This comic book action movie merits its title

Posted April 14, 2010 11:00 pm

Dann Gire

The title doesn't lie.

Here comes one Red Bull of an action film that doesn't play nice.

It combines the fantastic underpinnings of a superhero costume adventure with the excessively gory violence of a cheap martial arts exploitation film.

"Kick-Ass" may upset some viewers, especially during the scenes when an 11-year-old female superhero named Hit Girl energetically wipes out a room full of thugs with sharp and scary blades, resulting in geysers of blood and lots of screaming.

If that doesn't do it, the scenes where the story's chief villain holds little Hit Girl down and pounds her with his fists certainly will.

Forget your granddad's cartoony superhero movies.

Matthew Vaughn's sensationalized story stays true to the darker heart of its source - the comic book series by Mark Millar and John S. Romita Jr. - and proves to be unforgiving of a society that stands idly by while witnessing crime and violence.

The idea of becoming a super hero appeals to nerdy high school student Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson). He already possesses the power of invisibility, especially around girls such as the lovely Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca).

Dave fashions his own low-budget superhero costume and goes out to save the world. His first experience fighting street crime doesn't go so well. He gets a knife in the stomach and almost dies. (Maybe some basic ninja training or a big gun might have helped?)

Back in action, Dave becomes a media sensation after he intervenes in a parking lot brawl, and his extraordinary ability to absorb physical abuse gets captured by cell phone cameras and instantly transmitted to the Internet.

At the same time, a falsely accused ex-cop named Damon (Nicolas Cage) has been relentlessly training his daughter Mindy (a wonderfully physical and powerful performance by 13-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz) to be a vigilante killer like himself.

Damon goes by the name of Big Daddy and wears a costume not too far removed from that of the Caped Crusader himself. (In an inspired move, Cage adopts the pretentious phrasing of Adam West, who played Batman in the campy 1960s TV series.)

Dave and Mindy become instant allies against the local crime kingpin, Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong, last seen as Sherlock Holmes' magic-practicing villain).

He becomes so upset with the vigilantes that his attention-starved teen son Chris ("Superbad" star Christopher Mintz-Plasse) seizes the opportunity to help out.

He becomes an undercover supervillain named Red Mist.

But Red Mist is no pal. He plans to befriend the vigilante heroes, discover their true identities, then let Dad destroy them.

So many Hollywood studios passed on making Vaughn's movie that the London-born director independently financed the production before selling it to Lionsgate.

He and cinematographer Ben Davis shot their movie on old-fashioned 35 mm widescreen film. They wisely ignored the dark and brooding visuals of Tim Burton's neo-noir "Batman," opting for eye-popping compositions bursting with comic book colors and dynamic angles.

They have created frenetic, if slightly bombastic fanboy's delight and an action aficionado's cup of tea, brewed by a cast that loads the characters with dramatic weight than they really deserve.

In the end, this movie belongs not to the titular superhero, but to the diminutive powder keg Moretz, whose crooked smile, amazing athletic prowess and kinetic stage presence signal the arrival of an unlikely action film superstar.

At least until she hits puberty.

"Kick-Ass"

★★★

Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

Other: A Lionsgate release. Rated R for drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations, violence. 117 minutes

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