33) KICK-ASS

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage
Year: 2010
Rating: R

Colorful, funny, violent, well-written and perfectly cast, Kick-Ass is a high-octane comic book come to life ... a film that lives fully up to its name and is one of the best films I've seen so far in 2011.

Aaron Johnson - one of the best young actors working today, with this film and his moving performance as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy living proof - stars as shy, nerdy high school boy Dave Lizewski, a guy who is just sort of there; an average student at an average school, leading a pretty nondescript life hanging out with his two best buddies and pining away for the girl he can't have. He doesn't party, gets decent grades, is respectful to the father he lives with, and is so ordinary and average it's sort of driving him crazy.

Which is why, one day, Dave orders a green scuba suit from online, makes a couple of slight adjustments ... and decides, for almost no other reason than out of boredom, to become a superhero, donning the name Kick-Ass. He has no super powers, no martial arts or fight training - hell, the guy doesn't even work out - and in fact his first run in with some "bad guys" has him getting HIS ass kicked, to the point of spending some time in the hospital and requiring back surgery.

Hopes and confidence dashed, Dave retreats back into his shell for awhile - but Kick-Ass the superhero won't quit, and he dons the suit again, the surgery leaving his torso number enough he can now take a lot more punishment with little to no pain.

Kick-Ass' second effort at crime fighting goes a lot better, and is in fact recorded by a few people at the scene, on their phones - and soon Kick-Ass becomes a YouTube sensation, locally famous as a masked superhero ... who draws the attention of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), a father-daughter crime-fighting duo with their own personal reasons for taking down New York City crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong, SO good at playing bad). When Hit-Girl and Big Daddy save Kick-Ass' ass, after the poor high school kid almost gets himself killed by a gang of D'Amico's thugs, Kick-Ass is immediately bumped up to the top of D'Amico's hit list when he thinks it was Kick-Ass who's dispatched with his vicious goons (sadly, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl are better at remaining in the shadows than the already-famous Dave, so D'Amico isn't even aware of their existence at first; it's Kick-Ass whose head he wants).

To lure Kick-Ass to his death, D'Amico's nerdy high school-age son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) - eager to prove to his father he's man enough to get involved in the family business - comes up with the idea of creating his own superhero, in order to get both Kick-Ass' attention and trust. Hence Red Mist is born, and indeed the plan seems to be working, as Dave is lured into believing Red Mist only wants to team up with Kick-Ass to fight crime in the boroughs of New York City ... as Frank D'Amico sets up a plan to not only kill Kick-Ass, but use his slow death as a lesson to others who may come up behind him.

Kick-Ass is a pure comic book come to life - but is certainly not for kids. Violent, bloody, and often times very adult in nature, it's like a Kill Bill for the high school set. It's also one hell of a movie, full of laughs and shocks and with a great plot that never lets up or grows dull for even a moment. Aaron Johnson, yet again, proves he deserves to be an uber-star actor; he's absolutely vulnerable, engaging, funny and spectacularly genuine here - heading an excellent cast that helps to craft one of the most fun, exuberant and truly - well, kick-ass - films I've seen in ages. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is wonderful, as well as Mark Strong; hell, even Nicolas Cage, who often works my nerves as an actor, is a real delight here too, playing it straight and making it that much funnier for doing so. But the other standout, along with Johnson, is Chloe Grace Moretz - an amazingly strong actor for such a young age, and along with Aaron Johnson an actor totally deserving of super-stardom and a very lengthy career.

Few films in recent memory have gotten me more engaged, or more keyed up, than Kick-Ass. If you can handle the violence, it's a brilliant treat that needs to be seen. ***** - Reel Must-See