What does a non-precocious 11-year-old girl look like when she killing a bunch of people? :dubious:
Saw it opening night here in the USA and LOVED IT.
Anything I can say about Hit-Girl has already been said, so I’ll move onto Kick-Ass himself and Red Mist. First of all, both actors are wonderful. Aaron Johnson almost out-Peter Parkers Peter Parker as the loveable everyteen. He’s so goodhearted about everything he does that you can’t help but root for him, and he gets some of the best Crowning Moments of Awesome in the movie, specifically…
“Three assholes laying into one guy while everyone watches - and you’re asking whats wrong with me? Yeah, I’d rather die. Bring it on!”
And when he comes to the rescue with the…
gatling gun-mounted jetpack
I also think that Kick-Ass is rather special in that he’s an explicitly pro-active action hero, breaking the mold of superhero characters reacting to some tragedy in their past. He even parodies this at the beginning of the film where he reminisces about how his mom died from an aneurysm at the kitchen table, not from gun shots in a dark alley. He becomes a hero from boredom and his own desire to do good.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse is also wonderful as Chris/Red Mist. He’s obviously bright and determined to prove himself, and possesses an amazing amount of bravado – how many dorky teenagers would not only dream up a scheme to entrap the superheroes interfering with his dad’s underworld crime empire, but successfully pull it off.
If Hit-Girl hadn’t survived being shot, then Kick-Ass and Big Daddy would’ve died gorily on-camera and the D’Amicos would have lived happily ever after.
Let’s not underestimate Red Mist. He’s got nerves of steele to walk right into Big Daddy and Hit Girl’s hideout and spring that trap on them. At the same time, it’s obvious that Red Mist has some real affection for Kick-Ass. I loved their little scene where they…
groove to Gnarls Barkley in the Mist Mobile
Had circumstances been different, I think they would’ve become very close friends. Red Mist even futiley…
tried to stop his dad’s goons from attacking and torturing Kick-Ass, saying, “He’s cool, he’s with me!”
Bring on the sequel!
Funniest inside joke of the movie! 
They looked like they were there together, though there could have been a cool adult hanging back. I saw it in Toronto, though, and I swear it said PG-13 on the poster (though I could be wrong).
Interesting take on Hit-Girl here. As a comic book, videogame and superhero fan, it is weird (and nice) to see a female superhero who doesn’t have to depend on her feminine wiles to compete with the bad boys (unless you count the schoolgirl outfit – which, miracle of miracles, didn’t lead to a creepy quasi-pedo shot or scene) . OTOH, the author says not to bring your kids – and my younger self wouldn’t have been happy about that.
I ended up showing the trailer to a friend of mine and going back on Monday to go see the movie a 2nd time.
It still holds up. He described it as “It was like going to see the Matrix opening weekend… you sort of had a vague idea about a plot and everything but you had NO IDEA what you were getting yourself into, and only afterwords do you realize how AWESOME of a movie it was that you just saw.” And then he thanked me profusely over and over in the parking lot for taking him to see that movie.
For me, I had seen all the red band trailers and I knew what to expect seeing this movie, and it still delivered. But part of me wishes I was like my friend- having seen no trailers really but just being told “IF you like Kill bill, Zombie land, and or Superbad,” check out this movie…
And then getting BLOWN away by how awesome of a film you’re getting to see.
I do hope word of mouth treats it well.
We finally found the time to see this movie, and it didn’t disappoint. My wife generally goes to see “comic book” movies just to humor me, but she came out of this one quoting lines, talking about the soundtrack, and absolutely adoring Chloe.
My only “complaint” is that the director intentionally passed up a number of chances to show gratuitous boobage. 
I saw 7 movies* over the weekend, and one of them was Kick-Ass, for the 3rd time. It completely holds up and was just as fun and enjoyable (and moving), which will make it a great DVD/cable movie, one of those films you can watch over and over, and once you’ve seen it, you can come in at any point and watch to the end. It’ll be a smash hit on DVD because besides regular sales/rentals, all the kids who couldn’t see it in the theater will want to see it.
