Kick-Ass: Does What The Label Promises

Director/ Producer: Matthew Vaughn
Writer: Jane Goldman, Mark Millar, Matthew Vaughn
DVD/Blu-ray release date: September 6 2010
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Number of discs: 1
Price: From £9.99-£15.91
Running Time: 113/117 mins
Certificate: 15
Starring: Nick Cage, Chloe Moretz, Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Dexter Fletcher, Lyndsy Fonseca

A violent potty-mouthed 12-year-old girl, a comic obsessed nerdy prolific wanker and a widower hell bent on revenge make up Kick-Ass’ controversial band of oddball “super heroes.”

Based on Mark Millar’s comic, the film follows geeky Dave Lizewski’s (Aaron Johnson) social experiment. As a huge fan of comic book superheroes, Dave begins to wonder why no-one ever tries becoming one and decides to try his hand by ordering a superhero “wet suit” online. Not your typical hero, Dave’s “only super power [is] being invisible to girls,” “like most people [he] just exists” and his mother wasn’t killed by a vicious villain but unglamorously died having an aneurysm in the family kitchen.

Confident that his personal qualities perfectly combine to follow the equation: optimism + naivety = superhero, Aaron walks out in costume as Kick-Ass ready to fight crime but gets stabbed in the chest by thieves and then run over. Entirely ill-equipped and idealistic, Kick-Ass soon finds himself being saved by Hit Girl aka Mindy (Chloe Moretz), a 12 year old with lightening speed reflexes decked out in PVC and a lilac wig. Covered by her equally lethal father, Big Daddy/Damon Macready (Nick Cage), Hit Girl or “the lethal midget” as she comically becomes known, has been trained from the age of five to show no mercy in her quest to hunt down the man that framed her father, putting him behind bars and in doing so, caused her mother’s suicide.

Caught up in their silently deployed long-term revenge plan, with his public persona Kick-Ass soon finds himself a wanted hero and for all the wrong reasons. Big Daddy and Hit Girl’s target, psychotic business tycoon and drug baron, Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), has powerful friends in the police and will do anything to ensure his business runs smoothly, including beating children, sharking business associates and the cold-blooded shooting down of a child in fancy dress and any unlucky onlookers. His son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), desperately seeks his father’s approval and inclusion in the family business so is soon masquerading as another superhero, Red Mist, in order to lure Kick-Ass.

Poking an affectionate finger, making fun at comic book clichés (“With no power comes no responsibility.”) and the superhero genre, Jane Golding’s script is full of exquisite comic timing and high impact one liners making Kick-Ass‘ characters memorable and larger than life. From the shocking opening where Big Daddy shoots Mindy in the stomach insisting “Two more rounds and no wincing …no whining” to Hit Girl demanding “OK you cunts, let’s see what you can do now?” and her informing Kick-Ass of how to get hold of them: “Contact the mayor’s office – he has a special cocked shaped light he shines”, the father-daughter relationship is surreal but convincing. Big Daddy training his prepubescent daughter as an assassin may be controversial but their hot chocolate and marshmallow routine and the clear affection between these kindred spirits as Big Daddy gives her “pop quizzes” or they enthusiastically discuss new weaponry, makes their perversion of family values, strangely endearing.

The unlikely pairing between Kick-Ass and his love interest, Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca) is another source of comedy as Katie mistakenly thinks he’s gay, leading to fake tan sessions, sleep-overs, pedicures and Romcom nights. Once the mistake is rectified even their tender first love scene is absurdly comical as Kick-Ass gently caresses his new girlfriend’s breast wearing giant yellow rubber gloves.

Mark Strong makes a fantastic ruthless villain as D’Amico, boasting his own human microwave. Fundamentally a good kid, his son Chris, just wants acceptance and is another cause for laughter as he cruises around in his Red Mist Mobile smoking weed to take the edge of the crowd and chair dancing with Kick-Ass to Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” on the way to fight crime.

Amid all the humour, Kick-Ass makes some serious commentary on the warped values of society; Kick-Ass attempts to shield a man being beaten, yelling for onlookers to “call the police” but instead members of the public are more interested in filming his good deed than intervening.

Nick Cage is back on form as one of the stars of the show with his dry quirky delivery while despite her age, Chloe Moretz, shines as a truly kick-ass female lead on a par with Tarantino’s The Bride or the Death Proof girls. Jet Packs, bazookas and machine guns combine with a child killing machine to emanate must have feel good invisibility.

*****

Special Features:

DVD:

• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Matthew Vaughn.
• “It’s On! The Comic Book Origin of Kick-Ass” featurette.
• “The Art of Kick-Ass” gallery.
• Marketing Archive.

Blu-ray:

Disc One
• Ass-Kicking Bonus View Mode (Blu-ray Disc Exclusive) – Synchronous with the feature film, this innovative multi-media presentation incorporates video and audio commentary, behind-the-scenes clips and illustrative graphics with Co-Writer/Producer/Director Matthew Vaughn, plus cast and crew providing an all-access perspective on Kick-Ass.
• “A New Kind of Superhero: The Making of Kick-Ass “ documentary.
• “It’s On! The Comic Book Origin of Kick-Ass” featurette.
• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Matthew Vaughn.
• “The Art of Kick-Ass” gallery.
• Marketing Archive.
• BD Touch and Metamenu Remote.
• Lionsgate Live™ enabled, featuring extra content for Internet-connected players.
• Enhanced for D-Box™ Motion Control Systems.

Disc Two
• Standard Definition DVD Copy of the feature film.

Disc Three
• Standard Definition Digital Copy of the feature film.