Review: Kick Ass

I had not seen the trailer, now did I know anything at all about Matthew Vaughn’s latest flick. Needless to say, I enjoyed every single minute of it.

The film narrates the story of a young comic book fan who is sick of being weak and getting mugged and decides to make something of himself, to become a super hero. After a failed attempt, he tries again and becomes the hero: Kick Ass. Oh, then there is the sub plot of revenge seeking ex-cop and his killer 11 year old daughter who absolutely tear through, with exacting severity, the bad guys, one at a time.

Unlike the tale of most super heroes (even Batman), Kick-Ass’ predicament is closer to our realities (It reminds me of listening to Kanye West’s College Dropout, which reached such a large audience due to fact that most people could relate to him. He was not a gun toting, hip, gangster wannabe but a guy who dropped out of college and wanted to pursue a dream, and had to work so hard for it). What really got hooked me was the sad realisation you experience while watching this film. Kick Ass attempts to stop 3 men beating another senseless in one scene. After he receives a thorough arse kicking, one of the men ask him why he is protecting someone he doesn’t know.

He points to the store behind the men (you can see 5 or so people watching the violence and doing nothing about it. Some are filming it on their phones). He answers the man’s simple, logical question: I’m doing this because people are all to happy to let this happen to someone else, someone they don’t know.

(Maybe we are scared – we don’t want to intervene because we fear for our lives. Or maybe we are frozen on the spot, and don’t know what to do.)

I felt that there was a brilliant sadness and reality to this film. However, Vaughn manages to mix in, and rather superbly may I say, Tarantino-esque action (extreme, distorted violence). Each real moment, each heartfelt moment is countered with a bit of ultra-violence or jaw dropping action. This doesn’t take away from the film however. We are sitting there to be entertained, and that’s what happens.

The cast are all fantastic, and hilarious. A special hand goes to Chloe Moretz for being a tough, serious little actor. Some people have mentioned that it is awful to have such young girl saying some fairly serious swear words and killing people, but they need to grow up. It is art. Art pushes boundaries, and if that bothers you, then good.

There are worse things in the world then an 11 year old girl saying “cunt”.