- I also saw Akira Kurasawa’s Ran (wonderful to see on the big screen), the Oscar nominated A Prophet, both of which were amazingly great films; The Losers, which was trivial but kinda fun; Date Night, which was trivial but kinda fun; Death at a Funeral, which was trivial and not very fun; and The Joneses, which was fun, thoughtful and more serious than it seemed by the trailers, and which I liked a LOT.
[spoiler]I also found red Mist to be a really cool character. He’s clearly a villain - but he’s a supervillain. He’s the kiknd of guy that somebody who read about Dr. Doom would go out and exxagerate into a character. Note his last line: “Wait till they get a load of me.” He wants to be seen.
At the same time, I don’t particularly think he’s that bad of a guy. He’s dorky and conditioned by years of terrible parenting to be violent without a second thought, but he’s not very good at initiating it for the most part. He’s so obviously copying his “father figures”.
Speaking fo which: did anyone else get the impression he looked up to Mike more than his father? Mike actually spoke to him without trying to talk down to him or dismiss him, and he seemed to have more real affection. Sure, he’d do anything to get his dad’s approval (and he doesn’t), but he loved Mike. I think that was why he shot Hitgirl.
Red Mist is the inversion of the superhero storyline. Instead of his father being the innocent killed by an evil gangster, he was the gangster killed by some psychotic heroes. And it really is sad because he probably never had a chance for a sane existence, and it might have been changed if his father hadn’t been stopping anyone from getting close to him (spying on the nanny, the bodyguard blocking anyone from even saying hello). Red Mist really is completely alone and fills it with his supervillain persona, a fate that Hit Girl escapes.[/spoiler]
I also finally got around to seeing it this weekend. The more I think back on it, the more I like it, and I liked it quite a bit even as I was walking out of the theatre. I think this is the rare first week Blu-Ray buy for me when it comes out later this year (I normally don’t buy anything until I can get it on sale in the $10-12 range). Next weekend is supposed to be The Losers, but I kind of just want to see Kick-Ass again.
Er, Bandit. By ‘Mike’, do you mean ‘Dave’?
Other than that, you make perfect sense.
I thought black cop friend was kind of pointless. I’d rather have had -ending-[spoiler] Hitgirl go live with Kickass and his dad.
There was also the shot during the end montage where Kickass has his girl and the other nerd has his girl and the third friend (the one with the crush on Hit-girl after seeing her rescue Kickass) is just sitting by himself in the middle. I would have loved for Hit-Girl in civilian garb to come by and sit next to him and he blow her off as some weird little kid wanting to hang out with them. [/spoiler]
I think this guy played the villain’s second-in-command, right? If so, his character was actually Matthew.
Just like Superman and Lex Luthor.
I remember after watching Kill Bill speculating that the reason the O-Ren Ishii origin story was done in anime (at least in part) was fear of the reaction to live-action sequences in which a young schoolgirl is briefly sexualized and then cold-bloodedly kills men. Lots of them.
I guess that’s no longer a concern. Suck on that, Quentin!
I thought it was pretty good-- and I’m going to sound like such a fucking insufferable nerd here-- but I honestly feel like the comic was better.
It set the Red Mist storyline up so that it truly was a shocking reveal, rather than basically letting you know from the get-go what was up with that.
It made the much more realistic decision of having the girl blow off Dave when she found out he wasn’t gay, thus saving us from that awful shoe-horned “love story.”
It had a consistent tone and vision, and didn’t ramble as much. The movie never figured out if it was a comedy, a drama, a love story, a teen movie, a superhero flick, an action movie, etc etc.
The movie was good, but when I heard that the director’s cut was going to be 18-minutes longer I thought: hmmm, if I was the director, the Director’s Cut would be 18 minutes shorter.
And as someone who has a personal beef with Atomic Comics, I found it annoying how they bought their way so prominently into the movie.
