’t by any means all. Yet the longer the film goes on, and it is a little too long, the more harmlessly cartoonish it becomes. While it is more real in its style than something such as Spiderman and thus unlikely to have been even contemplated by the increasingly cautious moguls of Hollywood, to feel that it encapsulates everything that is wrong with our “broken society” is to miss its sense of fantasy and fun. |
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| (Derek Malcolm, Evening Standard) |
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| Kick-Ass... promised a knowing spin on the superhero genre, yet feels surprisingly behind the curve. ‘How come nobody’s ever tried to be a superhero?’ asks standard nerdy teen Dave (Brit star Aaron Johnson and his buns of steel) as he dons a green scuba suit to create his crime-fighting alter ego, Kick-Ass. ‘Dude,’ you feel like shouting, ‘there’s, like, an entire reality TV series devoted to that,’ plus you have Watchmen on your bedside table... I normally complain movies aren’t violent enough but Hit Girl’s knife-happy, c-word-spouting antics, as she repeatedly stabs victims to the Banana Splits theme tune, raised the killjoy spectre of youth knife crime statistics. Only Tarantino could truly carry off graphic violence like this as cartoonish fun. Still, slick action and the odd kick-ass gag compensate for the one-dimensional characters – I suspect my ten-year-old self would have probably loved it. |
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| (Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro) |
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| The film is amusing, but it’s gaspingly inconsequential. |
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| (Craig Mathieson, SBS Film) |
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