Kick-Ass

A movie with a child in it, but definitely not for children. It is a 15 certificate and for a very good reason. There is lots of swearing and violence in it.

I absolutely loved it. There are cinema references to James Bond, Kill Bill, Spiderman, comic books in general, Scarface, X-Men, Enter The Dragon and Batman.

The movie opens with a question - Why do ordinary people never want to become superheroes (or words to that effect).

Dave Lezewski has no super powers except the ability to be invisible to girls. Dave is tired of people turning away when others are getting beat up and more importantly of getting his things stolen from the local high school/drug bullies. He dons a comic outfit and becomes Kick-Ass. The first time he goes out, he gets his ass well and truly kicked and becomes desensitised to pain. You would think this would stop him, but oh no, this is just the beginning...


As is usual these days, Kick-Ass' attack is filmed, put up on YouTube, seen by millions, becomes a celebrity cult star and attracts the attention of crime fighting duo Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl/Mindy. Big Daddy has a history with Frank D'Amico (the always wonderful, never, ever equalled evil Mark Strong). There are assorted supporting characters including Frank's son Chris/Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who wants more attention from his father, with a very cool car and even better costume. Did I mention how great Mark Strong is?

There has been a lot made of the fact that this movie is a 15 and could even have had an 18 rating. For those of you who know your movies, I'll give you one reference to illustrate part of why the movie has a 15 rating - the Crazy 88s scene in Kill Bill - Vol. I.

Hit Girl is a very sweary 11 year, who is damned good with weapons. Be warned, she does kill people (a lot of them) and this is off putting and won't be to everyone's taste. You have to put it all into the comic book context which is where Kick-Ass originated. The director is Matthew Vaughn, who also directed Layer Cake.

I was going to direct you to the Parent's BBFC website, but I just did a search and there is nothing up yet for Kick-Ass.

A quote I heard last week sums it up, just because there are kids in it, does not mean that it's a movie for kids.