I agree that Chloe Moretz lit up the screen, though, and that’s a HUGE compliment coming from me, because 99% of child actor performances annoy the shit out of me.
Bumping this thread because A) I finally saw this movie this weekend and B) I loved it and thought that “Kick Ass Sucked” thread needed some top-of-page competition.
Loved the movie for pretty much all of the reasons that people said here. Thought it was well directed, the cinematography was great, and the acting fantastic all around. Chloe Moretz is amazing.
Of all the violience in the movie, the hardest part for me was when
Davem, as Kick Ass for the first time, get stabbed in the gut. That’s when “shit got real” for the first time and it was a bit jarring. Most of the violence in the film was gory, but cartoonish - but that knife to the belly seemed very realistic.
People here seem to like this movie so I was wondering if anyone was disturbed by the scenes of ultra-graphic violence committed by a pre-teen. It’s more than just killing, if you’ll allow the expression. That was not cartoon violence, it was graphic and intense. There’s people shot in the face or head at close range. Limbs are amputated, flesh is sliced graphically, and blood flows freely - it’s nearly as extreme as Spartacus: Blood and Sand! Spartacus at least has the decency to show us some good (adult) nudity and sex.
They went out of their way to include graphic violence and vulgar language, but why did the Kick-Ass film makers chicken out on the last item of the R-rated trinity? Why not throw in some nudity and sex too? The satire of American media would have been complete if the 11-year old cut off arms, used vulgar language, and had sex with adults. I guess sex is still dirtier than violence, even for a movie that tries to be a satire.
I think Ebert gave this film one star because it contained some bizarrely vulgar subject matter. Seeing a preteen gleefully and graphically murder a host of people and then be nearly killed herself by a vicious beating is pretty heavy stuff. There are serious moments in the movie, but they are all “reserved” for specific characters so that slaughter and dismemberment can continue unabated. I agree with Ebert’s objection:
*These men, and many others in the film, are really stone-cold dead. And the 11-year-old apparently experiences no emotions about this. * (from his review)
The closest thing to Hit-girl is child soldiers who are trained to feel no emotion when killing, and there is nothing funny or endearing about them. I’m not knocking the movie’s other accomplishments but seeing a little girl turn into a cross between Wolverine and Reservoir Dogs was not that amusing.
Because it’s a fantasy superhero action movie with the most unlikely superhero, and not a child porn movie?
Superhero comics elevate vigilantism and revenge fantasy to a sublime ideal, and are arguably a large part of the vocabulary of childhood.
Kick-Ass is in-your-face about literalizing this. The protagonist, taking his first steps down this road, is himself appropriately horrified when confronted with the Hit-Girl, a manifestation of his ideals brought to their logical conclusion.
Of course it’s disturbing. That’s the point, right from the start: “Don’t worry, sweetie, it’s no worse than getting punched in the stomach.” “I hate getting punched in the stomach.” This is not a healthy daddy-daughter exchange. I don’t think that we are meant to accept this as anything near sane or sensible.
That doesn’t mean the movie isn’t kick-ass.
Yes, the Big Daddy/Hit-Girl characters were illustrating that people who would really behave the way Batman does in the comics would have to be insane. It would require obssessive, all-consuming committment and training and something close to psychotic motivation.
It’s not a “satire of American media.” It’s a satire of superhero comics and cartoons, which routinely feature very young heroes beating the shit out of criminals. Imagine if *The Powerpuff Girls *showed what really happened if a superpowered five year old threw someone through a building.
Depiction of an action does not constitute support of that action. Is Steven Spielberg pro-Nazi for showing atrocities committed during the Holocaust in “Schindler’s List”? Is Quentin Tarantino in favor of vigilante justice because of the events portrayed in “Kill Bill”? Is George Lucas a fascist for showing the rise of an totalitarian Empire in the Star Wars prequels? Does showing Starbuck torture a captured Cylon agent make Ron Moore pro-torture?