Director: Matthew Vaughan
Script: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Moretz, Nicolas Cage
The film Kick Ass starts of with Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) a geek who wonders why no one has ever tried to become a costumed superhero before. As his friend Marty (Clark Duke) explains, “Because they would get their asses kicked.” Marty’s not wrong. Dave doesn’t heed his pal’s advice, dons a wet suit, wields two batons, creates the alter-ego of “Kick-Ass” and goes out to fight bad guys. We soon see that despite Dave’s enthusiasm and bravery, he’s only playing at the amateur level. The pros are Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), an adorable father-daughter duo who …show more content…
The performance people will be buzzing about is Moretz. Hit-Girl steals the show with her brutal-yet-stylish kills, foul-mouthed dialogue, and her disarmingly sweet face. Hit-Girl is like the child on the front of a cereal box except the cereal isn’t a nice mix of toasted oats and marshmallows but of razorblades and shotgun shells. If you take a step back, the idea of Hit-Girl is disturbing. She’s a child with no regard for human life or a modicum of mercy. Her father puts a bulletproof vest on her and then shoots his little girl so she won’t be afraid when she’s looking down the barrel of a Glock.
Superheroes let us imagine ourselves as protectors who can do great things. Dave just makes himself the star of his own superhero comic He may get his ass kicked, but Johnson makes Dave come off like a hero and not a schmuck. As Dave looks into his bedroom mirror and tries out one-liners against imaginary bad guys, Johnson manages to take what could feel like an unnerving Joker (Batman Villain) moment and transforms it into feeling like a kid playing superhero in his back